JOHN MORLEY AT BRECHIN.

THE Annual Speech of the Right Hon. John Morley to his constituents at Brechin, on the 17th January, was full of points which are more than interesting to the members of the Peace Society.

His discussion of Jingoism has this true and trenchant conclusion:

"You may call it Jingoism, you may call it Imperialism, call it what you like. I know the thing, and whether it comes from Liberal teachers, or from Tory teachers, I would beg of all my countrymen, and those who are more than my countrymen-my constituents-I beg of them to remember what Imperialism is, in the sense in which it is now used; and I shall have much more to say upon this before I release you. Imperialism brings with it militarism, and must bring with it militarism. (Hear, hear.) Militarism means a gigantic expenditure, daily growing; it means an increase in Government of the power of the aristocratic and privileged classes. Militarism means the profusion of the taxpayers' money everywhere, except in the taxpayer's own home, and militarism must mean war, and you must be much less well read in history than I take the Liberals of Scotland to be if you do not know that it is not war-that hateful demon of war-but white-winged Peace, that has been the nurse and guardian of freedom and justice and well-being over that great army of toilers, upon whose labours, upon whose privations, upon whose hardships, after all, the greatness and the strength of the Empire and of States are founded and are built up." (Cheers.)

"THE LIBERAL PARTY,"

he declared, "will only be useful as an instrument of human progress so long as they walk persistently and steadfastly in the path of the old watchwords-peace, economy, and reform. (Cheers.) If the Liberal party abandon that path," he asked, what will they be but a body without a soul?

Referring to the Fashoda incident, his verdict is: "I do not believe in all the unblessed annals of Jingoism there was ever an instance where the excitement of the uproar so outstripped the necessities of the case." And this statement was received with cheers.

Discussing the Egyptian campaign, and the practical annexation of the Soudan, he says:

"Nobody denies that our officers and men on these occasions did their duty, and did it with skill-(hear, hear)-but don't quite forget the other side. I read a paragraph about the fervour with which a certain important minister of religion had a service. It describes the victory at Khartoum, and the charge of the 21st Lancers, and so forth. Unholy is the voice of loud thanksgiving over slaughtered men, and I wonder whether, in exultation over the Maxim guns mowing down men like swathes of grass, and your Lyddite shells blasting with death the spaces where they fell, and all the other pomp and circumstance of glorious war, they thought of the other side of the picture."

AVENGING GORDON.

"It is true that some say you have avenged Gordon. The son of that eminent man the late Lord Randolph Churchill was present on that occasion, and this is what he wrote:-'I am sick of what I hear men talk about avenging Gordon. Avenging Gordon ! What would Gordon himself think of it? What would any man who has gone over the field of battle, as I have, and seen these hundreds and thousands who have fallen, and have to be regarded as sacrifices for the avenging of Gordon.' Gentlemen, it is an impious and a dishonouring notion that that heroic man-as merciful as he was fearless--was like some implacable Pagan deity who needed to be appeased by hecatombs of human sacrifice. (Hear, hear.) There is another point, viz., that this would find employment for young Englishmen and young Scotchmen --I think especially young Scotchmen. (A laugh.) But now it appears that these billets and berths that were predicted for Edinburgh Masters of Arts are not to be theirs, for Lord Cromer announces that these posts are to be kept pretty exclusively for natives of Egypt. And now the third point is what have we got in the way of trade? I want here to put a question to youHave you in Scotland made up your minds once for all that it is right to kill people because it is good for trade? You will admit as a nation with a conscience that that is a delicate question, an

interesting question, and a nice question. If you have not considered it you should. (Laughter.) It was only the other day, in another part of Africa, you were, with your famous Maxiin guns, mowing down hordes of Matabele, who had been driven by plunder of their cattle, by forced labour, and by stupid mismanagement into what is absurdly called rebellion. Is it a good and valid defence for those operations that they are opening up markets for British goods? Turn the question over in your minds. Meanwhile here is an answer for you-not from me but from an eminent Tory lawyer. That eminent Tory lawyer, Sir Edward Clarke, speaking the other day, used this language. He said, 'If you seek to extend the area of your commerce by the use of the Maxim guns and Lyddite shells, and all the devilish contrivances of modern warfare, you are embarking on a policy which is a crime as well as a blunder.' 'War for commerce' sounds a very innocent phrase, and may be allowed to pass."

