fij^' 
 
 III
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 ,.Vv-" 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 International Arbitration : 
 The Rectorial Address of 
 Sir Robert Finlay, K.C., 
 M.P., Attorney 'General. 
 
 Printed and Published at the 
 
 STUDENT OFFICE, Darien Press, 
 
 Edinburgh, 1904. 
 
 bi^xrhNCE -Ni:, 1 1
 
 i -oife.;
 
 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 International Arbitration : 
 The Rectorial Address of 
 Sir Robert Finlay, K.C., 
 M.P., Attorney=General. 
 
 Printed and Published at the 
 
 STUDENT OFFICE, Darien Press, 
 
 Edinburgh, 1904.
 
 XX : 
 
 International Arbitration f^ff^ 
 
 My first duty is to return you my very 
 
 sincere thanks for the high honour you i 
 
 have done me in electing me as Rector ! 
 of this great University. There is, I 
 
 beheve, no one who would not be proud ; 
 
 of the distinction which your suffrages 1 
 
 confer. Need I say, what it is to me ? j 
 
 My sense of the honour of the position j 
 
 is inextricably intertwined with memo- j 
 ries of days spent here among students 
 of a former generation, of Professors 
 
 now departed, of early friendships, of i 
 
 those debates in which we prepared ' 
 ourselves for the battle of life which 
 
 still lay before us, of Rectorial contests ' 
 
 in which I took part, not as a candi- \ 
 date, but as an elector. It seems but 
 
 yesterday since, as a student, I listened J 
 
 to the Rectorial Address of the first of i 
 your Rectors, Mr Gladstone. I have 
 
 perhaps to-day special reason to indidge ' 
 
 in the wish, "Could Time, his flight j 
 reversed, restore the hours" — those 
 
 hours in which on such an occasion as j 
 
 this it was my privilege to be a listener i 
 
 only. But I trust I can rely on your j 
 
 indulgence to one who at least yields to 1 
 
 none of those great men who have pre- | 
 
 ceded him, in affection for our Univer- i 
 
 sity and in the earnest desire that its i 
 
 great traditions may be handed down * 
 
 unimpaired to future generations. ! 
 
 I cannot but feel that a tinge of sad- i 
 
 ness is thrown over this occasion by the I 
 
 fact that the death of your last Lord i 
 
 3 
 
 4(... '^
 
 Rector diiriiig his term of office is still 
 fresh in the memories of all of us. It is 
 not for me to speak of the many public 
 services of that very distinguished man 
 Lord Dulferin. With his country, we 
 deplore his loss. 
 
 The echoes of his last speech, when 
 as Lord Rector he addressed you here, 
 have hardly died away. May I recall 
 another occasion on which at a sister 
 University Lord Dufferin spoke on 
 some questions, connected with educa- 
 tion, which are still burning ? In that 
 brilliant address he stated emphatically 
 his opinion that the classical languages 
 must continue to form an essential part 
 of education, but added some observa- 
 tions, which are well worthy of atten- 
 tion, upon the method in which they 
 are taught. He told the students 
 whom he was addressing that, in his 
 own case, after fourteen years at school 
 and college devoted to the study of 
 Latin and Greek, he had a very slender 
 knowledge of either, but that in later 
 life he set about learning Greek as he 
 would have set about learning any 
 modern language, with the result that 
 in a comparatively short time he was 
 able to read Greek as easily as French. 
 
 If classical education is in any dan- 
 ger, it is due to the paucity of our 
 residts in the case of the average youth, 
 as comjDared with the infinity of our 
 pains. But threatened institutions live 
 long, and I trust that it is so with 
 classical education in this country. No 
 
 4
 
 translation can enable you to realise 
 the grandeur and the i^athos of the 
 Iliad — the delight of battle 
 
 " Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy." 
 
 No translation can reproduce 
 
 " All the charm of all the muses 
 
 often flowering in a lonely word," 
 
 which you find in the pages of Virgil. 
 
 We live in an age of examinations. 
 Some of us find them a weariness to 
 the flesh, and they result sometimes, 
 but I hope not with many of you, in 
 vanity and vexation of spirit. It is 
 interesting to recall that at a time when 
 this Univei-sity had attained the highest 
 pitch of fame and world-wide celebrity, 
 examinations had, at least in the Faculty 
 of Arts, fallen into almost entire disuse. 
 Edinburgh University has always re- 
 cognised that the true function of a 
 University is to teach. A degree should 
 denote, and has always denoted here, 
 not merely that the recipient possesses 
 a certain amount of knowledge on the 
 day of examination, but that he has 
 gone through a course of academic 
 training. Examination is useful, indeed 
 necessary, in order to ascertain whether 
 the student is really passing through 
 such a course of mental discipline, and 
 without it his attendance at the re- 
 quired classes might become a mere 
 fonn. But the function of examination 
 ought always to be subsidiary to the 
 function of teaching. The examination 
 system is a good servant but a bad
 
 master. It is an unhealthy symptom if 
 the true work of any University, the 
 work of training the intellect, is ever 
 subordinated to the question what 
 studies will pay best in the Examina- 
 tion Hall. The real test of fitness to 
 enter any profession is not to be found 
 in the possession of a certain amount of 
 information at the moment of passing 
 the threshold, but in the fact that the 
 candidate has passed through a suitable 
 course of intellectual discipline. It is 
 fatal to all the best teaching if the 
 enthusiasm of teacher and taught is to 
 be chilled by the reflection that a par- 
 ticular line of thought or of study, 
 however inspiring and however en- 
 nobling, may perhaps not be the best 
 adapted to ensure success in the 
 Schools. 
 
