ossible the
realisation of these aims.

THE LECTURE

I. Dr. Whewell, the founder of the Chair of International Law which I
have the honour to occupy in this University, laid the injunction upon
every holder of the Chair that he should 'make it his aim,' in all parts
of his treatment of the subject, 'to lay down such rules and suggest
such measures as may tend to diminish the evils of war and finally to
extinguish war between nations.' It is to comply with the spirit, if not
with the letter, of this injunction that I have announced the series of
three lectures on a League of Nations. The present is the first, and in
it I propose to treat of the Aims of the League. But, before I enter
into a discussion of these aims, I should like to point out that I have
no intention of dealing with the question whether or no a League of
Nations should be founded at all. To my mind, and probably to the minds
of most of you here, this question has been satisfactorily answered by
the leading politicians of all parties and all countries since
ex-President Taft put it soon after the outbreak of the World War; it
suffices to mention Earl Grey in Great Britain and President Wilson in
America. In giving these lectures I propose to draw your attention, on
the one hand, to the links which connect the proposal for a League of
Nations with the past, and, on the other hand, to the difficulties with
which the realisation of the proposal must necessarily be attended; and
also to the ways in which, in my opinion, these difficulties can be
overcome.

There is an old adage which says _Natura non facit saltus_, Nature takes
no leaps. Everything in Nature develops gradually, step by step, and
organically. It is, at any rate as a rule, the same with History.
History in most cases takes no leaps, but if exceptionally History does
take a leap, there is great danger of a bad slip backwards following. We
must be on our guard lest the proposed League of Nations should take a
leap in the dark, and the realisation of proposals be attempted which
are so daring and so entirely out of keeping with the historical
development of International Law and the growth of the Society of
Nations, that there would be great danger of the whole scheme collapsing
and the whole movement coming to naught.

The movement for a League of Nations is sound, for its purpose is to
secure a more lasting peace amongst the nations of the world than has
hitherto prevailed. But a numb