I9I5.J OF NEUTRALIZED TERRITORY. 21 



bear a belligerent character." But, " so great a change in their 

 legal position cannot be made without the consent of all the parties 

 affected by it. It must be made as the result of international agree- 

 ment, in order to be valid, and must be accepted by all the im- 

 portant states."^ 



Neutralized states, therefore, are those which, whilst remaining 

 politically independent, have yielded up a part of their sovereignty 

 as the price of their existence, and are dependent upon the powers 

 to protect them, — though they do not belong to the councils of the 

 great powers, nor have they the right to discuss questions of policy 

 which may ultimately lead to the employment of force, except in 

 defence of their own frontiers. 



The two conspicuous examples of this kind are Switzerland and 

 Belgium. The cases are similar ; each forms with its intervening terri- 

 tory a barrier between the threatened conflicts of powerful neighbors. 

 Switzerland, lying as it does, between Germany, Italy and France, 

 is so situated that if the passage through its territory were open, 

 the Austrians might proceed freely from the valley of the Danube 

 to the Rhone and the Po, and menace the western boundary of 

 France throughout its entire length ; and, indeed, that is what 

 happened during the French Revolution, wdien the neutrality of 

 Switzerland was disregarded and her territory invaded by all the 

 contending parties, whilst the French, Austrians and Russians used 

 her soil for their hostilities against each other. Again, in 1813, the 

 Austrian army passed through Switzerland and crossed the Rhine 

 at three places, in its campaign against France. 



A short time later, the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland was 

 recognized by the Congress of Vienna, in 1815 ; but, upon the re- 

 turn of Napoleon from Elba, the Allies called upon the Swiss Con- 

 federation to join in the general coalition against France, in order 

 to assist them in promoting the common welfare of Europe and 

 prevent the reestablishment of the revolutionary authority in 

 France. They declared that they knew the importance attached 

 by Switzerland to the maintenance of the principle of her authority, 

 and that they did not intend to violate that principle; but with the 

 view of accelerating the time when it might be made permanent 



2 Lawrence, ubi supra, paragr. 245. 



