The Pennsylvania ledger, or, The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey weekly advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-07-27 00:00:00, page 1

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July 27, 177^
WEEKLY ADVERTISE R.
Or the Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New-Jersey
SATURDAY, July 27, 1776.
Mr Humphreys, please give the following a
place in your next,,
E°SS A Y 0 n PEA CE.
Peace! Hulh the dismal din of arms once more,
And calm the jarring World from Shore to Shore.
1 ranflation of Lucretius.
Though it be very agreeable to the law of
nature, that men Ihould live in peace with
each other peace being a date peculiar to man, so
far as he is diftinguilhed from brutes: Yet war be
comes sometimes lawful to man, and even necessary,
when, by another's malice, we cannot preserve our
property, or enjoy our rights without forcible means.
But, herein too. prudence calls upon us, and hu
manity persuades us not to have recourse to arms,
when, by seeking fatisfadion for the injury done
us, we are likely ,to involve ourselves and dependents
in greater misfortunes.
Now, as it concerns mankind in general, and eve
ry nation in particular, to have an end put to wars,
this end cannot be obtained, nor the calamities of
war made to cease, but by certain stipulated agree
ments with the enemy. It is much more advisable
by such agreements to prevent greater evils, than
by wars to revenge perpetually those already infill
ed, and perhaps, amidst a leries of doubful fortune,
considerable expence, and often signal defeats: Add
to this, that no war is just by the law of nations,
unless waged for the fake of peace; for the cause
of war ought not only to be just, but also the end;
this end is justice, and justice is what we call peace.
None are so happy as to have all persons their
friends, and nothing is so inconstant, as not some
times to undergo considerable alterations, friendihip
degenerating into hatred, and the bonds of society
being frequently broken by many intervening cau
les of jealouly: And, as adverse fortune arises from
prosperous, and prosperous from adverse, so the
public ways and means are usually ordered and va
ried according to the disposition of nature. Nothing
besides can be so well regulated in a commonwealth,
as to leem so to all. Io remedy the inconvenien
cies arising from this variety. Plato imagined a cer
tain eternal form of commonwealth ; but, as such
mull rather exist in the ideas of Philosophers than
in nature, Aristotle and his followers inttituted and
taught a form, which, as fubje& to variations,
mult be accommodated to the nature and genius of
mankind.
Hence, as diseases have their lucid intervals,
whereby they are distinguished, and at length are
terminated by health, or death , so war has; I may
fay, its remissions either particular, which are cal
led reflations of arms and truces; or universal, which
are peace. No war therefore can last for ever, and
no enemy can be reputed so inveterate, as not to
admit of a truce, and sometimes a peace: For, as
Seneca very finely express it, • If mortals were to
bear an eternal hatred; if the fury once harboured
in their minds was never to cease; if the fortunate
was always to keep the sword uniheathed, and the
unfortunate was always to obey, war would leave
nothing free from their ravages, the fields would lie
watte, we Ihould fee the abodes of men continually
in flames, and heaps of rubbish and^aflies become
the burying places of the molt flourishing nations.'
From the impossibility of continuing war too
long, notwithstanding the motives of just resent
ment, we may therefore conclude, that peace must
take place: But, in order to a fafe and lasting peace,
we must confider that all agreements and compass
are in some measure dangerous in regard to the
parties we are to deal with, and therefore not to
be entered into without great caution. In public
negociations, both things and persons, not fubjed
to the fame law with ourselves, and nbt biaffed by
the fame judgments, ought to be well attended to:
And this especially, when we are for fettling mat
ters with the enemy, or those who have been newly
brought under our fubjedion; for it may be laid
clown as a maxim, that the parties are always tp be
dreaded whom you have injured, or who have inju
red you. Desiring either to be revenged, or fearing
you will be revenged of them, they often endeavour
to be beforehand with you.
