of the starving peasantry in the West of Ireland, or of the problem of the unemployed, that comes again and again to face our legislators, we feel it is a disgrace to a Christian nation that so much money should be expended on war, and so little given to raise the status and add to the actual happiness of the people. When we remember the great men-men of political life, men of literary circles, the best geniuses of the century-who have again and again advocated the principle of International Arbitration, we feel that we can only recall with gratitude the names of such men as Cobden, Bright, Carlyle, Stuart Mill, and other men who have done their best for Peace. And in speaking of those men, our thoughts cannot fail to travel to that shadowed home at Hawarden, for I thank God every day of my life that we have had in our midst such a man as William Ewart Gladstone has always been, in shaping the destinies of this nation, making for the broadening and widening of our liberty. And when he has even passed away, I think we can fairly say that the memory of that name will inspire generations yet unborn to great and noble deeds! But to-night, with the conflict of war about us, it is a good thing we should stand here and proclaim our convictions that Arbitration is the only true settlement for nations. And I am afraid, as it has been suggested to-night, that some of our members forget their Peace principles just at the right moment -and thus we have all the demoralising influences of war. Truly, as a Christian nation we should look to it that in our national churches those worshipping can hear the words from the pulpit of Peace on earth, Goodwill to men. We have many dangers, too, around us-in the nursery, and out of it-that make and form the military spirit. Let us beware of them all. Now, I think the poet who, when he summed up all the advantages of war, all the great advantages that would come to nations thus, I think that, after all, he was right when he said that :

"Then, as out I gazed into the blue eternity of thought, I said that Peace was best;

For she has cased with jewels untold,

And shod with tender lights that ne'er shall fade : Whilst cords of love shall draw the nations close and close, Enfold each heart within the Fatherhood of God."

It is the high ideal of Christian churches, and of Christian men and women, to enfold each heart within the Fatherhood of God. And when we sometimes discover that the work to which we have put our hand has gone back, and that obstacles stand in our way, it is well to remember that all work requires continual enthusiasm. We sometimes think we have gone back; but we only go back, like the flowing tide on the shore, to gather fresh force. And whilst the child is born, and whilst the flower blooms, and whilst one wrong calls for redress, still the world is young; and, after all, the greatness of a nation does not depend upon its breadth of territory, upon its fleets, upon the muster of its armies but it does depend upon the righteousness of its legislators, the prosperity, the happiness, and the future of its people.

J. F. HANSON, Esq. (of the U.S.A.) said he did not wish to more than formally second the Resolution, as the hour was so very late. But the Chairman urged him to say just a word. In doing this, Mr. Hanson said that, from an American standpoint, he thought in the present war America was reaping what she had sown. The United States, he said, had been looking on for three years or so at a scene of starvation and butchery, within ninety miles of its shores-hoping and wishing and praying and remonstrating, that the thing might stop. But in vain. He (the speaker) did not know whether as Englishinen they would have done better than America had done; at the same time, he did not apologise for the share of the United States in the present war. Rather, he very much regretted it, and he trusted it might come to a speedy end. He then traced the growth of the Jingo spirit in the United States and showed its causes. He also gave an account of the Pension System and traced the influence of all on the rejection of the Arbitration Treaty, concluding by seconding the Resolution.

The Motion was then submitted to the Meeting, and carried with unanimity, together with the following rider :

That this Meeting requests the Chairman to convey to the Russian Doukhabortsi an expression of sympathy with their heroic stand for the cause of human brotherhood, and with them

selves in their sufferings, for their encouragement in their sore trials.

A vote of thanks to the Chairman was moved by MR. W. R. CREMER, who in the course of his speech referred to the relations between this country and the United States, and especially the change of sentiment towards this country. It was seconded and put by MR. J. A. BAKER (L.C.C.), and the Meeting terminated.

IS THE WAR POPULAR?

