Sir,--You may perhaps think that the accompanying letter, recently addressed by Count von Moltke to Professor Bluntschli, is of sufficient general interest to be inserted in _The Times_. It was written with reference to the Manual of the Laws of War which was adopted by the Institut de Droit International at its recent session at Oxford. The German text of the letter will appear in a few days at Berlin. My translation is made from the proof-sheets of the February number of the _Revue de Droit International_, which will contain also Professor Bluntschli's reply. Your obedient servant, T. E. HOLLAND. Oxford, January 29 (1881). "Berlin, Dec. 11, 1880. "You have been so good as to forward to me the manual published by the Institut de Droit International, and you hope for my approval of it. In the first place I fully appreciate the philanthropic effort to soften the evils which result from war. Perpetual peace is a dream, and it is not even a beautiful dream. War is an element in the order of the world ordained by God. In it the noblest virtues of mankind are developed; courage and the abnegation of self, faithfulness to duty, and the spirit of sacrifice: the soldier gives his life. Without war the world would stagnate, and lose itself in materialism. "I agree entirely with the proposition contained in the introduction that a gradual softening of manners ought to be reflected also in the mode of making war. But I go further, and think the softening of manners can alone bring about this result, which cannot be attained by a codification of the law of war. Every law presupposes an authority to superintend and direct its execution, and international conventions are supported by no such authority. What neutral States would ever take up arms for the sole reason that, two Powers being at war, the 'laws of war' had been violated by one or both of the belligerents? For offences of that sort there is no earthly judge. Success can come only from the religious moral education of individuals and from the feeling of honour and sense of justice of commanders who enforce the law and conform to it so far as the exceptional circumstances of war permit. "This being so, it is necessary to recognise also that increased humanity in the mode of making war has in reality followed upon the gradual softening of manners. Only compare the horrors of the Thirty Years' War with the struggles of modern times.