is last point, firmly
submitted at the end of the note, which gives significance to the
whole. Obviously, without it the note would be nothing but an
abdication on the part of the United States, and it is because it is
not that Mr. Bryan disapproves it.

We do not question the sincerity of Mr. Bryan's attachment to the
cause of arbitration; but it is strange that he does not see what a
disservice he does to arbitration by accepting and preaching a
travesty of it. When there is litigation between individuals over an
alleged wrong, the first condition is that the wrong shall stop for
the interim--a result effected through an interim injunction between
nations. There is no judge to grant such an injunction. It has to be
obtained by mutual consent unless it is obtained by arbitration. It
simply means a license to the wrongdoer to continue his wrongdoing for
as long as he can make the arbitration last, which, where the time is
important, will be all that he wants. To accept such a doctrine, as
Mr. Bryan apparently does, is simply to put a premium on the
wrongdoing and a very heavy discount on arbitration.

_The Morning Post comments as follows:_

Mr. Bryan resigned, according to his own explanation, because he
thought President Wilson's note to Germany would endanger the cause of
peace. It might, therefore, have been supposed that the American note
was to be a departure from the previous American policy; but now that
President Wilson's note is published we are puzzled to find the
reason for Mr. Bryan's action. The note contains nothing new; it
merely affirms in a friendly manner the position taken up by the
United States--a position founded upon the generally accepted
principles of international law. It testates the claim which America
has always made, that a belligerent has no right to sink a presumably
innocent merchantman and endanger the lives of its crew and
passengers, but must first determine the character of its cargo and
establish its contraband nature and must secure the safety of the
people on board. This is obviously a stand in the cause of humanity.
We might call it the irreducible minimum of the rights of neutrals;
for it is clear that, if a Government allows its subjects to be slain
in cold blood and its ships to be destroyed, it abandons the primary
function of a Government.

_The Daily Mail says:_

The first impression made upon most readers of the new American note
to Germany will be, we suspect, tha