The things which make for Peace.

Since the advice has been graciously vouchsafed to us to "follow after the things which make for peace," we may well feel encouraged to work on as Peacemakers, let the world laugh and sneer as it will. What matters the thoughtless banter of the crowd? It is easy to bear the ready laugh wherewith they ridicule the members of the Peace Society as dreamers and fanatics. The assurance that "Blessed are the Peacemakers" is quite sufficient to turn the edge of a keener weapon than any that has yet been employed against us. The blessing of Heaven, promised to the Peacemakers, will surely compensate for the bitterest contempt of man. Aye, but "who are the peacemakers?" That is the question! for we must not forget that our opponents, many of them profess to be as ardent Peacemakers as the members of the Peace Society, and some of them, no doubt, are entitled to as much credit for sincerity in their convictions as the most conscientious of the Peace Party; but the honesty of a man's opinions is no criterion of the soundness of his judgment. He may be quite sincere in his desire to do right, and at the same time actively successful in doing mischief. This we believe to be the position of many who have pinned their faith upon the foolish old proverb that "the best way to preserve peace is to be well prepared for war." It would be unfair and ungenerous to assume that they did not conscientiously believe that they were following

London: Job Caudwell, 335, Strand. W.C.

[unclear: Simryin] Marshall & Co., and Kent & Co.

page 556 after the things that make for peace, when they approved and promoted a restless activety in increasing the armed defences of the country. Yet it by no means follows that the reckless expenditure of millions upon the building of iron-clad war ships, the manufacture of Armstrong Guns and Minie Rifles, the construction of Coast Fortifications, and the enrolment of Volunteer Rifle Corps, have really added a single guarantee for the security of Peace. It would not be difficult to show that England has never had a greater number of costly and bloody wars upon her hands than during the last twenty-five years, during which she has made such restless efforts, and spent such unparalleled sums of money, in order to be well prepared for war. Every quarter of the globe bears sanguinary witness to the fact that the preservation of peace has borne no proportion whatever to the magnitude of England's preparations for war.

With the bitter experience and sorrowful memories of the Crimea, of India, of China, of Japan, of New Zealand, and of Caffraria, to rebuke them, Englishmen may well ask themselves the very pertinent question, "shall the sword devour for ever?" following up that question with another equally to the point, "are there not other and better things, the following of which will be far more likely to make for peace—permanent and universal peace—than the musty traditions of the War Office, or the new fangled nostrums of the Navy Board? "All war is a barbarism and a crime," we were told lately by one London daily paper; yet there are many who seem to have persuaded themselves, and would fain pursuade all men, that in raising the military ardour of young men, and in furnishing the nation with a gigantic supply of all the materiel of war, regardless of expense, they are most effectually carrying out the Divine injunction to "follow after the things which make for peace."

We put it to any candid opponent of the Peace Society to contrast Richard Cobden's recent Commercial Treaty with France, with the most successful efforts of Sir William Armstrong's genius for slaughter, and say which of the two he regards as the thing most likely to make for peace.

If France has really been compelled to keep the peace with England of late years, it is quite clear that the compulsion has come far more from the interests of British Commerce than from the terror of British cannon; indeed it has been somewhat amusing recently to meet a rather startling illustration of the effects really produced upon the French mind by all the terrible displays we have been making within the last few years, of our cannon-power, wherewith to terrorize and coerce the world into good behaviour. And the source from which this illustration comes is not a little remarkable. Every one must remember a certain letter from no less a personage than Prince de Joinville,—at that time an Admiral of the French Fleet,—in which he gravely propounded the possibility of a successful invasion of England—a letter which created a profound sensation in this country, and which may be remembered as one of the supposed justification of the Invasion Panic, which led the country into the dipslay of so many absurdities. Well, the Prince de Joinville has taken up the pen again, to show what clever things he can write to the disparagement of England as a great military and page 557 naval power. The subject which he has chosen to crack his joke upon this time is our pet military and naval hobby—our gunnery. To be sure, the Prince, like the wicked wag he is, modestly professes to include his own country within the sweep of his sarcasm. "Where everybody is still behind in is Gunnery," he says. Genius of Elswick Foundry, is it come to this? After we have paid millions upon millions of pounds to Sir William Armstrong and to the wiseacres at Shoeburyness, in order that we may have the most formidable and effective gun that the world ever heard of, are we to be told by a French refugee prince that "what everybody is still behind in is gunnery."? So that instead of frightening the French into good behaviour by all our mechanical and engineering skill, and our lavish expenditure of money, we have only provoked them into playing the part of critics, and reminding us how far we are behind in that very branch of war-like preparation in which we prided ourselves as being so greatly in advance of the world in general. If then England's great armaments fail to frighten her neighbours, they can no longer be regarded by reasonable men as the things that make for peace. But if; we cannot terrorise our neighbours into a peaceable disposition and deportment, it is happy for us that we have other and far better methods for securing their good behaviour, and cementing the closest friendship with them. Commerce is a thing that makes for peace; Railways and Electric Telegraphs are things that make for peace; Cheap Ocean Postage is a thing that will make for peace; a just and generous Foreign Policy is a thing that makes for peace; above all, the spread of Christian Truth is a thing that makes for peace. To follow after these is to pursue a policy worthy of our profession as an enlightened Christian people.—In following after these we run no risk of wasteful extravagance and bitter disappointment; there will be no slaughtered host to bury and mourn for; no great war debts added to the burdens of industry; no hateful animosities to rankle under or outlive. In following after such things, as the best way to preserve peace, we shall find that we are working far more successfully than by the most costly and energetic efforts to prepare for war. As a nation, we shall not only be serving our own highest interests, but, as an example, we may hope to be made a blessing to the world at large.

E. F.