CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT OF DIPLOMACY 375 



The French School at Rome has published many valuable docu- 

 ments found in the papal archives, including the registers of several 

 popes, and also a number of special studies, such as the scholarly 

 works of Deprez and Pelissier, which exemplify what may yet be 

 done for the history of diplomacy, now, for the first time, rendered 

 possible in the scientific sense. 



But even when made accessible in printed form, the contents of 

 diplomatic archives have little human interest until they are placed 

 in those relations which render them significant to the public mind. 

 No text-book of mathematics is more dull and unattractive than a 

 volume of treaties; yet, when we enliven its dreary text by bringing 

 upon the scene the national interests involved, the deep, human 

 sentiments affected, the exciting drama of negotiation, the deadly 

 struggle and ardent aspiration which its contents represent; when 

 we follow the conflict of w r hich this dull document forms the conclu- 

 sion, and perceive in it a victory of peace and intelligence that 

 swallows up and symbolizes the victories of war; when we see in it 

 the triumph of a just cause, the sepulchre of a false ambition, the 

 ruin of a hopeless system, or the consecration of a great principle, 

 we realize that nothing serves better to mark the rising tide of human 

 progress. But when a treaty of peace becomes a yoke of servitude 

 imposed by force upon a prostrate people, defeated in a just cause, 

 we learn how infinitely far the triumphs of arms are removed from 

 the triumphs of reason; and that the least certain path to equity is 

 that appeal to force which adds to the misfortune of injustice the 

 calamity of defeat. 



III. The Relation of Diplomacy to Jurisprudence 



Trial by battle has long since been suppressed in all civilized com- 

 munities, as essentially barbaric and irrational; yet great nations 

 continue to arm themselves for future conflicts, and appeal to the God 

 of battles to crown them with victory. What is it, then, which justi- 

 fies the use of armed force by the state, while the forcible avenging 

 of private wrongs is condemned in the individual? What is it that 

 dignifies with the honorable name of " war " the confiscation of 

 property and the taking of human life by public determination, when 

 these are punished as " robbery " and " homicide " if perpetrated 

 by private persons? 



Jurisprudence replies that the state is an association of human 

 beings organized for the attainment of common ends, - - among 

 them public peace, justice, and security of life and property, --act- 

 ing in the interests of all, not for the benefit of one or a few. Its 

 laws are the necessary antidote for anarchy, and its authority to 

 make and enforce them is derived from its " sovereignty." 



