70 TRANSACTIONS. 1906-7. 



" It may be the clear duty of an individual to sacrifice his 

 life for the good of others, but are any circumstances conceivable 

 in which it would be as clearly the duty of a nation to extinguish 

 its national existence for the benefit of other nations or of humanity 

 at large? (P. 106). 



"But look upon nations as what they really are — aggrega- 

 tions of citizens, holding each other's interests in mutual trust, — 

 and then the moral significance of what is called national selfish- 

 ness is wholly changed. It ceases to be selfishness in any proper 

 sense of the word. It becomes patriotism; and the rulers of a 

 nation who would sacrifice its interests to those of other nations 

 would be guilty of a breach of trust, whether the ruling power be 

 one or many, a despotism or a democracy. (P. 108) 



''Heffter says that a state may repudiate a treaty when it 

 conflicts with the rights and welfare of its people." (P. 115) 



''Blumtschli thinks that a state may hold treaties incom- 

 patible with its development to be nil. " (P. 115). 



" The doctrine of M. Fiori accepts all the extravagances which 

 are the logical consequence of these views. -Recording to him, 

 all treaties are to be looked upon as null which are in any way 

 opposed to the development of the further activity of a nation, 

 and which interfere with the exercise of its natural rights. " (P. 

 115.) 



Domestic Politics. — Such then being the condition of 

 international politics, what are we to say of our domestic party 

 affairs? Has old Nick any hope of harvests from that field? 



Now altogether the worst feature about our Grit and Tory 

 methods is not that they are as bad as they can be, but that they 

 are quite frankly so. I heard a Minister of the Crown publicly 

 defend his frankness the other day by saying that he would rather 

 be a publican than a pharisee anyway. He seemed to think that 

 he was all right if he made no foolish professions. In a speech of 

 a few years since to the Toronto Conservative Club, Mr. Geo. E. 

 Foster said : — 



"We do not want any longer, what I am afraid however we 

 will have for some time to come^that devil of political corruption. 

 It is abroad everywhere in our local, provincial and dominion 

 contests. It is in the Grit and Liberal-Conservative party alike. 

 It is the one thing more than anything else that takes away hope 

 from me when I talk with men " (a) . 



(a) 29th May, 1898. 



