besides referring to M. Billaud's work on the Pope and disarmament, quotes even some words of Leo XIII. himself.

The concurrence of so great a moral power as that of the Pope and the opinion of the Catholic world cannot be a matter of indifference to the friends of peace; and I think it my duty to note amongst the many recent manifestations, an article published by the Moniteur de Rome, the organ of the office of the Secretary of State of the Pope, which, in speaking of the mediation exercised by the latter in the conflict between Peru and Ecuador, says, in conclusion: "Le Pope vient d'etre pour la seconde fois l'arbitre de la paix dans le monde, puisse sa main auguste et paternelle fermer partout dans les royaumes et les républiques de la grande famille Chrétienne, l'horrible temple de la guerre dont une politique funeste arme le dieu de foudres effroyantes."

The attitude of the Vatican Press in Italy, eminently favourable to the principle of peace, cannot but have an excellent influence upon the Catholics of other nations, and stimulate the zeal of other Christian Churches.

A curious and perhaps instructive fact to note is that we now actually see the most accentuated progressists, radicals, and the so-called "clericals," all combining with those who have adhered to the societies of peace, in denouncing the excessive military expenditure, and declaring themselves in favour of international arbitration and peace. I speak here of Italy alone. Not a few of those who call themselves ultra-Liberals are bound to the imperial policy of large armaments, even at the cost of crushing out all the vitality of the nation. VITTORE PRESTINI.

Rome, April, 1894.

THE INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL

LAW.

are

THE fifteenth annual meeting of this important society of jurists has just been held at Paris, and we indebted to an able French member of the Institute for the following note on its proceedings:

The sittings were held at the School of Political Science, and the president was M. Louis Renault, Professor of the Law of Nations at the University of France; the vice-presidents being M.M. de Martens (Russia) and Gen. den Beer Portugael (Holland).

The President of the Republic received the members in the most cordial manner at the Elysée, and took occasion to express his deep sympathy with all efforts to settle international differences. Similarly, the President of the Municipal Council of Paris, M. Champoudry, at his reception at the Hotel de Ville, said, "While others, by crooked policy, separate men from each other, it is a hopeful thing to find that you are trying to unite them in a universal peace." The proceedings of the Congress were cpened by M. Spuller, the Minister of Public Instruction.

There was manifested throughout a strong disposition to depart from the purely theoretical aspect of the questions which came under consideration, and to recognise their practical bearing on the present dangers and difficulties of the civilised world. Moreover, as a special exception to the rules in force, the leader of the peace movement in France, M. Frederic Passy, although not a member of the Institute, was invited to attend the sittings and to speak. This was a striking recognition of the peace movement by a body not connected with it, and constitutes what our correspondent calls "a moral fusion" between the jurists and the pacificators.

One of the first resolutions adopted had been moved by an English member, Mr. Barclay, to the effect that the rule adopted at Oxford as to the inviolability of territorial waters on the coast should be amended so as to extend the same from three miles to six, that being the range of cannon shot. The subject next discussed

was a modification of the rule relating to extradition. It was proposed to give accused the right of pleading violation of any existing treaties which might bear upon the case. M. de Montluc (Conseiller au Cour d'Appel, Douai) urged that the accused should be permitted to avail himself of the plea, even before the Court of Appeal; whereas the mover of the new rule, M. Renault, would limit the right of making such plea to the lower court. M. de Montluc cited a case where the accused had been extradited on one charge and convicted on another; and he contended that he preserved his right of objecting to the jurisdiction of the court until the end. This view was formally adopted; and we are glad to note that this right of the accused was successfully maintained by our able colleague of the League of Peace and Liberty. We observe that Lord Reay, the late Governor of Bombay took part in the proceedings.

Our correspondent concludes his report with a quotation from the speech made by Gen. den Beer Portugael, formerly Minister of War in Holland: "By avoiding conflicts in respect to rights, we avoid conflicts between nations."

