Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 25.pdf/448

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American Bar Association to common ideals may grow up, suffi ciently strong to develop a general will, and to make the binding power of these ideals a reliable sanction for their obliga tions to each other?" Realizing that the perfect international community which was the hope of Renan, Arnold, and Goethe, and the full development of an international Sittlichkeit, was a goal a long way off, Lord Haldane preferred to look to the attainment of something within the present reach of man, namely, the development of a Sittlichkeit be tween the peoples of a sympathetic group of nations drawn together by ties of race and institutions. "The Sitt lichkeit which can develop itself between the peoples of even a loosely connected group seems to promise a sanction for international obligation which has not hitherto, so far as I know, attracted attention in connection with inter national law." If the conception is new to inter national law, it is nevertheless not likely to challenge criticism, for hardly any one will deny the possibility of a close solidarity among nations closely allied in their habits of thought, and the influence of such an understanding in promoting justice and fair-dealing among the nations making up a group of this kind. Why hesitate, then, to look for ward to the unity of formation of one collective public opinion, or Sittlichkeit, for a unit larger than the single nation but not all-embracing? The speaker was careful not to give the misleading impression that he was advocating the formation of a select club of Anglo-Saxon nations to which other nations could not be admitted, as he showed by references implying the possibility of other groups being formed by the nations of Europe, on as high an ethical plane as that of the Anglo-Saxon race. He was, in fact, advocating a

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world movement; recent events in Europe, he said, point to the ethical possibilities of the group system as a means of preserving peace between nations. Lastly, recurring to his ideal of a closer Anglo-Saxon solidarity, hopes for which were suggested by the message he brought from the King, Lord Haldane re-iterated his belief in the lawyer's power to influ ence public opinion, and urged that the lawyers of the United States, Canada, and Great Britain exert their efforts to secure a yet further development of Sittlichleit toward the goal suggested. In this spirit he proposed that the com ing international centenary observance of the Peace of Ghent should be ap proached. Hon. Hampton L. Carson of Pennsyl vania responded felicitously to the senti ments of Lord Haldane: "We applaud the spirit of the address that while each nation shall act like a gentleman, all Councils of the World should be con trolled by the gentlemanlike nations. In this way we can strike a newer, truer, deeper note of human brother hood, which like Memnon's statue, bursting into music with every rising sun, will proclaim a new era of peace and good-will, and justice scrupulously exact." According to the statement of Mr. Francis Rawle of Philadelphia, the Lord Chancellor said afterward regarding his address: "It is official and is intended to be so. It is the declared policy of the British Government announced through my address to the world. It will be published in London before I get home, and it will be published imme diately in French, German, Russian and Chinese." In accordance with the Lord Chan cellor's recommendation, no "cut-and dried resolution" was adopted, but the