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threatened with being closed down, and the Národní Listy was suppressed as from 19 May because, “despite the warning of 14 February, 1918, this journal continued systematically to foster sympathies for the Entente, thereby working in favour of our enemies.” At the same time numerous arrests took place in Bohemia, and Dr. Kramář was expelled from Prague.

For how long will Austria be able to thus postpone her inevitable collapse?

[The following extract is a continuation of the translation from François de Callières’ “De la Manière de Négocier avec les Souverains,” which was started in No. 74. The book was published in Paris in 1716, and the remarks which the author, one of Louis XIV.’s ambassadors, makes about the personal qualities and conduct of a negotiator are well worth studying to-day, when our own diplomatic service is about to undergo certain reforms.]

A man born to diplomacy and feeling himself called to the practice of negotiation must commence his studies by a careful examination of the position of various European States, of the principal interests which govern their action, which divide them from one another, of the diverse forms of government which prevail in different parts, and of the character of those princes, soldiers and ministers who stand in positions of authority. In order to master the detail of such knowledge he must have an understanding of the material power, the revenues, and the whole dominion of each prince or each republic. He must understand the limits of territorial sovereignty; he must inform himself of the manner in which the government was originally established; of the claims which each sovereign makes upon parts which he does not possess; for these ambitions are the very material of negotiation on those occasions when a favourable turn of events prompts the ambitious sovereign to hope that a long-cherished desire may be realised; and, finally, the negotiator must be able to make a clear distinction between the rights and claims which are founded on treaty obligations and those which rest upon pure force alone. For his own instruction he must read with the most attentive care all public treaties, both general and particular, which have been made between the princes and States of Europe; and in our time he should consider the treaties concluded between France and the House of Austria as those which offer the principal form and model for the conduct of all the public affairs of Christendom on account of the network of liaisons with other sovereigns which surrounds these two great Powers. And since their disputes took their origin in the relations and treaties existing between King Louis XI. and Charles, the last Duke of Burgundy, from whom the House of Austria descends, it is vital that the negotiator of our time should be well acquainted with all the treaties made at that period and since; but especially all those which have been concluded between the principal Powers of Europe, beginning with the Treaty of Westphalia right up to the present time.