Bentham's plan was published in 1789 and is based upon two fundamental principles, both of which the author considered essential for the success of the peace move ment :—(i) the reduction and fixation of the forces of the sev eral States which composed the European Concert; (2) the emancipation of the colonial dependencies of each State as such colonies were a constant source of war. As a natural corollary to the preservation of peace, Bentham urged the establishment of an International Court of Judicature for the settlement of dis putes between the States and also of a Common Legislature for recording the resolutions agreed to by the States and for placing under the ban of Europe any State which should refuse to con form itself to these resolutions. The most powerful instrument, however, for the sanction of these resolutions was public opinion, aided by the liberty of the Press and the suppression of secret diplomacy.
Kant's project for a perpetual peace (pub lished in 1795) is based upon the same idea of a general federa tion of States, but is further developed on more general and universal lines. The author lays down as a first condition of a
perpetual peace that the civic constitution of every State adhering to the proposed league should be republican, viz., a form of gov ernment where every citizen participates by his representatives in the exercise of the legislative power and especially in that of deciding on the question of peace as against war. The second condition is that the public law of Europe should rest on a federa tion of free States. Nations cannot escape from the lawless con dition which connotes wars unless they renounce, as private individuals have renounced, their uncivilised ways and submit themselves to obligatory public laws and form thus a civitas gentium which should gradually extend so as to comprise ulti mately all the peoples of the world. Here then is the first idea of an organisation which includes all nations, and not only the Christian or European States as in all the schemes that have preceded Kant's.