Bluntschli's reply.

Your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, January 29 (1881).

"Berlin, Dec. 11, 1880.

"You have been so good as to forward to me the manual
published by the Institut de Droit International, and you hope
for my approval of it. In the first place I fully appreciate
the philanthropic effort to soften the evils which result from
war. Perpetual peace is a dream, and it is not even a
beautiful dream. War is an element in the order of the world
ordained by God. In it the noblest virtues of mankind are
developed; courage and the abnegation of self, faithfulness to
duty, and the spirit of sacrifice: the soldier gives his life.
Without war the world would stagnate, and lose itself in
materialism.

"I agree entirely with the proposition contained in the
introduction that a gradual softening of manners ought to be
reflected also in the mode of making war. But I go further,
and think the softening of manners can alone bring about this
result, which cannot be attained by a codification of the law
of war. Every law presupposes an authority to superintend and
direct its execution, and international conventions are
supported by no such authority. What neutral States would ever
take up arms for the sole reason that, two Powers being at
war, the 'laws of war' had been violated by one or both of the