[255] De Jure Belli ac Pacis Libri III, Paris, 1625.
[256] Projet pour rendre la paix perpétuelle en Europe, 1713-17, 3 vols. The abbé dreamed of a league of all governments in favor of peace; any of them breaking the pledge, to be attacked by the others. Differences between states should be arbitrated. A French predecessor of the abbé had been Emeric Crucé, whose Nouveau Cynée ou Discours d'Estat représentant les occasions et moyens d'establir une paix générale et la liberté du commerce par tout le monde, was published in Paris, 1623 (modern edition, with an English translation by T.W. Balch, Philadelphia, 1909). Crucé was in favor of the establishment at Venice of a Supreme Court of Arbitration, in which every sovereign would have had his representative: "If any one rebelled against the decree of so notable a company, he would receive the disgrace of all other princes, who would find means to bring him to reason" (Balch's ed., p. 104)—a plan which, in fact, is still under discussion.
In connection with the works of these theorists should be read, e.g., Alberico Gentili's De Jure Belli, 1588-98.
[257] First (and only) treaty of alliance, 1778; first treaty of amity and commerce, 1778; first consular convention, 1788; first treaty for the aggrandizement of the territory of the United States, 1803. The only example lacking, and for good reasons, is that of a treaty of peace following a war.
[258] "Thoughe they do daylie practise and exercise themselves in the discipline of warre, and not onelie the men but also the women upon certen appointed daies, lest they should be to seke (inhabiles in the Latin) in the feate of armes, if nede should require, yet they never go to battell, but either in defence of their owne countrey, or to drive out of their frendes lande the enemies that have invaded it, or by their power to deliver from the yocke and bondage of tirannye some people, that be therewith oppressed. Which thing they do of meere pitie and compassion." Ralph Robinson's translation, 1st ed., 1551; ed. Arber, p. 132.
[259] Most of them much less. In this, however, as in so many other respects, the present war, declared by Germany against Russia, August 1, 1914 (five days before Austria could be persuaded to act likewise), against France the 3d, against Belgium the 4th, which was tantamount to declaring it on England too, is an exception.
[260] In connection with Washington's views, those of Franklin concerning amicable relations between great countries may appropriately be quoted. He wrote from Passy, on October 16, 1783, to his friend David Hartley, one of the British plenipotentiaries for the peace: "What would you think of a proposition, if I sh'd make it of a family compact between England, France, and America? America would be as happy as the Sabine girls if she could be the means of uniting in perpetual peace her father and her husband. What repeated follies are those repeated wars! You do not want to conquer and govern one another. Why, then, should you continually be employed in injuring and destroying one another? How many excellent things might have been done to promote the internal welfare of each country; what bridges, roads, canals, and other public works and institutions tending to the common felicity, might have been made and established with the money and men foolishly spent during the last seven centuries by our mad wars in doing one another mischief!" Works, ed. Smythe, IX, 107.
[261] "Notwithstanding the support given to the Russian proposition by France, one of the most martial of the nations, and by various other governments, the objections voiced by the German delegates were too serious to be overcome." John W. Foster, Arbitration and The Hague Court, Boston, 1904, p. 32.
[262] Text, e.g., in the Temps, May 12, 1913.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
The spellings "Bastile" and "Bastille", "beforementioned" and "before-mentioned", "Fraunces'" and "Fraunces's", "ibid." and "Ibid.", "Potowmac" and "Potomac" appear in this text.
The following alterations have been made to the text:
p. 17: "it is their interest" amended to "it is in their interest".
p. 127: double quotation marks added before "Taxation".
p. 142: double quotation marks added before and after "I was".
p. 201: period replaced by comma after "what any man durst".
p. 235: "dominant trait in in" amended to "dominant trait in".
p. 240: "philanthrophy" amended to "philanthropy".
p. 245: "a devil of fool" amended to "a devil of a fool".
p. 250: "postcript" amended to "postscript"; also comma deleted after "Ternant"
p. 314: "W. Washington" amended to "G. Washington".
On p. 253 "represent for you" should perhaps be "represent you" but has been left unchanged.
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