The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-04 00:00:00

MR. ROEBUCK ON THE CRISIS.

At an Influential gathering of Mr. Roebuck's supporters
held at the Cutlers' Hall Sheffield, a letter written to the
chairman of his committee was read, in which Mr. Roebuck
said :

---- •
"My own wish is to retire, the fatigues of Parlia-
ment pressing now heavily upon me; but I feel this to
be a great crisis, when opinions are of vitalimporta.nce.
I have been greatly pained by much of the talk that
has been going on while our country, its greatness, and
even safety are threatened. In this state of things, to
shrink from strife, and, for one's own ease, to retire
from the struggle would be partly cowardice. In this
case, then, I wish to know the wishes or my old
friends. Do they desire to retain my services, such as
they are and will be? Do they think that I ahould be
teleful with all the failings which decaying nature
brings? Do they believe that, weak veteran though I
am, my figure in the front of the battle will be an aid
to the cause of our common beloved country? If they
think so and say 'Yes,' then I am ready to undertake
the struggle, and do my utmost in the hour of need
and danger. My life has been one continuous strife
in favour of great principles, and whenever I may
retire I shall feel that most of the objects at which
I have aimed have been won. I should he proud,
even when this is the case, to continue my labours for
the purpose of upholding the honour and safety of
England. Te die in harness in such a cause would
be a glory and a triurnpli.—Yours ever truly, J. A.
ROEBUCK."

A CONTEST BETWEEN A LIONESS
AND A BULL.
A contest between a lioness and a Texas bull is re-
ported to have taken place on the 6th lastant in a
spacious amphitheatre erected for the purpose about
three miles from the town of San Antonio, in Texas.
The spectators numbered nearly 5,000 persons, and
the scene, according to the account given of the affair
by the Globe Democrat, must have been more impres-
sive than edifying (says the Pall Mall Gazette). When
the lioness was relea:ed from the iron cage in which
she was confined she sprang upon the battle-ground as
though eager for the encounter. The bull eyed her sus-
piciously, but appeared indiffereat to her presence
until the lioness, who had passed behind him, sud-
denly leaped upon his haunches and endeavoured to
fasten her teeth and claws in his side, which, however,
being thick and exceedingly tough, resisted the at-
tempt. This attack aroused the ire of the bull, who
turned, and, madly rushing upon his antagonist,
caught her on his horns and tossed her in the air.
When ste fell one of her ribs was evidently broken,
and, uttering savage growls, she retreated. lie bull
followed, and presently catching the lioness again on
his giant horns, sent her "sailing through space."
The crowd. shouted and cheered, the wildest enthu-
siasm prevaaling as the bull, " cornering " the lioness,
actually pinned her to the flocrr with his horns. This
elided the contest ; the unhappy lioness was in a dying
condition, and after the bull's final effort- had not
sufficient life remaining even to groan. The 61„ht
lasted twelve minutes, and the defeat of the lioness
was attributed by her backers to the fact of her being
over-starved for the occasion,

A Padua publisher is to send to the Paris Exhibition
an edition of Dante scarcely longer than the thumbnail, and
intended for a watch-chain appendage. The letters are so
small as to resemble grains of sand, and few, of muse, 04
decipher thew without a magUifying-glase.

MR. BRIGHT ON THE EASTERN
QUESTION.

A Conference, attended by 1,50) delegates, assembled in
the Fr,e Trade Hail, Manchester, on Tuesday, to protest
against this country going into war. Sir Thomas Bagley,
M.P.. and Mr. Jacob Bright, 3.1 P.' were amongst the speakers.
Resolutions were adopted to the effect that the Conference
condemned the policy of menace and warlike demolistration
adopted by the Government, and viewed with grave alarm
the introduction of Indian troops into Europe. The Confer-
ence believed with Lord Derhy that the state of affairs on
the Continent did not justify a war, .aed that the Govern-
ment of Lot d Beaconsfield was an obstacle to peace. Copies
of the resolutions were to be sent to Lords Beaconefield,
Granville, and Hartington.

