Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/132

96 96 HARVARD LAW REVIEW during his advisership was the abolition of exterritoriahty. Like all Oriental nations, Siam had been marked in its international relations with a certain badge of inferiority. The native courts were not allowed to take jurisdiction over European or American sub- jects, who were entitled to have their suits, civil or criminal, tried in the consular courts. Even Japan had only recently thrown off this condition. Siam, having adopted civilized codes and having occidentaHzed her administration, had grounds for requesting the same privilege; but it was hard for a small nation to secure the ear of indifferent foreign offices, and to persuade diplomats, for whom inaction was safe, to change the beloved ''status quo." Westengard proved to be an extraordinarily able advocate of a small state. He could offer no good bargain; he could threaten no bad alternative; justice was his only plea. But justice, in the mouth of a charming, sincere, and enlightened advocate, prevailed amazingly. Treaties abolishing exterritoriality were rapidly obtained. Westengard was showered with honors by the kings he served. Rank, orders, and decorations were his reward for devoted service. The old king died, but his successor's esteem for his adviser was as high as his father's had been. Westengard's position was one of almost unbounded power for good to a people he had learned to respect and love. He might spend his life in a rank little less than royal, and occupy an imperishable place in the history of the Orient. But, after all, he was an American; and, as he said, the time had come when he must decide whether to remain one, or to put off his native character and become Siamese. The position of Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard was waiting for him; and he returned to Cambridge, a private citizen again, to undertake anew the laborious and obscure life of a teacher. He came back to a very different school from the one he left. In the twelve years of his absence all the older teachers who had been his colleagues had gone from the school; Langdell had died in 1906, and Ames in 19 10; Gray had retired in 19 13 and died in 191 5; and Judge Smith had retired in 191 2. The younger Thayer had just died, tragically, and the school was again in a time of stress. It was a painful moment at the best to begin anew; and the new beginning meant for him a change of climate, of position, of work, and of thought. Many a time during that first year Westengard must have wished