Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/123

EIGHTY YEARS OF ARBITRATION. 10/ EIGHTY YEARS OF ARBITRATION. "/'~UR setting forth is by no means for the purpose of gaining V^ spoil or exacting ransom, though it may well happen that such may come to us also. We go to France and from thence, I trust, to Spain in humble search of a field in which we may win advancement and perchance some small share of glory." Such were Sir Nigel Loring's words to his retainers as he set forth in 1367 to take command of the "White Company." Such was the spirit that fostered chivalry. And for centuries after chivalry died, wealth and glory were sought in war, and but seldom else- where. Ambition and passion continued to find their natural vent in war long after the world had laughed at Don Quixote and groaned under the Armada. It was not until Napoleon had sacri- ficed whole nations to his ambition that any serious protest was raised against the needless resort to arms. For some years after 18 14, when the first peace society was founded, the peace sentiment found little sympathy, and its public expression was somewhat spasmodic and no more efficacious than the ordinary day-after resolutions for reform. But half a century later when the whole civilized world had been shaken by a' rapid succession of frightfully destructive wars, when the Crimean War, the American Rebellion, and the Franco-Prussian War had brought to every home the horrors of military strife, the recruits to the standard of peace became far more numerous and energetic, and their proposals became more rational, and received better attention. Instead of preaching vague sermons on the blessings of peace, they concentrated on arbitration as the best solution of inter- national difficulties. In a few years their societies spread through- out Europe and America, legislatures reinforced their views with resolutions, and nations adopted treaties of arbitration. In this century have occurred not less than fifty instances of disputes actually arbitrated, the most important of which, the Geneva Award in 1873, is familiar to every one. The cases, however, do not cover a wide range. With the single exception of a question of succession in a minor European principality, they are all con- fined to disputes territorial and financial. The wars of this cen-