ment of the a bitter and keen disappointment, the Dutch Gov- Chapter VII ernment insisted upon connecting the name of the DisappointPope with the records of the Peace Conference by Pope. formally requesting the President, at the last session, to read the correspondence between the Queen of the Netherlands and the Pope, at the time of the opening of the Conference. These letters are given below, in full. Coming from the hosts of the Conference, such a request could not, in courtesy, be refused, and the correspondence was therefore spread upon the minutes, although it is difficult to see what other object was attained by this remarkable proceeding, except that of emphasizing, by contrast, the thoroughly secular and eminently practical character of the entire work which was accomplished. THE END OF THE CONFERENCE Ten o'clock in the morning of Saturday, July 29, had been fixed as the time for the signing of the Final Act and the various Declarations and Treaties. The last On this, a beautiful summer day, the members meetings. for the last time assembled in the House in the Wood. The various documents, which had been beautifully engrossed, and to which the seals of the signing Plenipotentiaries had been affixed by the secretaries of the Conference, were spread out upon the large tables of the dining room of the Palace, and the Plenipotentiaries from each country were called from the meeting room of the Conference for the Chapter VII purpose of signature, in alphabetical order. This work consumed the morning; and after the final luncheon, at which innumerable friendly toasts, hopes, and wishes for a speedy au revoir were exchanged, - -the closing meeting of the Conference was called to order at three o'clock in the afternoon. To this meeting a limited number of representatives of the press and invited guests had been asked; and the little gallery in the cupola was accordingly crowded. The staff of each delegation was also present, and the meeting room itself presented a more animated appearance than ever before. The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, M. Pierson, attended as the special representative of the Queen, together with other officers of the royal household. Report on signatures. Jonkheer van Karnebeek reported upon the signatures as follows: 1. The Final Act of the Conference was signed by all the Powers there represented. 2. Treaties: (A) The Convention for the Peaceful Adjustment of International Differences was signed by sixteen Powers, to wit: Belgium, Denmark, Spain, United States of America, United States of Mexico, France, Greece, Montenegro, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, Bulgaria. (B) The Convention on the Laws and Customs of War on Land was signed by fifteen Powers, to wit: Belgium, Denmark, Spain, United States of America, France, Greece, Montenegro, Netherlands, Persia, Chapter VII Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, Bulgaria. (C) The Convention for the Extension of the Principles of the Geneva Convention to Naval Warfare was signed by fifteen Powers, to wit: Belgium, Denmark, Spain, United States of Mexico, France, Greece, Montenegro, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, Bulgaria. 3. Declarations: (A) Concerning the Prohibition of the Throwing of Projectiles from Balloons. This was signed by seventeen Powers, to wit: Belgium, Denmark, Spain, United States of America, United States of Mexico, France, Greece, Montenegro, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, Turkey, Bulgaria. (B) Concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Projectiles containing Asphyxiating Gas. This was signed by sixteen Powers, to wit: Belgium, Denmark, Spain, United States of Mexico, France, Greece, Montenegro, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, Turkey, Bulgaria. (C) Concerning the Prohibition of Bullets which Expand, etc. This was signed by fifteen Powers, to wit: Belgium, Denmark, Spain, United States of Mexico, France, Greece, Montenegro, Netherlands, Roumania, Russia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, Turkey, Bulgaria. The President of the Conference announced that Z ence between the Queen of the Nether Chapter VII he had been asked by the Government of the NetherCorrespond lands to read to the Conference a letter addressed by Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands to his Holiness, the Pope, informing him of the meeting of the Peace Conference at The Hague, as well as the response of his Holiness to this communication, as follows: lands and the Pope. Letter of "MOST AUGUST PONTIFF: Your Holiness, whose Wilhelmina. eloquent voice has always been raised with such authority in favor of peace, having quite recently, in your allocution of the 11th of April last, expressed those generous sentiments, more especially in regard to the relations among peoples, - I considered it my duty to inform you that, at the request and upon the initiative of His Majesty, the Emperor of All the Russias, I have called together, for the eighteenth of this month, a Conference at The Hague, which shall be charged with seeking the proper means of diminishing the present crushing military charges and to prevent war, if possible, or at least to mitigate its effects. "I am sure that your Holiness will look with sympathy upon the meeting of this Conference, and I shall be very happy if, in expressing to me the assurance of that distinguished sympathy, you would kindly give your valuable moral support to the great work which shall be wrought out at my Capital, according to the noble plans of the magnanimous Emperor of All the Russias. "I seize with alacrity upon the present occasion, Most August Pontiff, to renew to your Holiness the Chapter VII assurance of my high esteem and of my personal devotion. (Signed) "WILHELMINA. “HAUSBADEN, 7th of May, 1899." Pope. "YOUR MAJESTY: We cannot but find agreeable Reply of the the letter by which Your Majesty, in announcing to us the meeting of the Conference for Peace in your Capital, did us the courtesy to request our moral support for that assembly. We hasten to express our keen sympathy for the august initiator of the Conference, and for Your Majesty, who extended to it such spontaneous and noble hospitality, and for the eminently moral and beneficent object toward which the labors already begun are tending. "We consider that it comes especially within our province not only to lend our moral support to such enterprises, but to coöperate actively in them, for the object in question is supremely noble in its nature and intimately bound up with our August Ministry, which, through the divine founder of the Church, and in virtue of traditions of many secular instances, has been invested with the highest possible mission, that of being a mediator of peace. the authority of the Supreme Pontiff goes beyond the boundaries of nations; it embraces all peoples, to the end of federating them in the true peace of the gospel. His action to promote the general good of humanity rises above the special interests which the chiefs of the various States have in view, and, In fact, |