MURDER AND GAIN.

"Murder for gain' has an uglier sound, but it is equally true. I believe it is a doctrine which the people of these islands will not accept. (Cheers.) Now let us see how the thing stands. This is an official report on the condition in the Soudan the other day. 'The great want of the country at the present day is population. (Laughter.) There is a dearth of able-bodied males; that is the official phrase. There is a dearth of able-bodied males owing to the number killed in the recent fighting. A large part of the remainder are dispersed through the old villages, and are resuming their former occupation of cultivating the soil. There is no scope for the investment of capital, and any scheme for developing the Soudan by private enterprise would be premature. Time and immigration must first settle the labour difficulty.' What do you think of that language? (Hear, hear.) I only want to say one word more about the Soudan question. It is said that we are in Egypt, and being in Egypt means being bound up with Khartoum and the Soudan. I share to the full the gratification and admiration with which our splendid administrative work in Egypt is regarded."

Then passing to the wider question of British policy, he proceeded to consider the case against expansion, and, after looking at the realities of our national affairs for the last three years from a business standpoint, added the following weighty words of warning and exhortation :

"If you are to hold your own in the industrial competition which every day grows more and more severe-and the severity of competition will increase in geometrical proportion-you will have to spend more and more upon education in all its grades. (Cheers.) Then there are schemes of social reform. Some of them may be wise, and some of them may be unwise, but as sure as the sun rises in the heavens to-morrow some of those schemes will be adopted, and they will all cost money, and a great deal of public money. Then there is distress from time to time occurring in our Colonial possessions-there are famines and border wars in India, to which there is a great disposition in this country to contribute-some wars inevitable on the frontier, and some foolish. If this were the time, I would like to say a little more about the prospects of Indian revenue and cominercial prosperity. It is upon the British taxpayer that the burden falls. The cost of your army has increased within fifteen years, I think, by something like 25 per cent., and the cost of the navy has increased by something like 50 or 60 per cent. I am not quarrelling to-night with this growth of expenditure; I am only giving you the measure, and begging you to consider the measure of the growth of your burdens. Don't forget that if you persist in challenging all the nations of the earth to competition in naval expenditure, you will have to build ships to rival not one two Powers, but four or five Powers. If Japan advances, and if, still more, the United States advance, and if the United States abandon the policy of the wise founders of that great republic and embark on the waters of expansion and military expenditure, there will be other very important questions to be considered. As for the army, it is already almost more than we can do to keep on foot a military force adequate to the defence of what we already possess, and I don't think that the prospect of a military life on the deserts of Africa will make the task of the recruiting sergeant-which my hon. friend in the chair knows something about-any easier than it is now.

or

THE FASCINATIONS OF EXPANSION.

Now, gentlemen, I offer these considerations to you. When you are caught by the fascinations of expansion and of civilising great new territories-the civilisation itself being a doubtful thing -pray remember the other side of the case, and that so far as you accept and work upon this policy you are preparing burdens rather than advantages and blessings for the next generation. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, passing events show but too clearly that free and self-governing nations are sometimes as liable as ever Emperors and Kings of old were to fits of passion-I am not now, I am glad to say, thinking of this country-and even of cruel passion, to the thirst for territorial aggrandisement, and to the Pagan pride of empire; but there is this difference, after all, that free nations recover, and our perplexities and embarrassments of to-day will pass away."

But the most striking reference of all, both from the importance of the subject and the manifest earnestness of the speaker, is that which he made to

NONCONFORMISTS AND PEACE.

Undoubtedly Mr. Morley has only expressed what has troubled a large number of earnest and devout minds for some time. For if the doctrines of Archbishops Magee and Alexander are to be practically accepted by Nonconformist Ministers, if the leaders of Peace Crusades are to have special reservations, and now and then indulge in loud apostrophes, in favour of wars they specially approve, what hope is there?

Mr. Morley said :

THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION.

