It is, perhaps, at present worth the effort to point out the fact that the fixed legal and conventional relations between modern states are as firmly grounded in public needs and fundamental principles as the constitutions of the different countries which compose the international system. It is true that force has been a determining element in the conflicts of nations, as it is in the maintenance of civil order within. the State; but it is not mere aimless or undirected force that 1 has produced the present international system. On the contrary, it is due to the gradual perception of the conditions on which human governments can be permanently based. It is the result of reasoned policy and deliberately formed conventions in restraint of force,-the triumph of statesmanship and diplomacy, not shaped and determined by military action, but controlling the movements of armies and navies whose coercive powers are put in action only by decisions reached after deliberation at the council board. More than any other form of history, perhaps, that of diplomacy brings into prominence in its plenitude the psychological element, the constructive value of human plan and purpose. It reveals the mind of an individual, or the sagacity of a group of statesmen, grasping the conditions of a situation in which vast combinations of force may be thwarted by other combinations, and the interests of a nation, or of civilization itself, secured by a sound public policy. In a pre-eminent degree this form of history discloses the evolution of progressive ideals, not in the form of abstract theories, but in the concrete connections of practical experience; thus furnishing to the political philosopher a broad and fertile field of observation and induction. Exposing in the process of elaboration the efforts of great minds to solve the large problems of international peace, it becomes a useful discipline in correcting the illusions of the visionary philanthropist and in forming the mind of the statesman. The present volume, on "The Struggle for Universal Empire," and the following, on "The Establishment of Territorial Sovereignty," may be regarded as indicating the foundations of modern diplomacy. They trace the tragic history of the rise and conflict of two great international institutions, the Empire and the Papacy, the defeat of their ambitions, and the development of modern national states. In future volumes it is intended to consider the Diplomacy of the Age of Absolutism, of the Revolutionary Era, of the Constitutional Movement, and of Commercial Imperialism, thus bringing the history of international development down to the present time. Each volume, however, is intended to be for the period which it covers a complete work in itself. An effort has been made to render the text of use and interest to the general reader. For the benefit of those interested in the sources from which the materials have been derived, or who may wish to make a more detailed examination of special questions, a list of authorities, documentary and literary, with suggestions and comments, has been appended to each chapter. The bibliography is intended, however, to be a selection rather than an inventory, and has been constructed with the purpose of indicating the works consulted and likely to prove most useful for reference. No pains have been spared to provide such historical maps and tables as may be needed to throw light upon the text and to resolve questions of geography and chronology. A chronological list of treaties and other public acts and a separate index have been added to each volume. The author takes this occasion to express to all the numerous persons, private and official, at Washington, Paris, The Hague, Rome, Berne, Geneva, and elsewhere, who have courteously aided him, the sincere thanks which it would require many pages to acknowledge to each according to the nature of the service rendered. GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, February 1, 1905. DAVID JAYNE HILL. |