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according to the exigency or the intensity of pressure, so it has been 

 found that, when the incidents of the struggle came to be surveyed, 

 there arose a general desire to extend the domain of law, to define 

 its rules more clearly, and to take measures for their more effectual 

 enforcement. This was what happened after the Thirty Years' 

 War. The same thing occurred after the close of the wars growing 

 out of the Spanish Succession. It happened again after the close of 

 the Napoleonic Wars ; and a similar phenomenon distinguished the 

 ending of the Crimean War. Many of the mournful lucubrations 

 regarding violations of international law in the present war have, 

 consciously or unconsciously, a partisan character, and are intended 

 to further the interests of the one side or the other. We should be 

 on our guard against such lamentations. They are by no means new 

 in character ; they are characteristic of all wars. All armed contests 

 are characterized by charges and countercharges of violations of 

 law, and such charges are partly false and partly true. There never 

 took place, and never will take place, a contention by force in which 

 the so-called rules of war were not violated. War itself means the 

 killing and maiming of human beings, and, in the passions it excites 

 and the fears it creates, excesses will inevitably be committed. It is 

 in the nature of things that it should be so. 



Judging, therefore, by the past, we are justified in looking for- 

 ward to important developments in international law after the 

 present great conflict shall have been ended. These developments 

 will naturally take place along the ordinary lines of legal progress. 

 In the first place, there will always be dififerences to be settled. 

 This is a matter of primary importance, since it involves the avoid- 

 ance of conflict and the preservation of peaceful conditions of legal 

 growth. We may call this the judicial aspect, which has been dealt 

 with chiefly through international arbitration. 



But, in the second place, while law must be interpreted, it must 

 also be progressive, and must keep pace with changes in conditions. 

 The greater part of international law has been developed through 

 usage, but, during the past hundred years, it has undergone a marked 

 development through acts which were in their nature legislative. To 

 what extent is it possible to enlarge and render more efficient the leg- 

 islative method in the international sphere? Up to the present time, 



