should not have seen Europe so frequently harassed by unreasonable and unjustified wars." Finally, we come to the quintessence of his reflections and propositions: I. In future there shall be a Perpetual Diet, composed of the ministers or deputies of all Christian Powers. It shall meet at Ratisbon under the rules and forms of procedure actually in use in the Germanic Diet. 19 II. All controversies that might arise between the Princes or Christian States on account of religion, succession, marriage or for any other reason or pretext whatever shall be settled by the number of votes required by the constitution of the Empire. These decisions shall be rendered within the period of one year, reckoned from the day on which the affair is submitted to the Diet. III. In case one of these Powers in litigation should refuse to submit to the decisions of the Diet, which must be notified in authentic form within a period of six months, such Power shall be held to be a disturber of public tranquillity, and the Diet shall proceed against it by military execution until it submits to its decisions and makes compensation for all war damages and expenditures incurred for this purpose. The contingent to be furnished by each Prince or State in such an event shall be regulated on the basis established for the Empire. Alberoni wisely adds: "Time alone will show what fate awaits my intentions and wishes. But any intelligent man will be able to realize the difficulties I had to overcome in order to give consistent form to such a plan." In limiting the Diet to Europe or to the Christian world, Alberoni 19 The Diet of Ratisbon was divided into three Colleges: the College of the Electors, consisting of the nine sovereigns, to whom belonged the right to fill the vacancy on the Imperial throne; the College of the Princes, of a membership not less than one hundred; and the College of the Free Cities, composed of fifty-one deputies. The voting took place in the order in which the three Colleges are here given, so that the two princely Colleges decided all resolutions by themselves. DUC DE BROGLIE, Frédéric II et Marie Thérèse, Paris, 1883, I, p. 254.-The place of the first session of Penn's Parliament (Imperial Dyet or State of Europe) should be central, as much as is possible, afterwards as they agree. Penn finds the model for this institution in the States-General of the Netherlands. proved himself thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the great ideas of his time. On the other hand, peace and fraternity constitute the foundation of the Christian religion, born of the Roman soil when in the eyes of the civilized world Rome had become a universal state. Therefore, if Alberoni seeks the model for his organization and for his pacification of Europe in the constitution of the Holy Empire, this means only the adaptation of the principles of Roman law to the Germanic genius. Roman peace, Christian peace, Germanic peace, "Alberonian" peace, all these are only the successive links in the evolution of the same idea. And if "utopia is only the ideal seen in the distance," we may take comfort because, while the distance hitherto covered has been long and rugged, the dawn espied by so many keen-eyed minds has become brighter already, much brighter than it was a few centuries ago. The son of the Piacenza gardener, it will be found, has contributed to this progress. And while there remain always traces of even the slightest calumny, yet, the great judge time has accomplished his work also: little blemishes disappear, and the things of real worth are left. But a few years after the death of Alberoni, Ange Godard in his turn writes a PROJET DE PACIFICATION GÉNÉRALE (Amsterdam, 1757), solely designed for the peace of Europe and in favor of the establishment of the universal republic, for the purpose of the conservation of mankind, on whose behalf he already bespeaks "a public international law." Like a ray of the sun, it may be obscured, denied, outraged; but in the end it reappears and dispenses justice to all sides, even as the sun's ray sheds light upon life. In vain did Toulouse from Pierre Dubois, and Venice from Crucé, and Berne from the Prince de Hesse-Rheinfels, and Rome from Leibnitz, and Ratisbon from Alberoni await the organization of an international arbitration tribunal. But on a glorious morning it awoke at The Hague. It is not yet the ideal tribunal. But it looks very much like it. Real progress is an evolutionary process of a slow but sure growth. The contribution which Cardinal Alberoni has made to the construction of that institution is neither very considerable, nor very remarkable. It bears only the marks of the tools which fashioned it and the seal of its author. I thought, however, that it was worthy of presentation to the minds of those who are following with interest the steep path humanity is engaged in ascending, in the effort to do away with brutal force and to establish the reign of Law and Justice.20 MIL. R. VESNITCH. 