It is difficult in the face of revelations like these
to per- ceive wherein the use of treaties consists. Every Sovereign is prepared to break them if he conceives such a breach to be in the interest of his country or his dynasty. Even the Emperor William I., who was honest, acceded to the secret agreement of 1884 with Russia, while the Emperor Francis Joseph, while he was at peace with Turkey, practically accepted two Turkish provinces at the hands of the Czar, who was just going to order a march on Constantinople. Yet the Sovereigns must think the treaties useful, or they would not make them. We suppose the truth is they calculate on treachery as a possible factor in all diplomacy, and think they can calculate when it will be the interest of an ally to betray them. Asiatic diplomacy is managed entirely in that way, and there, too, treaties are signed, sealed, and sworn to on all manner of sacred books. Indeed, give Prince Bismarck a little more rope, and we may be inclined to send all European statesmen to China to learn the first principles of good-faith.
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