several serious disputes have also been settled by the peaceful method Chap. II. of an appeal to arbitration (e). Notable instances of this in recent times are afforded by the Treaty of Washington, 1871, and by the recent arbitrations in connection with the Behring Sea fisheries and the disputed boundaries of Alaska and Venezuela. By the Treaty of Washington five different causes of disagreement between England. and the United States, some of them of very long standing, were referred to different tribunals of arbitration, and a peaceful solution obtained. A treaty of arbitration, by which the contracting parties bind themselves to submit to arbitration all differences and disputes between them which they cannot settle by negotiation, has been concluded between the United States of Colombia and the Republic of Honduras; and a treaty of a like nature has been entered into between Switzerland, the United States, and other American Powers (f). By the 12th Article of the General Act of the Berlin Conference, 1885, the signatory powers declare that in case a serious disagreement originating on the subject of, or in the limits of the territories mentioned in Article 1 (the Congo Basin and circumjacent regions), and placed under the free trade system, shall arise between any of them, or the powers which may become parties to the Act, these powers bind themselves, before appealing to arms, to have recourse to the mediation of one or more of the friendly powers, and in a similar case reserve to themselves the option of having recourse to arbitration (g).

In the year 1898 the Czar of Russia invited the governments of nearly all the recognized States on the surface of the globe to send representatives to a Conference which should consider how best to check the progressive increase of military and naval armaments, study any possible means of effecting their eventual reduction, and devise means for averting armed conflicts between States by the employment of pacific methods of international diplomacy. The invitation was accepted by Germany, Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Spain, the United States, Mexico, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Holland, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, and Bulgaria; and in the spring of 1899 the Conference duly assembled at the Hague. Great Britain was represented by Sir Julian (afterwards Lord) Pauncefote and Sir Henry Howard, with Vice-Admiral Sir John Fisher and Major-General Sir John Ardagh as technical delegates; the United States by Messrs. M. White, Stanford Newell, Seth Low, Captain Mahan and Captain Crozier. From the 18th of May to the 29th of July the International Peace Conference, as it was designated, held continual session, the members being divided for greater convenience into three commissions to deal with the various topics propounded. The labours of the Conference with regard to

(e) Calvo, Droit Int. vol. ii. p. 549. Several instances are there collected. See, also, Revue de Droit Int. 1874, p. 117, and 1875, p. 57.

(f) Lawrence, Modern I. L. p. 269.
(g) Cf. Art. viii. of the Treaty of
Paris.

§ 288c. The Hague

Peace Conference.

Part III. formulating a scheme for the gradual reduction of existing armaments and for checking any further increase were doomed to failure from the first. But it did not separate until some highly important conventions and declarations dealing with the amelioration of the laws and customs of war had been concluded and executed. These will find their place in the later pages of this book. The most striking success, however, of the Conference was the "Convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes" which was agreed to by the delegates of all the powers represented, and was subsequently ratified by their respective governments.

Under it the signatory powers bound themselves, in case of serious disagreement or conflict, to have recourse before appealing to arms, "as far as circumstances allow," to the good offices or mediation of one or more friendly power. This agreement, elaborated in eight articles, may be regarded as little more than a platonic generality, especially as it was provided that the acceptance of mediation cannot, unless there be an agreement to the contrary, have the effect of interrupting, delaying, or hindering mobilisation or other measures of preparation for war. But by later articles it was recommended that "in differences of an international nature involving neither honour nor vital interests, and arising from a difference of opinion on points of fact," the parties who had not been able to come to an agreement by means of diplomacy should institute an "international commission of inquiry" to elucidate the facts by means of an impartial and conscientious investigation. And in order to facilitate an immediate recourse to arbitration for international differences of this character, the Conference undertook to organise a permanent Court of Arbitration which should be competent for all arbitration cases.

This scheme has been carried into effect with very little loss of time, and, in accordance with the terms of the Convention, an International Bureau has been established at the Hague, with a secretary and other permanent officials. Each of the signatory powers has nominated a limited number of persons" of known competency in questions of international law and of the highest moral reputations." These jurists are inscribed as the members of the court, and from them the arbitrators in any given dispute are chosen. The general control of the Bureau is under the direction of a Permanent Administrative Council, composed of the diplomatic representatives of the signatory powers accredited to the Hague and of the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs, who acts as president. The expenses of the Bureau are borne by the signatory powers in the proportion fixed for the international bureau of the Universal Postal Union. An elaborate code of arbitral procedure is provided by the Convention, the text of which is given in the Appendix; and access to the tribunal is not confined to the original signatories of that instrument.

So far the tribunal has not received any very extensive patronage. In October, 1902, it brought to a satisfactory termination a long

standing pecuniary dispute between the United States and Mexico Chap. II. with regard to the "Pious Fund of the Californias," a great Roman Catholic missionary charity founded during the closing years of the sixteenth century. In February, 1904, it pronounced judgment on the preferential claims made against Venezuela by Great Britain, Germany and Italy, arising out of the pacific blockade of December, 1902. And by the terms of an agreement entered into between England and France in October, 1903, all differences of a judicial order, or such as relate to the interpretation of the treaties existing between the parties which it may not be possible to settle by means of diplomacy, are to be submitted to the Hague tribunal, "on condition, however, that they do not involve either the vital interests or the independence or honour of the two contracting parties, and that they do not affect the interests of a third power." Similar agreements are being negotiated between England and other continental powers. Thus limited, it is probable that the Hague tribunal will fill a gradually increasing role of usefulness, and will save much of that friction which constantly militates against international goodwill. The fact that questions of "vital interest" or "involving national honour are excluded from its jurisdiction must largely limit its scope, and it cannot be accepted as offering any reasonable probability of acting as a check on popular passions when once excited. But by showing that it is possible in smaller matters to submit to a pacific solution without a sacrifice of national self-esteem, it may eventually help to render public opinion more and more averse to the arbitrament of war, and prepare it to accept an adverse decision in the spirit of resignation which society enforces upon a civil litigant (h).

