Chapter IV: Part 4

To the chemist these new gases are sorely puzzling. They come from a field which was thought to be exhausted, and cause us to wonder why they were not found before. The reason for the oversight is plain: the gases are devoid of chemical properties, at least none have yet been certainly observed. They are colorless, tasteless, odorless, inert; so far they have been found to be incapable of union with other elements; apart from some doubtful experiments of Berthelot, they form no chemical compounds. Under the periodic law they are difficult to classify; they seem to belong nowhere; they simply exist, unsocial, alone. Only by their density, their spectra, and some physical properties can these intractable new forms of matter be identified.

In a sketch like this a host of discoveries must remain unnoticed, and others can be barely mentioned. The isolation of fluorine and the manufacture of diamonds by Moissan, the synthesis of sugars by Fischer, the discovery of soluble forms of silver by Carey Lea--all these achievements and many more must be passed over. Something, however, needs to be said upon the utilitarian aspects of chemistry, and concerning its influence upon other sciences. Portions of this field have been touched in the preceding pages; the interdependence of chemistry and physics is already evident; other subjects now demand our attention.

Medicine and physiology are both debtors to chemistry for much of their advancement, and in more than one way. From the chemist medicine has received a host of new remedies, some new processes, and advanced methods for the diagnosis of disease. The staining of tissues for identification under the microscope is effected by chemical agents, the analysis of urine helps to identify disorders of the kidneys; nitrous oxide, chloroform, ether, and cocaine almost abolish pain. The disinfection of the sick-room and the antiseptic methods which go far toward the creation of modern surgery all depend upon chemical products whose long list increases year by year. Crude drugs are now replaced by active principles discovered in the laboratory--morphine, quinine, and the like--and instead of the bulky, nauseous draughts of olden time, the invalid is given tasteless capsules of gelatin or compressed tablets of uniform strength and more accurately graded power. A great part of physiology consists of the study of chemical processes, the transformation of compounds within the living organism, and practically all this advance is the creation of the nineteenth century. Modern bacteriology, at least in its practical applications, began with a chemical discussion between Liebig and Pasteur as to the nature of fermentation: step by step the field of exploration has enlarged; as the result of the investigations we have preventive medicine, more perfect sanitation, and antiseptic surgery. The ptomaines which cause disease and the antitoxins which prevent it are alike chemical in their nature, and were discovered by chemical methods. Physiology without chemistry could not exist; even the phenomena of respiration were meaningless before the discovery of oxygen. The human body is a chemical laboratory, and without the aid of the chemist its mysteries can not be unraveled.

To agriculture also chemistry is a potent ally, whose value can hardly be overrated. It has created fertilizers and insecticides for the use of the farmer and taught their intelligent use, and in the many experiment stations of the world it is daily discovering facts or principles which are practically applicable to agriculture. The beet-sugar industry was developed by chemical researches and chemical methods; the arts of the dairy have been chemically improved; the food of all civilized nations is better and more abundant than it was before the chemist gave his aid to its production. Adulteration, always practiced, is now easily detected by chemical analysis, and, though the evil still exists, the remedy for it is in sight. To Liebig, who gave to agricultural chemistry its first great impulse forward, mankind is indebted to an amount which is beyond all computation.

In manufactures the influence of chemistry is seen at every turn. When the century began, probably no industrial establishment in the world dreamed of maintaining a chemical laboratory; to-day, hundreds are well equipped and often heavily manned for the sole benefit of the intelligent manufacturer. Coal gas is a chemical product; its by-products are ammonia and coal tar; from the latter, as we have seen, hundreds of useful substances, the discoveries of the last half century, are prepared. Better and cheaper soap and glass owe their existence to chemical improvement in the making of alkalies; chemical bleaching has replaced the tedious action of sunlight and dew; chemical dyestuffs give our modern fabrics nearly all their hues. Metallurgy is almost wholly a group of chemical processes; every metal is extracted from its ores by methods which rest on chemical foundations; analyses of fuel, flux, and product go on side by side with the smelting. The cyanide and chlorination processes for gold, the Bessemer process for steel, are apt illustrations of the advances in chemical metallurgy; but before these come into play the dynamite of the miner, another chemical invention, must have done its work underground. For rare minerals, the mere curiosities of twenty years ago, uses have been found; from monazite we obtain the oxides which form the mantle of the Welsbach burner; from beauxite, aluminum is made. The former waste products of many an industry have also revealed unsuspected values, and chemistry has the sole honor of their discovery.

In education, chemistry has steadily grown in importance, until a single university may have need of as many as twenty chemists in its teaching staff, teaching not only what is already known, but also the art of research. As a disciplinary study, chemistry ranks high in the college curriculum, and it opens the way to a new learned profession, equal in rank with those of more ancient standing.

For the material advancement of mankind the nineteenth century has done more than all the preceding ages combined, and science has been the chief instrument of progress. Scientific methods, experimental investigation, have replaced the old empiricism, and no man can imagine where the forward movement is to end. Hitherto research has been sporadic, individual, unorganized; but fruitful beyond all anticipation. In the future it should become more systematic, better organized, richer in facilities. Through laboratories equipped for research alone the twentieth century must work, and chemistry is entitled to its fair share of the coming opportunities. The achievements of the chemist, great as they have been during this century, are but a beginning; the larger possibilities are ahead. The greatest laws are yet undiscovered; the invitation of the unknown was never more distinct than now.

