This is a topic that seems to have almost wholly escaped the attention of so-called authorities or publicists on international law. Bonfils, for example (7th ed., p. 135), calls attention to the difference between the recognition of a new state and a new government, but fails to show what the distinction is. Calvo (5th ed., 1, pp. 236 ff.) discusses rather fully recognition of belligerency and independence, but apparently has nothing to say of the recognition of new de facto governments in case of revolution. Even Pradier-Fodéré, the most voluminous of the authorities, seems to have nothing to impart on this subject.

“Theoretically,” says Hall, “a politically organized community enters of right into the family of states and must be treated in accordance with law, as soon as it is able to show that it possesses the marks of a state.”

The Hague Conference of 1907 had for one of its objects the formation of an international court of justice, the decisions of which were to systematize international law and resolve its inconsistencies. Such an international court, the “Court of Arbitral Justice,” was approved in principle by the Conference, but failed to be established because the Conference was unable to agree on the composition of the court.

“The preamble of a statute,” says Justice Story, “is a key to open the mind of the makers as to the mischiefs which are to be remedied, and the objects which are to be accomplished by the provisions of the statute.”

In the death of Mr. Alpheus Henry Snow in New York City on August 19, 1920, the American Society of International Law has lost a friend of long standing and a valuable co-worker. Mr. Snow had been a member of the Society since the first year of its organization in 1906.

The inauguration of the League of Nations took place at Paris in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on January 16, 1920. Representatives of the eight members of the Council, exclusive of the United States, namely, Belgium, Brazil, the British Empire, France,Greece, Italy, Japan and Spain, formally met, elected M. Leon Bourgeois, of France, the first chairman of the Council, and proceeded to organize the machinery for the practical execution of the clauses of the Treaty of Peace, the urgent necessity of which, the chairman explained, made it impossible further to postpone the meeting of the Council.