Wilfred Laurier, G.C.M.G. (President of the Privy Council of Canada), the Hon. Sir Richard J. Cartwright, G.C.M.G. (Minister of Trade and Commerce for Canada), the Hon. Sir Louis H. Davies, K.C.M.G. (Minister of Marine and Fisheries for Canada), and John Charlton, Esq. (Member of the Canadian House of Commons).

The High-Commissioners appointed by President McKinley to represent the United States, who, with one exception, are politicians known for the sobriety and moderation of their views, and their friendly feeling towards this country, are Senator Gray, Mr. Kasson, Mr. Nelson Dingley, junior, Mr. Fairbanks, and ExSecretary Foster.

Amongst the disputes which will come before the Commission are those connected with the Behring Sea, North Atlantic, and Lake fisheries. There are the questions of alien labour, border immigration, reciprocity mining regulations in the Klondyke and British North American possessions. There is the war of tariffs. There is the matter of the overland transit of goods destined for our markets. There is also the question of the Alaskan boundary, which by the Convention of January 30th, 1897, was referred to a Commission for settlement, but is now included in the matters to be discussed by this Commission.

A desire has been expressed that the Newfoundland Colony shall be represented upon the Canadian and American Arbitration Commission, and it is reported that this desire has been acceded to. It is also stated to be quite probable that the Commission will appoint Lord Herschell to be president.

THE SECRETARY'S MEETINGS.
GRAVESEND.

On Sunday evening, June 26th, Dr. Darby, who was conducting the services at Lacey Terrace Congregational Church, Gravesend, for the Rev. P. Husband Davies, Pastor, preached by request on the question "Is War Justitiable?" The occasion was the monthly Popular Service, and the Congregation was a large one.

STOCKPORT.-HANOVER.

The following Sunday, July 3rd, Dr. Darby preached on Peace, at the Hanover Congregational Church, Stockport, the Pastor, the Rev. W. G. Allan, M.A., B.D., taking part in the service.

STOCKPORT. TRINITY.

In the afternoon he gave an address on Peace to the P.S.A. Society at the Trinity Wesleyan Church, the Meeting being conducted by T. Rowbotham, Esq. This P.S.A. is one of the oldest and largest in the district. Although a men's society, there was a very full attendance of both sexes, the meeting being an "open one, and the day the 7th Anniversary of the Conductor's connection with the Society. HIGHER BROUGHTON. Another prominent congregation was addressed by Dr. Darby on Peace in the evening at Higher Broughton Congregational Church, Rev. J. McDougall, pastor, being present.

The following day, July 4th, after meeting with some of the Members of the Manchester Committee at the Reform Club, Dr. Darby went, accompanied by several who were present, to the house of John Mather Esq., at HIGHER BROUGHTON, where a drawing-room meeting had been kindly arranged. This was very well attended, and was presided over by Mr. Mather. After Dr. Darby's address an interesting conversation followed and various questions were answered. A vote of thanks to the speaker was unanimously adopted on the motion of Mr. Theodore Gregory; and after suitable acknowledgment of the hospitality of Mr. Mather and his family, the meeting terminated, and the audience adjourned to another room for refreshment.

BOYS AND WAR.-To some of the boys whom the warlike talk has set to thinking about going to the front and winning glory on the scarlet field, the New York Herald says that the boy doesn't think of the "death shots." Even if he does go so far as to picture a glorious death, he does not picture himself as left lying in the mud and filth, shot in some disagreeable and lingering way, perishing with thirst and unable to protect himself from the inillions of mosquitos and swamp flies that madden him with their poisonous stings. This is not a brilliant situation, and the chances in favour of it are very large. There is really no place in the ordinary war for a boy of sixteen.

RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION. PHILOSOPHERS believe Bible truth; patriots quote it; and poets in weave it with their choicest rhymes and rhapsodies. But when some fiery official sounds a note of war, or an idle conclave descries an injury to be avenged, straightway the people, philosophers, patriots, poets, and all, seem to forget that the precepts and promises of God are for all times and for all emergencies, and forthwith they take the reins into their own hands and endeavor to settle difficulties in their own way. But the truth of God is not shaken by the incidents of our temporal life. It is not power; not martial prowess; not a soldierly bravery; not even victorious warfare, that constitutes what Charles Sumner so happily called the true grandeur of nations. Military power may, for a time, appear to maintain civil authority, but it will always be at great cost to the humbler, the toiling and tax-paying part of the people, and when this is the case, it must involve loss to the nation. For no country is at its best unless the mass of the people are prosperous and happy. No; it is righteousness-right-wise-ness-that exalteth a nation, and no flourish of our warships around the coasts of Cuba, no resort to arms, even in behalf of her suffering insurgents, could work such blessed things for us as a people, as would the cleansing of our own cities from their sin and shame and sorrow, and the framing of our laws in harmony with the Divine Law, on the basis of purity, and peace, and love. H. L. B. (In The Messenger).

