The Rights of War and Peace: In Three Volumes

Chapter XXV. Of the Causes for which War is to be undertaken on the Account of others

1151 u c h a p t e r x x v u Of the Causes for which War is to be undertaken on the Account of others. I. 1. Above, when we a treated of those who make War, we laid down, and explained, that, according to the Law of Nature, every Man is authorized to maintain, not only his own Right, but also that of another Person’s: And therefore those Reasons that can justify a Man in undertaking a War for himself; the very same can justify those who espouse the Cause of others. 2. But our main and chiefest Care should be, 1 for those b who are under our 2 Direction and Management, whether in a Family or in a State. For they are, as it were, a Part of him who governs, as we shewed there. Thus the Hebrews took up Arms, under the Command of Joshua, in Behalf of the Gibeonites, c whohadsurrenderedthemselves up to them. 3 Our Ancestors, says Cicero to the Romans, often commenced a War, if but one of their Merchants and Mariners had been ill dealt with: And in another Passage, How many Wars, (says he) have our Fathers engaged in, upon their hearing that any Roman Citizens had been injured, any Master of a Vessel detained, or any Trader plundered. The same RoI . (1) See Pufendorf, Law of Nature and Nations, B. VIII. Chap. VI. § 14. 2. Procopius says, it is not sufficient, in Order to be just, that we do no Wrong to any one, but that we must also be ready to protect those who are under our Charge, from the Injuries of others. Persic. Lib. II. (Cap. XV. in the Speech of the Embassadors from the Prince of the Lazians to Chosroez, King of Persia.) Grotius. 3. Majores vestri saepe, mercatoribus, &c. Orat. pro Leg. Manil. Cap. V. Quot bella majores nostros & quanto, &c. In Verr. Lib. V. Cap. LVIII. I. War may be justly undertaken by a Prince for the Interest of his Subjects. a B. i. chap. 5. b Navar. l. 24. c. 18. c Joshua x. 6. 1152 chapter xxv mans, tho’ they refused to take up Arms in behalf of their Allies, did yet, as soon as ever those Allies had thrown themselves under their Protection , and so became their Subjects, think themselves obliged to do it. The Campanians addressed the Romans thus. 4 Tho’ you will not guard our State against the Violence and Insults of its Enemies, yet surely you will protect your own. And 5 Florus tells us, that the Alliance between them and the Romans became more strict, upon the Surrender of all they had. And Livy says, 6 It was believed to be a Point of publick Faith, not to fail and desert such as gave themselves up to their Disposal. II. A Prince is not always obliged to take up Arms, whateverjustReasons of Complaint any particular Subject of his may have; unless all or most of his Subjects would be Sufferers on that Account.ForitisaSovereign’s Business to have greater Regard for the Whole than the Part; and the larger the Part is, so much the more does it approach to the Nature of the Whole. III. 1. And therefore,If one 1 Subject,tho’altogetherinnocent,bedemanded by the Enemy to be put to Death, 2 he may, no Doubt a of it, be abandoned, and left to their Discretion, if it is manifest, that the State is not able to stand the Shock of that Enemy. Ferdinand Vasquez b argues against this Point; but if one does not so much mind his Expressions as his Meaning, one may find that what he intended was, that such a Subject should not rashly be forsaken; provided there were any Hopes of being able to protect him. For, amongst other Instances, he alledges that of the Italian Infantry, who deserted Pompey, before Matters were grown desperate, 4. Quandoquidem, inquit [princeps legationis Campanorum] Livy, Lib. VII. Cap. XXXI. Num. 3. 5. Erat foedus cum utrisque, &c. Lib. 1. Cap. XVI. Num. 2. 6. Tum jam fides agi visa, deditos non prodi. Ubi supra. Num. 7. III. (1) See Pufendorf, B. VIII. Chap. II. § 5. 2. See the Patriarch Nicephorus’s Advice given to Michael Rangaba, about delivering up some Deserters to the Bulgarian General, as an Article of the Peace, where you have in Zonaras the following Period, Krei ÷sson ei finai,&c. Judgingitmuchbetter for a Few, than an immense Multitude to suffer...