by the Assembly, which will be composed of the wisest and noblest of each Sovereignty, for its own honour and safety. The Liberty and Rules of Speech, to be sure, they can not fail in, who will be Wisest and Noblest of each Soveraignty, for its own Honour and Safety. 22. If any difference arise among the Delegates from the same Sovereignty, one of the members forming the majority should take their votes on the question. If any Difference can arise between those that come from the same Soveraignty that then One of the Major Number do give the Balls of that Sovereignty. 23. It is extremely necessary that every Sovereignty should be represented at the Diet under great penalties, and that none leave the session without permission till all the business be finished; and also that no neutrality in debate should be allowed; "for any such latitude will quickly open a way to unfair proceedings, and be followed by a train both of seen and unseen inconveniences." I should think it extremely necessary, that every Soveraignty should be present under great Penalties, and that none leave the Session without Leave, till All be finished; and that Neutralities in Lebates should by no means be endured: For any such Latitude will quickly open a Way to unfair Proceedings, and be followed by a Train, both of seen, and unseen Inconveniences. 24. The language spoken in the session of the Sovereign Estates must be either Latin or French. "The first would be very well for civilians, but the latter more easy for men of quality." I will say little of the Language in which the Session of the Soveraign [SECT. IX. Of the Objections that may be advanced against the Design.] 1. The first of them is this, That the strongest and Richest Soveraignty will never agree to it, and if it should, there would be Danger of Corruption more than of Force one Time or other. 2. The Second is, That it will endanger an Effeminacy by such a Disuse of the Trade of Soldiery; That if there should be any Need for it, upon any Occasion, we should be at a Loss as they were in Holland in 72. 3. The Third Objection is, That there will be great Want of Employment for younger Brothers of Families; and that the Poor must either turn Soldiers or Thieves. 4. I am come now to the last Objection, That Soveraign Princes and States will hereby become not Soveraign; a Thing they will never endure. [SECT. X. Of the real Benefits that flow from this Proposal about Peace.] 1. Let it not, I pray, be the least, that it prevents the Spilling of sc much Humane and Christian Blood: For a Thing so offensive to God, and terrible and afflicting to Men, as that has ever been, must recom mend our Expedient beyond all Objections. 2. There is another manifest Renefit which redounds to Christendom, by this Peaceable Expedient, The Reputation of Christianity will in some Degree be recovered in the Sight of Infidels; which, by the many Bloody and unjust Wars of Christians, not only with them, but one with another, hath been greatly impaired. 3. The third Benefit is, that it saves Money, both to the Prince and People; and thereby prevents those Grudgings and Misunderstandings between them that are wont to follow the devouring Expences of War; and enables both to perform Publick Acts for Learning, Charity, Manufactures, etc. 4. Our fourth Advantage is, that the Towns, Cities, and Countries, that might be laid waste by the Rage of Var, are thereby preserved. 5. The fifth Benefit of this Peace, is the Ease and Security of Trave! and Traffick 6. Another Advantage is, The Great Security it will be to Christians against the Inroads of the Turk, in their most Prosperous Fortune. 7. The Seventh Advantage of an European, Imperial Dyet, Parliament, or Estates, is, That it will beget and increase Personal Friendship between Princes and States, which tends to the Rooting up of Wars, and Planting Peace in a Deep and Fruitful Soil. 8. Nor is this all the Benefit that would come by this Freedom and Interview of Princes; For Natural Affection would hereby be preserved, which we see little better than lost, from the Time their Children, or Sisters, are Married into Other Courts. 9. To conclude this Section, there is yet another Manifest Privilege that follows this Intercourse and Good Understanding, which methinks should be very moving with Princes, viz. That hereby they may chuse Wives for themselves, such as they Love, and not by Proxy meerly to gratify Interest; and ignoble Motive; and that rarely begets, or continues that Kindness which ought to be between Men and their Wives. THE CONCLUSION. By the same Rules of Justice and Prudence, by which Parents and Masters Govern their Families, and Magistrates their Cities, and Estates their Republicks, and Princes and Kings their Principalities and Kingdoms, Europe may obtain and Preserve Peace among Her Soveraignties. For Wars are the Duels of Princes; and as Government in Kingdoms and States, Prevents Men being Judges and Executioners for themselves, over-rules Private Passions as to Injuries or Revenge, and subjects the Great as well as the Small to the Rule of Justice, that Power might not vanquish or oppress Right, nor one Neighbour act an Independency and Soveraignty upon another, while they have resigned that Original Claim to the Benefit and Comfort of Society; so this being soberly weighed in the Whole, and Parts of it, it will not be hard to conceive or frame, nor yet to execute the Design I have here proposed. And for the better understanding and perfecting of the Idea, I here present to the Soveraign Princes and Estates of Europe, for the Safety and Tranquility of it, I must recommend to their Perusals Sir William Temple's Account of the United Provinces; which is an Instance and Answer, upon Practice, to all the Objections that can be advanced against the Practicability of my Proposal: Nay, it is an Experiment that not