of nations. The last of these sources of authority was believed by him to be merely supplemental to the first, and could ordain nothing contrary to it. States, like men, were, from his point of view, controlled in their actions and relations by the operation of a law of nature as ancient as the universe itself. He believed it to constitute a standard by which the conduct of states and the actions of individuals could be finally judged: and he imagined that the Roman Empire afforded a historical example of its successful application in international affairs.
We now know that Grotius's theory of international obligation was in the main correct, however erroneous may have been his conception of its origin and sanction; and it is a remarkable tribute to the intrinsic excellence of his work that it has endured so successfully, for more than two centuries and a half, the assaults of destructive criticism and the crucial test of practical experience.
In the application of what may be called the ordinary rules of international law but little is observable in the way of change from year to year, or even from generation to generation. The rules governing naturalization, which are slowly changing in the direction of allowing greater freedom of individual movement, still show unmistakable traces of the conflict between the older states of Europe, whose subjects evince a disposition to evade the burden of obligatory military service by migration to the newer countries beyond the sea, where conscriptions are unknown and where agricultural and mineral resources await the strong arm of the laborer which is so essential to their development. The practice of extradition is extending, keeping pace with the advances that are being made in the direction of uniformity in the administration of criminal justice among not only the Christian but some of the non-Christian states of the world.
Claims to exclusive dominion over portions of the high seas are no longer asserted, and the rights of navigation and fishing are now generally conceded. The connection of the larger bodies of water by interoceanic canals, which is such a marked feature of modern commercial development, has been accompanied by agreements tending to insure their operation, even in time of war, without undue belligerent interference. A hopeful beginning has been made in the securing to commercial cables an immunity from injury to which they were especially liable from vessels engaged in the coastwise trade: these agreements, however, are silent as to their neutrality in time of war. A freedom akin to that accorded to the high seas must now be ascribed by the law of nations to the atmosphere as a medium for international communication by the newly or partly invented systems of wireless telegraphy. As the sending and receiving stations, however, are within the territories of sovereign states, the first attempt to regulate these new agencies of commerce will be made the subject of municipal rather than international legislation.
The part played by congresses and conferences in the formation and application of international law is becoming steadily more important. The earlier congresses devoted themselves to the preparation of treaties of peace and to the adjustment of questions to which the wars which they terminated had given rise. Since the middle of the last century, however, a growing disposition has been shown to charge them with legislative powers and to permit them to frame rules of law. In this class fall the rules of the Declaration of Paris in 1856, of the Geneva conventions of 1864 and 1868, and the Hague Conference of 1900. As the most important result of the work of the congress at The Hague was to provide an international judiciary, it may not be too much to hope that the meetings of legislative congresses in the future may be more frequent, and may extend their operations to a broader field of inquiry than has hitherto been brought within the scope of their endeavors by the states which they represented.
The success which has attended recent attempts to adjust international disputes by a resort to arbitration carries great encouragement to those who realize the destructive effects of modern war. The position of the United States in this matter is an entirely creditable one. Its interest in arbitration has been steadfast for nearly a century, and its disposition to adjust its differences by a reference to commissions of arbitration is evi-
