Its admirers have, however, too long preserved it, perhaps sub spe rati, in a state of suspended animation, using it by way of, as they supposed, a convenient handbook of maritime law for the purposes of the present war, though subject to such variations as might from time to time be found convenient by the Allies.
Holland reflects on the misguided preservation of the Declaration as a maritime law handbook during wartime.
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It is surely desirable that henceforth Great Britain should know, and that other nations should at least have the means of knowing, for certain, whether she is at war or at peace.
Every law presupposes an authority to superintend and direct its execution, and international conventions are supported by no such authority.
Perpetual peace is a dream, and it is not even a beautiful dream.
I am, however, confident that the organisation is too intelligent not to see that it would lose nothing if the articles in which it is interested were made an integral part of a Convention constituting a League of Nations; the League being…
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