ity." It seems at last to be recognised that such a Court cannot be
set to work unless, and until, the great maritime Powers shall have come
to an agreement upon the rules of law which the Court is to administer.

I may add that it is surely too much to expect that the rules in
question will be discussed by the Powers, to use Sir H.
Campbell-Bannerman's phrase, "without any political _arriere pensee._"
Compromise between opposing political interests must ever remain one of
the most important factors in the development of the law of nations.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, November 11 (1907).

Although the establishment of an International Prize Court of
Appeal was not one of the topics included in the programme of
the Russian invitation; to a second Peace Conference, no
objection was made to its being taken into consideration, when
proposals to that effect were made by the British and American
delegates to the Conference. The idea seems first to have been
suggested by Huebner, who proposed to confer jurisdiction in
cases of neutral prize on Courts composed of ministers or
consuls, accredited by neutrals to the belligerents, together
with commissioners appointed by the Sovereign of the captors or
of the country to which the prize has been brought, as also,
perhaps, "des personnes pleines de probite et de connaissances
dans tout ce qui concerne les Loix des Nations et les Traites
des Puissances modernes." The Court is to decide in accordance
with treaties, "ou, a leur defaut, la loi universelle des
nations." _De la Saisie des Batiments neutres_ (1759), ii. pp.
45-61. The Institut de Droit International, after discussions
extending over several years, accepted the principle of an
International Court of Appeal, though only in combination with
a complete scheme of prize law, in its _Code des Prises
maritimes_, completed in 1887, section 100.

At the Conference of 1907, the work of several committees, and
a masterly report by Professor Renault, _Parl. Papers_, No. iv.
(1908), p. 9, resulted in The Hague Convention, No. xii. of
that year, providing for the establishment of a mixed Court of
Appeal from national prize Courts.

According to Art. 7 of this Convention, in default of any
relevant treaty between the Governments of the litigant
parties, and of generally recognised rules