"Remota justitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia?"-ST. AUGUSTINE. (Without justice, what are states but great robber-bands?) vi Late Lecturer in Economics in the University of Leeds. 1. THE GROWTH OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS INTRODUCTION IV INTERNATIONAL LAW By J. D. I. HUGHES, B.A. (a) THE RESULTS OF COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. (c) RESULTS AMONG MORE CIVILISED PEOPLES 2. THE GOVERNMENT OF DEPENDENCIES I WAR AND PEACE SINCE 1815 1. EARLY EFFORTS TO SECURE EUROPEAN UNITY THE cry that was raised at the beginning of the present European struggle that this must be a war to end war, and that on the conclusion of peace the system of isolated and individual states must give place to some sort of European confederation-had a familiar sound to the student of history. The great war of the French Revolution against Europe was prefaced by a declaration of the brotherhood of peoples and of the determination of France to wage no war of conquest. The message of the Revolution to Wordsworth was, "Wars shall cease: Did ye not hear that conquest is abjured?" Napoleon had visions, not altogether unlike those that now have their home in Berlin, of a Europe, rational, prosperous, and peaceful under the presidency of the superior civilisation of France. And when the system of coalitions began to grow up against the power of Napoleon, it was not only the overthrow of his power that the Allies contemplated: they thought they saw through the battlesmoke a settled order in Europe, and a condition of permanent peace. The circumstances after the battle of Waterloo seemed particularly favourable to the realisation of such schemes. Europe had not been fighting against France, but against Napoleon; and when once Napoleon was overthrown there was little difficulty in allowing the new France of the restored Bourbons to join the great Powers of Europe on equal and friendly terms. The long period of war, and what seemed to that fortunate age its unsurpassable sufferings and horrors, predisposed even politicians and diplomatists to a search after the way of Peace. When the Congress of Vienna met, Gentz, its secretary, tells us that "men promised themselves an all-embracing reform of the political system of Europe, and guarantees for universal peace. But he has to admit, a few sentences later, that "The Congress resulted in no act of a higher nature, no great measure for public order or for the general good, which might compensate humanity for its long sufferings or pacify it for the future." It is only too painfully evident that the expected pacification did not come. But there were sincere efforts made to work towards the desired goal. These efforts have lately been made the subject of an interesting and suggestive volume by Mr. Alison Phillips,1 and they deserve the careful study of those who, like the present writer, still cherish the ideal of a pacific and international organisation of Europe. There were two distinct lines of effort, though these were confounded in the public mind, and are often confounded in the short histories of that period. There was first the Holy Alliance—the product of the imagination and the faith of the Czar Alexander I. In all European history it may be questioned whether there is 1 The Confederation of Europe, A Study of the European Alliance, 1815-1823, as an Experiment in the International Organisation of Peace, |