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field of application of the rules laid down by them. The remainder of the work is a running commentary on the work done at The Hague. It shows a clear grasp of the situations which the regulations are intended to meet and, although inclined to be doctrinaire in ascribing only interested motives to the various delegations, is unusually fair and openminded on most points. The author repudiates the chance remark of Rousseau which has been made the creed of so many jurists as a fundamental rule of the law of war and insists instead on a thorough application of that other rule that useless injury shall be avoided. The work is a clear, interesting criticism of the work done at The Hague by a fairminded military man with knowledge and appreciation of the law involved.

PERCY BORDWELL.

The Rhodian Sea-Law, edited from the manuscripts by Walter Ashburner, M. A. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1909.. (pp. ccxciii, 132.)

This scholarly book is at once an inspiration and a despair to the student of the mediaval maritime codes, an inspiration to apply to other bodies of similar law the same critical methods which have been directed to the early laws of Rhodes, and despair over the many problems which Mr. Ashburner raises as to the codes which are later in date. Until the same painstaking and laborious effort which has been expended upon the Rhodian Laws has been applied to the Consolato del Mare, the Rooles d'Oléron and the rest, the development of mediæval maritime law will continue to be an unsolved question. This is not to underestimate the monumental labors of Pardessus, whose Collection des Lois Maritimes (1828-45) is the usual but not always accessible source of information upon the subject. The writer of the present book shows that Pardessus's text of the Rhodian Laws is corrupt and inaccurate. There is reason to believe that the latter's version of the Consolato (followed by Twiss in his Black Book of the Admiralty) might be improved by the publication of a printed edition, earlier than that accessible to Pardessus, with a proper collation of the existing manuscripts.

The genuineness of the Rhodian Sea-Laws has been a subject of long controversy. First printed by Simon Schard in 1561 they were denounced as spurious by Bynkershoek and Heineccius. Until Pardessus printed his first volume there was no edition which could be called critical. Since then they have been edited by Heimbach, Zacharia, and Ferrini and Mercati in connection with the Byzantine Basilica. Not

withstanding the labors of these eminent modern scholars, Mr. Ashburner seems to work in hitherto unploughed soil. His first task was to present an adequate text. To this end he has carefully collated more than twenty-five manuscripts, ranging in date from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries. Though he has made bold to adopt a "frank eclecticism" in the use of these manuscripts, his greatest dependence has been upon the "oldest as possibly the best MS. of the Sea Law."

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The present work is in three parts: (1) an introduction of nearly three hundred pages; (2) the Greek text with a critical apparatus which may well excite surprise with its appalling wealth of variant readings; and, (3) an English translation and commentary. It would be invidious to attempt a comparison of the relative merits of the three parts. As an instance of the author's breadth of reading in the preparation of his commentary, he cites references to Weld's Travels in North America and to MacMaster's History to illustrate the prevalence of "gouging-matches " among the Mediterranean sailors (p. 85). It is in the introduction, however, that the author attempts the solution of the many problems of the sea-law. Among his conclusions are that while the Rhodian Law wa originally compiled not later than A. D. 800, “ and probably a good deal earlier" (p. liii), perhaps two centuries, it was redacted for incorporation in the Basilica (circa 890), and that notwithstanding the almost myriad variants of the manuscripts, "the sea-law, so far as its legal effects were concerned, remained substantially the same from the beginning of its career to the end," for it represented the maritime law of some parts of the Mediterranean down to the fifteenth century (p. xlix). The prologue, or "auctoritas," in two forms is thrown out as a spurious "rigmarole," leaving the work as a probably private compilation. The sources of the sea-law he investigates by a comparison with other legal monuments, especially the Corpus Juris and the Ecloga. The similarities with the former are frequent; with the latter he denies Zacharia's contention that there was any connection. "The sea-law was put together from materials of very different epochs and characters. Some of it was possibly from treatises in the nature of a Complete Merchant,' guides to a gentleman engaging in business. Other parts may have come from enactments of Byzantine Cæsars; but the mass of it must be derived from local customs (p. exiii)."

Having so placed the Rhodian Law in relation to its history and sources, the author devotes much space to a comparison of it with the other bodies of maritime law, using for the purpose not only the more.

general statements of the Tables of Amalfi and of the Consolato, but also the various mediæval city statutes and ordinances, as of Venice, Pisa, and Barcelona. This comparison is rendered the more striking and of greater historical value by a topical discussion of the development of several maritime legal doctrines, such as the contract for transportation, maritime loans, average, jettison and contribution. One of the most interesting of these is the demonstration of the aleatory character of maritime loans, and of the influence upon them of the mediæval doctrines of interest. Noteworthy also is his disagreement with Goldschmidt, who bases the principle of contribution not upon natural equity but upon an agreement growing out of the risk, in "agermanament.” According to the author the consent of those engaged in the risk was only for the purpose of ascertaining if a case for jettison had arisen. To prove his contention he cites many references to maritime ordinances in the North as well as in the Mediterranean, while Goldschmidt relies largely upon the Consolato, never in Mr. Ashburner's mind a very good authority. Indeed one is struck throughout the book with the epithets directed against the Catalan compilation. It is "verbose" (p. cxx), containing "futile reasons" (p. exxi), and has an "air of unreality about it" (p. cxxi), while its language is "confused" (p. ccxciii) and "diffuse" (p. cclxxxvii). It is to be hoped that sometime a scholar of Mr. Ashburner's ability and zeal may attack the equally difficult problem of the Consolato, for so many years venerated as an authority. It may be that the shortcomings of the Consolato are due rather to its editors than to the work itself.