BOXING IN THE BOARD SCHOOLS.

As an illustration of the assiduity with which the military men seize every opportunity to educate the nation into subjection to their regime, the following "remarkable proposal" is quoted from the Daily News, of July 20th:

"At a meeting of the Mitcham School Board, held specially at the Board offices, Mitcham, an interesting and important discussion ensued upon a question of marked interest to the general public-namely, the inanual training of the young, principally by the teaching of boxing in the schools.

"The matter was brought up by Captain J. R. Smith on the following motion :

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That on account of the growing tendency of children to resort to the use of knives and pistols, and in order to counteract the same, each boys' department be furnished with two pairs of boxing gloves, and, subject to the approval of the Education Department, instruction be given in the use of the same by a competent person as part of the ordinary education of the school.' Speaking in support of the motion, Captain Smith said there could not be the slightest doubt that from some cause or other there was a growing tendency on the part of the rising generation to use knives and pistols for the purposes of revenge or during quarrels. There was no getting away from the fact that men would fight, and that being so, they should be taught in their younger days to fight with their fists. It was English, to say the least of it, but apart from that it afforded children an opportunity of embracing one of the most splendid forms of physical exercise. "Mr. Cheshire seconded. To his mind boxing was a manly excrcise, and if a boy were taught to box no one would expect him to be a bully. (Oh.')

"Mr. Allen said he entirely disagreed with the motion. As trainers of the young it was their duty to teach children to return a kiss for a blow. Certainly it was not their duty to teach them to fight. (Hear, hear.) To tight under any circumstances, he thought, was degrading.

"Mr. Parker was of opinion that the introduction of boxing would lower the tone of the schools. The few would become the bully of the many, and parents would be afraid to send their children to blackguard schools.' ('Oh,' and laughter.)

"Other members, including the chairman (the Rev. D. F. Wilson), spoke against the motion, which on being put-Captain Smith having refused to withdraw it-was declared lost by a large majority."

IF men be subjects of Christ's law they can never go to war with each other.-JEREMY TAYLOR.

AGENTS AND AUXILIARIES.

MR. AUGUSTUS DIAMOND, B.A.

WILMSLOW.-On Sunday, July 3rd, Mr. A. Diamond addressed the Women's Adult Class, at the Friends' Meeting House, and afterwards the members of the Sunday School, in the adjoining schoolroom, on the subject of "Peace and Arbitration."

MANCHESTER.-On Sunday, July 10th, he visited the Byrom Street Mission Hall, and spoke to two different sections of the Adult School and to the United Junior School.

BIRMINGHAM.

THE Rev. J. J. Ellis reports that he has addressed meetings as follows:

June 12th (Sunday), at the Wesleyan Church, KINgswinford, Sermon: "Peace of Christ."

June 13th, at the Free Christian Church Hall, SHREWSBURY, an address on "Arbitration v. War," The Rev. J. C. Street, presided. June 14th, in the Baptist Church at BRIDGNORTH, on the occasion of the Annual Meeting of the Salop Baptist Association, Rev. A. Lester presiding, an address on "Some Recent Arbitration Successes."

July 3rd (Sunday), at Heneage Street Baptist Chapel, BIRMINGHAM, and also at the Primitive Methodist Chapel, QUINTON, a Sermon: "David the Soldier, Christ the Saviour."

July 4th, at WITTON, Mr. Ellis attended the funeral of Mr. William Gilliver, J.P.

July 5th, at the Highgate Mission Hall, BIRMINGHAM, a lecture on "The Intrinsic Value of Man." Mr. Joseph Locke presided.

OBITUARY NOTICES.

MR. WILLIAM GILLIVER, J.P.

WE sincerely regret to announce the death of one of the Members of the Committee of our Birmingham Auxiliary-Mr. William Gilliver, J.P., which occurred on the 29th ult., at his residence in Wordsworth Road, Small Heath. The event took place with startling and unexpected suddenness, for in the morning Mr. Gulliver, who was in his sixty-seventh year, attended his place of business, and only the previous day he was on the bench at the City Police Court, although for a month he had been in somewhat indifferent health.

