In the first century of our era appears Virgil with his famous fourth eclogue which prophesies universal peace to the world under the mythological image of the return of the golden age.
In the middle ages, the Popes often strove, though in vain, to interpose as arbitrators between states.
In the fifteenth century the idea occurred to a king of forming a “league of peace.” This was Geo. Podiebrad of Bohemia, who wished to put an end to the wars of the emperor and the Pope; for this purpose he betook himself to King Louis XI of France, who however did not fall in with the proposal.
At the close of the sixteenth century, King Henry IV of France conceived the plan of a European confederation of states. After he had delivered his country from the horrors of the religious war, he wished to see toleration and peace assured for all future time. He wished to see the sixteen states of which Europe then consisted (for Russia and Turkey were reckoned parts of Asia) combined into a Bund. Each of these sixteen states was to have the right of sending two members to a “European Council,” and to this council, consisting thus of thirty-two members, the task was to be entrusted of maintaining the religious peace, and avoiding all international conflicts. And then if every state would bind itself to submit to the decisions of the council, every element of European wars would be thereby removed. The king communicated this plan to his Minister, Sully, who heartily accepted it and straightway commenced negotiations with the other states. Elizabeth of England, the Pope, Holland, and several others were actually won over; only the House of Austria would have offered resistance, because territorial concessions might have been demanded from her, which she would not have granted. A campaign would have been necessary to overcome this resistance. France would have contributed the main army, and she would have renounced beforehand any extension of territory; the sole aim of the campaign and the sole condition of peace imposed on the House of Austria would have been their entrance into the league of states. All the preparations were already completed, and Henry IV meant to take the command of the army in person, when on May 13, 1610, he fell under the dagger of an insane monk.
None of his successors nor any other sovereign took up again this glorious plan for procuring happiness for the nations. Rulers and politicians remained true to the old war-spirit; but the thinkers of all countries did not allow the idea of peace to fall to the ground again.
In the year 1647 the sect of the Quakers was founded, and the condemnation of war was its fundamental principle. In the same year William Penn published his work on the future peace of Europe, which he founded on the plan of Henry IV.
In the early part of the eighteenth century appeared the famous book of the Abbé de S. Pierre, entitled La Paix Perpetuelle. At the same time a Landgrave of Hesse sketched out the same plan, and Leibnitz wrote a favourable comment on it.
Voltaire gave out the maxim “Every European war is a civil war.” Mirabeau, in the memorable session of August 25, 1790, spoke the following words:—
“The moment is perhaps not far off now when Freedom, as the unfettered monarch of both worlds, will fulfil the wish of philosophers, to free mankind from the sin of war, and proclaim universal peace. Then will the happiness of the people be the only aim of the legislator, the only glory of the nations.”
In the year 1795 one of the greatest thinkers of all time, Emmanuel Kant, wrote his treatise On Eternal Peace. The English publicist, Bentham, joins with enthusiasm the ever-increasing number of the defenders of peace—Fourrier, Saint Simon, etc. Beranger sang “The Holy Alliance of Peace,” Lamartine “La Marseillaise de la Paix.” In Geneva Count Cellon founded a “Peace Club,” in whose name he entered into a propagandist correspondence with all the rulers of Europe. From Massachusetts in America comes “the learned blacksmith,” Elihu Burritt, and scatters his Olive Leaves and Sparks from an Anvil about the world in millions of copies, and takes the chair in 1849 at an assembly of the English Friends of Peace. In the Congress of Paris, which wound up the Crimean War, the idea of peace gained a footing in diplomacy, inasmuch as a clause was added to the treaty which provided that the Powers pledged themselves in future conflicts to submit themselves previously to mediation. This clause contains in itself a recognition of the principle of a court of arbitration, but it has not been acted upon.
In the year 1863 the French Government proposed to the Powers to call a congress, before which was to be brought the consideration of proposals for a general disarmament, and for the avoidance of future wars.
But this proposal found no support whatever from the other Governments.
And now, my hour of trial was again drawing nigh.
But it was so different this time from that other in which Frederick had to leave me—to fight for the Augustenburger. This time he was at my side—the husband’s proper post—diminishing through his presence and through his sympathy the sufferings of his wife. The feeling that I had him there was to me so calming and so happy that in it I almost forgot my physical discomfort.
A girl! It was the fulfilment of my silent hope. The joys connected with a son had already been given to us by my little Rudolf: we could now, in addition to these, taste those joys which such a fine little daughter promised to her parents. That this little Sylvia of ours would grow into a paragon of beauty, grace, and comeliness we did not doubt for a single moment. How childish we both of us became over the cradle of this
