274 BALCH— INTERNATIONAL QUESTIONS 



stituted war between the new order of sovereigns. Towards the end 

 of the sixteenth century, GentiHs wrote in the "De jure belH " : 

 " Bellurn est piiblicorum armorum iusta contentio." Which may be 

 rendered into EngHsh, as follows, " War is a just contention of the 

 public force. "^ And from this same curse of war in a new form the 

 peoples strove to find deliverance. 



During the Middle Ages and indeed until fairly recent times, 

 the authors of the various plans, often more or less fantastic, 

 advanced to do away with war and maintain peace between the 

 nations, aimed to accomplish their object by one stroke of states- 

 manship. Humanity did not realize that changes in the social 

 structure of the peoples can only be accomplished slowly and with 

 the passage of much historic time. While none of the plans to 

 change the world at once into an unarmed camp of peace succeeded, 

 nevertheless, some minor points of difference arising between the 

 new order of sovereigns that emerged from feudalism, as feudalism 

 gradually gave way before nationalism, were referred for settlement 

 to some kind or other form of arbitration. And when the young 

 republic of the New World entered into the membership of the 

 family of nations much impetus was given to the application of 

 international arbitration as a way of settling international difficulties. 

 Still wars occurred to devastate now this, now that land. The 

 eagerness of humanity in the nineteenth century to rid itself of the 

 curse of war and all its accompanying hardships and miseries was 

 abundantly attested by the enthusiasm with which it greeted the 

 official prominence given to mediation, as a means of reconciling 

 rival nations, by the congress of the leading powers of Europe held 

 at Paris in 1856. But as time passed, it was realized that mediation 

 could not blot out war between nations. Then came the trial of the 

 Alabama claims before the Geneva Tribunal in 1871-72. That 

 epoch-marking event, coming just after a bitter and costly war 

 between two of the leading powers of the world, gave new hope to 

 a world that dreaded war and all its attending sufferings and evils. 



s Alberici Gentilis, I. C. Professoris Regii, " De Ivre Belli, Libri III. 

 Nunc primum in lucem editi. Ad illvstrissimvm Comitem Essexiae, Hanovise, 

 apud Hasredes Guilielmi Antonii MDCXII.," book one, chapter II., entitled, 

 " Belli definito," page 17. The above reference is to the third edition. The 

 first edition was published in London in 1598. 