THE American correspondent of the Independent makes some important declarations with regard to the war between Spain and America. He says:

"If the cabled reports accurately gauge English opinion, I am afraid that opinion cannot be fully acquainted with all that has happened during the last three years and with the conditions at Washington which have led up to the present war. From Washington the war is put forward as in the interest of humanity. That plea does not find general acceptance even in this country; and it will deceive no one who is cognisant of the relations of the two countries prior to last week's ultimatum. For two years both political parties have sought to make capital out of the insurrection. Weeks before the Sampson Board reported, the cry of Revenge for the "Maine"!' was raised. It has never been dropped, and that cry is responsible for the war. The Sampson Board enquiry was entirely ex parte; and it is not too much to say that half-a-crown could not be recovered in an English County Court on evidence like that which fills up the 250 pages of the Board's Report. Up to the time of the 'Maine' disaster, Mr. McKinley had undoubtedly done his best to come to some agreement with Spain. After the Maine' report Mr. McKinley began to act as a politician and not as a statesman. To a statesman, the offer to arbitrate the disaster to the 'Maine' would have been a new opportunity for continuing the pacific course which Mr. McKinley had followed until the disaster had occurred. If Arbitration had been accepted, there would have been no war, and in the interval which would have ensued, the United States would have obtained from Spain everything that she had a right to demand. President McKinley, however, saw an opportunity only for politics, not for statesmanship. He regarded the Maine' disaster as a proof that anarchy was prevailing in Cuba, and as a reason for peremptorily telling Spain that she must quit the island. His party in Congress, with only a few exceptions in the House and in the Senate, had seen that if they did not press the war cry, the Democrats would do so, and would use it at the Congressional elections. Thus both the Republicans and the Democrats were demanding war, and the President realised that the exigencies of the Republican party required that there should be war; he tossed the question of peace or war into Congress, and then all was over. In considering the humanitarian motives, two facts must be borne in mind; the United States did not interfere when Weyler was carrying out his war policy, and the conditions in Cuba have admittedly been on the mend during the last fifteen months. In the second place, the war has stopped all relief for the Reconcentrados from the United States, and it has greatly hampered the Spaniards in any efforts they may have been making for the relief of the victims of the war. No humanitarian war, if there can ever be humanitarian war, was entered on in the spirit in which this war was begun. People who are going into a humanitarian war could not cry, 'We are seventy millions; they are seventeen. We must lick them.' Nor could people about to enter on such a war propose that warships and regiments going into battle should carry flags directly inciting to revenge. should English people forget the traditional hatred entertained by large groups of politicians of both political parties in this country to any connection of Old World countries with this Western Continent. That unreasoning hatred was entirely at the bottom of the Venezuela outburst of 1895, and it has had a share in bringing on the war with Spain. One has to live in the United States to realise how widespread and how unreasoning is this traditional hatred of Old World Powers which happen to have any territorial possessions in this hemisphere. After being in this country a few years, one sees how this spirit comes to exist. It runs through many of the histories of the country; and to-day, to a large extent, it pervades the newspaper Press and actuates

... Nor

the politicians. This spirit has had a larger part in bringing about the present war than may be conceivable to people in England. It must not be supposed that the war is popular here. Away from Washington, and outside the columns of the 'Yellow' journals, the feeling seems to be For better or for worse we are in for it, and we must go through with it.' But there is comparatively little enthusiasm for war, and there will be less as the prices of staples climb upwards, and as, from day to day, the army of the unemployed increases."

WAR LOGIC.

MANY persons in this country, said the Messenger (Richmond, Indiana), believe that the United States battleship Maine was blown up in the harbour of Havana through the treachery of Spaniards. So in order to get compensation for the loss of the ship, and the more than 200 human lives who perished with her, there is a clamorous element in this country urging our government to declare war with Spain, in order to try to blow up some of the battleships of Spain and murder their crews, and give the Spaniards a chance to blow up some more of our ships and murder their crews. This is the logic of war, and it is very illogical.

DR. MONCURE D. CONWAY ON THE WAR. AT a "public conference and discussion on Peace and Arbitration" held on Sunday night, May 15th, in South-place Chapel, the Chairman read a long letter from Dr. Moncure D. Conway vigorously condemning the war with Spain, in the course of which he said-It is a great sorrow to me that I cannot be present at the meeting; a still greater that I could not have been in England this two months past, to do all I could to prevent the people to whom I am so much attached from being so misled--as they seem to have been-about the events in this country, which seem to be about culminating in war. I have for some weeks been pleading, through various journals, for peace but it has been like arguing with Niagara Falls, and-alas! alas! the one voice that might have helped us, the potent voice of England, has been heard over here, egging us on to the great crime this nation seems to be about to commit.

