The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-03-01

EW sS0's~s'
IN THE early middle age monarchs
used to send emissaries to the courts
of their brother monarchs, in order
to scrutinize the tendencies pre-
vailing there. These emissaries were
usually men of rank, polite and cour-
teOus in manners, who took particular
pains to work themselves into the good
graces of queens, princesses and other
influential ladies of the court, as
through them they learned most of the
intrigues and Vaccinations of interest
to their royal masters. An emissary of
that kind, no matter what his title may
have been, was spy pure and simple.
With the advance of civilization, and
also as one of the consequences of the
Reformation, these spies were gradu-
ally superseded by regularly accredited
representatives of the mOnarchs; not of
the nations to which they belonged.
Not until constitutions had curtailed
the prerogatives and rights of mon
archs, could such emissaries be called
representatives of their countries; and
even up to this day most of them rep
resent both the person of their ruler
and the government of their country.
These emissaries are called ministers
plenipotentiary, and ambassadors if
they represent Great Power with an
other Great Power.
Since times immemorial, unwritten
rules have governed the etiquette, pref
erences, privileges and intercourse
between governments and foreign rep
resentatiyes, and vice versa. Personal
agreements between nations and ma
tions, or, rather, between rulers and
rulers, have always existed; but that
all-important embodiment, called In
ternatiOnal Law, came into existence
only with the advent of the locomotive
and of the steamboat. These two
brought the nations of the earth into
such close proximity to each other, that
it was found advisable to establish
rules which should be binding, not
only in regulating affairs of common
interest and the intercourse between
all nations, butalso between individual
nations.
The former regulate the naOdatS oper-
daadi in cases of general interest; the
exercise of neutrality in case of war;
the treatment of inhabitants, prisoners
of war and of the wounded, as well as
what must be considered open or forti-
fed towns, which latter alone are SUBJ
ject to bOmbardment. 1t also defines
the spheres of influence on the high
seas, geographical boundaries Subject
to special treaty., and establishes rules
for international commerce, inter-
course, and many other matters, whose
Importance the layman could not un-
derstand unless it were explained to
him in many columns, and these are
not at my disposal at the present time.
The agreements between Individual
nations include political, economical,
commercial, extraditional and all other
treaties. However antagonistic the
sentiment of one nation may be to-
wards another, all are united in pro-
tecting the provisions of international
law. This law is infringed on quite
frequently, and could cite from men,
ory fully two hundred violations of the
law, which all occurred within the last
thirty years. AS an illustration, 1 shall
give few examples of which 1 think
that they are more or less familiar to
readers in the United States:
After the seventeen alleged sMafia"
members had been lynched in Louisi-
ana, the Italian government claimed,
and established proof, that four of the
men were still Italian subjects at the
time of the lynching, and that, there
fore, the United States had failed to
provide for them such protection as
was required by the treaty between the
two countries. AS matter of fact,
the United States, as such, was an in
nocent party to the lynching, and did
not even possess the right to interfere
in matter which came exclusively un-
der the jurisdiction of the State of
Louisiana But our government final