'THERE seems now little or no reason to foar—if, indeed, it were wise to fear—thet hostilities between England and Rassia will break out. In fuct the ayslematio aggression of the. latter Power on other people's territory has rendered it absolutely necessary (hat England should make a firm stand, and let Russia know at once that ske can only rob at the price of a prolonged, and extended, and desperate struggle and the show of firmness has been successful, Of course there is something horribly savage and barbarous in war, That King Barrio Bangalee Boo, in paint and feathers, should sally out of an afternoon and attempt to slash and slaughter the King of Borrin Bhoola Gha, in feathers and pai seems fitting and proper enough; and that one ravenous berist of prey should claw, bite, and disembowel another beast of prey, rather weaker than itself, is in equal accord with the beautiful order of Nature about which ove hears so much, But that men of culture and education, imbued with all the refining influences of nineteenth century scholars gentle in their manners, and individually incapable, perhaps, of doing & vulgar or dishonorable act, should emulate painted savages and wild beasts in socking to cut, gash, mutilate, and kill their fellow. constitutes, to our thinking, the great anomaly of modern times. Still the plain, insuperable fact ramming, that war is, sometimes, absolutely necessary and that those are responsible for its horrors who, inspired by simple lust of gain, attempt to encroach apon the Property of their neighbours and fuel soo life, we call such persons thieves, hat do not belong to them. In
burglars, pickpockets, according to the special nieaus they adopt for carrying on their operations, and, when they are enright, we clap them into prison; bat in
and talk of "an aggressive policy," public life we are more sealy-mantleds "the violation of a front Th part of the hypocrisy of ea-onlied ci usation, Theft should be called theft, robbery should be called robbery, and a lie should be called a lie,—botweon nations as between men, Encronchment on the property of others, be it openly iously done, mast be resisted and if it cannot be resisted without war, than war must follow. War is barbarous; but what can be more bar-barons than attempted theft, and that on the part of an avowedly Christias souutry which in its surprising saudi. mouiousuess calls itself " Holy"? The political morals of all countries whose watchword is aggression, encroachment, or the pushing-forward of a frontier, are the morals of a burglar; and when a burglar is resisted, a fight, and per. haps 8 very bloody fight, ensues. The worer part of it ix that the ambition of bad man recoils, nct on himself, but on others that to carry out his{ plots, and fight his qnarrele, thousands of innocent men are ruthlessly butch. ered, thousands of families thrown into mourning, and thousands of people injured who have not the snailest personal interest in the point at issue, and who would not gain or lose one-cent-whichever-may. it might be settled, What,—asks Toutelade Kh. quite unofficial net purpose and upshot amy own knowledge, for example, there dwell and toil, in the British village of Dumdrudge, usually some five hundred souls, From these, by certain "Natural the French, there are auccessi' during the French war, say thirty able-bodied men: Dumdrudye, at her own suckled and' nursed them i sorrow, fed them up to manhood, and even trained m to crafts, #0 that one can weave, ther build, another hammer, and the avoir-weep-they are selected; all xd; and shipped away, at the some two thousand miles, ly to the south of Spain; and fed wanted. And now to that same south of Spain, are Lwinty Dumdrudge, at length, with a gi the word ' Fire and they blow the souls out of ove another 5 ugh apart in ao wide a I w, some mutual How then?
heir Governors had fallen out sone another, had ese poor blackheads shoot, And that is war, Are not, then, those who deliberately provoke war by the sheer desire of conquering and robbing other people, cut the very nals truest sense of the word Is not the principle the same, whether a mau plauders and kills upon his own account, or whether he does it at the head of an army, decorated with plumes and streamers? Judged by this standard, was not Napoleon I, who is estimated to have sacrificed two million lives to his own pitiful ambition, one of the very greatest criminals the world has ever seen? He is generally spoken of as one of the greatest generals and so he may have been, But the misery that that little mau brought upon millions of his fellow-creatures is of to be condoned by his genius; and
and a balance struck, his genius will!
ever the marli's books are made up, probably not appear at a very high; figure on the credit-side of his account. A'fow weeks ago, England was on he point of going to war with Rassin, he calamity has been averted; but bad come, it would not have been provoked [by England, and on the head of the provoker would have rested all the couacquences, all the reepoueibility, War is honourable, Tu those who do their native rights maiutain In those whose words an iron batriér are Between the lawless spoiler and the weal 3 But is, i those who draw th' offense bla or added power or gain, sordid and despicable As meanest office of the worldly churl.
Tuejadgingitse @'Luo-tani inthenction
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.