object, the force requisite for its attainment need excite no jealousy in other nations, and would therefore be left undiminished. A difficulty would no doubt arise as to the force requisite for this purpose. The Russian army in Asia, or the English army in India, might be so increased as to endanger the peace of Europe. The only check on this would consist in the obligation on the part of the nation to account to the international legislature for any addition which it might find it necessary to make to its forces, and in the competence of the international government, by attacking its European possessions, to counteract its efforts to develop an aggressive army under false pretences. Russia in Europe would thus be a hostage for the conduct of Russia in Central Asia, and Great Britain in Europe would be a hostage for Great Britain in India.

3d, The international recognition of national progress.-The third object for the attainment of which national forces in excess of those requisite for municipal purposes may be honestly maintained-viz., the assertion de jure of a higher relative position already attained de facto, is that of which the attainment by the action of an international government seems most difficult. How is the fact of an increase of power on the part of an individual State to be proved, unless it asserts itself? And how is it to assert itself except by arms? The question, at first sight, seems insoluble; and yet, if not identical with, it is strictly analogous to, that which is daily solved within the borders of the State. One man outstrips another who was his equal, or his superior, when they started in the race of life, takes possession of the land which he

inherited, and the house in which he was born; and so far from having been his enemy at any period of his career, has probably been his good Samaritan on more occasions than any other individual whatever. So far from resisting the change of circumstances, there probably was not a single step in the process which did not take place at the suggestion of the unsuccessful man, and for which he did not feel himself to have been the debtor of the man who supplanted him. Now, how was this accomplished? try if we can discover why the wheels of change which revolve so beneficially within the State should seem to be attached to a Juggernaut's car the moment they pass its limits. The first observation which we make, and it is a hopeful one, is that within the State it was not always so. In the earlier stages of civilisation every change, whether of property or position, was brought about by the direct action of physical or material force. The strong subdued the weak by violence, just as one State subdues another in our own day. Did the strong, then, cease to subdue the weak as civilisation advanced? Far from it. He did it more surely and effectually than before, the only difference being that he did it peaceably, with the consent, the approval, and in many cases, as I have said, with the gratitude of the weak himself.

Let us analyse the process, and

The element, then, which civilisation contributed has been the means, not of arresting change, but of facilitating change —of giving freer scope than before to the upward and downward action of social forces of recognising new relations de jure the moment they manifested themselves de facto. By what means, then, did civilisation succeed in oiling the wheels

of change? The first answer to this question is that civilisation furnished a measure of value, by an appeal to which the relative power of opposing forces could be ascertained, without bringing them into collision. Physical resources were measured by money; intellectual and moral resources were measured by subtler and more varied, but still by recognised and acknowledged tests; and all that municipal law did was to see that the results of these tests were duly recognised by preserving fair and open markets. The function of municipal law, as has come more and more to be seen, is to leave the de facto element of value, to be determined by the free action of the de facto element of power, and simply to register and vindicate the result. It ascertains who is the highest bidder, whether in money or in brains, and asserts his position for him.

This done, he has no interest to retain in his hands the means of self-assertion; and his standing army of retainers, which he maintained in a ruder society, is disbanded.

Now, if we can see our way to the individual State receiving the same assurance that the new position which it has won de facto shall be vindicated for it de jure, by international organisation, which the individual citizen has that his new position will be vindicated for him by national organisation, then international organisation and even a treaty for proportional disarmament will become hopeful. The task is not easy, but national organisation was not developed in a day; and there are grounds on which we can see that international organisation may possibly have to draw on a future almost as unlimited as the past.

The weapon with which men fight within the State, as we

have seen, is money. Silver and gold, as representatives of power in every organised community, have taken the place of powder and shot, the latter being kept in reserve only to secure the action of the former, just as bullion is kept in a bank, as a guarantee for the value of the paper money which it issues.

The two armies by which these weapons are wielded assume the peaceful and prosaic character of lenders and borrowers, buyers and sellers. The lenders and buyers are the victors, the borrowers and sellers are the vanquished; and bankruptcy, with its consequent cessio bonorum, is final defeat, annihilation, and the surrender of recognition, as an individual unit of value. When we speak of the bankrupt as no longer the slave of his creditor, we do little more than testify our aversion " to call a spade a spade." As concerns his goods, at all events, the analogy between his position and that of a conquered province can escape no one. Now all this takes place without any resort to force on the victor's part. If force is called for, it is the State that wields it, not the citizen. The fact that the State possesses it, supersedes the necessity for its use; for the inevitable character of the laws of trade is too obvious to permit an individual citizen to hope for the sympathy of his fellow-citizens in any attempt he might make to set them at defiance.1

1 Commercial preponderance is measured by money more accurately than any other form of preponderance, and it is the only form of preponderance which asserts itself peaceably, even when it draws political preponderance after it. The preponderance of English shipping and trade on the Congo, for example, is prob ably inevitable; and if so, there is every reason to hope that, when it comes, it and its consequences will be accepted by the other Powers as the results of a

And what is true of the action of money is equally true of the action of brain and muscle, when ascertained and recognised as measures of value. The claims of a strong head or a strong arm find means of vindication without violence in every organised community. The battle of life is fought as peacefully at the examination-table, in the press, at the bar, in the senate, as in the counting-house.

Force has its way without a blow; and arguments do not require to be loaded with threats.

Do the analogies, then, which we have detected between competition and rivalry within the State and international aggression, indicate any analogous arrangement by which the peaceful action which takes place in the one sphere may be realised in the other?

States, like their citizens, borrow money beyond the amount on which they are able to pay the interest which they have promised, and sink deeper and deeper into debt, till their liabilities exceed the securities which they have to offer, and they become bankrupt. Is it inconceivable that, in place of being left like carrion, to be contended for by birds of prey, an international trustee should be appointed for the realisation and distribution of their remaining assets? The vastly greater magnitude of international transactions does not seem to exclude the action of factors analogous to those by which national transactions are effected, provided the factors can be correspondingly magnified, so that the motive power shall conlaw of nature. But if England were to claim political preponderance directly, even as a basis for her future commercial development, the validity of that claim could be tested and measured only by force, and all the nations of Europe would go to war with her rather than concede it.