SANCTION IN ARBITRAL DECISIONS. THE common objection, recently repeated by Tolstoi, that the decisions of arbitral courts must constantly fail, because of the absence of any power of enforcing their execution, deserves careful notice and complete refutation if possible. We are, therefore, very glad to lay before our readers extracts from a valuable statement of this question, which we find quoted in the Etats Unis d'Europe, from Le Petit Rennais, a journal published at Rennes.

The writer, who signs himself Jules Domène, declares that the mode of providing for the due execution of decisions pronounced by arbitral courts is perfectly simple; and he produces various illustrations of the procedure which may be adopted. "Suppose, in the first place, that the dispute arises from a demand for extradition. Then, the agreement under which the arbitrators are appointed, their powers defined, and the question at issue set forth, must also contain a provision that the person to be delivered over shall, at the outset, be placed in the custody of some third power. When the decision has been pronounced, this third power will place him in the hands of the State to whose custody the Court assigns him. The same course would be adopted and provided for under the agreement in nearly every case, whether the question relates to funds, ships, or territory.

Thus, if the question at issue involves a right of passage through a channel or straits, or the navigation of an inland sea, the course of proceeding would be just the same. The two States concerned in the dispute would deposit funds in the hands of a third State as a guarantee for the execution of the decision, or assign the temporary occupation of territory for the same purpose."

History, says the writer, contains abundant instances of this kind, and the method in question was constantly resorted to by the Romans. "There is also the case of rivers belonging to several, over which one or more States have a common jurisdiction. Here due provision is made under an International Convention, whereby any difficulties arising shall be submitted to an International Commission created for the purpose; as in the instance of the Danube."

"Suppose, however, that circumstances arise which cannot thus be provided for, or where the provisions of the agreement are eluded-even here the law will not lose its force, and bloodshed is not the sole means of compulsion at its disposal. There are such methods as the following: the rupture of international relations, the seizure of goods, embargo on ships, or even maritime capture. In a word, whatever stipulations for such purposes are contained in the legal contract of arbitration, a law is thus provided which binds the parties concerned. It may also contain, under a law of duress, stipulations for the payment of damages for every day's delay. Would not a penalty of one or two million francs a day tend to make the recalcitrant state reflect on the consequences of an attempt to evade its engagements? What Parliament, indeed, would, at the risk of financial ruin, resist a sentence which it had brought on itself, and had virtually consented to beforehand?"

"It may be objected that, if resistance is made and has to be overcome by force, this constitutes a resort to violence. Not so, if provision has been made in the agreement for such eventualities, the steps taken under the agreement do not constitute a resort to violence, but a legal course of action. Lastly, it is quite certain that the nation which loses the case will yield, knowing that its military position would be paralysed by a sentence of condemnation."

We cannot do better than conclude by quoting a resolution which was adopted on this subject at the Berne Congress, in 1892, by an overwhelming majority. It was strenuously opposed, in the course of a long discussion, by most of the English delegates, who insisted that the only sanction should be a "moral" one. that occasion M. de Montluc delivered a masterly argument in favour of the resolution; and we regret that we have only space to quote two passages from his speech, as follows:

On

"If we refuse to admit that arbitration is susceptible of a sanction we are mere Utopists. We must proceed so far as to adopt the principle of compelling the execution of arbitral decisions, or abandon arbitration altogether."

Resolution: "Whilst fully recognising that arbitral decisions have been, and can be, executed without any power to enforce them having been provided, the Congress is of opinion that arbitral decisions should never be enforced by measures which in any manner whatever have the character of war; or might lead to war, to the destruction of human life, or of property, public or private."

"The Congress declares, in principle, that, without interfering with their independence, the nations which are the signatories of a Treaty of Arbitration may, juridically, by a special and mutual agreement, give to the arbitrators the power of enforcing their decisions, and indicating to them the mode thereof " PHIL.

