PEACE AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL REFORM. 237 



more. . . . The bourgeois of the cities, both men and Tvomen, insist 

 upon dressing like noblemen and ladies, noblemen as sumptuously 

 as princes, and the inhabitants of the village like the bourgeois of the 

 city." To prevent the political catastrophe involved in such a dan- 

 gerous " confusion of ranks," very stringent sumptuary laws were 

 enacted. But they were all in vain. The progress of peace and 

 industry has wiped them out. In democratic countries like the 

 United States, character and ability are the test of social worth, and 

 the establishment of this test has abolished those distinctions of dress 

 so important to the feudal mind. 



If war makes ethical every act of destruction, peace makes ethical 

 only acts in conservation of life and property. When men stop 

 killing one another and undertake to supply one another's wants, 

 a' new code of morality begins to influence their conduct. As com- 

 merce brings people in contact with foreign nations, especially those 

 known as heathen, a relaxation of religious and national prejudice 

 occurs. Opposition to war against them springs up. Friendly rela- 

 tions are advocated. A grave charge brought against the Venetians, 

 whose intercourse with other nations had made them enlightened and 

 humane, was that they tolerated the Jews, obstructed one of the Cru- 

 sades, and deprecated attacks upon the Mohammedans. A further 

 step toward civilization is the advent of international agreements to 

 prevent disputes and thus forestall conflicts. Here the pacific nations 

 were the pioneers. The earliest commercial treaties extant are those 

 of industrial Carthage with Rome. The first codifications of trade 

 regulations were those of industrial Rhodes and Barcelona. The 

 study of international law itself received its greatest impulse in in- 

 dustrial Holland. With the diminution of aggressions abroad and 

 the growth of international jurisprudence occurred a diminution of 

 aggressions at home and the growth of domestic jurisprudence. 

 Courts were organized for the settlement of disputes and the punish- 

 ment of crime. Here, again, the pacific nations were the pioneers. 

 Hallam cites the significant fact that judicial combat never prevailed 

 in England to the extent it did on the Continent. After saying that 

 the moment a man entered the gates of one of the Italian republics 

 of the twelfth century " he might reckon with a certainty on find- 

 ing good faith in treaties and negotiations," Sismondi adds that he 

 might also reckon upon " an energy in the people to resist by common 

 exertion every act of injustice and violence." The militant nations 

 were the last to abolish slavery and serfdom, and also judicial tor- 

 ture and the burning of witches and heretics. They were the last to 

 cultivate commercial honor, personal purity, and the other virtues of 

 a pacific life. Although the Dutch were often obliged during their 

 terrific struggle with the Spaniards to raise large sums of money at a 