"Now I come to give an illustration of the extraordinary temper which has seized, at all events, some of my countrymen. There was a meeting of a body called the Congregational Union, a body of good and devout men, who are called, I think, in your phraseology, Independent. Listen to this:-A resolution was proposed in praise of the Tzar's rescript. See what happened. There was a motion to the effect that they discerned in it the expression of a conviction for years growing in the minds of the people and their leaders under the inspiration of the Prince of Peace, whose reign involves Peace on earth. I cannot imagine a nobler text, but I rubbed my eyes when I read the sermon. The gentleman who moved this resolution was a minister, an Independant minister, and this is his sort of language:-'I am not for Peace at any price'; 'There are worse things than war'; 'They were not so very afraid of war in a just cause'; 'They had something of the blood of the men who destroyed the Spanish Armada, who fought and won at Naseby.' Then the orator pulled himself up-this was a Peace resolution, mind-and he said that this was not a speech that he had prepared, but a speech which he wanted to make. Having said that, he added that he was no Jingo.' He entirely rejected anything like Jingoism. This statement the audience-who had been a little uneasy at a Peace resolution being proposed in this extraordinary bellicose phraseology about the Armada and the battle of Naseby-received with hearty laughter. So the grotesque performance came to an end, after one or two other ministers had taken a somewhat similar line. They remind me of the fighting bishops and fighting Popes of the Middle Ages who used to go forth in their armour to fight, as if they had been mere secular men like you and me. It is painful to me to think of there being good, devout men in this excruciating dilemma-in terror of being Jingo, but in still livelier terror of being Peace at any price. They need not be so afraid. When I hear statesman and bishops and others like these ministers saying there are worse things than war, it is quite true. But I do not think that it is a very fruitful truth, and it is not much more fruitful than if a physician consoled me by saying 'There are things worse than smallpox or delirium tremens or going out of your mind.' I suppose it is true, because, after all you might be hanged. But that crisis, which these gentlemen supported and encouraged, was an artificial crisis. One of them put in a formula, and I am bound to say more astonishing language I never read- We are in a workaday world,' one of the ministers present said, and we can hardly be asked to stand aloof from the practical business of life because there are higher laws of religious life which the

world is not likely to adopt.' No, nor is the world likely to adopt them when it sees preachers of these laws so dreadfully afraid to apply them in practice. They are not for Peace at any price! I have spent a good many years on this planet. I have seen, and I suppose have conversed with, thousands of my fellow-creatures, but I never in all my life-with the possible exception of a few members of the Society of Friends--of whom I am not sure, because some of the most pugnacious, one or two at least of the most pugnacious persons of my acquaintance are members of the Society of Friends-but with that possible exception, I have never met any man who was in favour of Peace at any price. No, we cannot afford to stand aloof from that practical business of life. But is there no chance of carrying your higher laws into practical business? Suppose one of these ministers were to find himself in the company of the forty thieves. He need not go-judging from the newspapers -a thousand miles from the City of London to find forty thieves. Suppose he were to say, 'I am for the Ten Commandments, but still this is a workaday world, we must not stand aloof from the practical business of life, and I am not for the Ten Commandments at any price.' You would know what to think of such language, and I say that that language is the legitimate corollary from the principle that is laid down. Nobody has a much more fervent faith in democracy than I have. But I should feel disappointed if I thought that the people of this country, or of the United States, or of any other country, were going to be handed over to a sensational Press, to an opportunist pulpit, and to political parties with their brand-new version of the golden rule- - Always swim with the stream.""

DR. GUINNESS ROGERS' REPLY.

Interviewed by a representative of the Echo, the Rev. J. Guinness Rogers said :-"Mr. Morley's speech has made me sad. It is difficult to see how, with his opinions, he can take his place in the honoured counsels of the party, he is so intolerant of those who do not agree with him. But I do not believe the difficulties are very serious. I am no more a Jingo than Mr. Morley himself.'

DR. C. A. BERRY'S CRITICISM.

"Of Mr. Morley's speech I will only say that, whatever dis agreements on points of detail may be naturally entertained, every true Liberal must applaud the exalted sentiments, the sagacious counsels, the timely warnings, the eminently religious reasonings and appeals which Mr. Morley had the courage and the wisdom. to utter in face of popular frenzy."

BOOK NOTICES.

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INCIDENTS.

THE villages of the natives who treacherously attacked the British force under Lieutenant Keating at Yelwa, on the Niger, have been destroyed and about 100 of the enemy killed.

