David Playfair Heatley

“ You cannot lay down, and I do not think you would be wise to lay down, an absolute rule that under no circumstances, and for no object, could you so far concede the point as to say that a treaty is to be made which is not to become public property. I am perfectly ready to admit that that is not a process which, to me, is a very agreeable one. To reduce secret treaties to the narrowest possible limits should, I think, be the object of every responsible statesman who has the control of foreign affairs. ”

“ It is clear, therefore, that the perfecting of international relationship must be preceded in States by a process, and perhaps a long process, of internal improvement, for, without the appropriate disposition—the morally good disposition—on the part of the several commonwealths and their members, there cannot be a true and lasting League of Nations; there will be mere illusion and glittering misery.
When we are thinking of the end that should be, and is, set before humanity, right must not be conceived in compromises. ”

“ The continual attention of sovereigns to every occurrence, the constant residence of ministers, and the perpetual negotiations, make of modern Europe a kind of republic, of which the members—each independent, but all linked together by the ties of common interest—unite for the maintenance of order and liberty. Hence arose that famous scheme of the political balance, or the equilibrium of power; by which is understood such a disposition of things, as that no one potentate be able absolutely to predominate, and prescribe laws to the others. ”

“ This constitution of the Empire has undoubted defects, and yet it is certain that while it subsists the equilibrium of Europe will never be entirely destroyed, and that no sovereign of a European State need fear that he will be driven from his throne by another; the treaty of Westphalia will perhaps remain for ever the basis of our political system. Thus public law, a study which Germans cultivate with so much diligence, is even more important than they suppose. It is not only the public law of the Germanic body; it is the public law of the whole of Europe. ”

“ By that treaty Prussia finished her first war of the French Revolution. Only a visionary could have seen in the Treaty of Basel the star of hope in the sky. The treaty was a link in a chain that discredited Prussia in the eyes of Europe; and to the historian of international relations the treaty is noteworthy, inasmuch as it involved a surrender by Frederick William III of the system of the Empire and the system of Europe.
The highest of all practical problems for the human race, Kant declared, is the establishment of a Civil Society universally administering right according to law. ”

“ The path of inquiry in comparative politics is very alluring, but it is dangerously devious. It is better to concentrate on one political system, and to get the lessons as sharp and decisive as possible. If we look to our own government since the time when a parliamentary system began to prevail in England, we find an almost unbroken line of appeal to close the ranks and maintain unity of mind and purpose for unity in action, where the interests of the country have had to be adjusted to the interests and the contentions of others. ”

“ But more often the success of policy is seen merely in an improvement of the material conditions of life, in greater and better-distributed wealth, in a higher social well-being, and in the welding of the parts of a society into something like a harmonious community—the integrity of the body politic. Twice happy the statesman who not only has a high conception of end in his politics, but can point to great practical achievement in striving to attain the goal ”

“ No one doubts, Sir, that this power of Treaty-making lies in this country with the Crown, subject to certain exceptions, which, I believe, are perfectly well understood. Wherever money is involved, wherever a pecuniary burden on the State is involved in any shape, I say, it is perfectly well understood, and I believe it is as well known to Foreign Powers as to ourselves, that the Government is absolutely powerless without the consent of Parliament, and that that assent, if given, is an absolutely indispensable assent, upon which the Crown has no claim whatever, presumptive or otherwise. ”

“ I do not hold the view that antique methods are pursued by diplomatists which no man of common sense adopts in the ordinary work of everyday life. On the contrary, the work of diplomacy is exactly the work which is done every day between two great firms, for instance, which have business relations, or between two great corporate entities which have interests diverging or interests in common. If you are a man of sense you do not create difficulties to begin with. ”

“ Democracy is favourable to the increase of the internal resources of a State; it tends to diffuse a moderate independence; it promotes the growth of public spirit, and fortifies the respect which is entertained for law in all classes of society: and these are advantages which only exercise an indirect influence over the relations which one people bears to another. But a democracy is unable to regulate the details of an important undertaking, to persevere in a design, and to work out its execution in the presence of serious obstacles. ”

