We read with pleasure an admirable article on this subject
in the Tithes of Monday. The doctrine of the Sanctity of Treatico, as the Times points out, was expressed in a classic dispatch by Lord Granville in 1871, when Russia suddenly denounced the Black Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris. Lord Granville rightly declared hat the effect of suelra doctrine would:be " the entire destruc- tion of treaties in 'their essence:" No one, -of course, can deny the rit of a State to change its mind and to withdraw from a compact. The -point is %hat it cannot honourably do so without giving due notice. It is an ironical fact that in almost every case where a Power has denounced a'Treaty without warning and resorted either to violence or to independent action, honourims bee% stated to be the reason for the action. Yet the simple truth is that no nation could lose its honour more certainly than by being false to a bargain. More mischievous nonsense has been talked about honour in this connection than about any other subject. If States are to be allowed to say that their pledges hold good only on condition that their honour is never offended they can never be bound to anything. * * *
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