If the struggle that now appears inevitable shall come, history will find in it a war as unnecessary as any that ever occurred, and the responsibility for it will be placed on this country. Spain has conceded the many demands made by this country, without exception. She has given entire home rule to Cuba, proclaimed an armistice, and brought about a peace in Cuba-along with means of relief for all sufferers-which could as easily be rendered a permanent peace by the co-operation of this country, as it will certainly be ruined by our invasion. These concessions have been so invariable and large, that no real ground of war is left us but the Maine disaster; and it is so steadily appearing that Spain is entirely innocent of that tragedy, and that if it was not an accident it was the work of her enemies, that the war is being rushed on without any apparent reason except the fear that war may be averted.

There is no military reason for haste at all; on the contrary, this country needs delay for military preparations, but our war party wishes to commit us to war beyond recall, and has therefore compelled the President to follow the long list of demands conceded with one which Spain cannot possibly concede-namely, that she shall surrender and relinquish the island. She cannot do this without leaving three-fourths of the unarmed inhabitants to be massacred by the ferocious and armed fourth, or live under a permanent reign of terror. Hence the haste. Spain asks for a tribunal of impartial engineers to investigate the Maine explosion. But that cannot be waited for; it might explain matters and produce peace. A single month of delay would probably bring peace. Alas! that is the very reason why no delay is permitted.

Our war-at-any-price party was disappointed when Lord Salisbury's concessions about Venezuela prevented war with England, but it doesn't mean to be disappointed again. The shouts about freedom and humanity are humbug-that is, on the lips of those who are forcing us into war.

This English-reading country is very sensitive to English opinion. This has lately been shown in the triumphant way in

which our Jingoes have been circulating extracts from the leading Liberal journals in London as favourable to their criminal and miserable enterprise.

Our only hope for anything good at all coming out of the war -and it is but a slender one-is that it is in the hands of a Peaceloving President, who has been dragged into it, and will get out of it as soon as he possibly can; and that before much mischief has been done, the conscience of this country will make itself felt, and the conscience of the world make itself felt, and assist the President in recovering Peace.

DR. CUYLER ON THE WAR.

We are in the midst of a most needless and wretched war, brought on us by the party rivalries of the politicians, and against the wishes and efforts of our noble President, who sought to bring relief to Cuba by wise diplomacy.

Our best men deplore the war; but as the most direct road to Peace seems to lead through blood we must fight it out, and be done with the horrid business as soon as possible. All Christian enterprises suffer amid the uproar and havoc of war.

Mr. Gladstone on his dying bed! The noble Tabernacle in ashes! Such tidings start my honest tears. THEO. L. CUYLER.

"In my

Brooklyn, U.S.A. In a later note, dated April 29, Dr. Cuyler says:recent letter I stated that we have been precipitated into a need. less war, which might have been prevented if our noble President McKinley had been allowed to continue his wise measures of diplomacy. While that is true, it is too late to criticise mistakes. Our Government has declared war, and it is the general feeling among our best people now that the only road to Peace lies through a vigorous prosecution of the conflict.

"The sooner it is over the better, and there is a substantial unanimity in sustaining our national Government. Let us hope and pray that out of the horrors of war a wise Providence may evolve some blessings to suffering Cuba and to the cause of humanity. (The Christian.)

CONVOCATION AND THE WAR.

In the Upper House of Convocation the Bishop of Bath and Wells said he desired to ask the Archbishop of Canterbury a question of which he had given him private notice. Did his Grace propose to order a special form of prayer for the cessation of the war between America and Spain? In his own diocese he proposed to order that the words from the Litany, "That it may please Thee to grant to all nations unity, peace, and concord should be said or sung after the third Collect at morning and evening prayer as long as the war lasted.

The Archbishop of Canterbury.-I do not propose, and do not think it likely, that I shall issue any special prayer in regard to the war between America and Spain. Wars are going on, generally speaking, all over the world, and I do not know that it can be said we have any very special or particular interest in this war as compared with other wars. I entirely agree with your own proposal for your own particular diocese, and it seems to me to be a very proper and legitimate thing for a Bishop to order.

