EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
489 
der Williams, was accordingly selected; and if we may judge 
from the comments of the Austrian press, he fulfilled his 
mission in a satisfactory manner. 
In the leading article of Die Presse , of Tuesday, April 9th, 
we read, “ In the declaration of universal principles of inter¬ 
national commerce lay the simple, sole problem of the inter¬ 
national conference, whose delegates assembled here from 
almost all the European countries. Russia and Turkey were 
especially remarkable for the readiness which they evinced 
to aid and forward the resolutions which were adopted by the 
Conference.” 
“ It must not, however, be forgotten that self-interest must 
form a powerful element in the said readiness. England, 
which in most international questions can, thanks to special 
circumstances, adopt an attitude of reserve, was represented 
by Mr. Williams, who was careful, before everything, to give 
prominence to the politico-commercial relations of the ques¬ 
tion, and many of the propositions brought in by the English 
representative, and accepted by the conference, were eloquent 
of the practical sense with which England is accustomed to 
deal with such subjects.” 
Altogether sixty-six questions were submitted to the Con¬ 
ference in the interrogatory, but the major part of them was 
easily disposed of. 
The decisions which were accepted unanimously, or, as the 
English representative expressly remarked, without objec¬ 
tion, may be concisely stated as follows: 
Every country is required to arrange such a system of 
sanitary police as may be necessary to ensure the speedy ex¬ 
tinction of cattle plague, in the event of its appearance. 
Every state will charge itself with the payment of indemni¬ 
ties to the owners of animals slaughtered on account of cattle 
plague. 
Every state is expected to adopt some uniform method of 
disinfecting the machinery for the transport of animals dis¬ 
eased or suspected, and the products thereof. 
In regard to international commerce, the Conference pro¬ 
posed to permit the greatest extent of freedom consistent 