THE INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION

PROJECT.

THE memorial adopted by the World's Columbian Commissioners, asking that steps be taken to secure arbitration of international disputes, and delivered to the Secretary of State at Washington for presentation to the Governments of the world, is a notable document. It is signed by the Commissioners of forty different nations, all the Commissioners of the States and Territories of the United States, and many of the most prominent theologians, educators, social economists, editors, statesmen, and merchants of this and other countries. It is a petition which must command attention and which will invest the appeal of its signers with unusual force and influence. It asks that all the

Governments "will unitedly agree by mutual treaties to submit for settlement by arbitration all such international questions and disputes as shall fail of satisfactory solution by ordinary peaceful negotiations."

The Secretary of State, in reply to the memorialists, has consented to have their appeal sent at once to all Foreign Governments, and to urge the holding of an international conference to consider, and if possible accept, the plan which originated at Chicago, as one of the many important results of the Columbian Exposition. -Chicago Tribune.

ITEMS.

THE ANNUAL INTER-PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE. -The fifth annual meeting of the representatives of Parliaments will be held on 3rd September next, at the Hague. The Dutch committee appointed to make the necessary arrangements includes members of both the First and the Second Chambers of the Etats-Généraux -or, as we should say, of both Houses of Parliament. What is especially noteworthy is the fact that this Conference Committee includes the name of the President of the First Chamber and of the President of the Second Chamber A. van Naamen Van Eemnes, Doctor of Law, and J. G. Gleichman, Doctor of Law. Such a fact must give great prestige to this important gathering of Parliamentary representatives, and the Dutch people have a right to be proud of it. We derive this information from La Conférence Interparlementaire, the monthly organ of the "Interparliamentary Bureau for International Arbitration," which, like the Peace Bureau, has its headquarters at Berne.

BULGARIA.-A branch of the Interparliamentary Conference is about to be founded in Bulgaria, and M. Butculescu, with other members of the Bulgarian Parliament, are taking active steps for that purpose. The fact is remarkable and creditable to Bulgaria. It is too bad that a nation which possesses a Parliament, thus linked with the other Parliaments of Europe, should still wait for the recognition of its Prince by the Porte and the Great Powers. We predict that the Bulgarian members will make themselves heard at the Conference.

SWITZERLAND. We learn from Les Etats-Unis d'Europe that there are no less than forty-six societies or sections in the little Republic affiliated with "The League of Peace and Liberty." They have resolved to form one society, while each society continues to retain its own administration. They will send delegates once a year to a general meeting, at which some one of the societies will be appointed for one year to direct the affairs of the federation.

FRANCE AND ENGLAND.-In the March number of Les Etats-Unis d'Europe we find a very courteous note, signed "E. A.," acknowledging our protest against the use by French publicists of the term "Quadruple alliance," it being meant thereby that Great Britain had virtually joined the Triple Alliance. The writer says truly, "This phrase does not, we are sure, represent the actual state of things. If we have used it we only refer to that moral sympathy with the Triple Alliance to which a section of the English Press gives sanction, by asserting that England should be the vigilant guardian of the Mediterranean Sea against the French fleet and its allies." "E. A." continues: "We firmly hope that when the English people have learned that questions of foreign policy are not the business of statesmen exclusively, there will be much less friction than heretofore between the two peoples." We have

said the same thing a hundred times in these columns, and we would only add that the ignorance and violence of a large part of the newspaper Press tends more than any action of statesmen to maintain mutual suspicions and misunderstandings between nations.

MICHEL REVON AT TOKYO.-The able author of the great work on "International Arbitration which received the prize offered by the French Academy of Moral Science in 1892 has just commenced a course of lectures on Arbitration at the University of Tokyo. Not content with theory, this well-known jurist is taking steps towards the realisation of his doctrines in practice. He has written to the International League of Peace and Liberty saying that he is endeavouring to found an Eastern Society of Peace, and that several persons of rank and influence in Japan have agreed to support him. This is an event, indeed-honourable to that intelligent and progressive nation, and to the distinguished Frenchman whom we all esteem so highly.

