It has therefore
seemed to me unnecessary to insist that every object to be discussed at
the meeting should be specified with the precision of a judicial
sentence or enumerated with the exactness of a mathematical
demonstration. The purpose of the meeting itself is to deliberate upon
the great and common _interests_ of several new and neighbouring
nations. If the measure is new and without precedent, so is the
situation of the parties to it. That the purposes of the meeting are
somewhat indefinite, far from being an objection to it is among the
cogent reasons for its adoption. It is not the establishment of
principles of intercourse with one, but with seven or eight nations at
once. That before they have had the means of exchanging ideas and
communicating with one another in common upon these topics they should
have definitively settled and arranged them in concert is to require
that the effect should precede the cause; it is to exact as a
preliminary to the meeting that for the accomplishment of which the
meeting itself is designed.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125