arbiter upon our conduct in throwing off the British yoke and
declaring our right to be an independent nation. That this "public
opinion of the world" is the final tribunal upon all great
international contests is illustrated by the fact that all mankind,
including Great Britain herself, has long ago adjudged that our great
Declaration was not only just, but necessary for the progress of
mankind.

It is evident from his brief preface that Mr. Beck is a sincere
admirer of historic Germany, and on the eve of the war he was at
Weimar, after a brief visit to a little village near Erfurt, where one
of his ancestors was born, who had migrated at an early date to
Pennsylvania, a Commonwealth whose founder had made a treaty with the
Indians which, so far from being treated as a "mere scrap of paper,"
was never broken. Like many Americans, Mr. Beck is of mixed ancestry,
being in part English and in part Swiss-German. He has therefore
viewed the great question objectively, and without any racial
prejudice.

A careful study of the diplomatic correspondence that preceded the
outbreak of the war had convinced Mr. Beck that Germany was chiefly
responsible for it, and he proceeds _con amore_ to demonstrate the
truth of this conviction by the most earnest and forceful presentation
of the case.

Forensic lawyers in the cases they present are about half the time on
the wrong side, or what proves by the final judgment to have been the
wrong side, but it is always easy to tell from the manner of
presentation whether they themselves are thoroughly convinced of the
justice of the side which they advocate. It is evident that Mr. Beck
did not undertake to convince "the Supreme Court of Civilization"
until he was himself thoroughly persuaded of the justice of his cause,
that the invasion of Belgium by Germany was not only a gross breach of
existing treaties, but was in violation of settled international law,
and a crime against humanity never to be forgotten, a crime which
converted that peaceful and prosperous country into a human
slaughterhouse, reeking with the blood of four great nations. How any
intelligent lawyer could have come to any other conclusion it is not
easy to imagine, since Germany confessed its crime while in the very
act of committing it, for on the very day that the German troops
crossed the Belgian frontier and hostilities began, the Imperial
Chancellor at the great session of the Reichstag on August 4th
declared, to u