The Tree Trade Hall was crowded in tire evening by an
enthusiastic audience, in answer to an invitation issued for
a great demonstration in favour of peace So great was the
demand for admission that the doors had to be closed before
the hour fixed for the opening of the meeting. The Right
Hon. John Bright, M.P., presided, and was loudly cheered
on taking the chair, the whole meeting rising and joining in
singing Auld Lang Syne." Among the gentlemen present
were—Sir Thomas Baxley, M.P., Mr. Jacob Bright, 31. P.,
Mr. J. T. Hibbert, M.P., Mr. Hutchinson, M.P., Mr Robert
Leaks, and Dr. Parkhurst. Mr. Bright, whose rising was the
signal for the renewal of the enthusiastic cheering, proceeded
to deliver an address, wherein he reviewed the policy of the
Administration on the Eastern Question, and earnestly
argued against the warlike tendency of. the bourse which it
had pursued. We give the following extracts from Mr.
Bright's speech :

We meet at a time, as most of us, I think, believe, of
great peril and of great anxiety. Our ears are filled with
evil rumours, and facts—ever accumulating facts—from day
to day point to the near approach of war, notwithstanding
that we are aonstairly told by those who are the confidential
advisers of the Crown, and who are intrusted for the time
with the direction of our national affairs, that they are act-
ing strenuously on behalf of peace. For my part, I have very
little sympathy with efforts on behalf of peace which lead
naturally to war. (Loud cheers.) Four-and-twenty years ago
I remember a case not unlike this. Reading the
other day in the second volume of the • Life
of the Prince Consort," I found a statement which
it is very suitable for us to consider at this
moment, At that time Lord Stratford de Itedcliffe
was the Ambassador of England to the Turkish Government
at Constautiuople. He was strenuous for peace: but in a
letter written by the late lamented Prince Consort to his
confidential friend Baron Stockmar (hisses and groans) he
says—and let me say that I believe no Prince ever had a
friend more confidential and more faithful and more honour-
able than was Baron Stockniar (bear)—the friend of the Prince
and Queen. But what he says is tins. In one of his letters
written on the 27th of November, 1853, which would be three
or foul months before the war began, he says,— "Lord
Stratford fulfils his instructions to the letter, but he so
contrives tkat we are constantly getting deeper into a war '
policy." Now, it aupears So use that notwithstanding the stren-
uous exertions of the Government, we are continually brought
nearer to the precipice and to the abyss of war. (Cheers)
The Mist Minister himself assured us' I think, on the very
night of Lord Derby's resignation that there was nobody in
the kingdom more assiduous and ardent on behalf of peace
than were the members of Her Majesty's Government: but,
notwithstanding that, every step which is taken indicates
a nearer approach to war(hear); and if it be true that a man
is to be held responsible for the natural effect of his con-
duct, then it may be held, and it must be admitted, that
the Government are step by step bringing us nearer to
war, and by steps .which do not exhibit the smallest dis-
position for peace. (Hear, hear.) All that portion of the
Tory party which we may call the war section of it
looks to the Prime Minister as the representative of
their views. (Hisses, and "Hear, hear.") And we
look at his colleagues—those that are now left in the
Government outside the Prime Minister—l suppose they
may be considered rather as dummies in this matter. (Loud
cheers) I observed that last night in a speech delivered
by a member of the Cabinet to a great meeting at Bradford
the extraordinary assertion was made, that a War party, a
War Minister, was an impossibility in this country
(Laughter) Well, I might refer to the speech of Mr. Hardy,
which to my mind was full of boisterous and reckless asser-
tion (cheers), and had in it from beginning to end scarcely
a spice of anything like logic. (Hear, hear.) It was a
speech which was, no doubt—at least, he thought so—
suited to the mental and political capacity of the Con-
servatives (loud laughter and cheers); but it was a speech
which in its • boisterous recklessness and in its want
of logic I hope could not be delivered with approba-
tion before an assembly of the Liberal party. (Hear)
But what is it that two of Mr Hardy's colleagues have
told us—that there is a War Ministry and a War party.
(Hear, hear.) And because they woutd uo longer serve under •
the one, or in respect to this great question belong to the
other, Lord Carnarvon and Lord Derby (loud cheers) have
lets them. You know Lord Deroy in this eounty, you
knew his father before him, you know how much he has been
allied with the present Prime Minister for the last five-and-
twenty years; you know—no, you do not know—but you
may imagine to some extent how much it must have cost
him to sever himself from his ancient colleague, and on this
great question from the party to which he was connected ever
since he came into public life; and yet so solemn did Lord
Derby consider the crisis at which we have arrived, so con-
vinced was he that all his efforts as Secretary for
Foreign Affairs would be unable to keep us out of war, that
he shook off the dust from his feet against them. (Loud
applause.) He went out from among them—hear, hear)—
declaring by his act that he would riot be in any degree a
participator in the great crime they meditated against the
true interests of his country. (Cheers.) if Lord Carnarvon
and Lord Derby have no confidence in the Government of