 You may possibly think that the 
 observations which I have ventured to 
 make as to the tyranny of examinations 
 have been prompted by recollections of 
 my own student days. Those days are, 
 indeed, very vividly recalled to me by 
 the audience which I have the honour 
 of addressing, and by the presence at 
 my side of my old friend and teacher, 
 your Principal, Sir William Turner. 
 But from such academic topics I turn 
 to one which is more immediately 
 associated with the active work of life. 
 
 I had hoped to address you last 
 November, but this was rendered im- 
 possible by the fact that I was engaged 
 during the autumn as counsel for Great 
 
 6
 
 Britain upon two cases of International 
 Arbitration, one of them as to the 
 boundaries of Alaska, and the other 
 as to the competing claims against 
 Venezuela. 
 
 As such subjects have naturally been 
 a good deal in my mind, it may be re- 
 garded as not unsuitable that I should 
 lay before you some thoughts which 
 have occurred to me upon International 
 Arbitration and some alUed topics 
 which have been closely connected 
 ■vWth it in history. The theoretical 
 interest of the subject of International 
 Arbitration is great, its literature 
 enormous ; it has been intimately 
 associated in the past "with ambitious 
 schemes of International control, and 
 ■with speculations, some of which seem 
 to us nowadays very fantastic. Its 
 history reaches back to the earliest 
 times of classical antiquity and runs 
 through the Middle Ages, and in our 
 own time the subject has assumed pro- 
 portions little dreamt of half a century 
 ago. It has a great practical interest, 
 for, mth some necessary limitations, 
 there is no doubt that Arbitration is 
 destined to play an increasing part in 
 the history of nations. 
 
 The establishment of the permanent 
 Tribunal at the Hague has been an 
 object-lesson for Europe and for the 
 world. It was indeed a striking spec- 
 tacle that was presented at the Hagiu) 
 last November. In that picturesque 
 little capital, so rich in historical asso-
 
 ciations, and where at every turn one is 
 reminded of the mighty dead, there 
 were gathered together the represen- 
 tatives of eleven different nations, of 
 various races and languages, from the 
 old world and the new, for the purpose 
 of submitting their differences to the 
 friendly arbitrament of the Tribunal 
 which will be for ever associated with 
 the name of the Hague. 
 
 It was said by Frankhn, "We make 
 daily great improvements in natural, 
 there is one I wish to see in moral 
 philosophy, the discovery of a plan 
 which will induce and oblige nations to 
 settle their disputes without first cutting 
 one another's throats." It was in the 
 year 1780 that Franklin wrote these 
 words, and his language seems to imply 
 that the remedy which he longed for 
 had not yet been found. It is in- 
 deed a remarkable fact that Inter- 
 national Arbitration, as a means of 
 preventing those sanguinary methods 
 which he deprecated, had fallen into 
 almost complete disuse in the sixteenth, 
 seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. 
 Its efficacy had, however, been proved 
 long before the time of Franklin, though 
 it must be admitted that the method 
 which he desiderated of obliging nations 
 so to settle their differences is still to 
 seek. 
 
 It is not surprising that among the 
 communities of ancient Greece the 
 necessity for some mode of peaceful 
 solution of disputes should have been 
 
 8
 
 realised. The countiy was divided 
 among a large number of petty States, 
 allied indeed by blood, by language, by 
 religion, by association in the national 
 games, by a common contempt for their 
 Barbarian neighbours, but frequently at 
 war with one another — war which would 
 have been perpetual had there been no 
 means of adjusting those disputes 
 which were constantly arising. Thucy- 
 dides puts into the mouth of a Spartan 
 king the sentiment that it is not lawful 
 to treat as a wrong-doer one who is 
 ready to arbitrate, and what we should 
 call an arbitration clause was a common 
 feature in Greek treaties. The records 
 of Greek history present many instances 
 of recourse to arbitration. Sometimes 
 the arbitrator selected was a friendly 
 State — sometimes one who had attained 
 the distinction which was most prized 
 in Greece, that of winner at the 
 Olympic Games — sometimes the Del- 
 phic Oracle. 
 
 Accounts have come down to us of 
 the earliest perhaps of those arbitrations, 
 which took place about six hundred 
 years B.C. One of those wars so fre- 
 quent in the history of Greece, insignifi- 
 cant in their scale, but romantic in their 
 incidents, and often fraught with grave 
 issues for the future of the world, had 
 broken out between Athens and 
 Megara. Each claimed the right to the 
 possession of an island bearing a name 
 which was destined to become immor- 
 tal, Salamis. The war languished, and 
 