Mr. William Gilliver was well known for the interest he took in everything affecting the working classes. He had risen from a journeyman bootmaker to a manufacturer, and was one of the first working-men magistrates for Birmingham. He was one of the founders of the local trade council, was identified with the late Mr. Gamgee in establishing the Biriningham Hospital Saturday movement, and was hon. secretary and a warm supporter of the Workmen's International Peace and Arbitration League. A member of the Society of Friends, he was a Liberal in politics, and a strong advocate of direct labour representation on all public bodies.

The Executive Committee of the Birmingham Auxiliary at its next meeting unanimously resolved, on the motion of Councillor R. F. Martineau, seconded by Alderman G. Baker, "That this meeting of the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Auxiliary of the Peace Society hereby expresses its deep sorrow at the sudden death of its friend and sometime colleague, Mr. William Gilliver; and records its warm appreciation of his quiet, consistent, and persistent advocacy of Peace principles; and tenders to the family and to the 'Workmen's Peace and Arbitration Society' the assurance of its sincere sympathy."

DR. PANKHURST,

By the death of Dr. R. M. Pankhurst, which took place, on the 5th ult., at Victoria Park, Manchester, the cause of Peace has lost a staunch supporter. Dr. Pankhurst was an LL.D. of London University, and a barrister; and all his life he had been known as an advanced politician. Since 1885, when he contested Rotherhithe, he has been identified with the Independent Labour party; and, in 1895, he stood for the Gorton division of Lancashire as an I. L. P. candidate against the present member, Mr. E. Hatch, but failed to secure election.

At an influential meeting, held at the Arts Club, Manchester, July 16th, and presided over by Alderman Sir William Bailey,

of Salford, a resolution in favour of establishing a fund for the benefit of the children of Dr. Pankhurst, or otherwise as a committee might determine, was adopted. Subscriptions amounting to £180 were announced.

PROFESSOR ALPHONSE RIVIER,

By the death, in Brussels, on the 21st July, of Monsieur Alphonse Rivier, Professor in the University of Brussels, Belgium has been deprived of her foremost international lawyer. He was one of the arbiters in the recent Behring Sea fisheries dispute between England and Russia. He was a member of many learned societies, and an acknowledged authority on international law.

THE BETTER WAY OF INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION.

At the recent annual meeting of the London Labour Conciliation and Arbitration Board, it was stated that during the eight years it had been in existence there had not been an award made by the Board which had been broken, either by employers or employés.

The latest evidence of the work of this most beneficent body is in the settling of differences between a firm of cement manufacturers and the Amalgamated Society of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames. These parties had been before the Board on two previous occasions, and the awards given had been loyally adhered to. Improved trade had convinced the men that improved conditions of employment were now justified; and, instead of striving to get those improved conditions by shutting off work, and so destroying the improved trade, as is the popular strike fashion, the matter was again referred to the arbitrament of the Conciliation Board.

As the Board's arbitrators are selected from an equal number of employers and employed, both parties to a difference can, if they honestly desire the fair thing to be done, lay their case before the judges in full confidence that an impartial award will be given. The well-wisher of England's industry can pray for nothing better than the extension of the Conciliation Board's work throughout the country.

Think, if its work were thus extended, what the country would save. The prevention of waste of material wealth would so mount up in a few years that the compilers of estimates would have to calculate in millions; the seizure by vigilant foreign rivals of English markets, which too often remain in their hands long after the strikes have been forgotten, would be prevented. The gaunt spectre of want which hovers over the families of workers affected by strikes would be banished; the bad blood and mutual dislike and distrust between masters and men would be succeeded by mutual aid and kindly feeling.

It is surely the better way. But its universal acceptance seems still far off; and the reformer is tempted to fall back on proposals for compulsory arbitration, on the New Zealand model.

RECALL.

Put up thy sword, O Nation grand and strong!
Call in thy fleet-winged missiles from the sea;
Art thou not great enough to suffer wrong,
Land of the brave, and freest of the free?

Put up thy sword: 'tis nobler to endure
Than to avenge thee at another's cost;
And, while thy claim and purpose are made sure,
Behold that other's life and honour lost.

Put up thy sword: it hath not hushed the cry
That called it, all too rashly, from its sheath;
Still o'er the fated isle her children lie,

And find surcease from anguish but in death.