THE Moorish Government has offered to settle the claims of British merchants and others, on account of the disturbances in the M'Zab district in 1896 by paying 75 per cent. of the amount claimed. It is, however, considered that that offer will not be accepted.

THE most unfavourable reports continue in Russia regarding the state of affairs in the districts affected by the bad harvests. The authorities are busy devising measures to prevent the complete destruction of live stock during the famine which will probably become yet more accentuated.

ACCORDING to advices, civil war is expected in Bolivia. Numbers of young men of the best society are joining the ranks, either of the Government party or of the Revolutionists, and civil war appears inevitable. The banks have in this way lost most of their clerks.

THERE has been fighting between the British and the natives at Illah in West Africa. The villages were bombarded by gunboats with six-pounder Hotchkiss guns and British officers have been wounded. The fighting with the Illah people subsequently

was severe.

FURTHER particulars have been received respecting the disaster to a British force on the Niger, when twelve native troops and two white officers were killed. The natives were in thousands, and simply overwhelmed the small British force.

IT is said that on April 1 there were thirty white officers fighting in the Karen district, and on July 9 only twelve remained. The rest were either killed in the fighting, by fever, or invalided by wounds or fever, and the loss in the rank and file was in the same proportion.

IN connection with the revolution in Ecuador a battle has been fought on Tuesday between the Revolutionists and the Government forces at San Ancaja. Fighting lasted all day, victory remain. ing with the Goverment side. More than four hundred men were killed, and three hundred wounded. Four hundred insurgents were taken prisoners.

THERE has been fighting in the Congo Free State and the rebels are said to be everywhere victorious. The towns of Junga and Kabainvarre have been captured. The issue of the fighting is doubtful, for the natives have captured a good many rifles and have ammunition. The situation is very grave.

THE negotiations between the Paris and St. Petersburg Cabinets for the settlement of the question of the Holy Places in Palestine continue to encounter serious difficulties owing to the unaccommodating attitude of the Holy Synod and the Russian party represented by the politico religious Palestine Society. Some fears are consequently entertained of conflicts between the Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox Christians at Jerusalem, both parties having already displayed the deepest animosity and equally fanatical dispositions towards each other. So history repeats itself.

THE Calcutta correspondent of India telegraphs :-" A further meeting has been held there to protest agains the Calcutta Municipal Bill. The chair was taken by Raja Sir Radhakantas Choudhury, a Zemindar, who said that the principle proposed in the Bill tolls the death-knell of local self government in India. He compared the introduction of the Bill to the passing of sentence upon a prisoner without framing the charge against him.

A memorial was adopted regarding the provisions contained in the Bill with reference to the water supply."

WORSHIP OF MILITARISM.-A curious difference of opinion (a Tenby correspondent says) has arisen between Colonel Mathias, of the Gordon Highlanders, and the Tenby Corporation, in regard to a proposed presentation of the freedom of the borough to the colonel. He wished to appear in plain clothes, but the Corporation insisted upon his wearing uniform. The honour apparently was not intended for the man but his coat.

Mr. Paynter sends a report of an influential drawing-room meeting at Lauriston Hall, Torquay, the residence of Mr. Alfred Backhouse, on January 13th. It was addressed by Miss Ellen Robinson, and attended by a very influential gathering.-Mr. A. Backhouse explained that the meeting was on behalf of the Peace movement.--Miss Ellen Robinson said they had met that afternoon as Christians. They could not believe it was the Divine will that war was carried on, for theirs was the gospel of love. War was rarely excusable; it might be among savages, among the ancients, but not among civilised nations, Christian nations. We must not do evil that good might come. Although Peace Societies had been taunted, yet they were doing good work. Arbitration between nations was becoming more and more common.1.- Dr. Midgley Cash agreed with Miss Robinson as to Arbitration.-A vote of thanks to Miss Robinson concluded the proceedings. In the evening Miss Robinson addressed a public meeting, presided over by Dr. Odell, president of the Y.M.C.A., at the Belgrave schoolroom. A collection was made for the Peace Society.

