In a sense the obedience is self-imposed, for any Power remaining outside of the new formal world relation would not be compelled to come in. Still further, being in, it is not to be presumed that military compulsion would be put upon it by the other Powers if it were to refuse to render the required obedience. Agreement of the judgment and conscience of each Power with the judgment and conscience of the whole is relied upon by each and every Power to make every Power, singly, obedient to the will of the whole. If disobedience shall occur, doubtless it will be left to time and to the influence of the judgment and conscience of the other Powers to enlighten the judgment and conscience of the disobedient Power so that it will renounce its disobedience.

It will not escape the notice of the observer that in the case of world legislation there is a correspondence to the relation of an individual will to the forces amid which it lives. That will can refuse obedience, but the forces are supreme over his outward conduct just the same. He is free to choose the right or the wrong; but if he chooses the wrong, he must bear the full penalty without mitigation. He is free when he obeys; but his obedience, being a result of recognition of the right and justice in the forces which demand obedience, brings with it a prosperity and blessing in total contrast to the loss and suffering from disobedience. Law has its perfect work in each alternative.

So the will of the Powers as a united, organized whole, embodying their judgment and conscience, is rightly a law for each individual Power. True world legislation is realized by the formal expression of the united will of the Powers, and all mankind is brought into conscious harmony of action as never before. With the beginning of world legislation, therefore, comes the beginning of an era of peace and prosperity far in excess of anything ever yet enjoyed by the human race.

World sovereignty, be it further noticed, is claimed and formally exercised in world legislation already accomplished. Not merely the doctrine, but the fact, is put forward by the Powers acting together in their legislation, which is a matter of record, although, in contradiction, no nominally sovereign Power yet formally acknowledges that there is even the doctrine of world sovereignty, still less the fact. Here, again, the truth in the development of the political unity of

mankind has outrun the appreciation of those who have been participants in its expression.

In addition to the commands put upon the Powers themselves by the organized Powers of the world, there are in all the following conventions taken together many instances where the single organized world Power puts its commands upon the several international bureaus which have been established by some of the conventions. These bureaus are true executive departments of the single world Power; and so we have the perfect function of the world legislature imposing its will upon the true world executive, its servant.

To open the eyes to what is already an accomplished fact is the urgent need of the times in the education of the nations. World sovereignty is here. It is in active operation to-day. It only remains for the nations to admit the truth and to incorporate it more practically and intelligently into their relations with each other.

Be it further observed that, though the nations are nominally free to enter into the new world relations or not, yet, like the individual will amid the forces which are supreme over its outward action, they are really in the world relations whether or not they formally acknowledge the truth. This world sovereignty, therefore, is not in any real sense a result of any federation, and never can be dependent upon any idea of federation, but is absolutely supreme over any possible agreement or coming together by the nations upon any understanding which implies that they can come in or stay out as they please. World sovereignty, as already proclaimed by the "Thou shalt" and the "Thou shalt not" of world legislation already in full operation, springs from and is a worthy expression of the genuine unity of mankind, beyond the power of any and all nations to change by an atom; and its clear recognition by all the Powers will hasten their harmonious unity as an organized political whole, which they are now in the process of realizing. World sovereignty must be obeyed for the welfare of each and every part, and each and every Power will promote its own welfare and the welfare of all in proportion as it promptly recognizes and obeys this rightful, supreme authority.

CHAPTER IV

THE UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION

Among the precedents which we find in the action of the near or the remote past which bear directly upon the organization of the nations into a political unit are those relating to postal service, to alliances or confederations, to arbitration, to mediation, and to reciprocity. Certainly nothing seems to have been further from the thought of the actors in these historic movements than the truth that they were contributing to evolution in a direct line toward the political unity of the world. It is a fascinating study to trace back to the past the roots of these present flourishing growths.

In the Universal Postal Union we find the first great illustration of the united action of the nations, the first act of world legislation which includes all of the world. That union was formed in 1874. If we follow the years back, we find that the union was preceded by postal conventions between nations, and that there was a natural evolution from the less to the greater. Postal conventions presupposed postal developments within separate countries; and so the taproot of the formal unity of the nations runs back to a stage when it could not be predicted by contemporaries, but only by the man of faith and prophetic vision, what the development would be.