 9
 
 the Athenians became so weary of it, 
 that they are said to have passed a law 
 condemning to death any one who pro- 
 posed that it should be renewed. But 
 the possession of Salamis was to 
 Athens a matter of life and death. 
 There was one man, and one only, in 
 Athens, who saw this clearly, Solon, 
 the law-giver. I will not stop to re- 
 mind you of the picturesque stratagem 
 by which he is said to have goaded his 
 countrymen into action, without in- 
 curring the penalty of the law. The 
 war was resumed, and when it had 
 gone on for a long time both sides 
 agreed to refer the dispute to the 
 decision of five Lacedeemonian arbitra- 
 tors, whose names have been preserved 
 by Plutarch. The arguments used be- 
 fore this tribunal sound strangely in 
 modern ears. The sons of Ajax, who 
 fought and died at Troy, had, it was 
 said, became Athenian citizens, and had 
 presented the island to the Athenians. 
 Athens was the chief city of the 
 Ionian race, and the Delphic Oracle had 
 once spoken of Salamis as Ionian. 
 The dead in the tombs of Salamis were 
 found to have been laid out towards 
 the west after the Athenian, and not to- 
 wards the east after the Megarian 
 fashion. But the decisive argimient 
 remained. Both sides appealed to the 
 canonical authority of Homer. The 
 controversy raged around one passage 
 in the Catalogue of the ships, but the 
 litigants were not agreed as to the 
 10
 
 true text. The Megarians brought 
 forward a couplet, which, if genuine, 
 showed that Salamis had been classed 
 "with to^ms of Megaris. Solon, on 
 the other hand, recited to the arbitra- 
 tors a passage containing the famous 
 verse in which Ajax is said to have 
 ranged the twelve ships wliich he 
 brought from Salamis alongside of the 
 Athenians — a verse which Solon him- 
 self is said to have iuterjDolated. The 
 arbitrators rose above all racial pre- 
 judices, and adjudged the island to 
 Athens. 
 
 There was one celebrated institution 
 in ancient Greece which has been re- 
 garded by some authors as intrusted 
 with the function not merely of induc- 
 ing but of compelling submission to 
 arbitration. The Amphictyonic Coun- 
 cil has been spoken of as commune 
 GrcecicB consilium, as the States General 
 of Greece, as clothed with power to 
 decide upon disputes between States 
 and to enforce its decisions. But little 
 trace is to be found in history of its 
 exercise of any such exalted functions. 
 The Amphictyonic League was a con- 
 federacy of races dating from the 
 earliest times, and ultimately embracing 
 the most powerful of the Greek States. 
 It was in its essential features a reli- 
 gioas association, formed for the pro- 
 tection of the temples of Apollo and 
 Demcter. One of the aims of the con- 
 federacy was to mitigate the horrors of 
 war between the various States which 
 11
 
 it embraced. The quaint form of oath 
 has been preserved by iEschines. By 
 it the members swore that they would 
 never destroy an Amphictyonic town, 
 that they would never cut it off from 
 running water, either in peace or in 
 war, and that if any one made spoil of 
 the treasure of the God, they would 
 punish him with hand and foot and 
 voice and all their might. 
 
 For the enforcement of its decrees 
 the Amphictyonic Council, like the 
 Pope when he intervened in the dis- 
 putes of princes in the Middle Ages, 
 had at its disposal only spiritual 
 weapons. To be excluded from the 
 Pythian Games and the temple at 
 Delphi was a sentence of excommuni- 
 cation. But the Council from time to 
 time called in the aid of the secular 
 arm, and it made a memorable and 
 disastrous contribution to Greek his- 
 tory by the part it played in accelerat- 
 ing the subjugation of Greece by 
 invoking the aid of Philip of Macedon 
 in the second and third Sacred Wars. 
 
 Two curious instances of submission 
 to the arbitration of the Amphictyonic 
 Council are recorded, but it did little if 
 anything in the way of promoting 
 peace among the communities of Greece. 
 Stat magni nominis umbra. 
 
 To the history of International Arbi- 
 tration the Romans contributed little or 
 nothing. While they were making 
 their conquests, they were little dis- 
 posed to submit their claims to any 
 12
 
 arbitrament but that of the God of 
 battles. They were never troubled 
 vrith any doubts as to the justice of 
 their wars. Cases justifying the ver- 
 dict — Eas res puro xyioque duello re- 
 petundas censeo — were, as Hallani says, 
 prodigiously frequent in the opinion of 
 the Romans. When their conquests 
 had been completed, there were no 
 nations left to arbitrate with. The 
 Pax Romana reigned throughout the 
 world, and the Senate or Csesar were 
 its supreme arbiters. 
 
 There is, indeed, one institution 
 datinor from the earliest times of Roman 
 history, the importance of which, as 
 bearing on Inteniational Arbitration 
 and International Law, has been ex- 
 aggerated as much as that of the 
 Amphictyonic Council. Some modem 
 authors have found in the Fetiales a 
 permanent tribunal of Arbitration be- 
 tween Rome and other nations, to 
 whose decision based on the principles 
 of International Law was referred the 
 question of the justice or the injustice 
 of every war before it was undertaken. 
 Bossuet speaks of them as a holy in- 
 stitution which puts to shame those 
 Christians into whom even their religion 
 has not been able to inspire cliarity and 
 peace. A distinguished modern author 
 on Inteniational Law (Calvo) says: 
 "Among the Romans no war was 
 declared without the intcrscntion of 
 the Fetiales, whose principal mission, 
 according to Plutarch, was not to per- 
 LS
 
 mit hostilities before every hope of 
 obtaining arbitration was extinguished." 
 
 It has, however, been shrewdly re- 
 marked that there is not a single 
 instance in Roman history in which the 
 Fetiales pronounced unjust any war on 
 which their country was bent. Theh* 
 real function was that of fulfilling those 
 curious formalities in the declaration of 
 war and in the conclusion of peace, wliich 
 to the Roman mind were so essential. 
 It is on points of fonu only that we 
 find them consulted, and the Jus 
 Fetiale, which some have supposed to 
 be synonymous with International Law, 
 was in fact concerned only with its 
 procedure. Whatever the origin of the 
 institution, its function was but to lend 
 the sanction of form to that upon 
 which the Senate and the people of 
 Rome had determined. 
 