Mr. Ashburner has put all students of the history of maritime law under heavy obligations. It might be objected that the style of the work is rather forbidding. But the author did not set out to make a very readable book. He has successfully dared not to be popular. The result is that the work will probably not have to be done again by some succeeding investigator.

JESSE S. REEVES.

Der kranke Krieg. By Alfred H. Fried. Leipzig: Alfred Kröner, Verlag, 1909. pp. xii, 176. 1 mark.

"The Sick War is the verbatim translation of the title of a new book recently published at Leipzig from the pen of Mr. Alfred H. Fried, the well known author of pacifist literature and editor of the "Friedenswarte." To the unbiased mind the book is all its title

implies, namely convincing proof that the cause of war is suffering from maladies which are bound sooner or later to prove fatal. It is an array of strong and for the most part unanswerable arguments in favor of a new order of things and against the old which recognizes force as the arbiter of international relations, and, it might well be termed a "lexicon of peace" inasmuch as every thought which a logical mind can conceive of in favor of a substitution of law and order for the anarchy of force is here presented in a most attractive form, namely with reference to events of contemporary history.

It is evident that the power of evolution and of moral progress is forcing the ideas of "pacifism"- for brevity's sake we must eventually adopt this newly coined word as a legitimate addition to the English language more and more to the forefront of public discussion. The reasons are accumulating why all the civilized nations, owing to the great technical achievements of modern times and the resulting growth of international commerce, have entered into relations of mutual dependence which compel them to strive for a mutual understanding. Settlements of international differences by force appear constantly to become more difficult, more risky and more ruinous for all concerned. At the same time the burdens for war preparations become more and more unbearable. The prosperity and the culture of the people are hemmed in their de velopment by the growing armaments of our day. Therefore, remonstrances against a system of force still in vogue in international relations, but no longer in harmony with the requirements of an enlightened age, are growing in volume and importance in all countries of the world, and the desire to regulate the mutual interests of the nations fairly and equitably and to bring about international order on the basis of law and justice at last become a burning question of practical politics.

Mr. Fried's book is a lucidly written analysis of this important and interesting process. It is divided into three parts. The first is given over to a discussion of war in all its aspects and of the prophylaxis of war. The possibility of an armed conflict in Europe is referred to and the reasons are given which, in the judgment of the author, will place such an eventuality outside the scope of wisdom. In a most striking way the author enumerates the causes which have led to a change of sentiment and will eventually lead to a change of system. In this connection he points to a fact which is patent to all, but is not yet generally realized, though no stronger proof could possibly be adduced for the growing internationalism of the human family. In former years govern

ments and nations made their laws irrespective of other governments and nations. To-day when we change our financial or tariff laws we ask "What will England think about it?" "How will Germany and France take it?" And the same questions are paramount in the cabinets and parliaments of Europe when new laws are considered there, all of which goes to show, so the author correctly argues, that mere local and national considerations are no longer exclusive motives for legislation, but that all countries are actually controlled by international considerations.

In the second part the author discusses the most visible symptom of the international policy of force which he justly characterizes as anarchy, namely the armaments. By reference to actual occurrences and events of recent history the important and burning problem of the reduction of armaments is discussed from the viewpoint of modern "pacifism" which strives to remove the causes rather than the consequences of friction.

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The third part which is entitled "On the way to world organization gathers a number of separate and distinct events of recent years, easily discernable as symptoms of a better international order, to make an ensemble picture which shows plainly the automatic development of international coöperation and of a general communion of the vital interests of all powers. The criticism passed upon the obstacles in the way of this evolution is a pacifist commentary on contemporary history and points. to a gradual transformation from the old order to the new in the life of the nations of the world.

The book is the most comprehensive work of a talented and prolific author and, because of its unanswerable logic, is bound to make a profound impression in the country of militarism "par excellence." It is to be hoped that it will soon be available to English readers in an authorized translation.

RICHARD BARTHOLDT.

Our Foreign Service. The A B C of American Diplomacy. By Frederick Van Dyne, LL. M., American Consul at Kingston, Jamaica, formerly Assistant Solicitor of the Department of State of the United States, author of Citizenship of the United States, Van Dyne on Naturalization. etc. The Lawyers' Co-Operative Publishing Co., Rochester, N. Y. 1909.

Mr. Van Dyne's new volume consists of 205 pages of text printed with wide margins and liberal spaces, of 77 pages of appendix containing: "Regulations governing examinations for the office of Secretary

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