the present can do is to take note of the point so far
reached, and of apparent tendencies manifested; to seek for the latter
a right direction; to guide, where it can, currents of general
thought, the outcome of which will be beneficial or injurious,
according as their course is governed by a just appreciation of
fundamental truths.

The calling of the Conference of The Hague originated in an avowed
desire to obtain relief from immediate economical burdens, by the
adoption of some agreement to restrict the preparations for war, and
the consequent expense involved in national armaments; but before its
meeting the hope of disarmament had fallen into the background, the
vacant place being taken by the project of abating the remoter evils
of recurrent warfare, by giving a further impulse, and a more clearly
defined application, to the principle of arbitration, which
thenceforth assumed pre-eminence in the councils of the Conference.
This may be considered the point at which we have arrived. The
assembled representatives of many nations, including all the greatest
upon the earth, have decided that it is to arbitration men must look
for relief, rather than to partial disarmament, or even to an arrest
in the progress of preparations for war. Of the beneficence of the
practice of arbitration, of the wisdom of substituting it, when
possible, for the appeal to arms, with all the misery therefrom
resulting, there can be no doubt; but it will be expected that in its
application, and in its attempted development, the tendencies of the
day, both good and bad, will make themselves felt. If, on the one
hand, there is solid ground for rejoicing in the growing inclination
to resort first to an impartial arbiter, if such can be found, when
occasion for collision arises, there is, on the other hand, cause for
serious reflection when this most humane impulse is seen to favor
methods, which by compulsion shall vitally impair the moral freedom,
and the consequent moral responsibility, which are the distinguishing
glory of the rational man, and of the sovereign state.

One of the most unfortunate characteristics of our present age is the
disposition to impose by legislative enactment--by external
compulsion, that is--restrictions of a moral character, which are
either fundamentally unjust, or at least do not carry with them the
moral sense of the community, as a whole. It is not religious faith
alone that in the past has sought to propagat