WHAT THE POPE SAYS.-M. A. Rieffel in the Figaro of Paris quotes the following declaration of Leo XIII. : "Nothing is more urgent, nothing more necessary, than to strive against war. Every effort in that direction must be regarded as contributing largely, not only to the Christian idea, but also to the public welfare."

BEHRINGS SEA AWARD BILE.-On the occasion of the second reading of this Bill in the House of Commons, on the 5th inst., which embodies the decisions of the arbitrators, Sir Richard Webster said that this Bill marks a distinct advance in the settlement of international disputes. The words of "one of the most cautious and eminent of Conservative lawyers deserve to be kept in mind." They were as follows: "The questions involved were not merely questions as to the conduct of sealing, but as to whether the nations should more and more feel pledged to settle their differences by agreement, if possible, and, if not, by arbitration, instead of resorting to those dreadful methods which, after all, never settled anything, and only left heartburnings on one side or the other."

and the "Apostles of Peace." The Lombard Union have adopted a resolution requesting the Italian Government to accept the proposal of the Swiss Government in the dispute as to an interpretation of the terms of the commercial treaty between the two countries.Corrispondenza Verde."

ITALY.-At the instance of the president of the Peace Society of Umbria, Professor Tiberi, a similar society has been founded at Castello, through the exertions of Professor Biondi.—Correspondenza Verde.

ITALY.-Gaetano Negri, Italian senator, has published a letter on the foreign policy of his country, in which he gives reasons for considering that the Triple Alliance has been of great disadvantage to Italy. He considers that she ought to adopt a new policy, obtain complete liberty of action, and abstain from intervention in the affairs of other States. This, he says, would give Italy an opportunity for exercising useful meditation for the benefit of her neighbours, for promoting good relations between them as well as the spread of peace generally.-Correspondance Autographiee.

GERMANY.-We receive most encouraging reports of progress in the German Empire, no less than eleven vigorous societies having been called into existence within a very recent period. One of the most active workers on this behalf is Herr Richard Feldhaus, of Königsberg. He has recently taken part in forming a society at Insterburg, affiliated to the central organisation at Berlin. The Breslau branch formed last month has already held seven public meetings.

THE FRENCH SOCIETY FOR INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. The annual meeting took place on the 30th ult, when M. Thiaudière, the secretary, read a report on the progress of the society and of the peace movement generally. M. Frédéric Passy presided, and, as we learn from several sources, delivered an address of remarkable eloquence. Our eminent friend has even surpassed himself in his energetic efforts to create a widespread attachment to the principles which are so dear to him. He has been addressing large meetings at Douai, Lille, and many other cities in the French provinces.

AFTER THE WAR.

[Translated by Margaret Jones from a Story by Prof. Bencivenni in the Almanacco Umbro, published by the Peace Society of Perugia.]

THE facts of the following story are ever fresh in my memory, though when they happened I was only a child. We lived in a modest little house in the midst of gardens. In the garden below was a flourishing, high cherry-tree, which gave to the small square a touch of childish gaiety, and there could be seen, when the early spring sunshine was warmest, an old woman whose arms encircled a gentle young girl, passing to and fro among the bushes. These two were smiling and happy, the younger with the happiness of hope, the elder with tenderness. The maiden was tall, a slender brunette, with deep black eyes, the ideal of youth and love; the old woman was spare and bent, and looked like a living phantasm of the past. It seemed possible that she might suddenly vanish. When the girl arrived, her hands laden with flowers, she cried out joyfully, "Grandmother! Grandmother!" The old woman seemed quite delighted; her white head was raised, trembling slightly; her eyes were