MOUNT TAMALPAIS.

BY MARSDEN MANSON, C. E., PH.D.

Mount Tamalpais is the southern and terminating peak of the westerly ridge of the Coast Range, which confronts the Pacific Ocean from the Golden Gate to the Oregon line.

Its outliers form the bold headlands which skirt the Golden Gate and adjacent waters to the north, and which bound the peninsula constituting Marin County. The spurs extending to the east reach the shores of the Bay of San Francisco, and inclose small alluvial valleys of great fertility and beauty. In some instances these valley lands are fringed by tidal marshes, in part reclaimed and under cultivation.

The top of the mountain breaks into three distinct peaks, each reaching an altitude of nearly half a mile above sea level, although bounded on three sides by tidal waters.

No land points visible from the summit, except those bounding the apparent horizon, reach equal or greater altitude. The mountain is therefore a marked feature from all parts of the area visible from its summit, which area has an extent of about eight thousand square miles.

The adjoined photographic reproduction of a portion of a relief map of the State gives a general idea of the adjacent land, bay, and ocean areas.

The westerly group of islands, opposite the Golden Gate, are the Farallones. The bold headland northwest of the Gate is Point Reyes; it protects from the north and northwest winds the anchorage known as Drake’s Bay. The strip of water between the adjoining peninsula and the mainland is Tomales Bay.

The most westerly headland south of the Golden Gate is San Pedro Point, and the prominent headland farther south is Pescadero Point. The whole of San Francisco Bay is visible from Mount Tamalpais, except a few sheltered nooks and portions behind islands.

The tidal area inside the Golden Gate is about seven hundred and forty square miles at high tide; this includes that portion which extends east of the Coast Range into the valley of California, and known as Suisun Bay; this bay is connected with San Francisco Bay through the Straits of Carquinez and San Pablo Bay. Emptying into Suisun Bay at its easterly end are the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Thus the tidal waters washing the base of Mount Tamalpais are connected with the interior valley of California, and tributary to them are about twelve hundred miles of navigable channels, tapping the central part of the State.

From the summit of this peak the eye sweeps the horizon of the Pacific Ocean for nearly one hundred and fifty degrees. To the northwest, north, and northeast lie Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, and Napa Valleys, the view over these being bounded by the ridges inclosing them. To the east are the Straits of Carquinez, the outlet of the fifty-eight thousand square miles of drainage of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, and the only water gap in the entire perimeter.

From the east to the south lie the slopes of the Contra Costa Hills and the ranges bounding the drainage into the Bay of San Francisco, and including the Santa Clara Valley, thus embracing a magnificent view of the garden spots of California, and the cities and towns around the bay--the homes of about one third the population of the State. Three prominent peaks mark the limits of the land view: Mount Hamilton, the site of the Lick Observatory of the University of California; Mount Diablo, the base and meridian of the United States land surveys of central California; and Mount St. Helena, a volcanic peak the summit of which is common to Napa, Sonoma, and Lake Counties, and whose spurs are noted for their quicksilver mines, mineral and hot springs.

The plant life of the immediate Tamalpais region is abundant and interesting; the flowering plants are represented by about eighty orders, three hundred and fifty genera, and from seven to eight hundred species, of which about one hundred are trees and shrubs.[F] Some of the Sierra forms occur on Mount Tamalpais, and it is also the locus of the most southerly extension of certain boreal species. Owing to the wide range of temperature, moisture conditions, and exposures, many of these plants can be found in bloom during every week in the year. During the warm, moist autumn and winter the hardiest species bloom from October to April in protected areas, and in the cold, exposed areas these same species require the heat of the season from April to September to bring them into bloom. Thus, within a radius of four or five miles from the summit there is not a week in the year when the flowers of certain species can not be gathered--this in face of the fact that during the months of December, January, and February the summit may be covered with sleet or snow for a day or two at a time.

[F] Estimated by Miss Eastwood, curator of the Department of
Botany of the California Academy of Sciences.

Mount Tamalpais is therefore a point of great interest to the sight-seer, the tourist, and the student of Nature.

MODES OF REACHING THE SUMMIT.--For many years a trail has existed from Mill Valley to the summit, and another from Ross Valley, both practicable for pack mules. Later the Ross Valley trail was improved so as to be practicable for light vehicles, but these did not answer the needs of the increasing travel, and in 1895 the Mill Valley and Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway Company was organized. The purpose of this company was bold--to construct a traction railroad from tide level to the summit of a peak not two miles off and nearly half a mile high appeared visionary, if not impossible, to many. But with persevering skill a road was located upon a line 8.19 miles long, having an average grade of five and a half per cent and maximum grades of seven per cent, and overcoming 2,353 feet elevation in this distance. Four and nine tenths miles are curved, the minimum radius being seventy feet. Owing to the rough and ravine-cut topography, twenty-five trestles were necessary, the curvature and grade being maintained over these.

