ch result from
war. Perpetual peace is a dream, and it is not even a
beautiful dream. War is an element in the order of the world
ordained by God. In it the noblest virtues of mankind are
developed; courage and the abnegation of self, faithfulness to
duty, and the spirit of sacrifice: the soldier gives his life.
Without war the world would stagnate, and lose itself in
materialism.

"I agree entirely with the proposition contained in the
introduction that a gradual softening of manners ought to be
reflected also in the mode of making war. But I go further,
and think the softening of manners can alone bring about this
result, which cannot be attained by a codification of the law
of war. Every law presupposes an authority to superintend and
direct its execution, and international conventions are
supported by no such authority. What neutral States would ever
take up arms for the sole reason that, two Powers being at
war, the 'laws of war' had been violated by one or both of the
belligerents? For offences of that sort there is no earthly
judge. Success can come only from the religious moral
education of individuals and from the feeling of honour and
sense of justice of commanders who enforce the law and conform
to it so far as the exceptional circumstances of war permit.

"This being so, it is necessary to recognise also that
increased humanity in the mode of making war has in reality
followed upon the gradual softening of manners. Only compare
the horrors of the Thirty Years' War with the struggles of
modern times.

"A great step has been made in our own day by the
establishment of compulsory military service, which introduces
the educated classes into armies. The brutal and violent
element is, of course, still there, but it is no longer alone,
as once it was. Again, Governments have two powerful means of
preventing the worst kind of excesses--strict discipline
maintained in time of peace, so that the soldier has become
habituated to it, and care on the part of the department which
provides for the subsistence of troops in the field. If that
care fails, discipline can only be imperfectly maintained. It
is impossible for the soldier who endures sufferings,
hardships, fatigues, who meets dan