Three forts of compass are made with an enemy,
Cessation of arms,Truce,and Peace. These three dis
THE
, The proper time for a Prince to make peace is the
time of his enemy's ill fortune; for, if he cannot
intirely ruin him, he does better to Secure his con
quers by a good treaty, while his enemy is weak
and unfortunate, than hazard them by continuing
tlie War, the event of which repeated experience
shews to be very uncertain Thus we fee th.,t wor
ked Princes generally defer an accommodation witlx
the Vidor as long as they can; which succeeds
sometimes well, sometimes ill, there being no fixed
and certain rules of human actions,
IV hen Francis I. and the Emperor Charles V.
came in iiglit of each other, in France, in tlie year
\ssb with each a potent army both weary of ma
king war against each other, some great men inter
posed to n^ike that peace, which was then conclu
ded between those two great Monarchs. Moss peo
ple thought chat Charles V. having made so great
a progress would not hearken to any terms of place,
but what would be„too ignominious for his enemy -
to accept. I hey had tucn no good opinion of the
fucceis of the negociation on loot; but those, who
knew very well, that he would be very glad t'o end
this war, were full of good hopes. Among these,
Lewis Alamani, a Plorentme, being afleed. whether
he believed that thole persons could make the peace,
he answered in this Italian dillich:
Com' effer puo ch'a noi pace fi teglia,
S tin n'lia neceffita, l'altro n'ha voglia?
' How can we have otherwise than peace, feeing
the one desires it, and the other Rands in need of it.'
Nothing could be more just than this reasoning
for there is no better prognollic of a peace ata; -at
Cessation of arms is so called, when hostilities are
deferred for a time. Whilst it continues, the war
remains, but is not exercised for certain reasons.
71he cliief use of a cessation of arms is for deceiving
the enemy, gaining time, and receiving reinforce
ments. Whence, it is reckoned to be one of the
Stratagems or points of policy in war.
A Truce is an imperfed peace, war being defer
red for some time, and the belligerant parties du
ring the interval, being allowed all the advantages
of a perfeft peace. For this reason Varro called a
truce the Holydays of wars, because, tho' the cause
of war lubfifts, the ads of war indeed cease. The
longest teim of a truce is ioq years. History does
not furniSh us with an instance of a longer. The
Romans twice ratified a truce of 100 years with the
Vejentes. The Persians in the reign of Theodosius
11, granted a truce of 100 years ~to the Romans.
Between the King of Spain and the States of the
United Provinces a truce lasted from 1609 t 0 1622.
Peace is a perpetual cessation of hostilities, and a
refloration of the commerce of freely convex finer
between those Who were enemi s. Peice is made
among Equals or Unequals. Among Equals, when
both parties are yet in good plight, and upon a
balance with each other, which being supposed,
peace is easily and fafely fettled, between them. A
mong Uncquals, as amongtt the Conquerors and
Conquered; but between them peace is brought
about with great difficulty, when, on one fide The
Conquerors are insolent, and would have all granted
to them; and, on the other, the Conquered would
rather p.erifh, and lose all, than accept of such base
conditions. When affairs are thus circumilanced,
peace cannot poSfibly be made without the iruerpo
fition of Mediators, very Strong in power and au
thority, who can, as it were, prelcribe conditions
to the contending parties, and extort them by force
to the party that will not comply, Notwithstand
ing, properly Speaking, it belongs to the Conqueror
to give law and peace to the Conquered, and not
to leceive them. And it is tlie bufineis of the Con
quered to submit to necessity, and by some tolerable
conditions rather to put an end to the war than
endanger tie whole State. Thus, there will be
two necessary conditions of peace: The firft that it
ffiould be honest; the second. that it should be fafe
and Secure; for, when a peace carries will ]it the
lead Suspicion of being deceitful, war is far more
fafe and preferable.
fer as to time; Cessation of arms is of short duration.
A Truce lasts a few, or many years. Peace is eter
nal, that is, circumicribed by no certain space of
time.
Numb. LXXTX.