308 BALCH— THE PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL [Maya, 



have its Parliament to arrange international disputes. Then Castel 

 de Saint Pierre, Jeremy Bentham, Emanuel Kant and others wrote 

 in favor of international peace. The great thinker and doer, who 

 founded this venerable society, also believed in international arbitra- 

 tion. In The Writings of Benjamin Franklin by our fellow mem- 

 ber, Professor Smyth, there is a letter of Franklin to Mrs. Mary 

 Hewson, dated at Passy, in January, 1783, in which he says inter 

 alia:^ " At length we are in Peace, God be praised, and long, very 

 long, may it continue. All Wars are Follies, very expensive, and 

 very mischievous ones. When will Mankind be convinced of this, 

 and agree to settle their differences by Arbitration ? " And further 

 there is his famous saying on the merits of peace and war, " There 

 never was a good war, nor a bad peace." Since the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century many jurists and publicists have advocated 

 the adoption wherever it was possible of international arbitration : 

 William Ladd, Charles Sumner, Richard Cobden, Thomas Balch, 

 Francis Lieber, James Lorimer, David Dudley Field, Emile Baron 

 De Laveleye, Ivan de Block, Philip Stanhope, Baron Descamps, the 



^This paper was read before the Society on May 3, 1907: Professor 

 Smyth died the next day, and so the following letter that he wrote only eight 

 days before is not without interest for the members of the Philosophical 

 Society. 



The Art Club 

 OF Philadelphia 



April 26th, 1907 

 My dear Mr. Balch 



Franklin says in a letter to Mrs. Mary Hewson (Vol. IX., p. 12, of my 

 edition), "At length we are in Peace, God be praised, and long, very long, 

 may it continue. All Wars are Follies, very expensive and very mischievous 

 ones. When wall Mankind be convinced of this, and agree to settle their 

 Differences by Arbitration? Were they to do it, even by the Cast of a Dye, 

 it would be better than Fighting and destroying each other." I would call 

 your attention particularly to Franklin's *' Propositions relative to Privateer- 

 ing," communicated to Mr. Oswald (Vol. IX., pp. 4-7). I think you will 

 find quotable matter there. See also letter to David Hartley (Vol. X., p. 72), 

 " God grant that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough knowledge 

 of the Rights of Man, may pervade all Nations of the Earth so that a 

 Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, * This is my 

 Country.' " 



Remember Franklin's oft repeated assertion, "There never was a good 



War or a Bad Peace." 



Faithfully yours, 



Albert H. Smyth. 



