LONDON: PRINTED BY WERTHEIMER, LEA AND CO., 46 & 47, LONDON WALL, AND CLIFTON HOUSE, WORSHIP STREET, E.c. 1904 PIA VOTA. Viro egregio, W. E. DARBY, LL.D., ex corde missa. O, UTINAM Sævi subeant fastidia belli, W. S. Y. xxviii./ix./oo. * Tristibus deis: diis inferis. PREFACE. THE present work was compiled, in the first instance, at the request of a Special Committee of the International Law Association, which was appointed, at the Brussels Conference, October 1st, 1895, to study the question of an International Court of Arbitration, and to report at the next Conference. When the Committee met to fulfil its commission, the Convener was requested to examine and report upon the various published schemes for the composition of a Court of Arbitration; such report to be printed and circulated among its members. This first draft was submitted to the Committee, and an edition of a thousand copies was printed by the Association and issued jointly with the Peace Society. Copies, suitably bound, were presented to the various Rulers of the civilised world, by most of whom an acknowledgment was sent, and appreciation expressed. It was followed by an appendix containing additional matter. In anticipation of the meeting of the Peace Conference at The Hague these two publications were combined and issued as a second edition by the Peace Society. Copies were distributed, through the courtesy of M. de Staal, among the delegates to The Hague Conference, who spontaneously and generously testified to its usefulness. This third edition has been considerably enlarged, and no pains have been spared to secure its completeness and accuracy. It is commended to the acceptance of the general public in the hope that the subject of which it treats may become still more a topic of popular study and discussion, and that the compilation may be increasingly useful. Should this hope be realised, it will be largely due to the generous initiative of the magnanimous young ruler who sits on the Russian throne, and to the new impetus given by the labours of the Conference which assembled at The Hague under his auspices, which, whatever the critics may say, have lifted the question into fresh altitudes, and have marked the beginning of a new era, in which the deliberations of reason and the reign of law shall be substituted for the arbitrament of the sword (falsely so called), and the lex talionis. The portrait of His Imperial Majesty is by permission, from a photograph by Messrs. W. & D. Downey, of Ebury Street, S.W. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. THE recent progress of the Arbitration movement, in which this work has had its due share, the increasing study of the question, and the exhaustion of a large issue, all call for a new edition. The book has proved its usefulness, and has been distributed widely by the Peace Society. It is the only contribution, from outside sources, which is specifically acknowledged in the Official Report of The Hague Conference as having been of service in its deliberations. Later, at the request of the Peruvian Government, copies were furnished for the use of the members of the Peace Conference of the American States in Mexico. The work of that Conference, forming, as it does, the complement of what was done at The Hague, makes some |