In order to reduce the cost of grading and to develop sufficient length to overcome the elevation, the grade contour was followed as closely as possible. The very short radius employed permitted this to be done without tunnels and with but two through cuts.

The accompanying map, prepared from the United States Coast and Geodetic charts and the maps and profiles of the company, gives a general idea of the location and main features. To the student of railroad location it forms an interesting exhibit of the extreme flexibility of railway location.

The rails are steel, fifty-seven pounds to the yard, laid to standard gauge upon the ordinary redwood ties in use on the Pacific coast. Grading, trestle work, and laying cost about $55,000. The entire road cost $136,746.44, or practically $16,700 per mile.

The equipment consists of one thirty-ton geared locomotive (Heisler), one twenty-ton geared locomotive (Shay), six open canopy-top observation cars, one half-closed passenger car, and two flat cars. Cost of equipment, $22,450.[G]

[G] The writer is indebted to the officers of the Mill Valley
and Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway for the above accurate
statistics.

The locomotives and cars are very thoroughly provided with brakes: first, the Westinghouse automatic air brake; second, a water brake; and, third, a powerful hand brake to each locomotive and car. The efficiency of this equipment is attested in the operation of the road without accident or injury of any kind. The locomotives are always operated on the lower end of trains, and the maximum speed allowed is eight miles per hour.

The ride up the winding cañons and through the superb scenery traversed by this road is a treat of which one never tires. The point of view, the direction, and the character of the landscape are continually changing. With no deep cuts, no tunnels, facing first one and then the other and finally all the points of the compass, sweeping around spurs, with distant views of land and sea, and near views of great beauty; then facing the steep sides of the mountain, its geology and flora affording interesting pictures; then over trestles with the branches of the bay, redwood, madroño, oak, and manzanita just out of reach--all these form beauties and attractions possessed by no other road known to the writer. A faint idea of the appearance of the road and of the scenery may be had from the appended photographs.

THE METEOROLOGICAL STATION.--The advantages of Mount Tamalpais as a meteorological station have long been recognized, and many efforts have been made to utilize them. It frequently projects many hundreds of feet above fogs which cover the adjacent shores, and during these periods one can look out upon an ocean of rolling, fleecy clouds which break upon the mountains around its base and visible from its summit. This freedom from obscuring conditions gives an opportunity to more freely observe and study meteorological phenomena, and caused the Weather Bureau to make a series of preliminary observations in 1897, and, these resulting favorably, a fully equipped permanent station was subsequently built. The results have fully equaled expectations. The advantages of the location may be briefly summarized as follows:

1. It is close to the coast line, and is so elevated that it is not seriously affected by the local indraught of air through the Golden Gate and adjacent gaps in the Coast Range. This local indraught is a disturbing and often a misleading factor in all observations taken near and south of the Golden Gate for at least a score of miles. The elevated station on top of the peak eliminates the source of errors based upon observations at lower stations, and enables the forecast official to determine the effects of the local disturbances, and thus to give observations taken at or near sea level their true weight at the proper time.

2. No station in the United States has so full and free a projection into the lower third of the vapor-bearing stratum as has the station on this peak. No other station furnishes, as it does, an opportunity to study the distribution of vapor in the lower third of that stratum of the atmosphere, the physics of which is most important to human life and industries.

3. In studying the phenomena connected with the occurrence of fog, this station furnishes highly valuable data that could be obtained from no other; and, again, enables the student of weather lore to correct misleading impressions and deductions based upon observations taken below the one-thousand-foot contour above sea level.

On the 16th of June, 1899, the observations taken on Mount Tamalpais marked a difference of about thirty degrees in temperature over those around its base. In San Francisco, at Point Lobos and at Point Reyes, the temperature was down to 48°, while on Mount Tamalpais it was 79°, thus marking an approaching change in weather conditions, and giving the Weather Bureau the first opportunity of using the vertical temperature gradient in forecasting.

As a station for furnishing the data for a study of the problems of the physics of the atmosphere Mount Tamalpais is of further importance, as it stands near the easterly limits of the great area of high pressure which, during summer, lies over the North Pacific and which dominates the climatic phenomena of California for the greater portion of the year.

Stations on the Hawaiian Islands to the south and others on the Aleutian Islands to the north of this area of high pressure will still further aid in the solution of the great and vital problems now before meteorologists. These stations are the most reliable ones which can surround on three sides the two great “weather breeders”--the “summer high” and the “winter low” of the North Pacific.

INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

BY JAMES HARRIS VICKERY, LL. B.

“In truth these ‘cut-and-dried’ schemes are of no value at all,
unless as monuments of the mingled simplicity and ingenuity of
their authors.”--LAWRENCE.

The view has been very generally entertained that all efforts to promote the cause of peace and order in the world by cut-and-dried schemes are bound to fail, and it must be admitted that few truer words have been written than those which stand at the head of this article. But this truth, like some others, may be abused. Evidences are not wanting to show that the incredulity which preceded the convening of the Peace Conference, the skepticism which marked its first sessions, and a certain want of faith which has since been manifested in various quarters in the practical value of the measures adopted, are all mainly due to a misapplication of this truth.