 The greatness of Rome and the per- 
 manence of her empire formed the 
 inspiration of the gi*eatest of Roman 
 poets. In his majestic lines we still 
 can realise that passion of empire 
 which ennobled the Roman race. 
 
 " Now, thy Forum roars no longer, 
 
 fallen every purple Caesar's dome — 
 Tho' thine ocean-roll of rhythm 
 
 sound for ever of Imperial Rome." 
 
 Even after ''the fierce giants of the 
 North" had broken in, men could not 
 believe that the Empire of Rome had 
 indeed come to an end. They had 
 believed it eternal — Imperium sine fine 
 dedi — and its traditions were trans- 
 14
 
 ferred to Emperors elected beyond the 
 Alps. 
 
 That the Emperor was indeed the 
 heir of all the prerogatives of Im- 
 perial Rome was throughout the Middle 
 ages assumed as too clear for argument. 
 In that most curious of treatises, De 
 Monarchid, Dante devotes himself to 
 provingthat there must be one Sovereign 
 or Emperor supreme above all others — 
 that God had given the sovereignty of 
 the world to the people of Rome, and 
 that the Emperor as wielding that 
 authority was independent of the Pope. 
 
 In Dante's view universal monarchy 
 is necessary for the good of mankind. 
 He argues that there must be some 
 means of deciding, and deciding autho- 
 ritatively, controversies between dif- 
 ferent States. " It is manifest," he 
 says, "that there may be controversy 
 between any two princes where the one 
 is not subject to the other, either from 
 the fault of themselves or even of their 
 subjects. Therefore between them there 
 should be means of judgment, and since 
 when one is not subject to the other, 
 he cannot be judged by the other (for 
 there is no rule of ccpials over equals), 
 there must be a third power of wider 
 jurisdiction within the circle of whose 
 laws both may come ... we must 
 come to that judge who is first and 
 highest, by whose judgments all con- 
 troversies must be directly or indirectly 
 decided, and he will be Monarch or 
 Emperor. Monarchy is therefore neces- 
 15
 
 sary to the world, and this the philo- 
 sopher saw when he said, "The world is 
 not intended to be disposed in evil order, 
 ' in a multitude of rulers there is evil, 
 therefore let there be one Prince.'"* 
 
 That this monarchy was given by 
 God to the people of Rome Dante 
 proves in many ways. ^neas, the 
 father of the Roman people, was the 
 most virtuous of men. The people of 
 Rome were the noblest of all peoples, 
 and were rightly preferred over all 
 others. The portents of Roman story, 
 vouched by Virgil and by Livy, attested 
 the favour of Heaven. That holy, pious, 
 and glorious people, Populus ille sanctus 
 jnus et gloriosus, sought but the good 
 of the world in subduing it. The 
 Romans won the world by the wager 
 of battle, which declared the judgment 
 of God, and Dante actually says, re- 
 ferring to the crown of empire, that the 
 Roman may say with the Apostle, " Be- 
 posita est mihi corona justiticB, repos- 
 ita scilicet in Dei providentid (Btemd."f 
 
 In thus establishing the right of the 
 people of Rome to universal dominion, 
 Dante assumed that he had established 
 the same right as still existing in the 
 Emperor. In his eyes, the Emperor was 
 still the chosen of God. The only 
 function of the so-called Electors was 
 to declare the will of God. ''Solus 
 eligit Deus, solus ipse conjirmat," | and 
 
 * De Monarchid (Church's translation), 
 book i., chap. 10. 
 
 i Ibid.,\\.\\. X Ibid./ni. le. 
 
 16
 
 II DEanzo
 
 in the Emperor, so divinely appointed, 
 were vested all the rights of the Roman 
 people to the dominion of the world. 
 
 This curious treatise must for ever be 
 interesting as affording a glimpse into 
 a world of thought which seems so 
 strange to us, and as picturing the 
 intense convictions of one of the greatest 
 of men. 
 
 The Emperor was no mere arbitrator 
 whose jurisdiction reposed upon con- 
 sent. His claim was that he stood 
 above all other kings of Europe, and 
 was entitled to regulate and coerce 
 them. "Placed in the midst of Europe," 
 says Mr Bryce, " the Emperor was to 
 bind its tribes into one body, reminding 
 them of their common faith, their com- 
 mon blood, their common interest in 
 each other's welfare. And he was there- 
 fore above all things, professing indeed 
 to be upon earth the representative of 
 the Prince of Peace, bound to listen to 
 complaints, and to redress the injuries 
 inflicted by sovereigns and peoples upon 
 each other, to piuiish offenders against 
 the public order of Christendom ; to 
 maintain through the world, looking 
 down as from a serene height upon the 
 schemes and quarrels of meaner poten- 
 tates, that supreme good without which 
 neither arts nor letters, nor the gentler 
 virtues of hfe can rise and flourish." 
 
 It was a noble dream, but it never 
 
 was translated into fact. A vague 
 
 predominance among the princes of 
 
 Eurojjc was indeed accorded to the 
 
 17
 
 Emperor, but his claims were merely 
 the after-glow of that sun of Roman 
 empire which had set for ever — 
 
 " As mournful light 
 That broods above the fallen sun, 
 
 And dwells in heaven half the night." 
 