20 While this article is going to press, the partition of Turkey is being effected, at least in regard to her European and African provinces. It is not the Western Powers which are realizing this idea of Alberoni; rather, it is the vital forces of the Balkan peoples, subjugated five centuries ago by the Asiatic invasion, which are achieving this superb work, by taking up again, as it were, the thread of their development at the very place where it was severed at the end of the 14th century, after the memorable battle of Cossova. We shall not, however, blame our author because he did not foresee that in future the peoples and their aspirations would replace the intrigues of the Cabinets. This mistake in judgment was not at all personal to himself; it was general and was relegated to the historical archives only by the declaration of independence of the United States of America and by the consequences of the great French Revolution. CARDINAL ALBERONI'S SCHEME FOR REDUCING THE TURKISH EMPIRE TO THE WITH A SCHEME OF PERPETUAL DYET FOR ESTABLISHING THE PUBLICK TRANQUILITY Translated from an Authentick Copy of the Italian Manuscript, in the hands of the Prince de la Torella, the Sicilian Ambassador, at the Court of France. LONDON: Printed for J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane; J. Torbuck in Clare Court, Drury-Lane; and Sold at the Pamphlet Shops at the RoyalExchange, and Charing-cross. 1736. Price 1s. 6d. THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE The following Scheme requires no other Recommendation, but to say, it was design'd by Cardinal Alberoni, a Genius form'd by Nature for the greatest and most extensive Enterprizes. Posterity will scarcely believe, that this Prodigy, in the space of four or five years, had raised the Spanish Monarchy to the Height of Power, to which it is now arrived; and that, from a languid and declining State, which render'd it an Object of Contempt to the rest of Europe, for more than a Century. Should I engage in a Detail of his Administration, and Conduct in Spain and Italy, this work would swell to an exorbitant Size; but that is not my Design, having entirely confin'd myself to the Business of the Translation, which I have endeavour'd to perform with the utmost Fidelity; and it would, indeed, be almost unpardonable to have committed Errors, in a Scheme, calculated for promoting Christianity and the Good of Mankind, which could be portray'd by him only, who seems to have Capacity for the Government of the World. As this Design interests the Religious as well as the Civil Rights of all Christian Powers, I flatter myself, it will be esteem'd as a valuable Present to the Publick. THE INTRODUCTION If neither the Dictates of Humanity, nor the Duties of Religion are cogent enough to inspire the Princes and States of Christendom with a Resolution to rescue their Fellow Christians from the Tyranny and Bondage of Infidels, it may however be presumed their own Interests will tempt them to undertake that pious and salutary Work. It is amazing to see Christian Princes, so jealous of their Honour, so anxious to revenge the very Shadow of Injuries; to see them, I say, so easily piqued at one another, upon trivial Incidents, and tamely sitting down, at the same Time, with the most outrageous Affronts, Violations, Ravages, and Depredations of the Infidels of Barbary and Morocco. How often do those Robers take the Ships of Spain and Portugal, ravage and burn their Coasts, and carry away their Subjects into Slavery, with Impunity? Yet these Crowns have, for some Time, been in a State of Warfare, on the Score of Insults offer'd to a Public Minister. Other Sovereign Princes and States, to preserve their Subjects from such Evils, stoop so low, as, in some Measure, to become Tributary to those Pyrates, by sending them annual Presents; but how far such Conduct is consistent with the dignity of free and independent Princes, is submitted to the Censure of the Publick. Some Umbrage may, perhaps, be taken against this Scheme, on Account of Religion; but how often have Catholick and Protestant Princes enter'd into Confederacies against their Neighbours indiscriminately? And shall we now be surprized to see them forming Alliance against Infidels and Pyrates? Never was Opportunity more favourable; Heaven seems to point out the Subversion of the Turkish Empire, by such a Concurrence of Incidents, as has not been known, since the Doctrine of Mohomet first |