The measures formulated at The Hague do not constitute a “cut-and-dried scheme,” but, on the contrary, they form an additional step in a natural, healthy, and orderly evolution of the forces of peace which have so effectively asserted themselves in the improvement of international relations during the latter half of this century.[H]

[H] For an excellent statement of the work of the Conference
from the German point of view, see Die völkerrechtlichen
Ergebnisse der Haager Conferenz, by Professor Zorn, of
Königsberg, one of the German delegates, published in the
Deutsche Rundschau, January _et seq._

THE GENEVA RED CROSS RULES.--The first matter to which attention will be invited is the extension of the Red Cross rules to naval warfare.

The Geneva Convention of 1864, which marks the beginning of the organization known as the Red Cross Society, inaugurated a vast and beneficent improvement in the then existing usage of nations as regarded the care of the sick and wounded in war. Its two salient features are the neutralization of the officers and forces of the society and the disabled soldiers under their care, and the establishment of a _system_ to govern the conduct of its humane work.

At the dawn of modern international law during the first quarter of the seventeenth century not only the sick and wounded of a vanquished foe, but every prisoner, and even women and children, suffered to the fullest the indignities and cruelties incident to the rough warfare of the age; but the growth of mercy has softened the asperities of war, and among the milestones that mark this advance toward a more humane usage the Red Cross Society holds an honored place. Under its rules the sick and wounded were no longer left to the irregular and capricious care of private benevolence, but were made the subject of organized and systematic treatment by a staff of skilled physicians and experienced nurses provided with hospital and ambulance facilities, and, thus equipped and assured the protection of both combatants, they were able to work effectively in their ministrations to the sick and dying.

Vast as was this progress from the days when at the siege of Acre the first real attention since the dark ages was given to the wounded by the Order of Teutonic Knights, there was still one serious imperfection that limited its sphere of usefulness--it did not apply to warfare on the seas. An effort had indeed been made in 1868 to extend the Red Cross rules to naval warfare, but it failed, and the wounded in conflicts on the sea continued to be left to the old provisions, which were necessarily inadequate and could not be exercised under the joint protection of the combatants. The virtue of the good Samaritan is a potent force, but to be fully effective on the field of battle it must be exercised under a common system established and maintained by the mutual consent of nations. It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that because the effort made in 1868 to extend these rules to sea warfare failed on account of their non-ratification, they were not sustained by public opinion. Many difficulties, especially those of a technical character, stood in the way; but public opinion was ever growing in their favor, and it eventually came to be regarded as an anomaly that while the care of the sick and wounded in land warfare had been regulated upon a common basis of international agreement, no similar provision existed for the care of the victims of naval combat. Without some such extension of the rules no adequate expression could be given to the growing humanity of the age.

For these reasons it will be obvious that the next step necessary in the further development of the Red Cross work consisted of its extension to naval warfare. The Peace Conference subjected the Convention of 1864 and the additional rules of 1868 to a careful examination, considered at length the difficulties in the way, and finally adopted a new series of rules providing for an organized staff of physicians and nurses, with hospital ships and life-saving appliances, which shall, without interfering with operations, be henceforth employed in naval engagements and enjoy the protection of both combatants.

The newly formulated rules, in conjunction with the previous ones relating to land warfare, are the practical embodiment of the growing feelings of humanity and mercy in the conduct of warfare which, commencing with the Peace of Westphalia, has been ever more and more effective in securing the evolution of a better usage.

THE BRUSSELS RULES.--So, too, with reference to the rules governing the conduct of armies in the field the work of the conference represents a sound and healthy evolution.

It may be remarked, by way of preface, that the old idea of war regarded hostilities as working the absolute interruption of all relations between belligerents, save those arising from force; it also regarded the enemy as a proper object of violence and depredation. Even in the time of Grotius the universal usage permitted the putting to death of all persons found in the enemy’s territory, and in the terrible struggles of the Thirty Years’ War in Germany and the Eighty Years’ War in the Netherlands the story of the fate of men, women, and children at the hands of a conquering soldiery forms one of the darkest chapters in human history.

But while Grotius declared this to be the usage, he also took care to point out that considerations of justice and mercy dictate a better course, and he made a distinction between certain classes, declaring that justice requires the belligerent to spare those who have done no wrong to him, especially old men, priests, husbandmen, merchants, prisoners, women, and children. This merciful distinction was eagerly seized upon by his successors, who gradually developed out of it different rules for the treatment of the “combatant” and “non-combatant” portion of the enemy inhabitants. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which marked the close of the great struggles that had so long convulsed Europe, the older and more brutal customs fell into disuse, and the theory that only so much stress should be put upon an enemy, and primarily upon the combatant portion, as was sufficient to destroy his power of resistance was substituted for it. Along with this new usage grew the ever-increasing rights of neutrals, among them being that of trade and commerce with the non-combatant portion of belligerent states, which has done so much to lighten the hardships of war suffered by those devoted to peaceful pursuits in the enemy’s territory.

