had many abuses. Each anticipated or pretended disturbance of the status quo has furnished a pretext for breaking the truce on which the balance rested, and the war which followed has had quite as much justification, and the new status quo just as much ethical and jural validity as that which preceded it. In other words, the doctrine of the balance of power from first to last has been a mere proclamation of international anarchy; and the only ground on which I dissent from the oft-repeated condemnation of it by a recent royal writer as "atheistical and antisocial" is, that he has limited his condemnation to the period of its action which has elapsed since 1648. The thirty years which followed the Peace of Westphalia were surely no worse than the thirty years which preceded it; and I shall continue to believe that the central current of international life has been gradually clearing itself, notwithstanding the streams of anti-jural mud which flowed into it continuously from above, till their passage was silted up by the still fouler mud from below which was stirred up by the French Revolution. When the counteracting vices of dynastic selfishness and democratic envy have further exhausted themselves, we shall hope that room may be found in the wider international fields for those sympathetic relations between civilised States which already, as a rule, bind civilised citizens together. (b) Jurisdiction.-Does the doctrine of the balance of power, then, supply a substitute for the factor of jurisdiction in municipal jurisprudence? Jurisdiction is the application of a general rule to a special case. But where there is no legislation, there can, as we have seen, be no general rule, and consequently there can be no jurisdiction. Where the judge makes the law which he administers, legislation is confounded with jurisdiction, just as we formerly saw that jurisdiction was confounded with legislation. (c) Lastly, does it supply execution?-Execution which is warranted neither by legislative enactment nor by judicial sentence is the mere arbitrary application of force. It may be well applied; but for its being so we have no higher guarantee than the present impulse of the party who applies it. Moreover, the coalition which the balance of power calls into existence for the special occasion no more exhausts the force than it exhausts the reason of the whole community of nations. Resistance to it is consequently not impossible, at least not necessarily impossible, as is the case where an individual citizen comes in contact with a municipal executive, which gives effect to municipal legislation. In this case the power opposed to the individual is put in motion by the normal will of the whole community, his own included; and he has nothing to fall back upon but his own exceptional will and power. In so far as he is concerned, the power opposed to him is obviously irresistible; and as it is irresistible power alone which acts peaceably, we have in its existence an explanation of the fact of the peaceful action of municipal law. If the international peace party could be made to see that it is the defect of force as a guarantee for international law, when contrasted with its excess as a guarantee for national law, that leads to war in the former case and not in the latter, their aspirations would be for the better direction of force, not its abolition. The only means by which the ruinous standing armies which sap the resources of modern States can be got rid of is by giving to them, in the first instance, a common object, and thus bringing them to act in the same direction. If by means of international arrangements the same unity of purpose could be given to the cosmopolitan executive as the municipal executive of an organised State possesses, a very small international executive would suffice. The ultimate preponderance of might is inevitable, and if we believe in God's government of the universe, we must assume it to be right, for in Him might and right are one. It is the necessity of ascertaining, on each special occasion, the side on which might really lies, and the possibility of the temporary triumph of ultimate weakness, that is the cause of international war; and the removal of that cause does not lie, even theoretically, within the scope of the doctrine of the balance of power. CHAPTER IV. OF VOLUNTARY ARBITRATION AS THE SCIENTIFIC SOLUTION. The answer on which scientific jurists of the present day for the most part rely rests on three assumptions : (a) That every legal relation is governed by an absolute law. (b) That the concrete elements in any given relation being known, this absolute law may be discovered in its positive form. (c) That the law being discovered, the reason of civilised nations will form a suflicient guarantee for its voluntary acceptance. The latter assumption, alone, I regard as inadmissible. The difficulty of obtaining concrete information may render the elaboration of positive law scarcely possible to the jurist who has no means of stepping beyond the sphere of science. But even internationally, we live so much more in the light of publicity than in former times, that this difficulty diminishes year by year; and it is at least conceivable that a body of men of science, such as is now comprised in the Institute of International Law, or even one isolated scientific jurist of exceptional ability, might declare positive law as truly as any international legislature. An international code, then, corresponding to the national codes which we already possess, is not an absolutely unrealisable conception, and very important practical benefits might be anticipated from a general treaty embracing such provisions as Mr Dudley Field has embodied in his Outlines.1 Where the screw is really loose in the scientific solution, is, as I have said, in the third assumption. It, unfortunately, is not true that reason, self-interest, or any motive whatever, short of physical necessity, will form a sufficient guarantee for obedience to positive law by ordinary men whenever it is at variance with their apparent or immediate self-interest, or is in conflict with their passions. Positive law is a dead letter which force alone will bring to life. Even municipal law, though defined by the joint action of legislation and jurisdiction, is not self-vindicating. It requires the further guarantee of an irresistible executive to secure its peaceful acceptance. A 1 I rejoice to see that this careful and valuable work has now reached a second edition. At page 367 the author has offered suggestions for the enforcement of the terms of arbitration. VOL. II. stage of civilisation is no doubt conceivable in which mankind. should voluntarily accept the dictates of reason, and in which the executive function of government should find no place, even whilst the legislative and judicial remained. An honest man, though perfectly willing to pay a debt, might require the judgment of a court of law to convince him that it was due. Nor is a similar stage of international development beyond the sphere of human possibilities. But municipal law makes provision for dishonesty and folly, as well as for honesty and common-sense, so long as it recognises their existence in point of fact. Till international law does the same, it must be contented to remain within the sphere of science. Those who distrust arbitration have often remarked that a decree-arbitral, except where, by registration for execution or some similar expedient, it comes within the scope of municipal law, is a mere appeal to the honour, good faith, or wisdom of the parties themselves, and has no more guarantee for its fulfilment than if it had been pronounced from a pulpit or a professor's chair. The only condition on which tribunals of arbitration could perform the offices which many are willing to assign to them, would be the previous existence of an international organisation, strong enough to support them from without, as they are supported in municipal jurisprudence. In saying this I am far from disparaging either arbitration or the scientific activity to which it professes to give practical expression. So long as States remain isolated as at present, the only hope of their peaceful coexistence rests on their progressive enlightenment, and the form of enlightenment most important for that object is enlightenment with reference to |