LETTER FROM OUR COLLEAGUES AT CLERMONTFERRAND.

21st May, 1898.

MY DEAR COLLEAGUE,--Will you kindly be our interpreter to your fellow-countrymen so far as to express the very real share we have in their sorrow at the loss which England has just sustained in the person of WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, who more than any other of her sons has contributed to the greatness of his country by introducing practically into its political customs those principles of justice and humanity which were a part of himself, a truth which a French paper (l'Aurore) has summed up most accurately when it says, that he was a great Statesman because he was a great and honest man.

We salute you very cordially, for the Friends of Peace of Puyde-Dôme, and the Committee and Bureau of Clermont-Ferrand,

A. PARDOUX, Secretary.

WHY THE PEOPLE OF ITALY ROSE.

IT has not required supernatural prescience to foresee the disastrous results of grinding taxation in Europe, and the advocates of Peace have long foretold them. They were inevitable. The outbreak has begun where the pressure was most felt, that is all. The following explanation of the troubles has been supplied to the Daily Mail by an Italian gentleman thoroughly conversant with the situation. It will therefore, be read with especial interest:"All the present trouble in Italy has been caused by an excess of expenditure over income. Every Budget since the year 1860 has always shown a surplus on paper, but when the accounts of the following year were settled, this has invariably been converted into a deficit. In order to meet this, money has been borrowed and

NEW TAXES IMPOSED,

and there has not been one year of the last thirty-eight in which no new tax has been put on or existing taxes increased from 10, 15, or 20 per cent. The consequence is that taxation has reached a point beyond the power of the people to bear it, the taxes now amounting to 12s. in the £. However small an income may be, it is not exempt from taxation as it is in England. Even incomes of £20 are taxed 4s. in the £. There is, moreover, a great want of work, and small employers have cut down the labour on their establishments as much as possible. The consequence is that there are many people out of employment, and numbers are starving. I have seen women go into the fields and gather bunches of grass, which they have boiled and eaten for food. It is no wonder, therefore, that the poor people say it is better to die by a bullet than to starve. The cause of

THE EXTREME EXPENDITURE

has been twofold. One reason has been the desire to satisfy the wishes of Members of Parliament who wanted to stand well with their constituents, and to give to their constituencies new railways guaranteed by the State. Out-of-the-way places have been thus provided with railways, the railway companies themselves caring nothing as to whether they paid any dividend or not, as the Government guaranteed to pay the difference up to 5 per cent. Barracks and public buildings have been built on a large and imposing scale for the same reason, but they have not made any return, and the money has been wasted. But the greater cause of the expenditure has been

THE ARMY AND NAVY.

A large army has been kept up in order to make a show, so that Italy could pose as one of the first Powers of Europe, while she could very well have done with an army sufficient for the preservation of internal order, if her policy had been one of neutrality between France and Germany, and she had steered clear of an entangling alliance. This was brought about by Signor Crispi. The troubles have been brought to a head by the rise in the price of food, but the revolution would have taken place in any event. As for there having been a preconcerted arrangement for the outbreak, it is all moonshine-if by pre

concerted arrangement it is meant that somebody is pulling the wires behind the scenes. The causes of the revolution are spread all over Italy, and consequently the results are seen in every town in the land. In the circular which the Marquis di Rudini has sent to all the officers and authorities, a sentence is to be remarked in which he asks them not to make too many calls upon the central authority for more troops. This is not to be attributed to any want in the number of soldiers at the disposal of the authorities, there being under arms at the present time about 300,000 men, but to the fear that many of the regiments may waver in their loyalty, and refuse to fire on the unarmed mob. Of this there was an example on Monday at Naples, when one of the regiments at Basso Porto, on being ordered to fire, remained standing at ease. The explanation of the fact that Rome is the only town in Italy which is

