natural independence of the individual States has been, in certain matters, subordinated to the general welfare of the European community.' This result has not been brought about without involving from time to time departures from established usage. The method of achieving the result has been that of consultations among the leading European Powers assembled in Congress, and recording in the Protocols of their Conferences the principles upon which their conclusions have been based, to which, moreover, it has been usual to invite the adherence of the Powers not themselves represented at the Congress.[1] When Sir Travers Twiss, writing in 1863, fixed his mind on War and the Rights of War, a like spirit of optimism prevailed with him. History, he said, in its relation to the History of War, may truly be regarded as Philosophy teaching by example; and the wider and more complete the historical survey the more irresistible will be the conclusion, that 'the employment of Force on the part of Nations in the prosecution of Right against other Nations has become subject to Rules, which are in accordance with Reason, and have the Common Weal for their object'.[2]
The work of Sir Travers Twiss has lately been described as 'a necessary book for the student';[3] and the fact that the judgement comes from one who has himself been busied with diplomacy, taken together with the publication of a French translation of the book twenty years ago, gives force to the estimate. We are concerned here more especially with such parts of the author's subject and his treatment of them as are
- ↑ Introduction to second edition of the volume on Peace, pp. xxx–xxxi. For an appreciation of the 'high vocation' of the diplomatist, and of the purpose and ideal in the foundation of the Chichele Professorship of 'International Law and Diplomacy', see pp. xxxvi–vii.
- ↑ Preface to the first edition of the volume on War.
- ↑ Satow, Diplomatic Practice (1917), ii. 371.