which they were members, how can the Ministry expect us
or the country at large to have confidence in thesis? (Hear,
hear.) Where there is no truth and where you have found
out there is no truth there can be no faith. (Loud cheers.)
I ask 3 our attention to one or two facts which I think will
justify use in the observations I have made. Go back to
the meeting of Parliament, go on from that day about a
week, ami you wilt find a notice of what was called a Vote of
Credit upon the people ; surely enough, a vote tf discredit
upon the Government. (Applause ) I took the liberty of
asking In the House of Commons— What was the object of
this vote ; what was to be tome with the six milliotia ? Are
on going into a Consress—a Congress of European Powers- -
a ith saceted cannon and loaded revolvers 2-(Laud cheers.) ,
last the very smoothed-tangued representatives a the
Government in the House of Commons gave us to
understand that nothing could be further from their
thoughts—it was, in point of fact, something of a vote
of coefidence. They asked that Parliament should
unanimously, or by a great majority, consent to this vote
so as to tell the nations with whom they were about to
negotiate that they represented a united party which repre-
sented a united people; but nothing was further from their
object than sticated cannon and loaded revolvers, and they
went so far as to say that probably very little of this money
would be wanted. lam not sure on one occasion it was not
said that possibly (even none of it might be spent. Wells
what happened? Immediately the vote was agreed to
the spending began, and it began in the most reckles,
manner. We beard from patagraphs in the newspapers—
in the main, I dare say on this matter not incorrect
—that they were buying and ordering hundreds and thou-
sands of sand bags down at Dundee to be used for fortifica-
tions; that in Manchester they had taken a great warehouse
and were packing hay for exportation for the cavalry ;
that the limit of the price of horses for the cavalry had
been raised, and that they were buying horses every where ;
and then immediately afterwards that, although it is
admitted by their own Press, by their own officers, England
has at this moment a naval power at sea exceeding that com-
bined of the rest of Europe, they nought three ironclads—
two of which, I believe, belonged to Turkey, but which
Turkey could not take away daring the war, or which Turkey
could not pay for; the other is said to have belonged to the
Emperor or Government of Brazil. Now, by this means, in
the course of less than two months they had spent three and
a half of the six millions, and so far as they dared they had
departed from the kind of smooth half-promise which was
given in the House of Commons. that little, if possible none,
of this money might need to be expended. • . .
After commenting upon the expediency of sending the
fleet to the Sea of Marmora, Mr. Bright proceeded
We come next to the question of calling out the Reserves.
(Laughter.) We had then the resignation of Lord Derby, and
we had at the same time exactly the same smooth-spoken
story in the House of Commons. If you have read the news-
papers with any care you will have observed that from the be-
ginning of these difficulties—l speak of the last two years—
there has been a great difference between the tone often taken
In the House of Lords, especially when the Prime Minister
has spoken, and the tone taken by the leader in the House
of Commons. (Hear) Now, Lord Derby thought that calling
out of the Reserves was an important matter, followed, as it
was to be, ,by other measures which he was not then at
liberty to indicate, but with which he was acquainted. We
come now to the day when Parliament separated, on the
16th—that is, a fortnight ago. I was in the House that
day, and heard the leader of the House say, again in the
same tone, "There was not the least danger or any-
thing" (laughter) " dia not apprehend anything •,
things did not really look a bit worse than they had
been some time ago;" and there was a general feel-
ing of some sort of comfort in that sometimes disturbed
but always in matters of this kind credulous, assembly.
(Laughter.) But what happened the very next day, the
moment the door of the House was shut and the key turned
in the lock? On the very next day; I believe it was, you
had that amazing and alarming telegram from Calcutta or
Bombay that I know not how many—now a few thousands,
but we are promised it may be scores of thousands—Slaho-
medan soldiers from Calcutta are to be brought to Europe
for the purpose, I presume, of fighting, it may be, against
the Christian nation of Russia. (" Shame 1") But when
we asked them a short time ago to lessen their military
expenses in India for the purpose of enabling them, by a
greater economy, to abolish the duties on your manutac-
tures (hear). the reduction of the armaments was impossible;
but now to follow up this policy—this blind and wicked
policy (hear, hear)--that is being done, for to day or yester-
day some of these troops were to leave Bombay. That had
been done—was being done—which has never been
boldly or daringly contemplated by any Prime Minister
in past times. We have a war just now going on—and
rather a troublesome business—on the continent of Africa.
Now, apparently, within a very short time the flames of war
may be lit, and lit by England alone, ever two great con-
tinents. We shall then be carrying on war, murder (loud
cheers), rapine—all the evils which are included in the
word war—we shall be carrying on this dreadful game on
three of the four continents of the glebe. Consider this,

