Before turning to consider the views of several of the leading writers who have discussed the theory and practice of the most-favored-nation clause, it will he well to get clearly in mind certain circumstances which have attended its use in different periods. A knowledge of the time when a treaty was made will be found to be absolutely essential in many cases if we wish to arrive at a proper interpretation of some of its clauses.

In the first place, and of primary importance, most-favored-nation treatment has now, and had in the eighteenth century, a different meaning in European policy from that which attached to it between 1825 and 1860. While European countries now give the clause a form and an interpretation corresponding approximately to that in vogue in the eighteenth century, the universalizing of favors, which, through the intricacy of modern treaty systems, that old form might be expected to entail, is largely modified by the mechanism of modern tariff policy.

During the interval between the inauguration of the President and the formation of the Executive Departments, the old Departments performed such executive duties as were indispensable. On July 11, 1789, for example, “ by the hands of Mr. Jay,” Washington sent to the Senate for ratification a consular convention with France. On July 22 the Senate —

The announcement on September 1, 1909, by Dr. Frederick A. Cook, that he had discovered the north pole on April 21, 1908, and the almost contemporary declaration on September 6th, of Robert A. Peary, of the United States Navy, in command of the Roosevelt, that he had discovered the north pole on April 6, 1909, are, if substantiated, not only international events and scientific achievements of the greatest interest and value, but the culmination of centuries of effort, directed not merely to reach the pole, but to shorten commercial routes by the discovery of a northwestern and northeastern passage, to advance our knowledge of arctic geography and to make known in a disinterested and scientific spirit, the flora, fauna, and the physical configuration of the arctic regions.

The International Opium Commission proposed by the United States and accepted by Austria-Hungary, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, and Siam convened at Shanghai on the 1st of last February, completed its study of the opium problem throughout the world, and based on that study, issued nine unanimous declarations. The Commission adjourned on February 27th.