The next important step in this evolution belongs to the present century, and is due to the enlightened initiative of the United States. This step consisted in the preparation of a manual containing a code of rules for the conduct of land warfare. Keenly alive to the inevitable sufferings incident to the great civil conflict then being waged, Abraham Lincoln commissioned Francis Lieber to prepare a series of rules for the conduct of the armies of the republic in the field which should set bounds to the passions of the soldiery.[I] In pursuance of this commission, a code of rules was prepared and adopted which has since been known as Lieber’s Manual; it was published in 1863, and proved a blessing to soldier and civilian alike. So obvious, indeed, were its good results that other nations rapidly followed the lead of the United States, and similar manuals were issued by Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and other powers.

[I] See Pierantoni, Die Fortschritte des Völkerrechts im
neunzehnten Jahrhundert.

But while Lieber’s Manual was thus taken as the model by various nations, there were inevitably developed serious divergencies in the rules and details. Recognizing the desirability of a common code, which should be binding upon all nations, Alexander II of Russia attempted to secure the united action of the leading states, and, pursuant to his initiative, the Conference of Brussels was called in 1874. In the sessions of this conference the rules already developed were carefully examined, and ultimately a series of articles, well calculated to form the basis for an excellent international code, was adopted. As the delegates, however, had not been given plenary powers by their respective governments, their action was necessarily ineffective without subsequent ratification. Upon this rock the conference was wrecked, and the rules which it had formulated acquired no binding authority.

But indirectly they had a most happy effect, for they worked as a unifying influence in the preparation of subsequent manuals and the amendment of existing ones. The increasing interest in the subject thus stimulated led the Institute of International Law to give the matter still further thought, with the result that that eminent body of jurists in 1880 adopted a very full and excellent code, which gave evidence of much advance in the knowledge of the subject.

But neither the Brussels rules nor the code of the Institute of International Law possessed any binding authority, save in so far as they embodied generally accepted usage; their influence, however, increased the tendency in the direction of a common manual such as that which Alexander II had hoped to secure--a hope which has now been realized, and in a manner worthy of the subject. This logical step, too long delayed, is due to the Peace Conference. It devoted most careful consideration to the various codes, and has enriched, extended, and unified the rules and improved the whole by many valuable provisions suggested by the intervening experience. Altogether, the result is a splendid example of a natural evolution which, commencing with the distinction between “combatant” and “non-combatant” founded on the considerations of mercy and justice pleaded by Grotius, subsequently recognized in the Peace of Westphalia, increasingly practiced since then, and at the instance of Lincoln embodied in a manual, has now led to the adoption of a common international code for the conduct of future armies in the field--a result which marks the triumph in our day of the conception of civilized warfare tempered with mercy over the old idea of indiscriminate and inhuman slaughter.

THE SPHERE OF ARBITRATION.--A matter that has given rise to much speculation is the _jurisdiction_ of arbitral tribunals. It has come to be recognized that a distinction must be made between different classes of international disputes. What may be called “business disputes” between states, such as boundary lines, tariffs, damages, fishery claims, questions of citizenship, and various treaty arrangements--like the most-favored nation clause--are all fit subjects for arbitration.[J] But the graver questions involving the consideration of national policy and aspirations, vital interests and honor, race and religious prejudices and passions, and last of all self-preservation, are, at least for the present, far beyond the competence of an arbitration tribunal.[K]

[J] See Essai sur l’Organisation de l’Arbitrage International,
by M. Descamps, p. 24.

[K] The Transvaal War pertinently illustrates the prevailing
want of knowledge regarding the true sphere of arbitration.
Ever since the outbreak of war the Continental press and
some American papers have been asking why the provisions of
the Peace Conference are not put in operation. Much of this
is due to anglophobia; much to a genuine ignorance of the
matter. The treatment of the subject usually takes the form
of an antithesis in which Great Britain as a peace power at
the conference is contrasted with Greater Britain making
war on a little republic, and this is invariably followed
with a statement or inference that the Peace Conference was
a huge farce, and the Permanent Court a dire failure. It
is now quite plain that the root of the difficulty between
England and the Transvaal was not the franchise nor the
dynamite monopoly, but English _versus_ Dutch predominancy
in the whole of South Africa, and therefore a grave clash
of two opposing policies, involving the deepest questions
of interest and even self-preservation. Regarding these
questions the conference was unanimous in the opinion that
they are entirely outside the sphere of arbitrable question.

If the list of arbitral decisions hitherto given be examined it will show that questions of the first sort above are those which have thus far been submitted to judicial settlement.[L] It is therefore in harmony with past experience that the conference, in generally defining the scope of arbitration, declared it to be intended for the settlement of “questions of a juridical nature,” especially the interpretation and application of international agreements upon the basis of respect for law.[M] The frequency of these “business questions” is on the increase; they seriously embarrass diplomatic representatives, whose proper duty is the conduct of graver matters of policy, and there is a growing disposition to submit them to legal settlement. Under these circumstances, there is little doubt that the time has come when the system of special temporary courts of arbitration, splendid as their work has been, must give way to a more adequate system--they were indeed but stepping stones to a more permanent organization. Under the old system each power was likely to wait for the other to take the initiative; then came a squabble as to just how much and what part of the difficulty should be submitted to arbitration, then a squabble about judges, then a squabble about procedure, place of trial, and so on--all was unpreparedness, uncertainty, and meantime angry passions had full play.

[L] See especially the list given in the back of Darby’s
International Tribunals, p. 286.

[M] See Article XV of the Convention.

