ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a letter from Richard Cobden to Henry Ashworth dated 27 August 1864. In this letter, Cobden describes the invitations of Lord Palmerston to lay the first stone of an Exchange at Bradford. The object must be less to define what is international law than to show the interest Cobden and Henry Ashworth as the first commercial shipowning & manufacturing people have in removing all impediments to commerce in time of war, & in confining hostilities as far as they can to other fields than the domain of foreign commerce where they are more vulnerable than any other people. There is no such thing as International Law in the true sense of the term, for there is no code which has had the assent of nations or been made the subject of Treaties. There are certain decisions of the Admiralty-Courts which have come to be considered as precidents [sic] thus forming a sort of Common law of nations.
