oose and we
cannot force it back into its channel unaided. Moreover crimes have been
committed against right, attacks on the liberties of peoples and on the
sacred treasuries of thought, which must and will be expiated. Europe
cannot pass over unheeded the violence done to the noble Belgian people,
the devastation of Malines and Louvain, sacked by modern Tillys.... But
in the name of heaven let not these crimes be expiated by similar
crimes! Let not the hideous words "vengeance" and "retaliation" be
heard; for a great nation does not revenge itself, it re-establishes
justice. But let those in whose hands lies the execution of justice show
themselves worthy of her to the end.

It is our duty to keep this before them; nor will we be passive and wait
for the fury of this conflict to spend itself. Such conduct would be
unworthy of us who have such a task before us.

Our first duty, then, all over the world, is to insist on the formation
of a moral High Court, a tribunal of consciences, to watch and pass
impartial judgment on any violations of the laws of nations. And since
committees of inquiry formed by belligerents themselves would be always
suspect, the neutral countries of the old and new world must take the
initiative, and form a tribunal such as was suggested by Mr.
Prenant,[14] professor of medicine at Paris, and taken up
enthusiastically by M. Paul Seippel in the _Journal de Geneve_.[15]

"They should produce men of some worldly authority, and of proved civic
morality to act as a commission of inquiry, and to follow the armies at
a little distance. Such an organization would complete and solidify the
Hague Court, and prepare indisputable documents for the necessary work
of justice...."

The neutral countries are too much effaced. Confronted by unbridled
force they are inclined to believe that opinion is defeated in advance,
and the majority of thinkers in all countries share their pessimism.
There is a lack of courage here as well as of clear thinking. For just
at this time the power of opinion is immense. The most despotic of
governments, even though marching to victory, trembles before public
opinion and seeks to court it. Nothing shows this more clearly than the
efforts of both parties engaged in war, of their ministers, chancellors,
sovereigns, of the Kaiser himself turned journalist, to justify their
own crimes, and denounce the crimes of their adversary at the invisible
tribunal of humanity. Let this invis