NUMERICAL STRENGTH OF THE BRITISH ARMY.-The annual return of the British Army for 1897 has been issued from the War Office. It is stated that the average strength of the regular army for the year was 219,283 of all arms. The average at home was 102,155, and in India 74,222, the remainder being disposed of in Egypt and the Colonies. On the first of January last the total number of all ranks had risen to 221,003. The total number enrolled in the army reserve, militia, yeomanry, and volunteers was 438,640, which is 49,391 under the number required for the full establishment. The army reserve at the end of last year numbered 81,515. The number of horses and mules in the service is returned at 27,926. It is said that orders have been received at Northampton from the War Office for the disbandment of the 2nd Battalion of the Northamptonshire Militia, known as the 4th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment, in consequence of the dearth of recruits.

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The Arbitration Treaty between Italy and the Argentine Republic.. 190

CURRENT NOTES.

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THE meeting of the London Societies on Peace Day, February 22nd, was better attended than on any previous occasion. It was a happy thought that occurred to M. Moscheles to suggest that Washington's birthday should be observed as a field day by the Peace Societies, and the attendance at his studio this year indicated to what an extent the Tzar's Rescript had quickened popular interest in the question of Peace.

THE Hague has been finally chosen as the meeting place of the Diplomatic Conference, and we understand that the Dutch Government has formally notified to the Russian Government its acceptance of the proposal that the Conference shall be held there. The preparations, however, are not in a forward state, and no date has yet been fixed for the meeting, which it is nevertheless thought will be most probably in May next. Active negotiations are proceeding between St. Petersburg, The Hague, and Rome, concerning the participation of the Vatican in the deliberations of the Conference, and a satisfactory solution of the difficulty is soon expected. The Government of Brazil and the Sultan of Morocco have signified at St. Petersburg their desire not to be invited. A report from St. Petersburg says that the reply of the British Government to Count Muravieff's Circular regarding the Conference was handed to the Russian Government on February 20th.

THE Peace Crusade still rolls on with undiminished force. As an expression of public opinion it is certainly unprecedented. A mere list of the meetings which have been held during the month is beyond

[PRICE 1d.

our space, and must be sought in the history of the movement. Not even during the popular agitation over the Bulgarian massacres was there such a unanimous, impartial, and complete response of popular sentiment to the claims of humanity and righteousness. Admitting the facts of European militarism as set forth in the Tzar's Rescript, which nobody has ever questioned, this might have been expected. But for once the moral and religious sense of the nation has been touched, and the result has been most gratifying; whatever may come of the proposed Pilgrimage, the movement has already been more than justified. Lord Salisbury, in his reply to the Tzar's invitation, referred to the meetings which had voiced British public opinion. And there were held before the Crusade really began. The promoters of the Crusade have reason to be thankful. We hardly expected such a response when we began, although our anticipations were by no means small.

AN interesting and dramatic story appeared in the Press a short time ago, on the meeting between the Tzar and Count Tolstoi during a stop for lunch at Toula, while the Emperor was journeying north from Livadia, in the middle of last month. We were told, circumstantially, how the Emperor sent a delicately worded message expressing his desire to see Count Tolstoi; how the latter accepted the invitation and soon appeared at the railway station dressed in his peasant's garb; how the Emperor kissed him on the mouth and both cheeks, and the Count heartily responded; how Tolstoi expressed his good wishes, and the interview ended by a pledge from him to support the Tzar in his humanitarian projects.

ALL this was very beautiful, but soon a secret whisper began to spread that it was apocryphal; that the Editor of the paper in which it first appeared would not vouch for its accuracy; and, finally, it transpired that it was nothing but a bit of journalistic smartness and pure invention. This fact is corroborated by the remarkable letter which appeared in the Daily Chronicle from Count Tolstoi in reply to a number of prominent gentlemen in Sweden, who had written to him on the question of compulsory military service. His letter, however, must not be interpreted as an attempt by the foremost Russian of the day to overthrow his Sovereign's projects. By no means. It is rather the

independent opinion of a philosopher, seeking after truth, and scornful of the opportunism which is prevalent everywhere. It is the production of a man who is more intent upon the reality of things than upon uttering the conventional or even the philanthropic platitudes; and who goes beyond Emperors and Conferences, (which, however necessary in temporal affairs, are yet of the earth, earthly), to essential first principles, which are necessarily eternal. It is the fearless judgment of an avowed lover of Peace and of humanity. As such his statements demand thoughtful attention.