 The influence of the Holy Roman 
 Empire dwindled, until in the eighteenth 
 century Voltaire but expressed the 
 sentiment of Europe, when he said that 
 it was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor 
 an Empire. 
 
 Much more real than the majestic, 
 but shadowy, pretensions of the Empire 
 was the influence exerted in mediaeval 
 Europe by the Papacy. The Pope 
 claimed to be the supreme judge 
 among kings, not by consent, but as of 
 right. These claims play a great part 
 in the history of the Middle Ages. 
 They were sometimes acquiesced in, 
 sometimes resisted. They were never 
 resisted with more spirit than by the 
 ParUament of Scotland, held at Aber- 
 brothock in the year 1320, after the 
 Pope had issued a Bull in support of 
 the pretensions of Edward H. to the 
 sovereignty of Scotland. The reply of 
 the Scottish Parliament was couched 
 in a strain of unusual vigour. They 
 informed the Pope that if he encouraged 
 the English in their aggression he would 
 be held responsible to God for the loss 
 of life which would ensue, for, said 
 this memorable document, " as long as 
 a hundred Scotsmen are left ahve, we 
 18
 
 will never be subject to the dominioQ 
 of England." 
 
 Instances are not wanting in which 
 the Pope was, by consent of the parties, 
 selected as arbitrator to decide inter- 
 national disputes, but he assumed a 
 jurisdiction far transcending that of a 
 mere arbitrator. The most celebrated 
 instance of tliis is to be found in the 
 Bull by which Alexander VI. in 1493 
 drew an imaginary line from one pole 
 to the other, and by it divided between 
 Spain and Portugal the territory dis- 
 covered in the New World. Towards 
 the close of the eighteenth century, this 
 Bull was urged by Spain, in support of 
 her pretensions to the north-west coast 
 of America, including the territory which 
 formed the other day the subject of the 
 Alaska Arbitration — pretensions which 
 cuhninated in the seizure in 1789 of 
 British vessels at Nootka Sound, and 
 brought the two countries to the verge 
 of war. At the end of the nineteenth 
 century, in the Arbitration as to the 
 frontiers of Venezuela and British 
 Guiana, one of the arguments in favour 
 of Venezuela was based on this Bull, as 
 a judicial decision by the supreme Judge 
 of Christendom. " During the Middle 
 Ages," it was said in the Venezuelan 
 Counter case, *' and until after the dis- 
 covery of America, the Pope was tlie 
 recognised arbiter of the civilised world. 
 His word was in those days supreme." 
 But, on the other hand, only thirty 
 years after it was issued this Bull was 
 19
 
 treated with scant respect by the King 
 of France, Francis I. "Wliat!" he 
 said, "the King of Spain and the King 
 of Portugal quietly divide between 
 them all America, without allowing 
 me as their brother to take a share. I 
 should much like to see the article in 
 Adam's will which gives them this 
 vast inheritance." 
 
 By the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century the influence of the Papacy as 
 the arbiter of Europe had waned. The 
 controlling power claimed for the Holy 
 Roman Empire had never been a reality. 
 Europe had been devastated by religious 
 and dynastic wars. If any check was 
 to be placed on the ambition of princes, 
 and the animosities of nations, it ap- 
 peared that it could be found only in 
 a federation of the States of Europe. 
 Such was the governing idea of the 
 great plan, the grand dessein, which at 
 the time of his death engaged the 
 attention of Henri IV., the greatest 
 soldier and statesman of his age, the 
 best beloved of French kings, whose 
 memory is still green in the hearts of 
 his people. 
 
 The vast possessions of the House of 
 Austria, in Spain, in Italy, in Germany, 
 and in the Low Countries, had excited 
 the jealousy of all other European 
 Powers, and it was feared that the 
 dream of universal monarchy might be 
 converted into a reality. Henry pro- 
 posed in the first place to break effec- 
 tually the power of the House of 
 20
 
 Austria, and to strip it of all its pos- 
 sessions in Europe except Spain. For 
 this purpose a great confederacy had 
 been organised. Henry himself was 
 about to take the field, when, in a 
 moment, the dagger of Ravaillac changed 
 the future of Europe. But the destruc- 
 tion of the predominance of the House 
 of Austria was to have been only the 
 first step in the execution of the grand 
 dessein, as it is given to us in full 
 detail in that most fascinating of books, 
 the Memoirs of Henry's great minister, 
 Sully. AYhen this first and necessary 
 step had been taken, there was to be 
 formed a sort of Repubhc of Christen- 
 dom, consisting of all the States of 
 Europe under the headship of the 
 Emperor — so much force was there still 
 in the tradition of the Holy Roman 
 Empire. The object was, as Sully tells 
 us, to deliver the nations from the 
 crushing burden of military expendi- 
 ture, to prevent those bloody wars 
 which had desolated Europe, to estab- 
 lish peace, and to unite the States of 
 the Republic of Christendom in an 
 indissoluble bond. 
 
