The following is Mr. Ruskin's reply to me :"Brantwood, Coniston, R.S.O.,

·

"March 15th, 1898. "SIR,I am directed to acknowledge your letter to Mr. Ruskin, whose health does not enable him to reply with his own hand. The phrase about 'Peace and the vices' occurs in the third lecture of The Crown of Wild Olive'; but the tenour of that lecture does not justify the comments that seem to have been made either by the partisans of soldiering, or by the writer in The Echo, who appears to attack Mr. Ruskin without reading what he has written.-I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

COUNT TOLSTOY ON MILITARISM.

A BELGIAN authoress, who recently sent Count Tolstoy a copy of her work on war and its evils, has received the following characteristic reply :

"DEAR MADAM,-I thank you for kindly sending me your book, which I have read with pleasure and profit. It bears evidence of careful thought, and contains many noble ideas.

"The only thing I should like to say to the friends of Peace, and therefore to our friends, is that the best way to attain our object is to abstain from all participation-direct or indirect-in any action relating to war; for the surest method of perpetuating the present order of things is to compound with our conscience and to fancy that sermons and pamphlets can have any real effect, while our mode of life does not correspond with our professions. The emancipation of man from military slavery cannot come from crowned heads or from scientists, or men of letters, but from religious men, whose life is in harmony with their conscience, and who refuse to descend to the level of the beast by embracing slavery, but would prefer any privations to such degradation. This can only be attained when men realise the value of human dignity; in other words when they accept a real and religious interpretation of life.

"Militarism is but the symbol of infirmity. If the infirmity(i.e., the substitution of false religion for the real)-were to disappear, militarism would disappear with other evils.-Believe me, faithfully yours,

"LEO TOLSTOY."

THE PROFESSIONAL MILITARY MAN.

The Paris correspondent of the Daily News writes that it is a curious coincidence that on the same day as the Figaro's denunciations of German excesses there should have appeared the second edition (really a new book, on account of the many additions) of a work on the injustices, extortions, and acts of cruelty committed not only by Germans, but by armies of all nationalities. The author being a Frenchman, the French army has the place of honour. The first edition was received with a torrent of abuse by the whole Press, with the exception of M. Clemenceau's Justice, and a few others, on the ground that it was unpatriotic. Since then colonial expeditions have enabled the author to increase his facts. The common view about the army, in military nations, is that it is a school of generosity, self-sacrifice, morality, duty, equality, fraternity, devotion, regular life and honour.

The Psychologie du Militaire Professionel endeavours to show that every one of these beliefs is contrary to fact. M. Hamon's dislike of officers blinds him to their qualities, but it has

enabled him to draw a powerful picture of the professional military man. A letter written by a French lieutenant, M. Normand, since killed, to his parents, shows the astounding state of mind of some officers. He writes from Tonkin, "I do hope peace will not take place, for I am ambitious to get the Cross of Cambodia. I have been denied the pleasure of firing on the Chinese, but the native troops indulged in it. I was happy to see several of them dropped at a few hundred yards. We hope that our grateful country will institute a commemorative medal for it." A little further on he says, "We had the satisfaction of seeing the Chinese killed all along the road. It gave us immense pleasure. We are plundering right and left. We meet a few Chinese without arms in the villages, and take them as an example. I need not tell you that all who fall into our hands, wounded or not, are shot on the spot." Further on he says: "We spend the whole day thrashing coolies to make them work. The natives are very gentle. We never address them otherwise than by kicks. We all hope the Chamber will vote a commemorative medal. I no longer feel anything at the sight of the wounded or dead, and I slept very quietly last night beside the dead body of a corporal, which I ordered to be pushed aside to peg my tent."

use.

RESULT OF ARTILLERY PRACTICE.

"An action," says Truth, "is about to come on in the local County Court to recover compensation from the War Office for damage inflicted upon the parish church of Grayne, near Rochester. I wish the action every success, but, whatever its results, it is a monstrous thing that the vicar and his parishioners, or, for the matter of that, any private parties, should be put to expense and trouble of this kind by the War Office. The fort by which this damage has been done was built in 1862, and in those days the firing from it did not inflict any damage on the church. But with the development of artillery the matter has become very serious, two of the guns in the fort being among the largest in The church, which dates from the eleventh century, was so much shaken structurally that it had to be restored some two years ago. The War Office then contributed the paltry sum of £50 towards the £1,600 which had to be spent ; and this chiefly, no doubt, for the reason that the troops use the church and that the War Office are the principal landowners. Since then both the east and the south-east windows have been smashed by the firing, and the War Office, when applied to for compensation, coolly repudiate all liability. This seems to be their usual practice. I mentioned a very similar case a few months back, where the sufferer was a publican at Newhaven. But whether it is a church or a public-house, the War Office seem to think that they have an absolute right to knock it to pieces for their own purposes." It were well if the damage inflicted upon the Christian church by an armed peace extended no further than the destruction of its buildings.

