to Bulgaria in regard to the possible results of her mobilised neutrality illustrates their abundant usefulness in capable hands. It may be hoped that our Government will exhibit similar firmness and discretion in dealing with the unworthy Court intrigue at Athens which is suicidally endeavouring to thwart the formally recorded determination of the Greek people to maintain the ancient independence of their country. When royal marriages give rise to irreconcilable differences between the Crown and the people, there should be little difficulty in deciding which should give way.

No individual or Cabinet, nothing short of the Parliament of the nation, can be entrusted with this most momentous and responsible task of Treaty signing. Great Britain and her Parliament since the occurrences of August 4th, 1914, have profoundly believed our cause in the present war to be a righteous one, and waged for the good of the world at large; but Germany, or at least certain sections of her people, believes the same of hers. The acceptance of this rule in regard to the signature of treaties would involve some slight change in the law of our own country, and it would certainly involve a radical change in the Constitutional Law of Germany, to give due effect to the voice of the people, and to diminish materially the undue powers of the Crown and of the Government and the Junker class; but there is ample reason to believe that this change is heartily desired by a large majority of the German people.

(8) The observance of International Treaties and of new and revised rules or laws to be enforced by judicial decree of the International Court, and if necessary by its police. Many difficult and highly contentious questions in regard to blockade and contraband, and also the many conflicting arguments as to the legitimacy of lethal engines of warfare, such as submarine torpedoes, bomb-dropping aeroplanes, and the use of noxious gases need no longer be considered when disarmament and permanent peace has been attained.

(9) As an essential preliminary to the adoption of the foregoing principle it is obvious that the procedure adopted in the formation of International Agreements must be subjected to substantial revision. They must, in short, be subjected to the same rules as those which, in accordance with the universal experience of men of business and of lawyers in all countries, have been found necessary for the formulation and enforcement of all arrangements which depend for their effective validity on mutual agreement, viz. :

(a) That the parties to the Agreement or Treaty shall be those

who have the power to carry out the terms of the Treaty

effectively, a power which, as before stated, cannot be properly lodged in any person or body other than the Parliament of the contracting nation and its duly appointed officer. Parliamentary discussion would prevent the hasty conclusion of any such Agreements or Treaties.

(b) The period during which any such Agreement or Treaty (if it be permissible at all under the limitations suggested in the foregoing clause (7) shall remain in force should be clearly agreed and stated in the document, and if there is to be any power or right reserved to any of the parties to denounce or terminate the Agreement, the circumstances in which such a power shall arise, and the requisite notice of termination, which should not in any case be a short one, should be distinctly stated.

(10) The question of money indemnity which may, not improbably, be claimed by all the belligerents, involves no broad principle which can advantageously be discussed here. Would not the simplest and best solution be that no such claims should be made or admitted on either side, with the possible exception of Belgium, in regard to which country an admitted wrong was committed?

The above broad and scarcely disputable principles being assented to both in Germany and in this country, as it may be hoped they will, as a means of bringing the present war to a close, we may pass on to some observances which may in the meantime and at once be practised with general approval. The reiterated charges in our own country and in Germany of hostile acts and misrepresentations and the animosity thereby engendered by the enemy have already done much harm in creating and fostering ill-feeling, and it is time that they should cease on both sides. If we cannot yet attain to acting as Christians, let us at least be gentlemen. If we cannot yet agree to love one another, let us at any rate speak of each other with respect, and let both sides continue to show unstinted acts of kindness to the sick and wounded and prisoners of the enemy.

Let us try to think of each other, as we truly and honestly may, as so many millions of men and women like ourselves, anxious for the honour and glory of their country, for the safety of sons and husbands on the battlefield, and for wives and children in hunger and misery at home. Let Englishmen and Germans try to think of each other as patriots, as both sides certainly are, eager for their country's victory in battle, proud of their own virtues, and blind to their own faults, as we are ourselves.