you -Christian men, who go to your -churches and chapel
every Sunday, who carry your Bible or your Prayer-book,
who listen to those, beautiful hymns, who listen often to
impressive sermons, who listen to earnest prayers, who
have within your souls emotions stirred which too often
slumber during the busy activities of the week, so that all
this country every Sunday is engaged in this worship and
this acknowledgment of Him who was called the Prince
of Peace, and yet you have a Government which, on a
question which not one of them can define, and for reasons
which they yet have never condescended accurately and
clearly to specify,—you have a Government that would
lead this Christian nation to sanguinary, murderous con-
test over two great continents of the globe. (Cheers.) is
not it extraordinary, if this Government were a Govern-
ment of truth and fitle*ty to the people—is it not extra-
ordinary that, knowing as they did know, every man,—Sir.
Stafford Northcote, et course, in the House of Commons,
knew at the very moment he was speaking. these smooth
words to us and about to allow the House to be closed for
three weeks—that orders had been sent out and were
being executed for bringing over many thousands of native
Alanoinedan troops to take part in a war, possibly and pro-
bably between this country and Russia. Surely it would
have been a right thing to tell us. What is the use of the
House of Cigramons ? (Hear, 81.1t1 cheers.) We might as well
—and it would have saved a world of trouble—have lived
under a great Government where there was nothing that is
called constitutional freedom. We might be living under
the great despotism which we exercise in India, or under the
much smaller despotism which the Czar exercises in Russia.
You have a House of Commons which dare not ask, or if it
does ask is denied. I say Ills humiliating to the House and
insulting to the nation. (Loud cheers)

