It should be said, however, that Professor Oppenheim expressed doubts on more than one occasion as to the desirability of its publication, but he allowed himself to be persuaded that an English version might be of service to the great and worthy cause of international law and of international organization. Modesty was not the least of his virtues. From time to time Professor Oppenheim has ventured into the same field. In 1918, in the performance of his duty 'to lay down such rules and suggest such measures as may tend to diminish the evils of war and finally to extinguish war between nations', he delivered three lectures on _The League of Nations and its Problems_, as holder of the Chair of International Law, founded by Dr. Whewell in the University of Cambridge. As in _The Future of International Law_, so in the lectures, he started from the Hague Conferences and made the work of The Hague the foundation upon which he would base any scheme of international organization. The epigraph which he put upon the title-page, _Festina Lente_, indicated the spirit in which he approached his task and the advice which he felt called upon to give to the most casual of his readers. In the lectures he took a step in advance--or backward, according to the point of view--advocating that all members of a league of nations should 'agree to unite their economic, military, and naval forces against any one or more States which resort to arms without submitting their disputes to International Courts of Justice or International Councils of Conciliation'. In the course of 1919, and after the signature of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28 of that year, Professor Oppenheim contributed to the _Revue générale de droit international public_ an article in French on _The Essential Character of the League of Nations_. And what may be considered as his final views on the subject are contained in the third edition of his _Treatise on International Law_ (vol. i, pp. 264-310), the first volume of which appeared in 1920. Professor Oppenheim accepted the League of Nations, but his eyes were open to its defects as well as to its merits. The partisans of the present League of Nations will prefer Professor Oppenheim's later views, as expressed in his lectures and in the _Treatise on International Law_. The opponents of the present League of Nations will prefer his earlier views, contained in the present publication. The future will decide which are the more acceptable. At the Oxford session of the Institute of International Law, held a year to the month before the outbreak of the World War, it was the custom of its members to pass the evenings together in informal discussion of their chosen subject. On one occasion the discussion assumed the form of a dialogue between Professor Oppenheim on the one hand and Mr. Elihu Root on the other. At an unusually late hour the company broke up, and Mr. Root, putting out his hand to Professor Oppenheim, said, 'Bon soir, cher Maître'.