In the preparation for war the modern state lays no end of force on the necessity for a rapid and systematic mobilization. The weak point, however, in preparing for a judicial contest hitherto has been the absence of any system by which to “mobilize judges and counsel” and get the legal forces out into the field. To attain this end the scheme presented by Lord Pauncefote and unanimously adopted by the conference will be found to be a most striking example of the happy adaptation of a means to an end where the way seemed blocked by infinite difficulties. It consists of a few simple provisions for the establishment of an International Bureau of Arbitration with an Administrative Council, and this, with the addition of various other features drawn from the United States, Russia, France, and Italy, with some others, constitutes the composite plan embodied in the Final Act. In brief outline it is as follows:

PERMANENT COURT OF ARBITRATION.--The diplomatic representatives of the signatory powers accredited to The Hague, including the Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs as president,[N] are to constitute an administrative council. This council shall organize and establish an International Bureau of Arbitration, of which it shall retain the direction and control, pursuant to the provisions of the conference. This bureau shall serve as the office of the court, and contain the archives, and the routine business shall be conducted therein. The signatory powers will each appoint four persons, who shall be men of recognized ability in international law and of high character, and the whole number of persons so appointed shall form a list or panel of members of the court, or the international bench. In case of a difficulty arising between two or more powers which they desire to submit to arbitration, they agree to notify the bureau, and the bureau will ask them to choose a certain number of judges from the panel, and these shall constitute the special bench.[O] An agreement is then to be drawn up stating the object of the litigation and the powers of the arbitrators. This agreement implies the engagement of the parties to submit in good faith to the sentence.

[N] The amendment to Lord Pauncefote’s plan, by which the Dutch
Foreign Minister was made the president, is due to Mr.
White, President of the American Commission.

[O] In case states, between whom a dispute may arise, do not
of their own accord have recourse to the tribunal, Section
27 permits the powers to remind such states that the
Permanent Court is open to them, and the giving of this
reminder is declared to be a duty in the superior interests
of peace, and is to be regarded only as an exercise of
“good offices.” To this section the United States agreed
on condition that its consent should not be regarded as a
departure from the well-known principles underlying the
foreign policy of the Republic.

ARBITRAL PROCEDURE.--For the purpose of promoting the development of arbitration certain simple rules are formulated. The powers will appoint special agents, who shall be intermediaries between them and the tribunal; they will also appoint counsel. The proceedings consist first of _instruction_--communications by the agents and counsel to the tribunal and the opposing party, of the pleadings, etc.; and, secondly, of _argument_--the oral development of the pleadings. The argument being closed, the bench shall deliberate in secret, and a decision is to be reached by a majority vote. The decision shall be written, and is to contain the reasons of law and fact upon which it is based. In case of disagreement, the dissenting opinion shall also be written and contain the reasons therefor; the signature of each member is to be added to his opinion. Subsequently the decision is to be read in open session, in the presence of the agents and counsel of the parties.

To sum up: it contains all the essentials; it is immediately available, provided with a permanent office, with officials, with a code of procedure, with directions for the commencement of proceedings, the presentation of cases, the taking of evidence by an International Commission of Inquiry, the oral explanation and argument of the printed case, the pronouncement of sentence in open court, the recording of such decision, the subsequent rectification of an error therein on the discovery of new and important facts of a decisive character, and the preservation of the records.[P]

[P] See Articles XV to LVII of the Convention.

BASIS FOR FUTURE EVOLUTION.--With these essentials there is a basis for a future evolution until the court shall have become as perfect in its organization and details as the High Courts of Justice in England or the Supreme Court of the United States.

It may not be amiss here to suggest the influence which the permanent tribunal is calculated to exercise in the future development of international law. The provision for a permanent bureau or record office, in which the archives shall be kept, is sure to prove a valuable condition for future growth, for the deposit in such bureau of all arbitral decisions will mark the true beginning of what we may call “International Law Reports.” To this bureau the powers undertake to send certified copies of all special arbitration agreements, whether embodied in treaties or otherwise; to it also will be sent the result of all special arbitrations hereafter resorted to, and in it will be deposited the papers, pleadings, and other documents, and especially the decisions of the permanent court, as well as those of any special courts which may hereafter be created from time to time. These archives will thus furnish a wealth of material not locked up or available only by jurists of the particular state where they may happen to be situated, as has too often been the case heretofore, but accessible alike to the great text writers and commentators of all nations. The criticisms and opinions of eminent text writers have heretofore been of great value in the improvement of international law, and under these new and more favorable conditions their influence should be even more beneficial in the future.

To the works of text writers will in future be added the able discussions of counsel and the learned opinions of judges handed down in writing, with the reasons upon which they are founded.[Q] Where rules and usages are becoming obsolete or obviously hostile to the growth of opinion, international judges may feel themselves bound for a time by them and give their decisions accordingly, but they may embody in their written decisions an _obiter dictum_ which shall prove the death knell of the old rule and the establishment of a healthier one. Many are the wholesome changes that have thus been wrought in English “judge-made law” as the direct result of learned and convincing _obiter dicta_.

[Q] For an admirable example, see the published proceedings of
the Paris Tribunal in the Venezuelan case.