Put up thy sword, O Country strong and free,
Let strife and avarice and oppression cease;
So shall the world thy Star of Empire see,
Resplendent, o'er the Heaven-touched hills of Peace.
H. LAVINIA BAILEY
(For the American Friend).

THE

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

SILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

THE Society of Friends, with their characteristic generosity and devotion to principle, have been nobly engaged in succouring the persecuted Dukhobortsi, who are seeking refuge in Cyprus. The Friends have raised a guarantee sum of £16,500, and have made themselves answerable to the British Government for the proper housing and sustenance of the 1,100 immigrants who are awaiting embarkation at Batoum, until the end of the year 1900, and to the extent of £15 per man, woman, and child among them, or of so much of this sum as may be required. Mr. Wilson Sturge, who was at one time British Consul at Poti, on the Black Sea, has generously offered to go over to Cyprus and see to the settling of the new-comers, and his offer has been accepted.

AT Friedrichsruh, on Saturday, July 30th, Prince Bismarck died. He has not long survived our own great statesman, and the fact inevitably suggests comparison between the two men who have had so much to do with the making of modern history. Probably if this were made there would be more contrasts than resemblances. Yet in one respect they were alike. Both were men of firm religious convictions.

[PRICE 1d.

IT is hard to conceive this of the Iron Chancellor, the man who, in pursuance of German unity, did not hesitate to manipulate a telegram which precipitated the war, in which thousands of men were killed, and France brought to the verge of ruin; and who arranged the Alliance between Germany, Austria and Italy, and afterwards negotiated a secret treaty with Russia, against whom the Alliance was directed; yet it was so. Sir William Richmond quotes, in the Daily News, the Prince's words on religion and prayer. "I remember," he said, "at fourteen thinking prayer needless, for it struck me then that God knew better than I. I think much the same now, except that the usefulness of prayer is in that it implies submission to a stronger Power. I am conscious of that Power, which is neither arbitrary nor capricious. Of a future life I do not doubt. The present is too sad and incomplete to answer to our highest selves. It is evidently a struggle, then, only in vain if it is to end here; ultimate perfection I believe in."

YET, in spite of all his success and greatness, one reads with unspeakable sadness the remarkable words he once used, and which are just now going the round of the press "Nobody loves me for what I have done. I have never made anybody happy, not myself, nor my family, nor anybody else. But how many have I made unhappy! But for me three great wars would not have been fought; eighty thousand men would not have perished. Parents, brothers, sisters, and widows would not be bereaved and plunged into mourning. That matter, however, I have settled with God. But I have had little or no joy from all my achievements, nothing but vexation, care and trouble.”

SINCE the conclusion of Peace between Greece and Turkey, and the formal reorganisation of the Greek finances, a few of the more far-seeing friends of both countries have hoped for a rapprochement between them. The subject has been discussed lately in Athens, and it is now reported that M. Ralli has had a favourable interview with the Sultan. His Majesty, we have been told, is not indisposed to consider proposals for improving Turkish relations with Greece, and the Greek newspapers, which were the first to report the occurrence of the interview, are rather hopeful that such an improvement may take place.

AFTER many episodes and many changes, the drama in Crete has recently been narrowed down to a single question. Should Turkey be allowed, when she withdraws the soldiers who have served their time, to replace them by fresh troops, or should her garrison be progressively reduced by the gradual withdrawal of time-expired men? For several weeks this question has been discussed in despatches from Crete and Constantinople, and, presumably, by the diplomatists interested in its answer. Yet the general drift of recent diplomacy justifies the belief that all the four Powers consider the moment opportune for the commencement of the reduction of the Turkish garrison. Of course, this means that they consider that garrison no longer necessary as a protection for the Mohammedan minority in the island. It is certain, moreover, that the island has during the past few months been in a comparatively peaceful state. A new Administrative Authority has been established, and though we have. heard nothing of its achievements it does not seem to have encountered any violent opposition. A certain amount of trade between Christians and Moslems has sprung up, and disgust with the strife, though a negative safeguard, is certainly pretty strong.

FIGHTING has been resumed on the North-West Frontier of India. The patched-up Peace has not lasted very long. It is true that the hostilities now proceeding in an offshoot of the Chitral route are not directed against the Queen's troops, but they are the outcome of the invasion of those troops, and sooner or later the renewed intervention of those troops is almost inevitable. The Nawab of Dir, who appears to be the immediate aggressor in the present strife, was one of the potentates who granted safe conduct to the Chitral Relief Expedition in 1895, on the assurance that the independence of his territory would be strictly regarded. That promise, ast we know, was not kept, and the Nawab became a subordinate chieftain in the pay of the Calcutta Government. He has now gone on the warpath, and the countryside is once more in a distracted condition. One version of the affair suggests that his advance is merely defensive tactics on the part of a man determined not to be attacked on his own doorstep.

