the worst center of racial and diplomatic intrigue in Europe; Armenia, which contains a vast Turkish and Russian population, face to face with Russian Bolshevism, backed by Turkish machinations to regain control, in case it is actually ever taken from the Turk, which has not yet been accomplished; and Persia, which we once tried to help in the person of an American financial administrator, whose work was rendered futile by Russian and, alas! British intervention. Largely because of this, a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" considers that Persia should be placed by the League under the United States as a mandatary. "Persia," "can trust America as she can trust no other Power."

he says,

But what does he say of the other Powers? "It is obivous," he continues, "that great care will be necessary if the whole of this mandate system is not to become an abuse." "Outwardly," he goes on, "the world has accepted the revolutionary conceptions which underlie President Wilson's scheme”—meaning a League of Nations-"but it has not yet

emancipated itself from the view that a nation counts in the world by its direct political influence. Nor have we destroyed the spirit that seeks commercial advantages in political expansion."

This candid Englishman frankly lacks confidence in General Smuts' systern of mandataries. "If the mandate system so works in practice that the mandatory Power draws some economic advantages from its position, or if it fastens the hold of the mandatory Power more firmly than ever on the dependent people, then," he says, "we may live to regret the day when our statesmen invented a scheme which has become merely a device for giving a decent look to the bad habits of the past." Knowing that past, this writer does not hesitate to speak of "intrigues to bring about a change of mandate for selfish reasons"; and he considers it "important also to prevent a conspiracy among the mandatory Powers to screen each other from criticism"!

Imperialism is imperialism, whether it be joint or single; and it is not a business that

tends toward democracy or toward justice. Even in its purity and at its best estate it is a dangerous enterprise for a free people to engage in, and it is more dangerous than ever when innocence and good intention become the parters of seasoned experience in a game for power.

V

THE TREATY-MAKING POWER UNDER THE

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

WHEN the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland enters into agreements with foreign nations, it is the King who grants authority. He speaks as a sovereign. The formula of the full powers of his plenipotentiary is: "George, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland of the Dominions beyond the seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India. To all and singular to whom these presents come, Greeting."

Full powers to negotiate and conclude a treaty proceed exclusively from the King as a sovereign, who grants authority, as the formula runs, "to sign for Us and in Our name, everything so agreed upon and concluded,

in as ample manner and form, and with

equal force and efficiency, as We Ourselves could do, if personally present."

There is no one in the United States who can thus speak as a sovereign except the whole people, and they have never thus spoken. They have created a National Government, but they have definitely limited its powers; and it possesses none that are not delegated to it in the Constitution of the United States.

There is, therefore, occasion to point out that alliances and compacts affecting the condition and destinies of the European nations, whose laws and traditions entitle a personal sovereign to act, are entered into with more assurance and less reserve, are more customary, and therefore less subject to popular judgment, than is the case in the United States of America; whose Government is not a sovereign, but derives all its powers from the people, who have delegated to it only a partial representation of the sovereign authority which, in this country, the people alone possess.

At the time when our National Govern