84 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATIOM. 



Let us then turn to the other alternative, namely, the diminish- 

 ing of the evils of war. 



The forces now employed in war are so enormous, the machinery 

 so complicated and delicate (it has been estimated that one charge 

 of powder and shot fired from the loo-ton guns of the present day 

 costs more than one of the large guns with which England's great 

 naval battles were fought at the beginning of the century) that the 

 question of how they should be controlled or diminished by mere 

 literary agency is one which might well interest millions of groaning 

 taxpayers. 



War appears to be as old as the race. The Rousseaux school 

 of thinkers would have us believe that the contrary was the case, but 

 the romance of Paul and Virginia to the contrary notwithstanding, 

 it would seem that peace is a comparatively modern invention. 

 International law owes much of its growth to Roman law. The 

 jiis gentium, or natural law, is still the ground work of international 

 law, and the treaty law of nations, which is the lex saipta of nations 

 as opposed to the unwritten law, is built upon this foundation. 

 During the pax Romana, not only did bloodshed practically cease, 

 but the equality of the sexes and the mitigation of slavery appeared, 

 and Christianity itself grew and flourished. Is it, then, too visionary 

 to hope that the pax Brittanica which now insures life and liberty to 

 every one beneath the folds of the Union Jack may yet grow into an 

 Anglo-Saxon peace which shall practically be the millenium ? 



States then, as we have seen, are to be considered as moral 

 persons, capable and free to do right and wrong, and the law of 

 nations consists of general principles of right and justice of a col- 

 lection of usages, customs and opinions, the growth of civilization 

 and commerce and a code of positive law. 



The law of nations, so far as it is founded on the principles of 

 natural justice, is equally binding upon all mankind, but the Chris- 

 tian nations of Europe and their descendants on this Continent by 

 their vast superiority in arts and sciences, commerce and govern- 

 ment, and above all by the influence of Christianity, have established 

 a law peculiar to themselves. The term International Law is not 

 an exact one. Law implies a law giver and a punishment — a 

 tribunal capable of enforcing it and coercing those who break it. 

 But there is no common law giver to sovereign states. The mere 