66

Subsequently, Dr. Darby conducted the morning service at Garden Street Chapel, and preached on Peace. In the afternoon he gave an address on Dangerous Dreamers of Dreams" to the Adult Classes at Attercliffe, and in the evening spoke on "St. Paul's Message of Peace (Personal and International)" to another audience in the same room, where a very interesting and encouraging work is carried on with great vigour. The following afternoon (Monday, April 4th), on the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Doncaster, whose guest Dr. Darby was, a number of friends of Peace, and of their visitor, met in their drawing-room for conference. Isaac Milner, Esq., J.P., presided, and was supported by J. Greaves Hall, Esq., M.P., Rev. T. W.

Holmes, Rev. H. J. Boyd, and Rev. J. Thornley. The conference was opened by an address from Dr. Darby, after which Mrs. Doncaster gave the discussion a very practical and useful direction. The Rev. T. W. Holmes, who greeted Dr. Darby as an old friend and resident in the town, in a very eloquent speech declared his conviction that the cause advocated by the Society was the foremost and most pressing one of the times, but feared that the nation would not learn wisdom and moderation without the sad experience of war, which would make all persons members of the Peace Society, and render it impossible for a subject so beneficent and far-reaching to be left to the advocacy of a mere handful of people, who were rendering good service in face of great odds. The meeting closed with thanks to the good host and hostess, to whose generous kindness the Society is greatly indebted.

GLASGOW.

Next day, Tuesday, April 5th, Dr. Darby travelled to Glasgow in time to attend a Meeting of the Committee of the Local Peace Society, which was arranged by the Secretary, Mr. W. J. Begg, in the Christian Institute, Bothwell Street. The meeting was presided over by Baillie Hamilton, and after tea a couple of hours were spent in conference as to the cause of Peace generally, the local work, and especially how to make Dr. Darby's yearly

visit to the district more generally useful.

On the following evening, Wednesday April 6th, Dr. Darby lectured on Peace, at the Evangelical Mission Church, Dundas Street, Rev. George Gladstone, Pastor, and had a good attendance.

KILMARNOCK.

On the invitation of Mr. Thomas Hannah, of Garden Hill, Kilmarnock, the members of the local Society met Dr. Darby at his house on Thursday evening, April 7th, and the evening was spent in conference about the work of the Society.

PAISLEY.

On Good Friday Dr. Darby became the guest of Ex-provost J. Clark, Chapel House, Paisley, who, on Saturday evening, April 9th, presided at a meeting in the Museum Hall, Paisley, when Dr. Darby gave an address on "The Present Crisis." The meeting was exceedingly well attended, and a good report of the address appeared in the local press. A great part of the meeting was occupied by Mr. Clark, who illustrated a most interesting address by an exhibition of lantern slides, depicting incidents in the Franco-German War of 1870-1.

On Sunday morning, April 10th, Dr. Darby conducted the service in the Free Church, South Paisley, Rev. John Paterson, M.A., pastor, and preached a Peace sermon, "The Cross of Christ.'

In the afternoon he conducted the service, and preached a Peace sermon on 66 Newness of Life" in the High Parish Church (Established), Paisley. The pastor, Rev. A. M. Lang, B.S.C., was present and took part in the service. The congregation numbered, at least, 1,000 persons.

POLITICS AND MORALS.

