344 AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR EUROPE. 



which cost Great Britain ;^i 36,000,000, Peace was concluded, and 

 signed at Versailles, in 1783, by which Treaty she was forced to 

 acknowledge the 13 Provinces of North America as being free, 

 sovereign, and independent States. 



5. From 1854 to 1856, Great Britain, allied with France, Sardinia, 

 and Turkey, waged the Great War against Russia. The causes which 

 precipitated this war arose, originally, out of a dispute regarding the 

 ^oly Places ; the Churches that have, been built over those spots in 

 Palestine, where the events in the Messiah's History are supposed, 

 to have taken place, viz. : the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of 

 Bethlehem ; both of which were in the possession of Turkey ; and 

 the immediate cause of the dispute was, that the Star, which had 

 been placed from time immemorial over the Altar in the Church of 

 Bethlehem, had mysteriously disappeared. The Latins charged the 

 Greeks with having stolen it, and this squabble was made the 

 pretext by the Russians for a political quarrel, and, eventually,, 

 this became the cause of the Crimean War. 



The French Government, to please the Roman Catholics in France 

 and Europe, supported the claims of the Latins, and demanded of 

 the Sultan of Turkey supervision of the Latin Sanctuaries. Great 

 Britain supported the French demand ; against which, Russia, as the 

 defender of the Greek Church ; protested, firstly, on the grounds ot 

 her Treaty obligations with Turkey, and, secondly, that to yield any 

 privileges which the Greek Church had ' hitherto enjoyed, to the 

 Latin Church, would be a loss to Russia of her influence in the East. 

 The Government of Turkey was advised by England to resist^ 

 so actuated by a bitter hostility to Russian aggrandisement; (i) to 

 cripple the resources of Russia, (2) to maintain the " Balance of 

 Power " in Europe, (3) to secure the independence and the integrity 

 of the Ottoman Empire. These were the three great objects of the 

 war, and for which the efforts and resources of England were 

 provided. 



That " measureless calamity," cost Russia, Great Britain, France^ 

 Italy, and Turkey, ;i^340,ooo,ooo, and the lives of upwards of 

 900,000 men. 



6. In 1864, Prussia waged war against Denmark to secure the 

 sovereignty over the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. This claim by 

 Prussia arose out of the Danish insurrection of 1850, for the purpose 

 of establishing a constitutional system in Schleswig-Holstein, distinct 

 from Denmark, and Prussia, at that time, assisted the Duchies» 