The interest which will thus be stimulated in the whole subject of international law will promote its study in all nations. Hitherto this branch of legal education has been rather slighted; not being regarded as essential to the ordinary practitioner, it has been neglected for the petty provisions of some state code or involved corporation law, but the influences already at work in favor of a more thorough and scholarly study of this branch will be effectively aided under the new conditions.

Though the law of nations should be uniform in all countries, a comparison of the leading works in different countries, English and German for instance, will reveal many differences partly traceable to the particular system of law in which the author was grounded, and in part to his peculiar “judicial instinct.” It is not often that one finds an English or American lawyer thoroughly grounded in the Roman system and the modern Continental systems founded upon it; quite as rare is it to find a Continental lawyer learned in the system of English jurisprudence. There have been such men, as, for example, Rudolf Gneist, whose great work on English Constitutional Law and History has become a classic. But, as a rule, there is among text writers on this branch of law and among the eminent jurists who have hitherto been connected with international tribunals much “provincialism in thought and conception,” if the phrase may be allowed, and to overcome it the future jurists who shall take part in international contests before the high tribunal of the nations will require to be more thoroughly grounded in the history and evolution of law in general and in the study of comparative law, both private and public, in particular, than their predecessors have been.[R] In this connection it is not too much to hope that the unifying influence of an international tribunal will eventually exercise a good effect in promoting the solution of various perplexing problems on the private side of international law, or what is known as “conflict of laws.”

[R] As evidence of increased attention to this matter in
Germany, see Wertheim, Wörterbuch des Englischen Rechts.

Having indicated some directions in which the growth of international law will be likely to be promoted by the tribunal, the question suggests itself whether the jurisdiction of the international court will eventually be enlarged beyond the scope at present contemplated by the Convention of The Hague. Will the time ever come when such a court shall take cognizance of various matters which now lie without the sphere of “business disputes and questions of a juridical nature” and within that of essential interests, honor, race, and religious policies and ideals? The statement, which is sometimes heard, that such will never be the case, does not seem warranted when we regard the growth of law in general, and indeed the development of this particular branch of it, in the past, but it is safe to say that the time is a long way off; it will depend on many things: the efficiency of the court itself, the continued growth of neutral rights, the increasing necessity for preserving international peace, and the infinite forces which have tended to widen the jurisdiction of municipal law.[S]

[S] See Le Droit de la Paix, by M. Descamps.

In the growth of systems of “National Law”[T] there has been evolved from small beginnings an ever-widening jurisdiction. Impartial courts have inspired confidence which stimulated individuals to seek their aid, and this has reacted to extend their jurisdiction, until now the most intimate and complex relations between individuals, at one time wholly without their sphere, are in these days submitted as a matter of course to judicial settlement. Even questions of individual honor are settled according to the well-developed principles of libel and slander which were once considered as requiring a duel for their satisfaction.

[T] In contradistinction to “International Law.”

A similar growth may be expected in the jurisdiction of the international tribunal. Upon the reputation which it shall succeed in establishing for impartiality, freedom from race and national prejudices, regard for broad principles of law and equity, and the thoroughness and ability with which it shall discharge its high duties within its present sphere, will largely depend the extent to which an advancing public opinion will enlarge its jurisdiction until it shall embrace various classes of questions now declared non-arbitrable. No detailed classification, however, can be thought of; each difficulty as it arises must be determined in view of the surrounding circumstances with due regard to the growing public feeling in favor of judicial settlement. Under the system of voluntary arbitration there is abundant room for growth, for the _onus_ will be thrown on each contending state to square its conduct with that growing feeling in favor of arbitration which it will become more and more difficult to ignore. In every country the growth of law and the extension of the jurisdiction of the courts which administered it have been concurrent; the same rule must govern in the field of international law.

There are vast fields at present untouched by the law of nations. The discovery of the New World threw the jurists of that day into bewilderment as to how rights in the American continents might be acquired and established. A period of doubt and dispute ensued, until finally Grotius, by applying certain rules of Roman law regarding the acquirement of rights by individuals through purchase, possession, etc., and by inventing certain other rules, helped to supply a legal foundation upon which the acquisition of these territories could be regulated. Looking toward the future, one can see that, since there are no more continents to be discovered and the habitable parts of the earth have been already taken possession of by the colonial pioneer, the great principle of the survival of the fittest must henceforth mainly work itself out in competitions confined to the existing territories of the various powers. This will necessitate the consideration of some deep questions concerning the life and death of nations and the heirship to their dominions.[U]

[U] _Vide_ Contuzzi, Leggi di Composizioni e di Decomposizioni
degli Stati.

It is widely believed, for instance, that China is dying a natural death. Assuming it to be the fact, what will be the rules to govern the inheritance of these Oriental domains? Great Britain, Russia, Germany, the United States, and other nations have acquired footholds and established interests within Chinese territory. Disputes will inevitably arise between them; many will be settled by mutual compromise in which, perhaps, the chief consideration will be the amount of warlike force behind the arguments advanced; many others will be sure to find their way to an arbitral tribunal, and before that body arguments will be made and by that body decisions will be handed down embracing principles not now to be found in the books, but which the circumstances of the case and the demands of justice require. And so will doubtless ensue a growth of “international judge-made law and equity” which will gradually work an extension of the arbitral jurisdiction into fields at present unknown to the law of nations. One thing is certain: the law so developed must not, on the one hand, be in conflict with the Grotian doctrine of the equality of states as rightly understood, nor, on the other, with that great all-pervading law of the survival of the fittest--a law which determines the destinies of men and nations alike.