 That Republic was to consist of 
 fifteen States — six hereditary kingdoms, 
 France, Spain, England, Denmark, 
 Sweden, and Lombardy ; five elective, 
 the Empire, the Papacy, Poland, Hun- 
 gary, and Bohemia ; and four rci)ublics, 
 Venice, Italy, Switzerland, and the Low 
 Countries. The Emperor was to be 
 the head and first magistrate of this 
 21
 
 republic of States. A Senate, moulded 
 on the Ampliictyonic Council, consist- 
 ing of seventy deputies from the fifteen 
 Powers, was to sit at some central 
 point, to consult on the interests of 
 Christendom, to arrange disputes, and 
 to settle all the affairs, civil, political, 
 and religious, of Europe, in its relations 
 with Powers in other parts of the 
 world. The confederacy of Europe was 
 to have an army of 270,000 infantry, 
 and 50,000 cavalry, and Henry had 
 settled in his own mind the quota 
 which was to be supplied by each 
 State. This army was not to remain 
 idle, for the Turk was to be driven out 
 of Europe, and it is interesting to recall 
 that the imagination of Henry as a boy 
 had been fired by the victory of Don 
 John at Lepanto, and that one of his 
 famous ten wishes was to win a battle 
 in person against the King of Spain, 
 and another against the Sultan. 
 
 There are some features of the grand 
 desseln which are of interest as showing 
 how the world has moved and how 
 ideas have changed since Henry and 
 Sully lived. 
 
 Three religions, and three only, were 
 to be recognised in Europe, the Roman 
 Catholic, the Reformed, and the 
 Lutheran. The passage in which 
 Sully defends this part of the project 
 is so curious as to deserve quotation : * 
 
 " As each of these three religions is 
 
 * Memoires de Sully (edit. 1822), vol. vi., 
 p. 113. 
 
 22
 
 at the present time established in 
 Europe, so that it does not appear 
 that any one of the three can be 
 destroyed, and as experience has shown 
 the nselessness and the danger of any 
 such attempt, there is nothing better to 
 do than to leave all three in existence, 
 and even to strengthen them, in such 
 a way however, that this indulgence 
 should not in the future open the door 
 to all sorts of capricious imagination in 
 the way of false dogmas, which should 
 on the contrary be carefully stamped 
 out at their very birth. God by visibly 
 supporting what the Catholics are 
 pleased to call the new religion, teaches 
 us to behave in this way, which is in 
 conformity ^nth the precepts and the 
 examples of Holy Writ." 
 
 The kingdom of Prussia as yet did 
 not exist, and the Electorate of Bran- 
 denburg, out of which so much has 
 gro\vn, was not of sufficient conse- 
 quence to deserve any special mention 
 by Sully among the States of the 
 Repubhc of Christendom. Indeed, 
 readers of Carlyle may recollect that 
 150 years later, the King of Prussia 
 was to the French (imtil after the 
 battle of Rossbach), " ce petit Marquis 
 de Brandehourg a qui nous faisons 
 Vhonneur de hii faire une esjjece de 
 guerre." 
 
 Spain was to be compensated for the 
 
 loss of her other possessions in Europe, 
 
 by having assigned to her whatever 
 
 she might desire to take in the 
 
 23
 
 three remaining Continents of the 
 world. There was to be no colonial 
 Empire bnt that of Spain. So far 
 indeed was Snlly from having any 
 vision of Britain beyond the seas, and 
 of an Empire greater than that of 
 Spain ever was, that he speaks of the 
 British Isles as if they were a sort of 
 continent by themselves in which their 
 people might dwell quiet and secure, 
 having no business with any man, and 
 minding their own affairs.* 
 
 Sully tells us that when Henry first 
 propounded to him the outlines of this 
 scheme, he thought the King was 
 speaking in jest. He soon found that 
 the King was indeed in earnest. Sully 
 himself became a convert, and writes of 
 the grand dessein with a pathetic 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Such schemes of federation have 
 often been propounded by jurists, by 
 philosophers, and by poets. This is the 
 single mstance in which such a project 
 was seriously entertained by a great 
 King and a great Minister. 
 
 Fifteen years after the death of Henri 
 IV. appeared the memorable work of 
 Grotius, the father of International 
 Law. The publication in 1625 of his 
 treatise De Jure Belli et Pads, made, to 
 use the words of Hallam, an epoch in 
 the philosophical and almost in the 
 political history of Europe. He strenu- 
 ously advocated arbitration as a means 
 
 * Memoircs de Sully (edit. 1822), vol. vi., 
 p. 127. 
 
 24
 
 of avoiding war. But he went further, 
 and desired that nations should not 
 only be induced but also obliged to 
 settle their differences peaceably. It 
 would be useful, he says, and is almost 
 necessary that Congresses should be 
 held of Christian Powers, for the deci- 
 sion of controversies and for compelling 
 obedience — imo et rationes ineantiir 
 cogendi partes, ut cequis legibus pacem 
 accipiant* 
 
 The language of Grotius is sober and 
 measured, but the same can hardly be 
 said of many of the schemes of this 
 sort which have been launched, some of 
 them by men bearing very eminent 
 names. 
 
 The Abbe de St Pien-e, early in 
 the eighteenth century, proposed a 
 scheme which involved the establish- 
 ment of an army of the Federation of 
 Europe, which would make war on any 
 sovereign disobejing a judgment of the 
 International Court. On the eve of the 
 commencement of the wars of the 
 French Revolution, Bentham prepared 
 a plan for a universal and permanent 
 peace, with a common tribunal, a re- 
 duction of standing armies, and the 
 emancipation of all colonies. \Mien 
 the revolutionary wars were at the 
 hottest, the philosopher Kant put for- 
 ward a project for a permanent Con- 
 gress of States, repubUcan constitutions 
 in all countries, and the abolition not 
 
 * De Jure Belli et Pads, lib. ii., cap. 23 
 (8), sec. 4. 
 
 25
 
 only of national armies, but also of 
 national debts. 
 
