AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR EUROPE. 347 



well compared to, " gigantic shuttles weaving the nations into one," 

 that Europe, nay this great civilised and Christian community, equal 

 to a population of 465,000,000, should be without a recognised 

 Code of Law, without a recognised Tribunal of Arbitration, for the 

 settlement, by reason and common sense, of their international 

 differences ? 



AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL. 



To meet this great evil of militarism, a system of International 

 Arbitration is proposed, or rather the establishment of a High Court 

 of nations, for the peaceful adjustment of differences which may arise 

 between nation and nation, in accordance with certain well-defined 

 principles, embodied in a Code of International Law. And this 

 system which is proposed, is by no means original, for it is as old 

 as the oldest of empires. It is a system that has come down to us 

 from the earliest times, from the anarchy and confusion of the Dark 

 Ages, through Egyptians and Persians, through Greeks and Romans, 

 through Confederacies and Councils, through Congresses and Con- 

 ferences of nearly every age, down to the present century. 



One of the earliest systems for the peaceful settlement of national 

 disputes was the Araphictyonic Council of Greece, founded by 

 Amphictyon, King of Athens, 1497 B.C., as a bond of union for 

 many communities, an institution of Equity and of Law, that existed 

 during many centuries of Grecian History. It represented twelve, 

 and afterwards, thirty-one States, each State sending two Deputies 

 to the General Council, which met twice a year at Delphi, or 

 Thermopylae, and its decisions, says Eees, " were received with the 

 greatest veneration, and were ever, held sacred and inviolable. 



This Areopagus, or Court of Arbitration, continued for fifteen 

 centuries, and there is no doubt, that, at this early period of the World's 

 history, it exercised a powerful influence, in restraining aggression, 

 in regulating national intercourse, and, in founding International Law. 

 The Achaean League was the next arbitration alliance, formed 

 amongst the cities of Achaia, in Greece, and so great was its 

 character for justice and truth, that many other communities, espe- 

 cially in Italy, referred their disputes to this league of arbitration. 

 The next important step in Europe, for securing a peaceful 

 umpirage, was the League of the Hanse Towns, established in the 



year 1239, embracing the cities of Lubeck and Hamburg, and 



2 B 



