An assertion to this effect would obviously be the negation of the whole system of international law, of which Professor de Martens is so great a master, resting, as that system does, not on individual caprice, but upon the agreement of nations in restraint of the caprice of any one of them.
Holland argues that questioning a neutral country's decisions undermines international law.
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More from Thomas Erskine Holland
The progress of civilisation should have the effect of alleviating as much as possible the calamities of war.
War is an element in the order of the world ordained by God.
But I go further, and think the softening of manners can alone bring about this result, which cannot be attained by a codification of the law of war.
We know also that war, which moves nations so deeply, rouses to exceptional activity the good qualities as well as the evil instincts of human nature.
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