TAKING NO PART IN THE REVOLUTION

is that more than half its population is made up of civil servants, priests, nuns, visitors, and others, who depend on the present Monarchical Government. Nearly all the newspapers have been suppressed by the Government, and no telegrams are allowed to be sent, though some few have come to hand in a roundabout way, which is better left unexplained. There is a committee in London which interests itself in the present revolutionary movement, but it takes no initiative whatever. Since the revolution began at Bari, one might say that there has not been any town of importance in the peninsula, with the single exception of Rome, which has not taken part in it, and which cannot show a goodly number of victims. Sicily itself is beginning to join in the movement by the riots which are reported at Messina and Catania. What strikes one as being most criminal is the power given to various junior officers in the army to fire on the crowd at will. As for any guarantees for the liberty of the subject, these, which have always existed on paper only, now show themselves to be actually a farce. Any one is liable to be arrested, and if the least suspicion exists of the prisoner having taken part in the riots, a court-martial within a small squad of soldiers soon puts an end to the difficulty by shooting the accused. There is no place on the Continent of Europe where MILITARISM IS SO RAMPANT,

and where there is so little cause for it as in Italy. You cannot walk through any street in any town or village without being elbowed off the pavement by some swaggering officer clanking his sword; and if you enter a café, there you find the soldiers lording it over the civilians, who pay for their support. The navy, for which the Italian people has paid so dearly, is daily becoming obsolete. No new ship has been built for the last few years owing to want of funds. Whether the present revolt succeeds or not, it is sure to leave Italy much impoverished and in a greater state of ruin than ever."

MADAME POTONIO-PIERRE, one of the founders of the International Peace Union, is, we regret to say, very ill from overwork in the public advocacy of Peace and Women's Questions.

May 11th, 1898.

THE

Noblesse Oblige

Foreign Notes..............

CONTENTS.

PAGE

81

84

84

86

87

A PECULIAR revival of a dispute, which we some time ago announced had been submitted to Arbitration, Queen Victoria being chosen umpire in case the arbitrators could not agree, has taken place in South America, owing, it is said, to the rivalry of Chili and Argentina for the supremacy of South America. In connection with this rivalry, it is now known that a few weeks before the outbreak of hostilities Chili, out of sympathy with Spain, had arranged to sell her some serviceable warships on convenient terms. But before the negotiations for the transfer were complete the revived boundary dispute with the Argentine Republic became so embittered that Chili deemed it prudent to refrain from weakening her naval resources, and even talked of sending an ultimatum to Argentina.

appointment of two arbitrators, who during next August would trace the general line of frontier between the two States."

A CURIOUS breach of neutrality is reported by a Central News Agency telegram from Kingston, which says "Owing to the protest of the Spanish Consul the authorities here, it is stated, have decided that the transmission of messages to the American Admiralty, giving details of Spanish naval and military movements is a breach of the neutrality laws. Orders have been given that in future the companies are not to receive cipher messages for America, and that open messages giving information of value to either belligerent are to be submitted to the censor."

THE Rev. David M'Allister, D.D., L.L.D., of Pittsburg, applies the common sense view of the old ballad to the present war. "It would be gratifying to many of our best citizens," he wrote in The Bulwark, "if the loud-mouthed belligerents in Congress and in our newspaper offices could be drafted into the nation's active service, and be made to meet the first brunt of the conflict, which they have been so eager to provoke." It would cool the fiery zeal of such men if those who made the quarrel were, as ought to be the case, the only to fight. He is an arrant and unscrupulous coward, be he prince, noble, or commoner, who picks a quarrel and then shelters himself behind others who have to bear the brunt of it.

men

THERE have been many rumours about Peace, but nothing definite towards restoring it has been attempted, and nobody seems able to begin. In the House of Commons, Mr. J. A. Pease asked the First Lord of the Treasury whether, having regard to the condition of the population in the island of Cuba, and to the sufferings and evils arising out of the Spanish-American war, Her Majesty's Government, or any of the European Powers, had any intention of intervening with a view to securing a cessation of hostilities, and inducing one or both of the belligerents to negotiate for terms of Peace. Mr. Balfour, in reply, said the Government would gladly take any favourable opportunity of promoting a cessation of hostilities and the bringing about negotiations, but any action on their part for this purpose could only be undertaken if there should be a reasonable prospect of its being well received by both parties and leading to agreement between them. There

was, unfortunately, no sufficient ground, as yet, for believing that those conditions existed. This answer has been received in the United States with approval, "as showing an accurate appreciation of American rentiment and of the views of the American Government."

