either subtlety of intellect or nobility of mind, acquire a vulgar reputation for sagacity, whereas they are neither wise nor efficient.
'A proposal of this sort is one of those things that can never come too early nor too late,' said Bentham when he was introducing his 'Plan for an Universal and Perpetual Peace'.[1]
If a citizen of the world, he asked, had to prepare a universal international code, what would he assign to himself as his object? It would be the common and equal utility of all nations.[2] 'War is mischief upon the greatest scale.'[3] Among the causes or occasions of war have been 'enterprizes of conquest': means of prevention are confederations of defence, defensive alliances, and general guarantees. Attempts at monopoly in commerce, insolence of the strong toward the weak, and tyranny of one nation toward another, have been the causes or occasions of war: means of prevention are confederations defensive, and conventions limiting the number of troops to be maintained. No one, he asserts, could regard treaties implying positive obligations of this kind as merely chimerical; still less are those implying negative obligation.
