conditions  of  its  legitimacy  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from
the  conditions  of  legitimate  conquest.  The  case  for  transient
intervention,  professedly  in  the  interest  of  the  state  interfered
with,  when  the  unity  of  a  state  has  been  broken  up  by
internal  conflict,  will  be  discussed  later.^

Socialistic  interference,  again,  seems  almost  out  of  the
question  in  international  relations,  for  the  simple  reason  that
so  long  as  the  concert  of  nations  is  ineffectual  to  prevent
any  one  nation  from  doing  mischief  to  another — and  the
continual  frequency  of  wars  shows  that  it  is  ineffectual —
it  would  be  almost  futile  to  try  to  use  it  for  the  harder  task
of  compelling  mutual  positive  services.  States  have,  indeed,
combined  in  various  ways — for  instance,  by  international
postal  arrangements — for  the  promotion  of  their  common
interests  ;  and  it  is  eminently  desirable  that  they  should  so
combine.  But,  at  least  among  States  on  an  equality  and
sharing  the  same  civilisation,  common  action  of  this  kind
has  always  been  effected  by  voluntary  combination ;  and  I
conceive  that  this  must  continue  to  be  the  case  until  the
reign  of  peace  among  independent  nations  is  finally  estab-
lished.