ONE of the most remarkable sermons ever delivered in a Church of England pulpit was preached on March 31st, at Evensong at Berkeley Chapel, Mayfair, by Canon Scott Holland, who took for his text 1 Corinthians x., 31, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." He said that the Church had no politics in the deepest sense of the word, but she was bound to cover all human nature, and no type of character which was genuine should be ignored by her. Sectional religion might know sectional politics, but the Church, which called herself Catholic, should have no narrower range than humanity itself, and should meet the needs and aspirations of all to whom the Creed affected. There were two general types of character, which instinctively sorted themselves by the inherent bent of their disposition into the political camps, viz., those who would accelerate the pace, and those who felt that the present risk of so doing would not be atoned for by future advantage. The latter clung to the continuity so essential to true development, but the former had greater faith in the future. It was this natural cleavage, which was independent of superficial

manoeuvring and Parliamentary intrigue, which alone rendered it possible to tolerate that miserable spectacle of party intrigue. The contemptible half-truths which were worse than lies would equally exist if there was no Parliament, for they were inherent and ingrained in human nature, and in blood and bone. The Church must never identify herself with either type of opinion; she had a message to both. "Be Conservative, be Radical, whichever your convictions dictate, but insist that your conscience shall deliver its own verdict by the light of Christ's truth." Politics were extraordinarily complex, vexed, and changeable, but Churchmen should never keep their politics apart from their conscience, or justify their votes on principles which they would repudiate in private life. Politics, in short, were intimately connected with morals, and we should have to answer for our politics tle same as for our individual acts; but never had there been a time when greater moral issues were at stake alike at home and abroad. The outlook at home was largely concerned with labour questions and the relations between class and class. The privileges of the few would be more and more shared by the many, and money now concentrated in a few hands would be distributed over a larger area and among more people. Unless the claims of equity and justice were recognised, and moral motives prevailed with the law of sacrifice, civil war and revolution would prevail.

They were only staved off because a sufficient number of the privileged classes held to the moral law, and acted justly to the "have nots." Otherwise there could be no issue but ruin. The foreign outlook was equally serious. England was more and more implicated in the world-wide diplomacy of foreign Powers, with whose unmitigated selfishness one was astounded. They openly declared that self-interest alone dictated their policy. The outlook in Europe never presented so wholly an un-Christian a spectacle since the days of Constantine. Even in mediæval days, Peace, and not war, was regarded as the normal condition of men. Now nations were watching one another like wild beasts in a jungle, and Christian Europe had armed itself in defiance of everything which Christ came to teach. Blood and iron rule, huge camps, and seas crowded with horrible ships of war, met the eye at every turn. Men scrambled for land, and the question was who should be first in the race. Are we to be swept away in this Pagan scramble? The war fever was rising, and greed was stronger every day, and the only way to prevent being carried away by it was by realising that the moral law holds good in international as well as in private affairs. Might is not right, and we must keep our heads clear and our consciences strong. After some remarks on the characteristics of a man of honour, the Canon said it was the Church's duty to protest against self-interest and expediency being the rule, and to maintain English political life on a high level. The greatest statesman in England who had long insisted on the supremacy of morals in public life was passing away, and to the giants of the old generation a smaller race of men with weaker convictions and impoverished consciences was succeeding. At such a time how sad if the English Church swam with the tide and amused herself by deriding the Nonconformist conscience. It might be narrow, pedantic and limited, but at least it was a conscience, Let the Church, the natural champion of a public conscience, have one more true to nature, but not less defiant of the world and not less conscious of her responsibility to God.

The collection was for the Church of England Soldiers' Institute at Woolwich.

INCREDIBLE.

"Professor Charles Eliot Morton, of Harvard College, has caused some sensation by strongly denouncing the war with Spain." So runs a newspaper notice. It is incredible that in a civilised and Christian age and country, any one should cause a sensation by denouncing war. He might, one would fancy, by advocating such a barbarous and brutal measure. But it almost seems to be a common Christian creed, that while "abstract war is horrid,' actual war is patriotic and glorious; or, if one may parody Lowell's lines:

Not but what abstract war is horrid,

I sign to that with all my heart;

But actual war is patriotic

A noble, glorious, Christian part.

AGENTS AND AUXILIARIES.

MR. AUGUSTUS DIAMOND, B.A.

NORTHAMPTON.-On Sunday morning, April 3rd, Mr. A. Diamond gave an address on "The Christian Aspect of the Peace Question" to the members of the Adult School at the Friends' Meeting House.

LONDON.-On Monday, April 18th, he gave the lantern lecture, "Warriors and their Work," at the Friends' Mission Hall, Barnet Grove (late Hart's Lane), Mr. Howard Nicholson presiding.

BIRMINGHAM.

The Rev. J. J. Ellis reports meetings as follows:Sunday, March 6th. Addressed the P.S.A. at the Ebenezer Congregational Church, BIRMINGHAM; Mr. S. Keeley in the chair.

Sunday, March 13th. Preached at the Baptist Church, KIDDERMINSTER, on "Peace for all People."

