If we look at this existing situation, this _status quo_ of international frontiers, we find that under modern conditions a {29} comparatively short period of time is all that is necessary to give to the _status quo_ the sanctity of universal consent, regardless of its origin. Let me give an instance or two of this. The Southern frontier of the United States, for part of its extent is the direct result of a war between the United States and Mexico, a war which by many, and I am among them, is considered to have been a war of aggression. Now no one but a madman would believe that there ought to be a change in the _status quo_ of the communities now existing in New Mexico, which in 1850 was uninhabited country, by delivering them over to Mexican rule. It is true that, during the World War, Germany proposed to Mexico in the celebrated Zimmerman note[2] that this should be done; but that incident only emphasizes the truth of my remark. One of the most recent instances of a change in the _status quo_, so far as the United States is concerned, is the case of the Virgin Islands, which were bought from Denmark in 1916.[3] There was a change made by agreement, made for a purchase price which was satisfactory to the ceding country and made after a plebiscite of the inhabitants, who voted almost unanimously for the change. Here, again, for reasons differing from those of the foregoing instance, no one in his senses would consider that the existing _status quo_ was not one of justice and common sense. Now, if we take the situation generally, we will find, in accordance with the instances that I have mentioned, that the international situation as to frontiers the world over[4] is, as to perhaps 99%, either consecrated by usage which is the equivalent of common consent or at least of common sense, or else is the result of agreement which contains in it both elements.