About six years later, Henry Richard drew the attention of many influential members of the American Congress to the relations which were felt to be favourable for trying to arrange a treaty of arbitration between Great Britain and the United States. American statesmen, less bound by the old traditions of European diplomacy would, it was thought, be able with greater freedom to attempt such a novelty. The replies to this application were very favourable and encouraging, and in various ways since then attempts have been made to realize the idea.
In many Parliaments from time to time propositions in this direction have been brought forward and approved.
On July 8th, 1873, Henry Richard brought before the English Parliament a proposition requesting the Government to invite negotiation with foreign powers for creating a universal and well-established international system of arbitration. The then Prime Minister, Gladstone, expressed himself as favourable to, the proposal, but advised its being withdrawn. Richard, nevertheless, persisted that it should be dealt with, and obtained the remarkable result, that it was carried with a majority of ten.
This example was followed by the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Nov. 24th of the same year; and again on July 12th, 1890;2 by the States General of Holland, Nov. 27th, 1874; by the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, Dec. 19th, 1875; and shortly after by the Senate of the United States of America, and Congress also, June 17th, 1874; and April 4th, 1890.
The last-named resolution of Congress had been accepted by the Senate, Feb. 15th of the same year, being recommended by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and runs thus: —
The President be, and is hereby requested to invite from time to time, as fit occasions may arise, negotiations with any government with which the United States has or may have diplomatic relations, to the end that any difficulties or disputes arising between them, which cannot be adjusted by diplomatic agency, may be referred to arbitration, and be peaceably adjusted by such means.
On May 9th, 1890, Don Arturo de Marcoartu moved in the Spanish Senate that the Spanish Government should enter into relations with other European powers to bring about a permanent tribunal of arbitration in Europe. In the first place, the mover proposed that the states should come to an agreement upon a general truce for five years. In that interval a congress of emissaries from all the European Governments and Parliaments should be called together. The business of the congress should be to work out a code of international law. The proposition was urged, especially with regard to the necessity of finding a reasonable solution of the great social question, since all effort in that direction appears to be hopeless so long as the savings of the nations are swallowed up by military expenditure. The Minister of Foreign Affairs requested the Senate to take the proposition into serious consideration, and on June 14th the Senate resolved to authorize the Government to enter into negotiations with foreign powers for the object indicated.
Neither are the Scandinavian Parliaments unaffected by this movement.
As far back as 1869 the question of arbitration was mooted in the Swedish Parliament by Jonas Jonassen. In 1874 he proposed in the second chamber that Parliament should submit to the King "that it would behove his majesty on all occasions that might present themselves to support the negotiations which foreign powers might open with Sweden or with each other with reference to the creation of a tribunal of arbitration for the solving of international disputes." The committee which dealt with the proposition advised its acceptance. The Lower House passed it, March 21st, by seventy-one votes against sixty-four; but the Upper House rejected it.
The miserable dealing of the Parliament of 1890 with the question I shall have occasion to refer to further on.
In the same year, the question made surprising advance in Norway. On March 5th the Storting voted on the motion of Ullmann and many others, by eighty-nine votes against twenty-four, an address to the King, which begins thus: —
"The Storting hereby respectfully approaches your Majesty, with the request that your Majesty will make use of the authority given by the constitution in seeking to enter into agreements with foreign powers, for the settling by arbitration of disputes which may arise between Norway and those powers."
And concludes with these words: —
"In the full assurance that what the Storting here requests will be an unqualified benefit to our people, it is hereby submitted that your Majesty should take the necessary steps indicated."
A similar resolution was very near being voted by the Danish Folketing in 1875. The proposition as brought forward was, May 13th, unanimously recommended by the committee in charge, but on account of the dissolution of the House two days later, could not be acted upon.
Several years ago a petition was circulated in the various districts of Denmark, by which Parliament was urged to co-operate as early as possible in bringing about a permanent Scandinavian treaty of arbitration.
In such a treaty, binding in the first instance for thirty years, the petition affirms that the three northern kingdoms will have an efficient moral support when there is occasion to withstand the efforts of the great powers to entice or to threaten any of them to take part in war as allies on one side or the other. Such a treaty will, therefore, in great measure serve to preserve the neutrality of the northern kingdoms, and thereby their lasting independence.
This petition was dealt with in the Folketing, March 27th, 1888. After a short discussion, the following motion of F. Bajer was passed by fifty votes against sixteen.
"Since the Folketing agrees with the wish expressed in the petition, provided it is shared by the other States without whom it cannot be carried out, the House passes on to the order of the day."
In his little paper: On the Prevention of War by Arbitration, F. Bajer writes:
"It may certainly be granted, that a little State like Denmark cannot well work at the creation of a European tribunal of arbitration, so far as that means setting itself at the head of a movement for inviting the other European States to a Congress by which its creation shall be adopted.
"But a little State like Denmark can always do something in the direction of arbitration between States. It can bring the matter a practical step forward by applying first to the other small States, especially to the neighbour States of Sweden and Norway, and proposing to them that mutual disputes shall in future, as far as possible, be settled by arbitration when other means have failed. The relations between the three northern kingdoms are indeed now so friendly that a war between them can hardly be thought of for a moment. But – as was said in confirmation of the resolution in the first northern Peace Meeting, respecting a permanent arbitration treaty between the three kingdoms – they have carried on many bloody internecine wars, which have only benefited their powerful neighbours, but have been in the highest degree injurious to themselves; and the possibility of war between the three northern kingdoms is not excluded so long as they are not simultaneously neutralized, or in some other way engaged to carry out a common foreign policy. It is no longer ago than 1873 that the so-called "pilots' war" in Oeresund caused much bad blood among relatives on both sides of the sound. That that was settled authoritatively by the mutual declaration of the 14th of August is due to circumstances on whose continuance for the future it is not possible to reckon. Had a strained relation at the same time obtained between one or more of the great powers within or without the Baltic ports, and had these endeavoured to sow discord between the coast powers, that they might fish in the troubled waters, and feather their own nests by getting these small states as their allies; and if one power had got Denmark, but its enemy got Sweden-Norway as an ally – a new northern fratricidal war would have broken out. Even if such a future possibility cannot be entirely eradicated by a mutual arbitration treaty amongst the northern nations, a new guarantee for peace would be secured." (Bluntschli's expression.) "For the small northern kingdoms would by such a treaty acquire an excellent moral support when it came to withstanding the attempt of the great powers to entice or threaten them into taking part in wars as their allies. Such a