Monday, March 14th. At the Pitt Street Hall, WEST BROMWICH, lantern lecture, "Warriors and their Work "; Mr. J. Lear, chairman,

Tuesday, March 15th. An address at the Mary Street Board School, BIRMINGHAM; Mr, William Terry in the chair,

Wednesday, March 16th. Warwickshire Congregational Union annual meeting,

Sunday, March 20th, At 11 a.m., addressed the scholars at the Gospel Mission Hall, WEST BROMWICH, on "Prayer and Pity."

On

In the evening, at 6 p.m., gave the lantern lecture, "Warriors and their Work," to the children at the Board School, WEDNESBURY; and at 7.30 repeated the lecture, in the same place, to an audience of adults; Mr. Disturnal presiding at both meetings,

Tuesday, March 22nd. At the Friends' Hall, Gooch Street, BIRMINGHAM, an address to young people,

Wednesday, March 23rd. An address on "Sad Thoughts," at the Primitive Methodist School, DUDLEY PORT; Rev, F. W. Norris presiding,

Thursday, March 24th. Lantern lecture, "Warriors and their Work," in the Wesleyan School-room, KING'S WINFORD.

Sunday, March 27th. At the Congregational Church, POLESWORTH, a sermon on "Two Types of Warriors."

Wednesday, March 30th. An address on "European Jealousy of England," at the Congregational Church, SALTLEY, Birming ham; Rev. Palmer Lewis in the chair.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE LIVERPOOL AND BIRKENHEAD WOMEN'S PEACE AND ARBITRATION SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of this Auxiliary was held on Tuesday afternoon, March 29th, in the Friends' Institute, Islington. Miss Frances Thompson, the President, occupied the chair, and there was a large attendance, chiefly of ladies. Mrs. W. P. Thompson, Hon. Secretary, presented the report, in which the Committee expressed pleasure at a slight increase in membership during the year. They felt there was great need to train the rising generation in true ideas of patriotism and national righteousness. There was in the present day too much evidence that the doctrine recently boldly assumed by a German writer was spreading in this country, viz., that "the maintenance of the State justifies every sacrifice, and is superior to every moral rule." If that should ever be accepted as our national belief the downfall of our empire would only be a question of time.-Miss Cooke, Hon. Treasurer, submitted a satisfactory balance-sheet.-On the motion of Mrs. Emmott, seconded by Miss Dismore, the report and accounts were adopted, and the following officers elected :-President, Miss Thompson; Vice-president, Miss E. Robinson; Hon. Treasurer, Miss Stromeyer; Hon. Secretary, Miss Cooke; Committee, Miss Boult, Miss Bowden, Mrs. F. Clibborn, Miss Graveson, Mrs. Snape, Miss Robinson, Mrs. Thompson, and Mrs. W. P. Thompson. Mr. A. M. Bose, M.A. (Cantab.), of Calcutta, formerly member of the Legislative Council of Bengal, then delivered an interesting and informing address on "India and the Frontier War." He deprecated the tendency of the military spirit in India, and remarked that, from the purely military point of view, apart from its moral aspects and industrial con

The

sequences, the frontier war had not been a success. "forward policy" on the frontier elicited from him unicom. promising condemnation. If ever there should be trouble in Russia, either in consequence of what was going on in China or in consequence of any friction or misunderstanding between the two great nations, the most vulnerable point in the British armour that Russia would find would be the Afridis' land, where the people had been made enemies in consequence of this war. Those tribes would, therefore, welcome any help that Russia might render to them. He strongly denounced the cruelty inflicted upon the natives owing to the "forward policy."-Miss E. Robinson moved: "That this meeting_protests against what is known as the forward policy in India. It condemns the carrying on of war against tribes which have a right to their independence. It deplores the ruthless barbarity exhibited on our part during the late war, the use of the dum-dum bullet, the destruction of food, and the burning of villages. It holds that the friendship of these tribes, so desirable from every point of view, can never be obtained by physical, but only by moral force, and urges upon our Government the duty of treating them with justice and sympathy." Miss Robinson also proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Bose for his address. The Rev. R. A. Armstrong seconded the dual resolution, and it was passed.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MARCH AUXILIARY.

The annual meeting of the Society's Auxiliary at MARCH, Cambs, was held on the evening of the 19th April. The chair was occupied by Mr. J. Green, and addresses were delivered by Miss P. II. Peckover, Rev. W, J. Spriggs Smith, of Terrington St. John, Rev. B. J. Northfield, and the Rev, J. Lloyd James, The meeting was well attended, and the proceedings interesting. It was noted as a striking coincidence that the meeting should have been held on the same day on which the Resolutions of the American Congress in Washington were adopted determining on war with Spain.

