AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR EUROPE. 349 



assassinated Henry IV. in 1610, this great scheme of arbitration 

 . would not have so suddenly collapsed. 



In 1693, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, published 

 an Essay, "On the Present and Future Peace of Europe," in which 

 he urged the plan of a General Congress for the settlement ot 

 international disputes. Referring to the great design of Henry IV. 

 he says : "His example tells us that this is fit to be done, the history 

 of the United Provinces shows, by surpassing instance, that it may be 

 done, and Europe by her incomparable miseries, that it ought to be 

 done." 



The scheme of William Penn aimed to establish an Assembly, or 

 Diet, in Europe, before which all differences should be brought, 

 that could not be terminated by embassies ; and the judgment of 

 which, should be so binding, that if any one Government, offering its 

 case for decision, did not abide by it, the rest should compel it. 



The last approach in Europe to a High Court of Arbitration is to 

 be found in the Holy Alliance, founded at Paris in 1816, by Treaty 

 signed and sealed by the Emperors of Russia and Austria, and the 

 King of Prussia. This Alliance was afterwards accepted by the 

 Netherlands, Saxony, Wurtemburg, and Switzerland, and the 

 Kings of England, and of France, sent Representatives to the various 

 assemblies, and meetings of this Alliance. 



The professed principles of this Holy Alliance were embodied in 

 Three Articles, the objects of which were declared to be ; the perpetual 

 preservation of peace, and the Sovereigns who signed the Treaty 

 declared, that they considered the Christian principles of benevo- 

 lence, mutual forbearance, and charity were binding upon them 

 as Sovereigns, equally as upon individuals, and they bound 

 themselves to support each other, against wars of aggression or 

 ambition in Europe. 



The premature death of Alexander, Emperor of Russia, was 

 probably the cause why the Holy Alliance was dissolved. 



In each and all of these leagues, confederacies, and tribunals, it 

 must be admitted, as their Constitutions declare, that the Executive 

 Power was, and remains still to be, force, and without this 

 executive authority they had, and have no stability, or permanence 

 in the family of nations. 



It may be said, and said truly, that the downfall of some of 

 the Confederacies, and Leagues of Arbitration was hastened by the 

 arbitrary exercise of their potential power, or by the jealousies, 



2 B* 