“ No human society has ever long subsisted, or ever can long subsist, without being bound together by good laws, much less the Society of Nations. It has been the signal merit of the Statesmen of Europe, who have had charge of the international interests of their respective States during the last half century, that they have agreed to modify the customary Law of Nations from time to time so as to adapt it to the enlightened demands of an advancing civilisation. ”

“ The noble Earl must remember that if we are of opinion that the course of public affairs is going ill, and that our Government has mismanaged, that faults are being committed and dangers are being incurred, we have no absolute Sovereign to whom we can appeal in order to correct the evil; our absolute Sovereign is the people of this country, and it is they, and they alone, who can bring a remedy to the mischief which is going on. ”

“ I stand here to defend the common-sense carrying out of great international objects, and those objects, so far as this country is concerned, are, first, to obtain peace, and then to maintain peace. I do not see that there can be, or ought to be, any collision between the Government and any section of this House upon the general aims of British policy; still less can I see anything in our system that can be described as antagonistic, inconsistent with or opposed to the true principles of democracy, interpreted in the light of the actual facts of national life as we see them artes us. ”

“ When Sir Travers Twiss, writing in 1863, fixed his mind on War and the Rights of War, a like spirit of optimism prevailed with him. History, he said, in its relation to the History of War, may truly be regarded as Philosophy teaching by example; and the wider and more complete the historical survey the more irresistible will be the conclusion, that 'the employment of Force on the part of Nations in the prosecution of Right against other Nations has become subject to Rules, which are in accordance with Reason, and have the Common Weal for their object'. ”

“ Monarchy rests, in principle, on unity, and it emphasizes the need for stability in the conduct of affairs of State. Effective monarchy affords, during its continuance, a better guarantee for persistence in policy and consistency in action than a democracy or a parliamentary government, based on diversities, on discussion, on considerable publicity, and on provisions duly made within the constitution for changes in policy in response to changes in opinion. ”

“ We can never evade circumstance—that unspiritual god—in politics. Intellectually possible, no doubt, it is, and an exercise of high intellect it can become, to study politics, if politics it then be, apart from conditions in fact and circumstance: possible it is to construct a scheme of politics, or a system of thought on polity, that shall not be shaped and determined by realities and by what is practicable—to write at large of ‘the’ State without ever having clearly observed a State, and compared one State at work with others, both in their methods and in their achievements. ”

“ How is each State to be left master in its own house, and yet fulfil the duty which it owes to the Federation? That, as Rousseau clearly saw, was the vital problem, and to no political thinker could it be more real and critical than to the interpreter and champion of the general will in politics and the upholder of the rights of small States and of the saving function of Federation in their behalf. ”

“ All trade is in its essence advantageous—even to that party to whom it is least so. All war is in its essence ruinous; and yet the great employments of government are to treasure up occasions of war, and to put fetters upon trade.'
Therefore it is necessary to begin by trying to remove the causes of war, It is necessary to narrow the sphere of operation of jealousy—the vice of the narrow mind, and to expand that of confidence—the virtue of the enlarged mind. ”

“ A Foreign Office and a Diplomatic Service are great instruments for preventing, as far as can be prevented, and diminishing, even when you cannot prevent, friction between States which are, or which ought to be, friendly: How is the task of peace-maker—because that is largely the task which falls to diplomatists and to the Foreign Office, which controls diplomatists—to be pursued if you are to shout your grievances from the housetop whenever they occur? ”

“ Here, without any doubt, there is need of eyes for the past, the present, and the future—need of the three eyes of prudence: memory, intelligence, providence. By these Fortuna is won. Of all the regions of politics there is no other of which it is so strictly true as of the international, that only the most complete knowledge and command available of all the factors should be allowed to count, whether for those who direct or for those in a succeeding age who try to judge them. There is often in History and Politics some 'one thing unknown' that is required as the key to all. ”

