"I am very grateful for your Excellency's detailed and kind
statement of opinion as to the manual of the laws of war. This
statement invites serious reflections. I see in it a testimony
of the highest value, of historical importance; and I shall
communicate it forthwith to the members of the Institut de
Droit International.

"For the present I do not think I can better prove my
gratitude to your Excellency than by sketching the reasons
which have guided our members, and so indicating the nature of
the different views which prevail upon the subject.

"It is needless to say that the same facts present themselves
in a different light and give a different impression as they
are looked at from the military or the legal point of view.
The difference is diminished, but not removed, when an
illustrious general from his elevated position takes also into
consideration the great moral and political duties of States,
and when, on the other hand, the representatives of science of
international law set themselves to bring legal principles
into relation with military necessities.

"For the man of arms the interest of the safety and success of
the army will always take precedence of that of the
inoffensive population, while the jurist, convinced that law
is the safeguard of all, and especially for the weak against
the strong, will ever feel it a duty to secure for private
individuals in districts occupied by an enemy the
indispensable protection of law. There may be members of the