only comes to our Case, but exceeds the Difficulties that can render its Accomplishment disputable. For there we shall find Three Degrees of Soveraignties to make up every Soveraignty in the General States. I will reckon them backwards: First, The States General themselves; then the Immediate Soveraignties that Constitute them, which are those of the Provinces, answerable to the Soveraignties of Europe, that by their Deputies are to compose the European Dyet, Parliament or Estates in our Proposal: And then there are the several Cities of each Province, that are so many Independent or Distinct Soveraignties, which compose those of the Provinces, as those of the Provinces do compose the States General at the Hague. But I confess I have the Passion to wish heartily, that the Honour of Proposing and Effecting so Great and Good a Design, might be owing to England, of all the Countries in Europe, as something of the Nature of our Expedient was, in Design and Preparation, to the Wisdom, Justice, and Valour, of Henry the Fourth of France, whose Superior Qualities raising his Character above those of his Ancestors, or Contemporaries, deservedly gave Him the Stile of Henry the Great. For He was upon obliging the Princes and Estates of Europe to a Political Ballance, when the Spanish Faction, for that Reason, contrived and accomplished His Murder, by the Hands of Ravilliac. I will not then fear to be censured, for proposing an Expedient for the Present and Future Peace of Europe, when it was not only the Design, but Glory of One of the Greatest Princes that ever reigned in it; and is found Practicable in the Constitution of one of the Wisest and Powerfullest States of it. So that to conclude, I have very little to answer for in all this Affair; because, if it succeed, I have so Little to deserve: For this Great King's Example tells us it is fit to be done; and Sir William Temple's History shews us, by a Surpassing Instance, That it may be done ; and Europe, by her Incomparable Miseries, makes it now Necessary to be done: That my Share is only thinking of it at this Juncture, and putting it into the Common Light for the Peace and Prosperity of Europe. JOHN BELLERS. AN EUROPEAN STATE. 1710. Not long after William Penn had published his Essay, another Quaker, John Bellers, of Gloucester, England, in the year 1710, published in London "a small treatise" with the elaborate title of: "Some Reasons for an European State Proposed to the Powers of Europe. By an Universal Guarantee, and an Annual Congress, Senate, Dyet, or Parliament, to Settle any Disputes about the Bounds and Rights of Princes and States hereafter, with an Abstract of a Scheme formed by King Henry the Fourth of France upon the same Subject, and also a Proposal for a General Council or Convocation of all the different Religious Perswasions in Christendom, (not to Dispute what they Differ about, but) to Settle the General Principles they Agree in: By which it will appear, that they may be good Subjects and Neighbours, tho' of different Apprehensions of the Way to Heaven. In order to prevent Broils & War at home, when foreign Wars are ended." The author, following William Penn so closely, will serve to illustrate the interest taken at all times, by the Religious Society of which he was a member, in the question of Peace on its practical, quite as much as on its doctrinal, and especially, to them, its authoritative side; his work will show to what an extent the subject occupied the thought of those times. The pamphlet begins with a short address "To ANNE, Queen of Great Britain, etc." This is followed by a longer one "To the Lords and Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled." "Some Reasons for an European State," addressed "To the Powers of Europe," contains some manly and useful speech, though somewhat unusual to courtly ears. "You are as Vice Roys to the great King of Heaven and Earth, to whom you must be accomptable for the Well-governing of the many Millions of your Fellow-Creatures and Subjects. Your Nations are High and Honourable among Mortals, and as you fulfil the will of your Principal, the Sovereign Lord of all Nations, Glorious will be your Rewards in Heaven. Many and Great are the Blessings to Prince and People where the Subjects are Governed in Peace; but Oppression and War tend to the Poverty and Ruine of Both." Statistics are given to clench the economic argument; and the Powers are shrewdly reminded that "Where there are no Men there can be no Money nor Women nor Children nor Kingdom, but a Land without Inhabitants." These "Reasons" lead up to "THE PROPOSAL. "That at the next General Peace there should be settled an Universal Guarantee, and an Annual Congress, Senate, Dyet, or Parliament, by all the Princes and States of Europe, as well Enemies [in the late war], as Neuters, joyned as one State, with a renouncing of all Claims upon each other, with such other Articles of Agreement as may be needful for a Standing European Law; the more Amicably to Debate, and the better to explain any obscure Articles in the [Treaty of] Peace, and to Prevent any Disputes that might otherwise raise a New War in this Age or the Ages to come; by which every Prince and State will have all the Strength of Europe to protect them in the Possession of what they shall Enjoy by the next Peace. "But in the meanwhile, it's the Interest of the present Confederates, to begin it among themselves; But Europe being under several forms of Government, and every Country being apt to Esteem their own Form best; It will require time and Consideration among the Powers concerned, to draw such a Scheme as will suit the Dispositions and Circumstances of them all. "The several Methods used by the German Dyets, the Union of the Provinces of Holland, the Cantons of Switzerland, the Nature of Guarantees, with the Model of Henry the Fourth, and - F |