IN an admirable article by " Scrutator" in Truth, on "A Political Stocktaking," we have at the close of the Parliamentary Session a résumé of the doings of the Session, which is pronounced to have been, with the exception of the Irish Local Government Act, "a barren one." The following from our own special standpoint is of interest: "As usual, the ruling classes have endeavoured to divert attention from home matters by adopting what they are pleased to call a spirited foreign policy abroad, and in order to give effect to this policy they have largely increased our army and navy, and have engaged in wars in Africa."

"WE have on hand an expedition to add the Soudan to Egypt, although no one knows precisely how Egypt or we shall gain if it be successful." That, however, is not a question for the army, concerning which the latest news is that the advance has already begun in a

very brilliant and determined style. In these times of Peace, no sooner is one war over than another begins. The Turco-Greek struggle was quickly followed by the Spanish-American War, and this is no sooner finished than the final stage of the Soudan compaign is to be taken in hand. "In South Africa it has been deemed necessary to augment the British garrisons, as a menace to President Kruger, and to bring home to him the guilt of resisting a raid on his country. In Western Africa we have added to our Empire huge expanses of land, where Europeans cannot live, and which are not of the slightest use to us. In regard to these extensions, Mr. Chamberlain did his best to involve us in war with France, and war would have taken place had it not been for the interference of his colleagues."

THE Colonial Secretary is not the only one who would have involved this country in war, had their counsels been followed and their efforts been successful. Had a war with the Sultan been precipitated it would undoubtedly have meant conflict with Russia, and, beyond that, an European conflagration. And even now, if the Jingoes and the partisan newspaper men, who are continually complaining of the lack of firmness, and the sacrifice of British interests in the Far East, could have their way, conflict with Russia would soon be within measurable distance. This is the situation according to one of the most prominent of the opposition press "There are two parties in the Cabinet, as may be gathered from the public utterances of its leading members. There is the Peace party, headed by Lord Salisbury. There is the war party, headed by Mr. Chamberlain. A league against Russia would be a conceivable compromise between the two. We believe, however, that it would be profoundly mischievous, and we believe as well as hope that it will come to nothing."

THE reference is to the course of affairs in the Far East, where the Government, according to its rivals, has especially blundered, but about which, partly on account of the distance, partly because of scanty information, it is difficult for the average politician, or, indeed, any one outside the official circle, to form an accurate judgment. This is what " Scrutator" has to say on the subject, and he, be it observed, is by no means a friend of the party in power :-" Whilst a good deal of what Lord Salisbury has done in China is open to criticism, he has, on the whole, met the difficult problem of our future relations with that empire in a statesmanlike spirit. Before Russia and Germany appeared on the scene, we exercised a paramount influence at Pekin. At present we have to recognise that this paramount influence is over, and that all we can reasonably aspire to is equality of commercial opportunity in the Far East. But it need hardly be said that this does not satisfy our Jingoes, and they have bitterly assailed the Premier, and in every way sought to force us into a war. That Lord Salisbury has held his own against these ignorant braggarts and bullies is to his credit. In the Cabinet there seem to be two sections, each struggling for mastery, and one far more Jingo than the other. Under these circumstances, and having only to choose between the two sections, it behoves an anti-Jingo to support the one which is less Jingo than the other."

MEANWHILE, "the increase of our armaments continues. Each year a plan of expansion is submitted, and each year that of the previous year is declared not to be sufficient for our ever-increasing requirements. During the Session both our army and our navy have been augmented. The result of this policy of expenditure is that, although the Budget goes up by leaps and bounds, yet nothing is left for those Home Reforms which can only be carried out at a heavy cost. In the midst of plenty everything is starved in order to provide additional soldiers and additional ships. Unless I am, however, greatly mistaken, the Jingo craze is on the wane in the country." It is to be hoped that "Scrutator" is right.

