The International Conference of American Republics has assumed a well-defined and dignified position among the great international organizations of the world. Four conferences have met up to the present time. The suspicions and misrepresentations by which the first of these meetings were surrounded, while still occasionally cropping up in the press and among persons who are not entirely well informed, are no longer of any effect among serious publicists. As the general character of the International Union becomes more and more established, many matters that originally led to heated discussion may now be taken for granted and left to a purely academic forum.

The self-governing colonies of the British Empire are not, it is true, states within the meaning of international law, for Great Britain has, among other things, the legal right to conclude with other nations treaties which affect her colonies. It is, moreover, too much to say that the self-governing colonies will become members of the family of nations. Still it is a fact that England has in recent years granted them more or less participation in the negotiation of treaties affecting their welfare; and in a recent treaty of general arbitration Great Britain expressly reserves “the right before concluding a special agreement in any matter affecting the interest of a self-governing Dominion of the British Empire, to obtain the concurrence therein of the Government of that Dominion.” Consequently these colonies possess a certain standing in international relations which can not be overlooked, and which justifies some comparative study of their fundamental laws. The object of this paper is, therefore, to give a general sketch of the constitution of South Africa, recently approved by the English Parliament, in the light of the earlier constitutions similarly granted to Canada and Australia.

The announcement of the discovery of the North Pole raised in several quarters, among others the British and the Canadian Parliaments, the question whether the act of discovery gave to the United States any right of possession over the North Pole.

In searching for the answer to this question, it is necessary to ascertain the rules of the Law of Nations that govern analogous cases.

It was in the natural course of things that the Second Conference of 1907, called to elaborate the work of 1899, should deal with the problem of extending arbitration along the lines indicated in the Russian proposal of 1899, and that the question should be reconsidered as to whether the nations could not and should not obligate themselves to refer disputes to arbitration.

The island of Minos, which at one time is supposed to have had the great honor of giving hospitality to Zeus or Jupiter during his infancy, thereby linking its name with that of celestial beings, seems to have been predestined by the Mœræ or Fates to be the perennial apple of discord between the descendants of 'Europa' the wife of the Supreme Olympian God.

The recent Imperial rescript of the Chinese Government abolishing slavery within the empire is a document of unusual interest,1 and adds one more to the many evidences that have been given lately of great changes going on among this ancient people. The farreaching effects of this reform can hardly be estimated at present, but the proclamation of emancipation which is to be posted far and wide throughout the empire will be a charter of liberty to myriads of the down-trodden and oppressed, and will mark for them the upward turning of the way toward freedom and enlightenment.

The lawyers in every country have been kept busy during the last century in developing a special body of law, first for the railroad, then for the telegraph, and then for the telephone. They must soon address themselves to a new task of the same nature. The air-ship has at last been brought to a state of efficiency which, while far short of perfection, takes it out of the field of mere experiment and seems to assure its speedy employment in the transportation for hire of passengers and goods. Other uses of less worth to the community or of absolute detriment are equally certain. It will be seized as an aid in evil-doing by smugglers, spies, burglars; by criminals of all sorts flying from justice; and for illicit trade of every kind. It flies over the borders of one sovereignty into those of another as swiftly and irresponsibly as a bird. How far must it be the subject of public regulation? How fully can the precepts of private law which have been found applicable to other conditions and relations be applied to those resulting from the introduction of this new agency of power ? Can there be one world-law for the high air, as there is one world-law for the high sea ? Can such rules as those of general average and maritime lien be applied by analogy to aerial navigation ?“

The convention which met in 1787 to frame the Constitution of the United States, embraced two earnest and determined bodies of men. One favored a strong central government; the other opposed any great increase of power over that granted by the Articles of Confederation. With what jealousy the states guarded their rights and with what reluctance they made surrenders to the federal government is common knowledge. The Constitution, as adopted, was a compromise between the factions, and that part relative to admiralty and maritime jurisdiction was the second great compromise between conflicting depositories of power.