cnmitj of nation as laid dofmbvHabens; aoodChirf Justice T^aney. in tiie case of the Bank of Av^nsta r. £aadb, said: ~It is needk^ to ommaate heare 1^ instsocses in -wfaidi, by &e general piactioe of driliied coon- tri(e&, the lairs of coie viD, by ctmiti' of nations, he iMDgniiied and es^^ted in an»tha'jwhi»e tike i^i'^ (^individaak are eoncemed. The cases of contracts Bade in iw^a countries, are HamiliaT esaoop^tes; and cooits of justice hare ahrajs e^poonded and eseoited them aoomding to the laws of the place in \diich they were made : pnmded that law was not i^po^ nant to the laws or pdicj of thdr own coontxy.
The otHoity thus extended to o&i^ nations, is no impeachment <£ sof<eragnty. It is the vahmtaxy ai^ of the natiim by wUch it k olfeted, and is inadmk^fafe when contiaiy to its policy, or prejndi(»J. to its interests. But it contribotes so laxg^f to promote justice between individnak, ax^ to pndnce a frifflodly intercimrse betweoa the soverdgntieB to which they bekmg, that courts of justioe ha:ve continuafly acted upon it as a part of the lawdTnatioiK. It is truly said, in Steins Conflk:! of Laws ^S7). that - In the dience ol any positive nde affirming or de- REVENUE LAWS EXCEPTED. 99 nying, or restraining the operation of foreign laws, courts of justice presume the tacit adoption of them by their own government, unless they are repugnant to its policy or prejudicial to its interests. It is not the comity of courts, but the comity of the nation, which is administered and ascertained in the same way, and guided by the same reasoning, by which all other principles of municipal law are ascertained and guided.' "
It is a principle of the common law, however, and opposed to the doctrine just stated, that no nation will regard or enforce the revenue laws of any other country ; and the contracts of its own citizens made in evasion or fraud of the laws of foreign nations, may be enforced in its own tribunals.' But a contract made in France to smuggle goods into this country, will be treated by our courts as utterly void, by reason of the fraud intended upon our laws,^ and in such a case it will be wholly