plies for the carrying out of such a policy. Short of this, the
people can express through Parliament its views as to the way in which
foreign policy should be conducted, and generally Ministers will bow, in
this as in other matters, to the clearly expressed views of Parliament. We
have, in fact, recently seen a striking example of this. When after the
international crisis of 1911 the country clearly expressed the opinion that
no secret engagements should be entered into with any Power which would
force Great Britain to go to war in support of that Power, the Prime
Minister stated, and has repeated his statement emphatically on several
subsequent occasions, that the Government of this country neither had
entered, nor would enter, into any such secret engagements, and that any
treaty entailing warlike obligations on this country would be laid before
Parliament. This has now become a fixed and recognised fact in British
policy, and it is not too much to say that, like other constitutional
changes under the British system of government, it is rapidly becoming a
part of the unwritten constitution of the country.

But many people would like to go beyond this, and lay down that no treaty
between Great Britain and another country shall be valid until it has been
voted by Parliament. Many countries have provisions of this kind in their
constitutions; for instance, the constitution of the United States provides
that all treaties must be ratified by a two-thirds majority of the Senate,
and the French constitution contains the following provision:

"The President of the Republic negotiates and ratifies treaties. He brings
them to the knowledge of the Chamber so soon as the interests and the
safety of the State permit.

"Treaties of peace and of commerce, treaties which impose a claim on the
finances of the State, those which relate to the personal status and
property rights of French subjects abroad, do not become valid until they
have been voted by the two Chambers. No cession, exchange, or increase of
territory can take place except by virtue of a law."

Such constitutional provisions may be good in their way, and it may be
that we should copy them. But the question is one of secondary importance.
Whether treaties must actually be ratified by Parliament, or merely laid
before Parliament for an expression of its opinion, as is commonly done in
this country, the Parliament and people of Great Britain will have control
over forei