THE war hitherto has been mainly a conflict of rumours. One of the most striking things in connection with it has been the utter disregard for truth which has attended the transmission of news. Official reports of the same event are flatly contradictory of each other, as they come from different sides, and pending subsequent confirmations readers have had to come to their own conclusions as to what has occurred. Generally the confirmation does not come, for newspapers, with the utmost effrontery, announce to-day as "absolutely untrue," "absolutely without foundation," or "merely a sensational invention," what they yesterday published as undoubted fact, with every circumstantiality of detail. And yet another returns to the charge with the statement that the first version is the correct one. Reporters have been undoubtedly far more anxious to furnish "good copy" than correct information.

MUCH of the news has been simply evolved out of somebody's consciousness. It would be interesting to be able to trace the process of the manufacture of news. There is little space, says a writer in the News, in the papers for home-made news. I am not sure, he continues, on second thoughts, that I have not left room for the cynic to misinterpret my meaning. A vast deal of the war news is home-made, and could we read between the lines we should find that there is something more capable of expansion than an india-rubber band. Brown may clothe the skeleton report in decent English, Smith may add vivid colouring to a battle picture, Jones may turn out a column from his inner consciousness, "of imagination all compact," while Robinson, who has no peg of fact on which to hang his fiction, may have to be content with a column of speculation. Happily for the lightning journalist, there is no law compelling him to publish the telegraphic reports on which he bases his airy castles, nor is it needful for a composite column of news to be signed by the writers.

Two items of information telegraphed from Washington will be of peculiar interest to our readers. The first is dated June 14th, and stated that Mr. Cannon's Emergency Bill for the appropriation of 473,151 dols., in order to pay the Behring Sea award to Great Britain, passed both Houses to-day. The second, forwarded two days later, announced that the United States had handed over to Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British Ambassador, a draft for the full amount of the award for claims made by Canadian sealers, arising out of seizures in the Behring Sea. The matter is, therefore, finally settled, and with its settlement all reason is removed for the complaint which has been so frequently heard, that the United States is unwilling to accept an arbitration award which goes against her. This is not the only one she has honourably met. It is, however, added:-"A declaration was attached to the Appropriation Bill to the effect that the money was paid without any admission on the part of the United States

to liability for the loss of prospective profits by British vessels engaged in pelagic sealing."

ANOTHER item of news is that the President has again urged Congress to an immediate and a handsome appropriation for the representation of the United States at the Paris Exhibition. All this should tend to improve the feeling between the two countries. When there was a suspicion of sympathy on the part of France with Spain, the New York ladies, we were told, met and resolved to punish the French by having no more goods from Paris within a definite period. This was, to say the least, belittling the position taken by the States in declaring war as the champion of humanity, in obedience to a high moral sense. The President has shown a nobler spirit, which it is hoped will be emulated, and that Congress will cordially, also, acquiesce. acquiesce. "Little presents," it is said, "maintain friendship." The saying is of French origin, but of world-wide application.

THE terrible accident on the Thames in connection with the launching of her Majesty's new battleship, the "Albion," which involved the loss of some three dozen lives, is both significant and suggestive. The incident has very properly sent a thrill through the nation, and evoked a large amount of sympathy, in which we all share. It happened at the launch of a ship which was intended, built, and launched, for the destruction of human life. In a sense, therefore, the accident was in harmony with the purpose of the occasion-the sending out on its mission on the deep of a human life-destroyer; only the destruction was unexpected, unauthorised, not on the programme. But it is typical, for non-combatants often suffer where battles are in progress, and battleships fulfil their proper functions.

"Is not the Navy League a little overdoing it?" asks the Daily News of the 24th June. "The League was formed for the purpose of urging upon the Government and the electorate the permanent importance of an adequate navy as the best guarantee of Peace.' This is all very well, but the proceedings at the conference of yesterday were unduly depressing. Speaker after speaker seemed to have no other aim than to prove that 'tis all nothing, in spite of all our labours of the last few years. Sir Charles Dilke came to the conclusion that we had really not improved our position since the time when it was considered disastrously bad. Mr. H. W. Wilson and Mr. Arnold-Forster followed in the same strain in regard to armament and protection. Sir Albert Rollit seemed to sigh for the press-gang, and his substitute suggested the conscription. Our food-supplies, of course, came into the dismal inquisition, and there was hardly a gleam of hope in the prospect.