able
evidence that France was planning to go through Belgium, and she
published her evidence concerning the French officers who remained in
Belgium. Although Belgium had thus lost any rights attaching to her
state of neutrality, Germany promised to respect her integrity and
independence, and to pay for any damage done. She preferred, however, to
listen to Great Britain, who promised exactly the same except pay for
any damage done.

Unlike Mr. Beck, who in the same article pleads his case as the counsel
for the Allies and casts his verdict as the Supreme Court of
Civilization, the present writer prefers to leave the judgment to his
readers as a whole, and further still, to the whole American
people--yea, to all the peoples of the world. Nor is he in a hurry, for
he is willing to wait and have the Judges weigh the evidence and call
for more, if they consider insufficient what has already been submitted.

Snap judgments are ever unsatisfactory. They have often to be reversed.
The present case, however, is too important to warrant a hasty decision.
The final judgment, if it is based on truth, will very strongly
influence the nature of the peace, which will either establish good-will
and stable conditions in the world, or lead to another and even more
complete breakdown of civilization.

What Gladstone Said About Belgium

By George Louis Beer.

Historian; winner of the first Loubat Prize, 1913, for his
book on the origins of the British Colonial system.

In the course of his solemn speech of Aug. 8, 1914, in the House of
Commons Sir Edward Grey quoted some remarks made by Gladstone in 1870 on
the extent of the obligation incurred by the signatory powers to the
Quintuple Treaty of 1839 guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium. Shorn
from their context as they were, these sentences are by no means
illuminating, and it cannot be said that their citation in this form by
Sir Edward Grey was a very felicitous one. During the paper polemics of
the past months these detached words of Gladstone have been freely used
by Germany's defenders and apologists to maintain that Great Britain of
1870 would not have deemed the events of 1914 a casus belli, and that
its entrance into the present war on account of the violation of
Belgium's neutrality was merely a pretext. During the course of this
controversy Gladstone's attitude has in various ways been grossly
misrepresented, Dr. von Mach of Harvard even stating in the