FALMOUTH PEACE ASSOCIATION.

At a meeting of the local branch of this Association, held at the Friends' Meeting House on Thursday afternoon, March 10th, Mr. John Gill, of Penryn, was appointed president, in the place of the late Miss A. M. Fox, of Penjerrick, and Mr. J. Gilbert Stephens, of Ashfield, Secretary of the Association. Miss Fox took a deep interest in the subject of Arbitration for war and the spread of Peace principles amongst the nations of the world.

MR. F. J. HORNIMAN, M.P.

Through the courtesy of Mr. Horniman, who is a Vice-President of the Peace Society, we have been favoured with copies of two excellent letters addressed by him to his constituents through the medium of the local press, in which he has been putting forcibly before them the questions of Peace and Militarism involved in the present crisis.

One of the letters is entitled, "No Jingoism-Lest we forget"- and, following a criticism of recent utterances of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Attorney General, it sets forth various useful statistics as illustrative of the horrors of war and of its cost, and concludes with an eloquent protest against Jingoism, and advocacy of the greatest of British interests -Peace.

The second letter, entitled " At the End of the Century," contains a vigorous protest against British Indenturing, Spanish atrocities and Armenian horrors. We hardly think that Mr. Horniman attaches as much importance to some of the facts he mentions as they really deserve; but otherwise we are fully in accord with his protests, and we are glad to see that he does not, as is so often done, even hint at war as a possible remedy for these evils.

With him we sincerely deplore the fact that "Great Britain, the promised protector of the Armenians, is, for reasons good or bad, unable to help them, that it is a profound humiliation which we all ought to feel; and it is a fact which, amid all our dreams of imperial expansion, should serve to modify our national pride.'

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78

Death of Mr. Gladstone-A Requiem

Peace Society.-Annual Meeting

Is the War Popular?........

Dr. Moncure D. Conway and Dr. Cuyler on the War. Why the People of Italy Rose

CURRENT NOTES.

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not claim to have discovered some new truth; we work only to shed light on the old and everlasting truth. We preach no new sermon. The Sermon on the Mount suffices for all ages."

THE report of the three engineers appointed by the Delagoa Bay Arbitration Court as experts, gives a detailed comparison of the various railway systems in South Africa. The experts are of opinion that the value of the work done by the company up to the time of the seizure of the railway in June, 1889, was £225,000. They estimate the cost of the eight kilometres of line subsequently completed by the Portuguese Government at £60,000, and they consider that the Portuguese Government subsequently expended about £66,000 in repairs and improvements on the whole line of railway. In reply to questions put to them as to the value of the concession, they state that if the Portuguese Government were to exercise the right of expropriation given them by the concession they would have to pay the sum of £2,435,000, and they put the value of the concession on December 31st, 1896, at £1,820,000. (Berne, April 29.)-Central News.

RAWENÉ, where the Maoris broke out in revolt, is an important township in the Hokianga country, some 200 miles north of Auckland. It is up the wide Hokianga River, about twenty miles from the mouth, at a point where the Waima and Taheke Rivers join the mother stream. While the population of Rawené itself falls short of two hundred, the township is a capital for the surrounding settlements. There are several large stores, a couple of good hotels, post, telegraph and police stations, and, in fact, all the appointments of a prosperous bush centre. interesting point about this Maori outbreak is that its venue is within a few miles of the spot where the first landing of Europeans in Maoriland took place, where the first Pakeha-Maori troubles arose, and where the historic Treaty of Waitangi-the Magna Charta of Maoriland-was signed.

The

THE disturbances in Sierra Leone appear to have reached a pitch of importance which justified Mr. Davitt's motion for the adjournment of the House of Commons. "It is believed," say the newspapers, "that peace and order will be restored without any necessity for sending out white troops." But what has happened

is sufficiently serious. The disturbance arose in the hinterland of the colony of Sierra Leone, but seems, unfortunately, to have spread into the colony itself, and to be there even more mischievous than it was when it was confined to the outlying districts. The colony extends, roughly speaking, about twenty miles. back from the coast, its coast line being about 180 miles in length. Behind it, reaching back to the French frontier, which was agreed upon in January, 1895, there is a district, with an area of about 300,000 square miles, over which a British protectorate was declared in August, 1896.