fixed on the beautiful girl; her whole face was smiling with gladness. She was lost in thought, living over again the sweetest memories, and carrying them on into the future. Then a strong and handsome youth appeared, and the girl, seeing him, ran joyously to meet him. He took her by the hand, and he led her close to where the old woman was seated. She seemed to take a pleasure in joining their hands and in holding them closely in her thin, trembling ones. Then soft and tender glances passed between the young people; they passed through the grove, among the flowering bushes, leaning on each other. She took his arm, and a tress of her brown hair, fluttering in the soft breeze, now and again touched his face like a caress. Every now and then they returned to the old woman, who was surrounded with piles of flowers, which she placed in great clusters with most religious care, as if each flower represented an offering of her heart-a foretaste of happiness to be enjoyed, which she arranged, by placing together the lives of these two young lovers. I watched them, thinking what ideal days would succeed each other under my eyes, like a small poet, who feels in his heart the infinite poetry of life without being able to express it.

But one day I could not see them in the little garden, neither did they appear the next day nor the day after. The garden was silent, its smile was melancholy, it was wanting in life. The last time I saw them the young girl threw some flowers to me on the balcony and called out, "On my marriage day you shall have some sweetmeats; you shall have a lot!" "Oh!" I answered, waving my hands, "Will it be soon?" "In a month's time," she replied. It appeared to me that the youth was very thoughtful; while she was speaking, he had been watching us close by. And now where were they? I was sent round to their house to make inquiries. The girl was pale, her eyes were read and swollen with tears; was mute before their sad glance. The old woman could not leave her room, she was ill. Said the girl to me, "Carlino has gone to the war. He has left a letter

War!

behind, in which he writes, "I have gone to do my duty; before thee, comes my country. Pray to God that I may return.' "And if he should not return?" she asked, in a voice trembling with emotion. And is this war, then? I asked. Here are people who have their own country, who have nothing to do with us, coming and invading ours; wishing to seize

our land, and aiming at our submission; we deprive no one and persecute none. Why then should these people come to our country, and wherefore is it necessary to kill and be killed, in order to obtain what belongs to us? Should possession be only to the strongest, and cannot our own be regained without force? But everything around was vibrating with warlike impatience, one could almost feel the roaring of the cannon in the air.

A stationer had placed in his window a large map, upon which were pinned black flags indicating the position of the enemy; the tri-coloured flags were our own. These flags were sometimes advanced, at others drawn back, and were mingled with each other. I saw troops of soldiers hurried to the battlefleld; horses, neighing wildly, were rushing headlong over the country; the harvest was wasted. The houses fell in ruins; the poor people were distracted, without bread, and overwhelmed by a storm of fearful severity. Everywhere round about lay the dead and wounded, in pools of blood.

One day my mother came home in great agitation; she was searching eagerly among our linen. She wanted some pieces of linen, some linament, and bandages. "Bandages! What for, mother?" I asked. "For the wounded, for the mutilated-there are so many." I looked at her, and grew paler. I watched the bandages she was preparing; I thought of the torn limbs and of the broken hearts which were fated to mourn for them. "For our soldiers, mother?" "For ours and for

How strange! All this seemed incomprehensible to me. "These people, having no hatred in their hearts, and who do not know each other, how can they kill one another with so much ferocity?"

"No, it is not they who want this," my mother said, "but they are ordered to do it, and they obey."

From a shady orchard the ominous roll of cannon was shaking us every moment. It was only a short distance off. What a strange odour there was in the air; what a cloud of melancholy hangs over us! In the night there was the confusion caused by the arrival of wounded troops, the hurry of fugitive soldiers, of waggons and cannon. Some of them belonged to us, and some to the enemy. Ah! in this time of distress they did not seem to be enemies. Prisoners, wounded and bleeding and covered with powder, were led along the roads. There was not room for all of them; some were placed in the churches, or under the doorways of the Piazza, and in the houses.