STILL, it must not be overlooked that pursuit of empire will demand soldiers, and that competition and conflict with military nations must necessitate conscription. A proposal made during the discussion of this subject in the columns of the Spectator, for coldblooded cunning and cruelty, surpasses anything we have read. It ran as follows:-"The negroes of America and Jamaica, the Houssas, Senegalese, the Zulus, the Malays, are among the best food for powder' that has ever been discovered. And now look at these fellaheen horsemen of Sir Herbert Kitchener. They are taken unwillingly and by force from among the least warlike peasantry on earth; they are taught to ride, drilled, armed and inspired with confidence; and they charge through and through the picked warriors of the desert, the Baggara cavalry, who looked upon themselves as the destined inheritors of the Valley of the Nile. It is as if fellaheen had defeated Saracens. If General Kitchener had half a million of such men he could conquer Africa and perhaps Southern Asia too, as the Arab generals before him did. That proves, if anything ever is proved, that the restless children of Japhet need not waste themselves in any great numbers on their new work of conquest-that if they can only induce dark men to be drilled for five years they can, with a few officers, make powerful armies. There must be white artillery, and as many white regiments as will suffice for a head to the spear; but for the rest Asia and Africa will themselves provide, as Alexander the Great perceived, the means for their own subjugation."

BUT this sentiment of the Soudan War is to be equalled by the practice, for it is announced in the Press that Lyddite shells are to be employed, and that a new service bullet, which will be used for the first time in the Khartoum expedition, has just been adopted by the War Office. The reason assigned for the change in the service bullet is that the Lee-Metford does not disable an enemy as effectively as is desirable. The new bullet is spoken of as "the man-killing bullet" in contradistinction to the man-penetrating bullet. Any dervishes who may escape being shot in a vital part are pretty sure to succumb to internal hæmorrhage and shock. The cartridge is loaded with cordite, and gives as much energy as the old Martini-Henry bullet of 410 grains gave with the best gunpowder; while, being half the weight, a soldier is able to carry double the number of rounds of ball cartridge. The new projectile is being manufactured in the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich Arsenal, by men and boys working overtime, at

the rate of 2,000,000 rounds of ball cartridge per week, and if the test in the Khartoum expedition proves satisfactory, a permanent stock of 150,000,000 rounds will be kept in hand in the powder magazines at Woolwich. A contract for 10,000,000 rounds of the new ball cartridge has been entered into with Kynoch & Co., and for a similar number with the Birmingham Small Arms Ammunition Co.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Christian Life suggests that in view of the international difficulties between Great Britain, France and Russia, which on several occasions and at present have assumed a grave aspect, Christians everywhere would do well (in accordance with the Apostolic charge in 1 Timothy ii. 1-3) both in their private and public devotions to pray for the rulers of these three nations in particular, that they may be constrained by God to maintain Peace, and that their disputes, especially those concerning China, may be amicably settled without the terrible calamity of war. And in accordance with Christ's counsel to His disciples (Matthew ix. 38) prayer might also be appropriately made that the Lord will send forth many more labourers into the Gospel harvest-field in these and other nations of the earth, that men's minds may be less absorbed by worldly rivalries and increasingly drawn to the great truths of God and eternity.

"Our

THE Western Morning News, a few weeks ago, had a word of semi-satirical condolence for us. friends of the Peace Society," it said, "have fallen on evil days. We long for Peace, but all our thoughts are of preparations for war. The military spirit even dominates the pulpit. The Dean of Cape Town the other day preached to the volunteers, and seized the opportunity to enforce the secular lesson that to preserve Peace we must be prepared for war. War, he declared, was a national stimulant, and England should multiply her standing army exceedingly, increase her naval bulwarks, and fortify her coasts. At the Cape we want waking up from our suicidal apathy. We must not be content with a mere driblet of volunteers, but we should have some 5,000 men ready at short notice to mobilise and submit to steady military drill and discipline. To learn war duties we want to be welded into a compact force of Imperial and Colonial troops, armed with the most efficient weapons of modern experience, and instructed and led by proficient trained experts in military practice and strategy.' Lord Charles Beresford will be proud to welcome an ally in the very reverend gentleman who talks of war as ‘a national stimulant.' The Peace Society will, perhaps, wonder whether certain familiar texts have not lost their meaning in the course of twenty centuries."

OUR contemporary has been one of the most assiduous in blowing the war trumpet and advocating the new meaning, or, let us put it, urging the necessities of civilised and Christian nations, at the close of the twenty centuries, in spite of the old meaning and the acknowledged authority (by the Christian nations, of course), of the "familiar texts" to which it refers. It is certainly a matter of wonder to the Peace Society that the plain meaning of these familiar texts can be missed by those whose first and last duty it is to expound them, and that they can be so generally set at