Back to the time of Cyrus, 550 B.C., we go, and find him credited with first establishing a system of postriders. He built posthouses and had regular lines of couriers. There was the true germ of the Universal Postal Union, unless an older claimant to the honor can prove his case. In the year 31 B.C. Augustus established posts in the Roman Empire. We read that in 800 A.D. Charlemagne had them. In England, says the record, the beginning was in 1481, when riders on post horses, a relay of twenty men, were charged with the service of carrying to King Edward IV the news regarding his war with the stubborn Scots. Under date of 1543, says the record, there was a similar arrangement. Queen Elizabeth, in 1581, appointed the first chief postmaster of England. In 1632 the line of postriders to

the north was made international by extending it to Edinburgh. By 1635 there had come to be a regular postal service between London and most of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Other countries were having their own developments in the meantime.

Now for the international developments. Under date of September 12, 1817, a postal convention was made between the Netherlands and France, which seems to be the first international postal arrangement by treaty. Out of this precedent came, in due time, the Universal Postal Union. The document is short and provides that the people of France and the Netherlands respectively shall be free to send letters, packages, merchandise, and printed matter from one realm to the other without regard to the boundary line between the countries. Suitable postal regulations were made, and the precedent was fully and clearly established.

But it was not followed as soon as we should now expect. On April 16, 1831,—this interval of nearly fourteen years shows how slowly the idea gained ground, a postal convention was signed between Austria and France. To this an addition was made on May 18, 1843. On August 9, 1838, France and the Holy See at Rome concluded a postal convention of twenty-six articles for the direct transmission of mail matter between them by sea. On August 27, 1838, at Paris, was concluded a postal convention in thirty-three articles between France and Sardinia. In 1843, February 11, was concluded a postal convention between Austria and Russia. So the benefits of being friendly and accommodating toward each other were realized in practice; and the wonder is that the people were not bright enough to see the universal principle underlying this mutually profitable and peace-promoting arrangement and to extend its application to many other phases of their official interrelations. But their furious jealousies, their revengeful and piratical hostilities, their apprehensions from the armed hosts of each other, and their desire to guard their future by crippling the enemy of the present, blinded them to the presence of the angel of peace and prosperity, whose wings might have been seen through the wrappings of their postal packages sent from one country to another. But still there was progress. Further preparation for the great consummation is seen in the postal convention of May 1, 1843, between France and Great Britain. In 1846, October 1, record is made of a similar convention

between Great Britain and Prussia. In 1849, July 2, Austria and Switzerland entered into a postal arrangement, and the next day saw one between Parma and Modena.

So the idea spread till in 1874, at Berne, Switzerland, on October 9, was concluded the treaty between twenty nations for the establishment of a general postal union, the ratifications of which made it effective May 3, 1875. The nations were these: Germany, AustriaHungary, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey. Since then, by subsequent conventions, the union has been enlarged till to-day it includes every nation on earth which has sufficient organization to be capable of making an official agreement with other nations. As the postal convention stands to-day, signed at Rome, May 26, 1906, it includes the following nations and dependencies, given in the order in which they stand in the official document of the United States which contains the convention: Germany and German protectorates, the United States of America and the island possessions of the United States of America, Argentine Republic, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Chinese Empire, republic of Colombia, Kongo Free State, empire of Korea, republic of Costa Rica, Crete, republic of Cuba, Denmark and Danish colonies, Dominican republic, Egypt, Ecuador, Spain and Spanish colonies, Ethiopian empire, France, Algeria, French colonies and protectorates of Indo-China, the whole of the other French colonies, Great Britain and various British colonies, British India, the Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, British colonies of South Africa, Greece, Guatemala, republic of Hayti, republic of Honduras, Hungary, Italy and the Italian colonies, Japan, republic of Liberia, Luxemburg, Mexico, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Norway, republic of Panama, Paraguay, the Netherlands, the Dutch colonies, Peru, Persia, Portugal and Portuguese colonies, Roumania, Russia, Salvador, Servia, kingdom of Siam, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunis, Turkey, Uruguay, and United States of Venezuela.

The revision undertaken by the plenipotentiaries of the abovenamed countries was, in virtue of Article 25 of the universal postal convention, concluded at Washington on June 15, 1897, which