I learnt that the inhabitants of the country were threatened and oppressed, and they must therefore rise up against their oppressors. Defend their houses and their people; but what about the others? Should these be followed by massacre because they have to obey? Is it one's duty to obey when the command is unjust? Is there not heard all around the sound of lamentations and moans, and yet with the dawn of a fresh day the distant rumble of sullen cannon?

One morning, above the distant sounds, were heard sharp painful cries. I found they proceeded from the little garden behind me; I succeeded in climbing the wall, and ran across to our neighbour's house. There was Cecilia very pale, her eyes streaming with tears and her hair dishevelled, calling out in a voice broken with sobs, "Carlo! Carlo! is dead" Her friends tried to soothe her in vain. "Cecilia," said my mother, "try and calm yourself for the sake of your grandmother." The girl did not hear her, she was trembling terribly; she seemed to have lost control over herself; she was searching around wildly with strained eyes or repeating in agonising tones the words of "Čarlo! Carlo dead!" She was put into an isolated room, but the sad sound reached me just the same, though weakened by distance. I was pale and my heart was bursting, every cry fell upon me like a blow. They took me away, but I heard what they were saying in low tones. "The poor grandmother, she must be taken care of, she has felt these cries terribly." After a short time, my mother returned to the house. I looked at her anxiously. She made a desperate effort to be calm, but the tears were running down her cheeks, and she said, "Signora Caterina is dead, Cecilia has gone mad."

They were obliged to put the straight-jacket on Cecilia because she had bruised herself against the walls. I thought sadly of the day when the beautiful creature had thrown the flowers on to our balcony, promising me at the same time sweet-meats on her wedding-day; she little dreamt of what was going to happen. Her betrothed was dead, and her happiness was gone for ever.

What tears, what misery, what affliction I saw. What a number of men were dead! Men who had left their wives and children in misery and desolation; vigorous young fellows, full of life, were waited for by their sweethearts in vain; the old people wept and were inconsolable.

The war was ended; the storm had passed over the verdant fields; death had passed over the city.

One day I was taken to visit the poor mad girl. She had been put into a room with iron bars across the windows, and was continually watched. She was taken for an airing into the little garden. During her calm intervals she was gentle and good, and smiled and

sang. The memory of the dreadful news was erased from her mind. She embroidered initials on her wedding garments, or g thered flowers to make into a bouquet to offer Carlo when he arrived. But gradually she became restless; she searched anxiously around her, her eyes assumed a frightened expression, her heart beat rapidly, then there issued from her lips the strange cry of "Dead! dead!" and the violent attack commenced, and it became necessary to put the straight jacket on her. To-day she was quietly tending her vases of flowers, and she covered the window-sill behind the iron bars with them. She turned round as I entered, recognised me and siniled, and bent down to caress me. "Do you know," she said to me, "that in a month's time I am to be married. Then you shall have a lot of sweatmeats; you will be very glad, will you not?" I could hardly keep back my tears. I raised my eyes to look into her face It was pale, and her eyes were hollow. She seemed to be the shadow of her former self. It was sad to think that it was only the cold marriage of the tomb which could ever unite these two that death had parted.

Thirty years afterwards, finding myself in the place where I had passed my youth, I sought Cecilia again. She was still alive, and they took me to see her. She had no more violent attacks now. The memory of that dreadful calamity was quite effaced from her mind. Her brain was only occupied with one idea-that of her approaching happiness. Her madness had been replaced by a gentle and quiet insanity. Always surrounded by flowers, she was still preparing her wedding garments. She embroidered on them the letters of the name which should have been her own after her marriage. She gave me her wasted hand, looking at me curiously the while, and puckering her forehead. I could hardly recognise in this poor, thin, fragile creature, with white hair and pale, wrinkled face, the very lovely and blooming girl who had brought into the days of my childhood so tragic a memory.

