sports, inhuman punishments, and duelling, The time has not yet come when even the Christian vision is cleansed enough to look upon War as it is, and as dissociated from one and another of the petty gains of a moral kind which it seems to bring with it. But, while the Church of England, or rather a considerable portion of its ministers, is, for the reasons above noted, still in the rearguard, the strong and united voice of those to whom the Christian life is in verity the best and the only life, is giving no uncertain sound. In quarters not to be despised for their influence, the disposition for War is already being classed with the habit of drunkenness and the taste for blood. International (6.) If further proof were needed of a change Pacific effect of coming over the spirit of European life and association. thought in reference to War, which may have issues in the future to which no limit can be assigned, it would suffice to refer to the extraordinary development of International associa tion and co-operation for all sorts of purposes, the most solemn and the most trivial, of which the present age is a witness. This development is, no doubt, to a great extent a direct consequence of some of the other circumstances of modern society just enumerated, and therefore might be held to be not fairly adducible as a distinct ground for faith in the advent of a new order of ideas inimical to War. But this growing habit of International co-operation, whatever its causes, is a phenomenon deserving attention on its own account, and one which every day is manifesting itself in more various and noticeable forms. There is scarcely a portion of the whole field of Government Administration, scientific research, religious and philanthropic effort, or economical enterprise, in which, by means of so-called "International " conventions, congresses, conferences, associations, leagues, societies, or occasional exhibitions, the citizens of all civilised States are not learning to organise themselves, in exactly the same fashion in which the inhabitants of each country originally trained themselves, and were trained, to harmonise their erratic pursuits and desires, and submit to a common Government. The process of combination is likely, indeed, to be more rapidly effected as between the citizens of different States than, in primitive times, between the inhabitants of the same country seeking to organise themselves as a State, inasmuch as culture has now explained the benefits of union, and long habits of national existence have accustomed all persons to the discipline which union imposes. On the other hand, there is in International efforts at union the absence of any central force, such as exists in a community forming itself into a State, by which desultory efforts are made continuous, recalcitrant members compelled into obedience, and stability ensured for all deliberately concerted schemes. This want can only be supplied by a higher spirit of moral self-abnegation, and a greater consecration of mind and purpose to the achievement of complete International union. How far this work will proceed, and how rapidly, can only be a matter of conjecture, and opinions in respect of it will differ widely. But there can be no doubt that such projects for reducing national distinctions to the smallest point are becoming more and more conspicuous, and are assuming a very practical shape, while their general tendency to promote lasting Peace is unquestionable. From the review of some of the phenomena of modern society as exhibited among the States of Europe, it must at least be gathered Peace a rational aim for Inter national lawyers. that it is not an irrational faith to hold that some day War between civilised States must become obsolete, and that there are sufficient novel indications, even at the present day, to justify the hope that, in spite of the most glaring symptoms to the contrary, the day may not be very remote. Of course, it is not here. for a moment pretended that there are no reasons for fearing that War may yet have a long tenure of existence before it; or that a solution can be given off-hand to all the difficult problems which may be suggested as likely to arise when the differences of States have to be settled otherwise than by War; or, still less, that any one State can, at the present moment, righteously or expediently resolve never to go to war again. All these matters, deserving as they are of the most serious attention in the proper place, are irrelevant here. The only purpose in this place is to establish the very moderate proposition, that the object of hastening the day when War shall become extinct is a rational and legitimate end (among others) for the reformer of International Law; and as every writer on International Law becomes, often unconsciously, a reformer of it, then every International Lawyer and Law Student is bound to comprehend this object, of ultimately securing permanent Peace, among the purposes he has in view. CHAPTER II. OF SOME OF THE CAUSES OF MODERN EUROPEAN WARS. too numerous and complicated investigation. AN account of the causes of War might be held properly to include a research into a Causes of War large portion of human history, accompanied by some curious processes of psychological analysis. The word " cause," however, is one of those words which must await its explanation from the surrounding subject-matter, as, in itself, it implies any one of a long train or large assemblage of antecedents, which, with or without the presence of other favouring causes, and in the absence of counteracting causes, is invariably, and, therefore, as it is said, necessarily, followed by a definite consequence, which is spoken of as the "effect" of the cause. Thus when the word cause is used in reference to any event, or class of events, any one of a number of invariable antecedents will satisfy the meaning of the word, and it is of no import how numerous such antecedents are, how complicated they are with one another, or how remote they are in the order of time and sequence from the happening of the event. E |