The New Europe/Volume 4/A Lasting Peace through the Federation of Europe
Reviews
Professor C. E. Vaughan, late of the University of Leeds—who in 1915 published what will probably remain the definitive edition of the political works of Rousseau—has just done good service to the cause of a European settlement by issuing a cheap reprint of Rousseau’s essay on “A Lasting Peace through the Federation of Europe” (Constable, 2s. net). Although Rousseau wrote this essay in 1756, it contains many wise remarks and sound principles which are singularly applicable to the present day. One warning of Rousseau might well be taken to heart by the pacifist groups of to-day: “My friends! you must allow me to tell you that you give too much weight to your calculations and too little to the heart of man and the play of passion. Your system is excellent for Utopia, for the children of Adam it is worth nothing.”
Professor Vaughan contributes to this edition a most valuable Introduction, in which he applies the ideas of Rousseau to the current crisis. He points out that the basis of a Federation of the Continent and the indispensable condition of the maintenance of a lasting peace must be the reorganisation of Europe, and particularly of Central Europe, on national lines. He rightly regards the break-up of Austria as “one of the chief conditions of the coming peace,” without which “the war will have been waged in vain.”F. J. C. H.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
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