t a rule
laid down by Huberus had some bearing upon this question. Huberus
observes that "personal qualities, impressed by the laws of any place,
surround and accompany the person wherever he goes, with this effect:
that in every place he enjoys and is subject to the same law which
other persons of his class elsewhere enjoy or are subject to." (De
Confl. Leg., lib. 1, tit. 3, sec. 12; 4 Dallas, 375 n.; 1 Story Con.
Laws, pp. 59, 60.)

The application sought to be given to the rule was this: that as Dred
Scott was free while residing in the State of Illinois, by the laws of
that State, on his return to the State of Missouri he carried with him
the personal qualities of freedom, and that the same effect must be
given to his status there as in the former State. But the difficulty
in the case is in the total misapplication of the rule.

These personal qualities, to which Huberus refers, are those impressed
upon the individual by the law of the domicil; it is this that the
author claims should be permitted to accompany the person into
whatever country he might go, and should supersede the law of the
place where he had taken up a temporary residence.

Now, as the domicil of Scott was in the State of Missouri, where he
was a slave, and from whence he was taken by his master into Illinois
for a temporary residence, according to the doctrine of Huberus, the
law of his domicil would have accompanied him, and during his
residence there he would remain in the same condition as in the State
of Missouri. In order to have given effect to the rule, as claimed in
the argument, it should have been first shown that a domicil had been
acquired in the free State, which cannot be pretended upon the agreed
facts in the case. But the true answer to the doctrine of Huberus is,
that the rule, in any aspect in which it may be viewed, has no bearing
upon either side of the question before us, even if conceded to the
extent laid down by the author; for he admits that foreign Governments
give effect to these laws of the domicil no further than they are
consistent with their own laws, and not prejudicial to their own
subjects; in other words, their force and effect depend upon the law
of comity of the foreign Government. We should add, also, that this
general rule of Huberus, referred to, has not been admitted in the
practice of nations, nor is it sanctioned by the most approved jurists
of international law. (Story Con., sec. 91, 96, 103, 104; 2 K