 Many other schemes for national 
 organisation have followed. In some 
 of them, every detail has been settled 
 even to the salaries of the officials. 
 ^VTien we read such projects we are 
 irresistibly reminded of the saying which 
 has been put into the mouth of the 
 Regent Moray, mth reference to the 
 great plan of our Scottish Reformer for 
 the application of the f)roperty of the 
 Church — '' John is a man of God, and 
 his scheme is a devout imagination." 
 
 No such scheme ever has taken, and 
 no such scheme ever will take, its place in 
 the world of reahties. Europe has fallen 
 back upon a plan less ambitious but 
 more practicable, arbitration resting on 
 the consent of the parties to the dis- 
 pute, and we may hope that its adop- 
 tion, though it never can abolish war, 
 will at least greatly diminish its fre- 
 quency. 
 
 In truth, no International Authority 
 with power to enforce the decrees of 
 the tribmial of arbitration is either 
 necessary or desirable. Tlie list of 
 international arbitrations during the 
 nineteenth century is a very long one 
 — and yet there is hardly a single case 
 in which there has been any difficulty 
 as to compliance with the award. In 
 the Alabama Arbitration a sum was 
 awarded to the United States so 
 enormous that it is reported that to 
 the present day their Government has 
 26
 
 not been able to find claimants for all 
 of it. Sir Alexander Cockburn, the 
 very distinguished representative of 
 this conutry upon the Geneva Tri- 
 bunal, dissented in the strongest terms 
 from that award. But we never 
 dreamt of refusing to comply "sWth it. 
 The enforcement of awards may safely 
 be left to the good faith of the parties, 
 and the honour of nations. There is 
 no necessity for any International 
 Sheriffs Officer. 
 
 Submission to arbitration must rest 
 upon the free consent of the nations 
 concerned. The estabUshment of an 
 International Tribunal before which any 
 State might sue another, would be a 
 measure of very doubtful utility. Litiga- 
 tion of this sort between nations would 
 probably cause more friction than it 
 would prevent. As between indivi- 
 duals, there must be power to take one 
 another to law; but the process, how- 
 ever necessary, is not one which is 
 iLSually found to conduce to friendly 
 feeling between the litigants. One of 
 the highest compliments ever paid to a 
 judge was that he was able to send 
 away even those against whom he had 
 decided (pqnos pUvcatosque — the merit 
 of the achievement was measured by 
 the difficulty of the task. A com- 
 pulsory tribunal, before which any 
 nation might be haled by any other to 
 answer claims which it might consider 
 unfounded and frivolous, would indeed 
 be a dangerous experiment. But a 
 27
 
 tribunal whose jurisdiction rests entirely 
 upon consent stands on a diflFerent 
 footing altogether, and experience has 
 shown that nations which meet in the 
 amicable contest of voluntary arbitra- 
 tion are all the better friends for it. 
 Submission to a tribunal of their own 
 choosing of itself produces that fiiendly 
 temper which only an ideal judge can 
 achieve when the tribunal is compulsory. 
 The powers to be conferred upon 
 International arbitrators may vary in- 
 definitely according to the terms of sub- 
 mission. Sometimes, as in the Behring 
 Sea Arbitration, their functions are 
 limited to deciding on questions of 
 International Law and of strict right. 
 Sometimes, as in the arbitration as to 
 the boundary of British Guiana and 
 Venezuela, they have conferred upon 
 them a larger discretion with power to 
 say what is fair to be done. If such 
 larger functions be entrusted to the 
 tribunal, there are some questions dealt 
 with in the past by Congresses, which 
 may in the future be disposed of by 
 arbitration. But International Arbi- 
 tration can never altogether suj^ersede 
 International Congresses. Their spheres 
 are different. If questions of large and 
 general policy have to be settled between 
 nations they may find it expedient to 
 meet in Congress. Machinery which is 
 admirably adapted for solving questions 
 of right in particular cases, is not suited 
 for settling such wider problems. As 
 their spheres are different, so are their 
 28
 
 methods. The methods of the tribunal 
 of arbitration are judicial. There, meet 
 in friendly rivalry the Bars of the 
 countries concerned, and the award is 
 the judgment of a Court. The methods 
 of the Congress are diplomatic. It was 
 said by an eye-witness of the Congress 
 of Vienna, that a kingdom was par- 
 titioned or augmented at a ball, an 
 indenmity was granted at a dinner, a 
 constitution was projected at a battue, 
 that sometimes a bon mot or a happy 
 remark concluded a Treaty which would 
 hardly have been brought to pass by 
 many conferences and long correspond- 
 ence. It was of that Congress that it 
 was said, Le Congres ne marche pas, il 
 danse. 
 
 But, beneficial as is the role of 
 Arbitration, there are some questions 
 which no country will consent to leave 
 to the judgment of any Court or any 
 arbitrator. Every nation must be the 
 guardian of its own honour. Every 
 nation nnist decide for itself questions 
 vitally affecting its independence or its 
 essential interests. Some stakes are 
 too big for arbitration. Some issues 
 are too tremendous to be submitted to 
 any but the dread ordeal of battle. It 
 ha8 been said that there hardly ever 
 was a good war, and hardly ever a bad 
 peace. But there are sometimes greater 
 evils than war. There are some con- 
 clusions to which no nation ought to 
 submit until everything has been staked 
 and lost. We all rejoiced at the recent 
 29
 
 conclusion of a Treaty of Arbitration 
 between Great Britain and France, but 
 from its obligations are most properly 
 excepted questions affecting the vital 
 interests, the honoui', or the indepen- 
 dence of either country. The United 
 States are a Federation of a peculiarly 
 intimate type, and have always possessed 
 in their magnificent institution of the 
 Supreme Court, a tribunal, described 
 by John Stuart Mill as international, 
 for the decision of questions arising 
 between the different States. Yet, 
 when the great question of the rights 
 of these States as against the Central 
 Government arose, it could be settled 
 only by the gigantic war of the 
 Secession. In the sublime language of 
 Bacon, "Wars are suits of appeal to 
 the tribunal of God's Justice, where 
 there are no superiors on earth to 
 determine the case." 
 