THIS is administered separately from the colony, and for its administration a plan was decided upon which came into operation at the beginning of this year. It involved, of course, taxation, for it was intended that the administration should be paid for out of the revenue of the protectorate. Two taxes were imposed, a spirit tax and a hut tax. It is by reason of the latter that the present troubles have arisen. tax amounted to five shillings on every hut. latest news is that the whole of the natives of the Sherbro district (Mendi tribe) were in open rebellion, and had butchered over 200 people.

This

The

WHAT is the cause of the rising within the colony is not exactly known. Mr. Chamberlain could only say that it has arisen partly in sympathy with the disturbances in different parts of the hinterland, and that it may be a general rising of the black population against the white. It is significant that the opposition to the hut tax in the hinterland was partly fomented in the colony itself. But it would be idle to speculate on matters as to which the Colonial Office has to confess itself without information, It can only be hoped that the rising will not assume more formidable dimensions. The whole matter has a decidedly unpleasant aspect, but there seems good reason to hope that it will not amount to so much as one of those "little wars" in

which the responsibilities of Empire are so frequently involving us. It is another object lesson. Nations cannot be well governed by mere military domination

and taxation.

THE recent sudden rise in prices of grain has called attention to the dependence of our country upon imported food. It is doubtful, is the conclusion of the Birmingham Allotment and Small Holdings' Association, if any change in the tenure of land and methods of farming could materially add to the surplus available for the inhabitants of our towns. The English Government might become a great holder of wheat, but what is easy to buy is difficult to keep. English wheat will not continue good and sound many months after thrashing, and dry foreign wheat only with continual care and proportionate expense.

ABOUT two-thirds of the nation's food now comes from foreign countries, and the only means yet suggested, says Mr. F. Impey, for the Association, by which England can become secure against the risk of famine in case of foreign war, seems to be that of obtaining international assent to the proposition made some years ago by the United States that private property at sea should not

be liable to capture. Such an arrangement would allow grain-laden ships to sail undisturbed in time of war, and thus be able to take the needed supply of food to any port not blockaded.

APROPOS of Mr. McKinley's expressive phrase about being "jingoed into war," a correspondent writes that the word "jingoism" was, in the sense of music-hall Chauvinism, first used in the Daily News. The late Professor Minto claimed that he was the first writer to give the word "jingoism " the currency of respectable print. That was in 1879, in the days of the music-hall song, with the refrain :

We don't want to fight,

But, by Jingo! if we do,

We've got the ships, we've got the men,
We've got the money, too!

Mr. Minto's claim to the first use of the word is recorded in the "Dictionary of National Biography."

THE Church Weekly says that:-"The sympathies of thoughtful Americans are not with the United States War Party. Only a few days ago Mr. Charles Eliot Norton, of Harvard University, remarked that he much regretted the attitude of those fellow-countrymen who had brought about a war as a means of settling a difficulty with a weak and inferior nation. And this opinion is shared by the majority of those who represent all that is best in American life and thought. They disavow their sympathy with a headlong policy, The political party that has obtained the ascendency, is the outcome of a passionate longing for aggression.

the same that originated the trouble with this country in regard to the Behring Sea Fishery, that stirred up interference in the question of the Venezuelan Boundary, that advocates the annexation of Canada, and believes in the so-called Monroe doctrine.

One

part of the Monroe policy, however, proclaims that, while European Powers must keep their hands off American, the United States must leave the Old World alone. The present war evidently tends to violate this policy and to lead to interference with more than one European Power. In fact, the conflict now begun is calculated to be more far-reaching in its consequences than at first sight appears. It will affect the United States internally, her external aspirations, and her relations with the Great Powers generally."

WITH the Weekly Register, we believe this "wanton war" could have been averted with no real sacrifice of the dear rights of freedom in Cuba, had America been true to the great mission of peace-maker among nations which men of good-will upon earth were beginning to assign to it. It had few bloody traditions to warp its national vision of the hideous and antiChristian thing that war is. It seemed to realise what was expected from it; and, as a preacher speaking in an American pulpit just before war broke out, reminded his hearers, there was what might be called an Arbitration "boom" in America a year or so ago. Well, if America began to talk of the arbitrament of force, instead of that of reason, when the destruction of the "Maine" offered her too sharp provocation, that was a falling away from the high ideal. Now, she has the chance of retrieving that digression. And her magnanimity and humanity would be beyond question if