THE FATE OF THE BEAGLE.

BY THE REV. V. MARSHALL LAW.

On the 27th of December, 1831, his Majesty’s ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R. N., sailed from Devonport, England, on an expedition the purpose of which was to complete a survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego that had been begun under Captain King (1826-’30); to survey the shores of Chile and Peru, and of some islands in the Pacific; and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the world. The voyage was one of the most memorable ones in the annals of scientific exploration, for, besides the direct results, which, in the condition of geography and natural history at the time, constituted very important additions to knowledge, it carried Charles Darwin, then young and full of the enthusiasm for study that never left him. Mr. Darwin accompanied the expedition on the invitation of its commander, Captain Fitz Roy, and with the special sanction of the Lords of the Admiralty, and, as it turned out, next to the captain of the vessel was perhaps the most important member of it. He made it his special business to inquire into the character and method and the reason of all the natural objects and phenomena he saw, examining what was in the sea while they were upon it, and, when they landed, going ashore and studying the geography and geology and life of the region as thoroughly as the time of stay would permit, and collecting no end of notes and specimens as material for future study.

Besides his elaborate work giving the full story of the expedition and the details of its scientific results--a book which has ever since been a standard authority, and still keeps students in active discussion and investigation--the voyage of the Beagle has to be credited with having supplied the occasion for the composition of the briefer and more popular account which has become one of the classics of English literature.

More than this, and vastly transcending it in the importance of its bearing on the future of science, it was while going round the world and observing on the Beagle that those fundamental facts were gathered and stored in Mr. Darwin’s mind which, worked over and developed in after years and compared and combined with subsequently accumulated facts, bore fruit in the Origin of Species and the transformation of science that resulted upon the enunciation of Mr. Darwin’s theory of descent.

We all regard the association of any object with great events or with those in which we have great interest as making it precious. We endow ships with a kind of personality, regard them affectionately, and often speak of them fondly, as if they were real living beings in whom we had an interest. Such feelings we might legitimately entertain with regard to the Beagle, so closely associated with the history we have referred to. Few associations deserve, in fact, to be more highly valued than that of this brig, the Beagle, with Mr. Darwin’s books and his theory. It is therefore a matter of legitimate concern to inquire into what was the fate of the famous vessel.

The inquiry has been made, and is answered by the Rev. V. Marshall Law, of Oakland, Cal., whose account follows:

“I was lying in my room, in Tsukiji, as I had been day after day, in 1890, watching the lazy roll of the school-ship in the Imperial Naval Academy, just a little to the south, when a caller and an old resident, Mr. Arthur Morris, said to me, ‘I see you have Darwin’s old ship, the Beagle, in plain sight out there.’

“‘Is that the Beagle?’ I asked in great surprise.

“He assured me that it was, and somehow after he had gone it impressed itself more strongly on my mind the more I thought of it. I lay ill, and part of the time in delirium, for ten days. When I at last got up, the Beagle was gone. I sent inquiries to the Naval Academy, but no one seemed to know anything about her. As soon as I was able to go out, I lost no time in setting on foot inquiries of the whereabouts of the missing ship. I finally learned that she had probably gone to the Imperial Navy Yard in Yokosuka, about thirty miles from Tokio. As soon as I was able to travel we started to go to Yokosuka in search of the missing vessel. Before this, however, I had taken the precaution to put on the track the Englishman, Mr. F. W. Hammond, who taught the young Japanese gunnery in the Imperial Naval Academy at Tokio, and he promised to do all in his power--which in this instance was very great--to help me in my search for the Beagle. To aid him, I gave him the following list of questions, to which he sent me the answers given below months afterward. My questions had gone through the regular naval channels. The answers show how methodical the Japanese are, even if they are slow. In these answers I use their language:

“‘Question. How did the Japanese Government happen to get the Beagle?’

“‘Answer. The details of getting are not plainly known, but the Prince of Kagoshima procured it on seventy-five thousand dollars, at the 23d of July, first year of Genzi (1860), afterward he offered it to the Government at the June of the third year of Genzi.’

“‘Q. Are there any good photographs of her as she was when a war ship?’

“‘A. No, we have no one.’

“‘Q. Where is the Beagle now?’

“‘A. After out of use, she was applied as a Chastising Place for seamen at the Yokosuka station, and then was auctioned at the March, twenty-second year of Genzi.’

“‘Q. What was the date of her arrival in Japan?’

“‘A. She was received by the Prince of Kagoshima, at Nagasaki, July, the first year of Genzi.’

“‘Q. What is her present name? When was her name changed?’

“‘A. At the present this ship has no name in the consequence of out of use, but after procured by the Kagoshima Prince the name of Beagle was changed into Kenko Kan.’

“‘Q. Do you know how old this ship is, and what she was used for by the British Government before the Japanese got her?’