AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR EUROPE. 34I 



But though civilisation and justice have demanded, and abolished 

 this practice in civil society — this appeal to force in a community of 

 individuals — yet, unfortunately, amongst some of the civilised nations 

 of the world it is precisely the reverse; duelling is permitted, for any 

 nation against whom an injury, as it considers, h^s been done, that 

 nation aggrieved becomes the enforcer of the law ; because, failing a 

 recognised tribunal for Justice, she takes the law into her own 

 hands, and endeavours to secure, by her gigantic armies and navies — 

 by battle, and murder, and death — justice and redress, so-called, and 

 thus by might, not right, tries to obtain its own verdict. 



WARS OF MODERN EUROPE. 



The causes of many, if not all, the great wars of Modern Europe 

 forcibly illustrates not only the language of Solomon : " Behold what 

 a great fire a little spark kindleth," but, also, justifies the declaration 

 of the late Lord Russell : 



" That on looking at all the wars which have been carried on during the- last 

 century, and examining into the causes of them, I do not see one of these wars in 

 which, if there had been proper temper between the parties, the questions in 

 dispute might not have been settled without recourse to arms." 



In proof of this declaration we will refer, briefly, to the principal 

 wars, and their causes, to which Lord Russell probably referred : 



I. The War of 1688, which followed, and, which was, in fact, the 

 result of the overthrow of the Royal House of the Stuarts, em- 

 bracing James I., Charles I., Charles II., and James II., that ruled 

 England with despotic power from 1604 to 1688, was the accelerating 

 cause of the War of the Revolution of 1688;; for Louis XIV., King 

 of France, was jealous of the triumph of William of Orange, jealous 

 of his triumphal entry into London, and coronation as King of 

 England, as he had been anxious to maintain James II. on the 

 Throne of England, as a Roman Catholic Monarch ; and, especially, 

 to crush the Revolution of Protestantism that overthrew him, and 

 that banished him to France. No sooner, therefore, was William 

 of Orange firmly seated on the Throne of England, than he declared 

 war against France, being supported by a powerful European League, 

 consisting of Prussia, Holland, Austria, Italy, and Spain, and, in 1707, 

 after a sanguinary war of eight years, during which were fought terrible 

 battles on land and sea, at La Hogue, Steinkirk, Nervine, Dieppe, 



