44 Nineteenth Century Peace Congresses
date was mentioned at which it was to be fulfilled; but in
spite of this defect it was clearly a step in advance. Just as
the humanitarian ideas of which Bentham was the prophet
were behind this provision, so the influence of Adam Smith
and the classical economists appeared in the measure, also
adopted unanimously, that international rivers should be
open to the commerce of all. This idea applied especially
to the Rhine, and has since been greatly expanded in special
treaties. It is under this principle that American vessels
have free passage through the waters of the St. Lawrence,
and that most of the other great rivers of the world are
open to the commerce of the nations. The opening of the
Scheldt, by which Antwerp gained access to the sea, had been
bitterly opposed by England for fear that the Belgian city
might come to be a rival to her own great port of London.
This had been one of the reasons which had led her to de-
clare war against the French Republic in 1793. But now
all were willing to have this very important river, which rises
in Belgium and reaches the sea in Holland, made one of the
great doors which lead into northern Europe. As a result,
at the opening of the present war Antwerp had become the
third port in the world. The nations which are to-day fight-
ing for the redemption of Antwerp are in reality fighting for
a principle which was definitely established at the Congress
of Vienna. In opening the rivers the congress was really
saying that above the special interests and desires of each
individual state there are rights which belong to all. It was
the first small plank in a common law for the nations which
was to serve as a limitation on the idea of absolute and
unlimited sovereignty. And it takes no great prophet to
foresee that the time will come, however slowly, when states
will recognize that complete sovereignty is as impossible in