 But, though war cannot be abolished, 
 the occasions of war may be greatly 
 diminished by International Arbitration. 
 Some wars are inevitable. They result 
 from the collision of great principles or 
 vital interests. Their true causes lie far 
 deeper than the incidents which ostensibly 
 cause the rupture. But, how many wars 
 have there been which, without any 
 such overpowering force behind them, 
 have originated from comparatively 
 small beginnings ! Wlien the passions 
 of nations become inflamed, some trivial 
 matter assumes monstrous proportions, 
 like the column of smoke which in the 
 30
 
 Tale emerged from the jar in which the 
 genie was imprisoned. Of Discord it is 
 as true as of Rumour — 
 
 ^'- Parva metu 2^i'fi^o ; mox sese attollit in 
 auras, 
 Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nuhila 
 condit," 
 
 Take two events in our recent liistory, 
 the dispute over the Alabama claims, 
 and the dispute over the Venezuelan 
 boundary. Either of these might well 
 have led to war. They were both 
 settled by arbitration, a result which 
 was due in the one case to the states- 
 manship of Mr Gladstone, and in the 
 other to that of Lord SaHsbury. 
 
 It used to be said that war is the 
 game of kings. But, perhaps the 
 greatest danger to peace is that, if 
 there is prolonged controversy over 
 some matter, however insignificant in 
 itself, the feelings and the national pride 
 of the people of each country may be 
 involved to such an extent as to render 
 peaceful solution difficult or impossible. 
 \Vhen national animosities have been 
 awakened, any spark may kindle a con- 
 flagration. The task of the statesman 
 in averting war is immensely facilitated 
 if he finds ready to his hands the 
 machiner}' for a peaceful settlement. 
 How many wars might have been 
 averted in the past if there had always 
 been in existence, by the common 
 consent of nations, such a tnl)unul as 
 that of the Hague, whose open portals 
 invite arbitration. I think we may 
 31 
 
 4()2(
 
 congratulate ourselves that this, the 
 greatest, because the most practical, 
 result of the Hague Congress, was 
 adopted on the initiative of the British 
 representative. Sir Julian Pauncefote. 
 Mr Carnegie, that great benefactor to our 
 Scottish Universities, has, I understand, 
 with his wonted generosity, offered to 
 provide a building worthy of such a 
 tribunal, and we shall see before long 
 at the Hague a true Temple of Peace. 
 
 If it be true that "the sight of 
 means to do ill deeds, makes ill deeds 
 done," it is no less true that the exist- 
 ence of such a permanent tribunal to 
 which any question may be referred, 
 must make for the cause of peace. The 
 maxim, si vis pacem, para helium, has 
 a great deal of truth in it, but the 
 very fact that there is ready to hand a 
 great instrument of war may sometimes 
 bring it about. May we not hope that 
 the fact of the existence of this great 
 instrument "of peace may remove occa- 
 sions of war, and that nations will 
 more and more recognise the truth of 
 the weighty words of our great Scottish 
 Jurist, the first Lord Stair, " Kings and 
 States ought not to be both judges and 
 parties, when others can be had, but 
 before they enter into war, they ought 
 to demand satisfaction, . . . and not 
 decline arbitration when an independent 
 judge can be had." 
 
 This is not the first time that I have 
 met you, the students of Edinburgh 
 University, during my term of office 
 32
 
 as Rector, and it may not be the last. 
 Before I bid you farewell for the pre- 
 sent, may I remind you of the conclud- 
 ing words of the most memorable 
 Rectorial address ever delivered, "Work 
 and despair not"? Do not be dis- 
 couraged by failure, and never give way 
 to despondency. There is no tonic like 
 work. One of my predecessors, the 
 late Lord Moncreiff, when Dean of 
 Faculty, told his fellow-advocates, how, 
 when a very young man, he met that 
 most dLstinguished la^vyer and judge, 
 Mr Bickersteth, afterwards Lord Lang- 
 dale, who said to him, "Do not be 
 discouraged if you do not immediately 
 succeed, for I never knew a man apply 
 his mind sedulously to his profession 
 for ten years without achieving success." 
 "These words," said Mr MoncreiflP, 
 " made a deep impression upon me, and 
 often, when all seemed dark before me, 
 they have lightened my path and nerved 
 me to exertion." I hope that they 
 may have the same effect upon some 
 of you. But whatever success may 
 attend your efforts, remember that, 
 while all human events are, taken in 
 themselves, insignificant, the spirit in 
 which they are faced is immortal. Let 
 Browning's ideal be yours — 
 
 "One who never turned his back but 
 marched breast forward, 
 Never doubted clouds would break, 
 Never dreamed, though right were 
 
 worsted, wrong would triumph, 
 Held we fall to rise, are baflled to fight 
 better, 
 
 Sleep to wake." 
 33
 
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