A question was raised under the Treaty of Washington between Decision of England and the United States as to the effect to be given to an award majority. in which only a majority of the arbitrators concurred, and when no provision had been made for this in the agreement of reference. The treaty had constituted four boards of arbitrators. As regards three of these boards, it was provided that the votes of a majority should be conclusive; but as regards the fourth, viz., the one to meet at Halifax and decide the fishery question, no such provision was made. When the award was published, Mr. Evarts, the American Foreign Secretary, raised an objection to its validity on the ground (among others) that only two out of the three arbitrators had concurred in it. Lord Salisbury declined to give any weight to this objection, and asserted it to be a principle of international law that, in arbitrations of a public nature, the majority of the arbitrators binds the minority, unless the contrary be expressed (i).

(h) For the general history of the Hague Convention, see Parliamentary Papers, Miscellaneous, No. 1 (1899) [Cd. 9534]; De Martens, Nouv. Rec. Gén., 2me ser. vol. 26, and for the text of the Convention for the pacific regulation of international conflicts, see post, Ap

pendix H.

(i) Lord Salisbury to Mr. Welsh, 7th Nov. 1878. See Supplement to London Gazette, 16th Nov. 1878. Halleck, Sir S. Baker's edition, ch. xiv. s. 6. Bluntschli, sec. 493. Calvo, loc. cit.

Part III. § 288d. Conferences.

$289. Diplomatic history.

Another method of peaceably settling international disputes is by summoning a conference or congress of various States, and discussing the claims of each party. This has frequently been done in Europe, the last instance being the Congress of Berlin in 1878 (k).

The art of negotiation seems, from its very nature, hardly capable of being reduced to a systematic science. It depends essentially on personal character and qualities, united with a knowledge of the world and experience in business. These talents may be strengthened by the study of history, and especially the history of diplomatic negotiations; but the want of them can hardly be supplied by any knowledge derived merely from books. One of the earliest works of this kind is that commonly called Le Parfait Ambassadeur, originally published in Spanish by Don Antonio de Vera, long time ambassador of Spain at Venice, who died in 1658. It was subsequently published by the author in Latin, and different translations appeared in Italian and French. Wicquefort's book, published in 1679, under the title of L'Ambassadeur et ses Fonctions, although its principal object is to treat of the rights of legation, contains much valuable information upon the art of negotiation. Callières, one of the French plenipotentiaries at the Treaty of Ryswick, published, in 1716, a work entitled De La Manière de Négocier avec les Souverains, which obtained considerable reputation. The Abbé Mably also attempted to treat this subject systematically, in an essay entitled Principes des Négotiations, which is commonly prefixed as an introduction to his Droit Publique de l'Europe in the various editions of the works of that author. A catalogue of the different histories which have appeared of particular negotiations would be almost interminable, but nearly all that is valuable in them will be found collected in the excellent work of M. Flassan, entitled L'Histoire de la Diplomatie Française. The late Count de Ségur's compilation from the papers of Favier, one of the prin

(k) See Calvo, i. 540.

cipal secret agents employed in the double diplomacy of Chap. II. Louis XV., entitled Politique de tous les Cabinets de l'Europe pendant les Règnes de Louis XV. et de Louis XVI., with the notes of the able and experienced editor, is a work which also throws great light upon the history of French diplomacy. A history of treaties from the earliest times to the Emperor Charlemagne, collected from the ancient Latin and Greek authors, and from other monuments of antiquity, was published by Barbeyrac in 1739 (7). It had been preceded by the immense collection of Dumont, embracing all the public treaties of Europe from the age of Charlemagne to the commencement of the eighteenth century (m). The best collection of the more modern European treaties are those published at different periods by Professor Martens, of Göttingen, including the most important public acts upon which the present conventional law of Europe is founded. To these may be added Koch's Histoire abrégée des Traités de Paix depuis la Paix de Westphalie, continued by Schöll. A complete collection of the proceedings of the Congress of Vienna has also been published in German by Klüber (n).

$289a.

works.

The most complete collection of the treaties by which Great Britain Hertslet's is bound is published under the name of Hertslet's Commercial Treaties. One of the most useful works to all students of international law and modern European history has recently been published by Sir Edward Hertslet, entitled "The Map of Europe by Treaty." All treaties and other important documents relating to the international affairs of Europe, from 1815 to 1891, are there collected and arranged in chronological order, and the same writer's "Map of Africa by Treaty," of which the second edition was published in 1896, is conceived on the same plan.

The indices to these works are among the most remarkable and lucid ever compiled, and a reference to them will enable the student to is continued down to the present day. The latest series is the Nouveau Recueil Général, Deuxième Série, edited by Professor Felix Stoerk.

(1) Histoire des Anciens Traités, par Barbeyrac, forming the first volume of Dumont's Supplément au Corps Diplomatique.

(m) Corps Universel Diplomatique du Droit des Gens, &c., 8 tomes, fol. Amsterd. 1726-1731. Supplément au Corps Universel Diplomatique, 5 tomes, fol. 1739. The Grand Recueil of de Martens

(n) Acten des Wiener Congresses in den Jahren 1814 und 1815; von J. L. Klüber, Erlangen, 1815 und 1816; 6 Bde. 8vo.