VATTEL, EMERICII, a well-known writer on the law of nations, was born at Couret, in Neufchatel, Aug. 25, 1714. His father, a Protestant clergyman, had been ennobled by the king of Prussia, whose subject he was. Vattel studied for the church at Bale and Geneva, hut he devoted greater attention to the writings of Leibnitz and Wolf than to those of the Calvinistic divines; and instead of becoming a country clergyman, he resolved to push his fortune at the court of Berlin, as a man of letters and diplomatist. In 1741 he offered his services to Frederick II., who had just ascended the throne, but there was then no vacancy in the public service. Three years afterward, be received an appointment at Dresden from the elector of Saxony, then also king of Poland; and in 1746 he was sent by him as minister to Bern. Iu this post, he had ample leisure, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He published, in French, under different titles, collections of essays on miscellaneous subjects, which are lively, and well written. But his chief attention for ten years was bestowed on his great work, the Droll des Gens; ou Priacipes de la Loi _Araturelle appliqués a in Conduit& et aux Affaires des Nations et des
..Souserains. This title sufficiently explains the scope of the work. It contained little that was new, but it abridged and systematized the doctrines of Grotins. Pnffendorf, and Wolf. Vattel had, however, that skill in arranging his materials, and that power of lucid expression, which so often characterize French men of letters; and his book became rapidly popular as a text-book of international law. Like all his predecessors in the came field, Vattel based his whole system on an imaginary law of nature, and it would be easy to enumerate a large number of false conclusions to which he came in the absence of the light thrown on the law of nations by practice, and by the principle of utility in our time, so generally adopted as the test of international morality. After the completion of his great work, Vaticl was recalled to Dresden, where he married, in 1764, Marianne de Clulne, and was promoted to the rank of privy-councilor. The duties of his new post proved too arduous, and he died of over-work on Dec. 28, 1767. Mr. Chitty republished, in 1833, an English translation of Vattel, with notes.