Page:The League of Nations and the coming rule of law.djvu/8

 disregard at his own discretion, has been tried and found wanting.

Renouncement of sovereignty is still a sticking point with many publicists: see M. Seignobos in 'The New Europe' of April 4. They forget that some renunciation of individual right and discretion is the foundation of every agreement, public and private, that is to govern future action. All binding promises, great or small, restrain the promisor's freedom. That, indeed, is the essence of promise. No member of the Postal Union, which includes almost all civilized governments, is sovereign in the matter of foreign postal rates. The question for every contracting party in all forms of contract is whether the portion of liberty he surrenders is adequately recompensed by the portion of reward or security he acquires. Eights cannot be made out of nothing any more than mechanical work; as surely as there is no action without reaction in physics, you cannot create rights in politics without imposing duties and limiting freedom of action somewhere. But the right and liberty of self-defence, it is said, are indefeasible. Quite true in the last resort, and as much so for one man as for a society. Nevertheless all civilized laws keep self-defence within pretty strict bounds, English law rather specially so.

The first business of a League of Nations is to secure its members against military aggression. Every member must pledge itself not to take the law (or