The  pretext  for  this  denial  waa  mainly  founded  upon  a  miBapplicatioa
r*71Tl  ^^  ^^®  *^lex  de  capttvis  ei  pastliminio,"  in  the  *Boman  Law.  It
I-  -J  was  manifest,  neverthelees,  that  the  analogy(/)  of  this  jurispni-
dence  failed  in  a  material  point.  The  law  in  question  applied  to  pro-
petty  found  in  the  land  of  the  enemy  or  his  ally,  not  to  property  trans-
ferred to  a  third  party,  and  certainly  not  to  property  so  transferred,  by
the  deliberate  order  formally  enacted  and  legally  executed  of  a  de  facto
soYcreign,  acknowledged  by  the  subjects  oyer  whom  he  ruled,  and  recog-
nised by  foreign  states.(^)

The  purchasers  of  these  domains  within  the  territory  of  Hesse-Cassel
were  in  many  instances  deprived  of  their  possession,  which  had  been  de-
livered to  tiiem  with  every  formality  of  law.  The  possessor  of  the
Freienhagen  estate,  for  instance,  was  driven  out  of  it  by  a  troop  of
Hesse-Cassel  hussars.(^)  The  unfortunate  proprietors  appealed  in  vaio
to  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  But  Prussia,  through  the  mouth  of  her
Chancellor,  Prince  von  Hardenberg,  declared  in  their  favour.  It  was
true,  he  said,  that  the  additional  article  of  the  Peace  of  Paris  (30th  May,
1814)  had  declared  the  Peace  of  Tilsit  (9th  July,  1807)  null  and  void;
«but  it  was  self-evident,''  he  said,  «that  this  article  only  applied  to  the
mutual  jiu6/tc  relations  of  the  contracting  states,  not  to  private  relations
between  individuals,  which  had  l^ally  arisen  during  the  continuance  of
the  Peace  of  Tilsit.  It  would  he  a  manifest  injustice  to  declare  on  that
account  contracts,  had  between  individuals  under  the  former  Westphalian
r*71  Kl  '''^o^^i^Q^^Q^y  invalid,  which  contracts  had  been  sanctioned  by
L  J  the  Government  which  the  Peace  of  Tilsit  had  recognized."
Nevertheless,  the  Congress  of  Vienna  gave  no  aid  to  those  proprietors.