The valuable services which Germany has rendered to science,

literature and art cannot be forgotten or ignored. Any attempt to deprive the world of these past and, it may still be hoped, future benefits to social and educational progress would be deplorable, were it not justly and certainly foredoomed to failure. We have heard too much of international hatred. It has been much exaggerated and it should speedily disappear. Just condemnation of wrongful acts should not be accompanied by personal hatred, and will lose its force if actuated thereby.

We have all of us duties and obligations, to our own country first, and then to sister nations of our fellow-men, but we have higher and more cogent precepts and example still to obey. "Vengeance is Mine" and "Love your enemies," come to us from One who loved all men and all nations alike, and they are not yet obsolete commands.

1

Can these broad principles of peace ever be regarded as premature? Are we honest believers in the blessings of peace if we stand by, like spectators of a prize-ring, looking on with folded arms until some hundreds of thousands 1 more of our fellow-men, whether German conscripts or British volunteers, shed their lifeblood on the battlefield? Can we look on in silence and inaction while the fairest lands of Europe are being devastated with carnage and ruin and until some thousands more of widows and children are plunged into misery, and until one of the combatants falls like a gladiator with his death-wound?

Shall we be such cowards as to fear the taunt of cowardice if we open our lips to propose, even at this stage, fair and reasonable principles of peace? The true honour and glory is to the nation. that shall be the first to propose them.

Some may hastily exclaim that it is a vain dream, visionary and hopeless, to imagine that the curse of war will ever be banished from the world as long as it is inhabited by human beings. The dream is neither visionary nor hopeless of accomplishment. Human nature is not incapable of perfection. We may reasonably cherish the hope and the belief that the end of the world, the crack of doom, will not come until the idea has been realised, that is, until the human race has been made perfect. It will not be denied that by God's grace human nature is capable of being made perfect by the steadfast exertions of man himself; and though perfection is as yet very far from attainment, every century since the creation of the world has shown marked progress of course with an occasional setback followed by recovery. Is it conceivable that God in His mercy should have created the human race in His own image and placed us upon this earth for

(1) The casualties in the British army up to October 9th in the present year were 493,294. They continue to increase daily.

all time without also endowing us with the capacity for casting off, by our own endeavour aided by God's grace, our besetting vices of selfishness, enmity and pride, and becoming perfect even as He Himself is perfect?

We are but creatures of a day, but while we are here let us endeavour, by the best methods we can devise, to accomplish what we can in our own day, and we shall so have played our part.

The signature at the foot of this article is not that of one who can claim to speak with recognised authority on questions either of public policy or of religion, but it is to the principles stated and nothing else that attention is asked.

For the adjustment of the detailed terms of peace in the present war the assistance of the best statesmen of the two hemispheres can be called in. We may rest assured that it will be readily given.

It is needless to add that this proposal now to settle the broad principles on which peace, if it cannot now be attained, shall be hereafter made is in no way intended to arrest the most active progress that is possible with the enlistment of more men to complete our army in the field, or to stand in the way of any other measures that may be found necessary for the attainment of our country's high purpose. We must overcome the adversaries of advancing Liberty, Civilisation and Peace, or perish in the attempt.

CHARLES STEWART.

Postscript. Since this article was written I have had the advantage of reading Mr. F. S. Oliver's popular and very able book, Ordeal by Battle. His wide and instructive survey of recent European history affords ample matter for detailed criticism, which, of course, cannot be attempted here. I will only venture now to remark that, in my opinion, he commits the radical error of assuming that Permanent Peace is unattainable and impossible. He wisely insists that our armaments should correspond with our policy, and our policy with our armaments, but he ignores the fact that both policy and armaments may be well and consistently maintained on a profoundly peaceful and permanent footing. He rightly regards security as the first essential for national prosperity, but he apparently aims at attaining it by a wild and unrestricted competition in piling up armaments. Surely this way lies madness, national bankruptcy, and utter disregard of divine law-German militarism pure and simple. I trust I have not completely failed in pointing out a better way.-C. S.