“ For what man of sense, who takes account of the right of sovereign powers, would put his trust in the promises of him who has both the will and the power to do what he likes, and who recognizes no higher law than the safety and interest of his dominion? ”

“ Britain's non-fulfilment of obligations to foreign Powers was to be ascribed, if not to a clear breach of political morality, at least to the character and consequences of conventions, and to conventions that had acquired the force of principles, in the ordering of her political life. The non-fulfilment of obligations by Continental Powers was to be ascribed to physical duress, to the imperious calls of nature, to which the State for its own safety, the community for the sake of bare existence, must submit. ”

“ Broadening our view, we may think that Lord Augustus Loftus, in passing a eulogy on Lord Clarendon as Minister for Foreign Affairs, was almost ascribing to him the qualities of a perfectly equipped representative of the service of which he was himself an experienced and distinguished member. ‘Courteous and dignified, with charming manners, he won the regard and confidence of all with whom he came in contact. Firm and courageous, with consummate judgement, he was neither open to flattery nor to the influence of fear. ”

“ We must take care lest by proceeding precipitately and in a revolutionary manner we destroy the existing defective constitution at the incalculable cost of annihilating, for some indefinite time, the whole foundation of law on which Society rests. But if we proceed by gradual reform, and are guided by certain clear and fixed principles, we may lead by continuous approximation to the highest political good: we may be led to Perpetual Peace. ”

“ There is a more solid support. This support is the Germanic body which, placed almost in the centre of Europe, may be thought to contribute even more to the maintenance of its neighbours in their existing states than to that even of its own members. It is a body formidable on account of the extent of its territories and the vast number and valour of its peoples, Its very constitution renders it formidable, for that is of such a nature as to take from it both the desire and the means of conquest, and at the same time to make it a stout obstacle to those who are ambitious to conquer. ”

“ Directly a controversy becomes public all that fair give-and-take becomes either difficult or impossible, and if secret diplomacy meant anything so idiotic as an attempt to discuss in public matters in which sentiment, international pride, and international interests were profoundly concerned, I do not think that any sane assembly would ever really try to carry it out in the day-to-day national work which has to be got through. ”

“ Dealing with the argument that the interests of this country, and in particular her dominion in India, would be imperilled, if a Russian ship of war should enter the Mediterranean, he said, ‘Well, if it be so, let duty come first and interest second, and perish the interests of England, perish our dominion in India, rather than that we should strike one blow or speak one word on behalf of the wrong against the right.’ Freeman was at pains to refute the assertion that he had said ‘Perish India’. ”

“ Democracy needs checks for its own security, just as monarchy has needed and submitted to checks against its own abuse. The power of a democracy when once it is set in motion along any line may be irresistible, but it stands in need of guarantees of stability and endurance.
In Britain, even more than in the American Commonwealth, [111] adequate provisions exist for an ultimate and true national control over the determination of foreign policy. ”

“ The need and opportunity for subterfuge and chicanery, fencing and finessing, are greater in international policy than in the conduct of domestic. The very function of a nation's laws is to mediate between interests, and even to establish a concord of interests, within one body politic. ”

“ So, again, all the European Powers are often spoken of as composing one great system. In the second case it means either any course of policy whatever—any tolerably uniform mode of acting in political affairs—or such a course of policy as involves combinations, more or less permanent, with foreign Powers. A statesman who habitually avoids engaging his country in foreign alliances has a consistent principle of action, but not a "system" in this latter sense of the word. His principle is to have no system. ”

“ A constitution, and the whole equipment, personal and impersonal, of government, must be judged not in themselves alone—for in themselves they have no meaning—but according to the people whose constitution and equipment they are, and according to the problems in politics that have to be grappled with at the time, and by the measure of suitability of the constitution and its organs for dealing with these problems successfully. ”