Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/870

834 834 HARVARD LAW REVIEW tions, that were considered to concern only the family, and with regard to which the head of the house was both lawgiver and judge.^^ The Roman law, for instance, reached a high development before it interfered with the patria potestas over children. Slaves formed a class, even in recent American legal systems, in whose behalf the law would not interfere. Similarly the preservation of the right of each nation to govern its own subjects need not be in- compatible with the development of international law. The world is now, in international matters, in a state of bar- barism. Any international organization that is set up will neces- sarily be imperfect, and will fail, to some extent, in putting an end to the reign of violence. It can hardly be more imperfect, however, than were the beginnings of national organization from which have developed the civilized state. It has been a characteristic of all vigorous races in their early days, and in modern times especially of the English-speaking peoples, to go ahead with ill-constructed political machinery, without taking much heed of its defects, and improve it piecemeal as they went along. In this course they have been surprisingly successful. Will they be the leaders now in a world-wide experiment? Roland Gray. Boston, Mass. ^ GoMME, passage above cited. 1