The Imperial Peace: An Ideal in European History is a lecture William Mitchell Ramsay delivered at the University of Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre in 1913. It was part of the Romanes lecture series for the year—a series in which the speakers are free to speak on any subject save politics or religion. Ramsay chose Dante’s Latin treatise on monarchy and the nature of peace, stating “Peace is not the mere absence of war: it is the power that maintains order and makes moral law effective. It is the administrative force of Justice, and it is the necessary condition of freedom.”
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