We were admitted the other day, by the courtesy of its gifted author, to see this remarkable picture, which will doubtless soon be exhibited, and which all our associates in the cause of peace should study. Apart from its singular merit as a work of art, it enforces most powerfully the lesson of the horrors of war, which Madame von Suttner's work has set so vividly before the public. Mr. Glazebrook's picture would, indeed, form a worthy illustration to the Baroness's book. It represents a very common incident in the life of that great impersonation of the genius of war- -Napoleon, "the one man that laboured to enslave the world," as Wordsworth says; and if the poet could have seen this picture, he would have applauded in it the " signs of thought that give the true poetic thrill," not less than in the work of Haydon, which moved his enthusiasm.

The picture shows Napoleon riding, as he was used to do, over one of "the fields of his victories after the carnage had ceased" (Alison). Night is just falling. The emperor's white horse has mounted a little hill, up which his staff is slowly riding. The camp fires burn below in the valley. On the crown of the hill stands an abandoned gun-carriage, dismounted; behind it, in the foreground of the picture, stands the wayside crucifix, round which the fight has been raging, its pedestal notched by round-shot, and the emblem of the last and greatest sacrifice of Divine love surrounded by the corpses of the poor victims of human greed and hatred, while the author of it all looks down with the impassive air of a mere calculator, at these poor disused

counters in his horrible game-studying the scene as a problem in the art of slaughter.

Never, surely, was there a more successful attempt to set before the eye-what ought never to be absent from the mind-the hatefulness and the selfishness of war carried on for conquest, than in this realisation of victory, impersonated in the great conqueror of modern times.

T. H.

WOMEN AND FOREIGN POLICY.

THE following letter has been sent out widely by the Liverpool and Birkenhead Women's Peace and Arbitration Society to Women's Political Associations. We are glad to hear that several very encouraging replies have been received :

"LADIES,-We take the liberty of addressing you on the important subject of Eugland's Foreign Policy. "We hold that Foreign Affairs receive too little attention from most political Associations, which are apt to overlook the fact that our national prosperity is closely interwoven with our international life. We therefore ve..ture to urge upon you the desirability of our Women's Associations directing attention to these

matters.

"We wish to point out the fact that, at present, International Affairs are frequently conducted on principles absolutely the reverse of those which are applied to Home Affairs. The internal policy of our country, is founded on principles of law and justice, the rights of the weak are protected, and all resort to violence, eveu duelling, is forbidden; but our external policy mainly rests on brute force, and relies to a great extent on violence; there is little appeal to justice between nations, trial by combat still prevails, and the weaker races are too often the prey of the stronger.

"The need of an International Court where disputes between nations could be settled without resort to an appeal to arms, and where the rights of the weak could be protected, is self-evident. The fact that since the battle of Waterloo, over eighty disputes between nations have been settled by Arbitration, the satisfactory adjustment of the Behring Sea dispute last year, and the unanimous resolution of the House of Commons, July, 1893, expressing willingness to enter into a permanent treaty of Arbitration with the United States of America, all point to the fact that civilised nations are prepared for the further step of the establishment of a Court of Arbitration. Definite schemes for such a court have been drawn up, and others are in process of being formulated. It only remains for peoples to demand such a remedy for the oppressive burdens of Militarism, and the proposed International Court would become an accomplished fact, and the whole world would breathe more freely. We appeal to you therefore to urge forward this important reform, to make it part of your programme and to give it a leading place in the discussions at your Annual gatherings. Further, we ask you to consider the subject of the present international rivalry in armaments, and to raise your voice against the proposed increased expenditure on our own navy. Is not the present policy irrational and suicidal? Every European nation is expending in armies and navies what is needed for the welfare of its people, and poverty and inisery prevail throughout Europe to an alarming extent; yet, when untold millions have been thus spent, nations stand to each other in the same relative position of armed strength as they would have done had there been no such outlay, whilst mutual distrust and suspicion have increased to a dangerous degree. Gradual mutual disarmament is surely the most sensible, as well as the most humane and Christian policy.