AFTER expressing the opinion that the refusal to take part in military service on the part of individual persons was not only right, but the only way by which people may be delivered from the horrible miseries of ever-growing militarism, he says:-"But your opinion, that the question of how and by what means compulsory military service could be exchanged for some useful work for those persons who refuse to kill their neighbours, ought to be brought before the coming international Peace Conference, and your idea that this question could possibly be discussed at that Conference, seem to me to be altogether mistaken. First, because this coming International Peace Conference will not and cannot be anything else than one of those hypocritical institutions, which not only do not have for their aim the attainment of Peace and the lessening of the evils of militarism, but, on the contrary, have as their real aim the hiding from the people of those evils, by suggesting evidently false means of deliverance, and by turning from their eyes the only true means of salvation."

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"BUT, secondly, the International Peace Conference cannot undertake to decide the question of the refusal to perform military service on the part of private persons whose convictions forbid them to carry arms against their fellow-men, because such a lessening of armies against the will of the Governments would undermine the fundamental force of every Government. Every Government invariably treats persons who, because of their convictions, refuse to take part in military service in the same way (although it may be less roughly) as the Russian Government treats the Dukhobortsi."

"ALL the European Governments have acted in the same way, and do still act towards those who refuse to serve in the army. Thus have the Austrian, the Prussian, the French, the Swedish, the Swiss, and the Dutch Governments acted, and do still act; and they cannot act otherwise. They cannot act otherwise, because, governing their subjects by force, which consists of the drilled army, they can in no wise leave the lessening of their military force, and consequently of their power, to the accidental frames of mind of individual persons, and so much less because, in all probability, if only such refusals were allowed, the overwhelming majority of men (no one desiring to kill or to be killed) would prefer work to military service. So that, if refusals to perform military service, and proposals to change this service into ordinary labour

were permitted, there would very soon be so many labourers, and so few soldiers, that there would be no one to compel the labourers to work."

IN a later paragraph he adds the following statement:"As long as Governments continue not only to acquire new possessions (the Philippines, Port Arthur, &c.), but also to keep what they have acquired (Poland, India, Alsace-Lorraine, Algeria, Egypt, etc., etc.), so long will State armies continue to grow larger and larger; and as long as the Governments continue to govern their subjects by force, they will never tolerate refusals to take part in military service. Armies will be diminished and abolished only when people cease to allow themselves to be made the slaves of other

people, and subject themselves to the animal training which is called military drill and discipline. And people will cease to submit to that training when the

sense of human worth shall have been awakened within them. That result again will only occur when true enlightenment spreads among men. Not that enlightenment by which man, knowing all the sciences and profiting of all the inventions, recognises the right of one people to control the actions of any other, and therefore permits the doing of evil deeds; but that enlightenment, by which man refuses to surrender his liberty, the basis of his worth as a human being, into the hands of others, and regards himself as alone responsible for his actions. Only then, when this enlightenment shall have spread, will armies be diminished and abolished. And they will be diminished and abolished, not by but against the will of Governments."

"IF one were asked," remarks the Manchester Guardian, "why we are not loved throughout Europe, one might say, 'Look at the Oman crisis.' Oman is a great hump of land that makes the south-eastern corner of Arabia. It stands at the gate of the Persian Gulf and looks across to Persia and to India. France has some trade with Oman, and seems to keep a gunboat off the coast or to send one now and then. By some means that nobody knows she lately induced the Sultan of Oman to grant her a coaling station, or KiaoChou, in his territory. Upon this the Indian Govern ment sent him word that if he did not revoke the grant, his capital, Muscat, would be bombarded. The Sultan, not wishing his capital to be hammered to pieces, at once revoked the grant. It has still to be seen what France will do, but there can be little doubt. If she would not fight for Fashoda she will not fight for a coaling station on the Arabian Sea. So, as far as that goes, we may feel pretty safe; but as often as we do these things it is well that we should see quite clearly what we are doing. In this case of Oman we have simply told the Sultan and France that we do not think it good for us that France should lease or buy a piece of land from him, and that, as we are stronger than either or both of them, we mean to tear up their contract and not let them make another."

IT is thought that if France had the coaling station. she would be in better case for an attack on India. It is also thought that we should be in worse case for the seizure of the whole of Oman, which Lord Curzon pronounced to be desirable when he visited Muscat in