Well, now, the menace of war, if it has any object
whatever has this—to bully Russia into agreeing to certain
things or else to make war upon her if she will not agree,
and those things are these—they must be these, or one of
them, or some of them—to lessen the freedom of the Bul-
garian people, to sustain the Turkish dominion in Europe;
and the great question before England is not a party ques-
tion, it is a question for honourable men throughout the
kingdom, whether they are willing again .to repeat that
great war of four and twenty years ago—(No)—to spend
40,000 of their our own countrymen s lives, and
hundreds of thousands of others, and spend a hun-
dred millions of their own wealth and two or
three hundred millions of the wealth of others, for the
purpose of bringing about a lessening, and a restriction of
the freedom of the Bulgarian people, or of preventing, any
one of the things which Russia and Turkey have agreed to
in the treaty which has lately been negotiated between
them. (Hear; hear.) The lives of thousands depend upon.
this ; the comforts, not of thousands, but of millions,
and not the lives of sonic and the comforts of more, but the
honour and the unblemished conseience of the whole people
of the United Kingdom. (Cheers ) low, Sir, one more point
and I have done. -(Cries fif (1 on,' and cheers.) You
are asked to do all this as a sacrifice to your terror of the
Empire of Russia. It is stated of one of the editors of the
war papers in London that lie said war was inevitable and
neee,,sary. (A. voice, "Telegraph,) No, it was not the
Telegraph. (Laughter.) " I ho world," he said--I did pot
hear him say it I am telling what was said of Idol, and it
stag only a natural conclusion from his views—ho said,
The world is not big enough for the two empires
of Russia and of Britain (" Shame I ") and it is nece,sary
that the question should he decided once for all which is the
I biggest and to which the world belongs." (Laughter.) Well,
but Russia after all is a nation that would be very friendly

with us if we would let her. (Hear, hear.) The Czar was so
anxious to cultivate friendly relations with England that he
buried in oblivion what he thought was a terrible injustice
done to his father (hear, bear), and he permitted the marriage
(cheers) of his only and passionately-loved daughter with
the sou of the Queen of England. (Cheers.) Russia has
80 millions of population. Its influence must be great
In all its neighbourhood, as you know from the ways
It is adj went to these countries about which so
much discussion has lately taken place, and its in-
fluence is inevitable and permanent and indestructible.
(Hear.) We went into the Crimean War 24 years ago, and
had the assistance of French troops, who did not care one
single sixpence about the Ottoman Empire, but who were
Ltd there by the Emperor, who was anxious to go into a
political transaction with a respectable political film.
(Laughter.) But what happened? You had a great fleet in
the Baltic It went out with great shouts of what was to
be due, but came back doing nothing, happily for this fleet
and happily for Russia. You had all your force in the
Crimea, and it managed to take possession, after a long
siege, of one strong, fortified city; but when the war was
over and the treaty was agreed to, Russia was still great
and powerful, and has every day since bsen becoming so.
([tear.) Russia was still adjacent to Turkey; the influence
of Russia upon Turkey and upon all the nel;hbouring
States remained pretty much as it was before ; and all the
sacrifices that we bad made and that the French Em-
peror, or, rather, the French people (hear, hear), had
made—those sacrifices went for nothing. Russia was still
great, and geographically and providentially she must be
great—(hear, hear)—and Turkey was decaying and going to
the doom which Providence has decreed shall await all cor-
rupt people and all corrupt enapires—(cheers)—and there
remained only for Us, after all, a few men that you see
about with one arm or one leg; "the unreturning brave,"
as Byron describes them, those who went out there and
who did not come back, and who were left to those
neglected graves in the Crimea—those you do not see._
(Hear.) You see here and there cannon put in some gentle-
man's park or in some town's market-place to show what was
done by the valour of your troops before Sebastopol Nobody
disputes the valour of our troops. I know nobody's troops
that do not on occasion manifest great valour. (Hear,
hear) The Russians, the Turks, the Caffres—every where
there is valour. There is more of the commodity to be had
in the world for eighteenpeuce a-day than of any other com-
modity that I know of. (Loud and prolonged laughter and
cheering.) There is nothing left for us. then of the war but
sad memories. (Hear, hear.) All sensible men, I think,
looking back now, wish that it had beeu avoided and that
it had not been one of the sad memories which all nations
have to bear (Hear.) I will make one more reference to a
passage in Mr. Hardy's speech of last night—that is, with
regard to the purpose for which you are wished to go on to
the very verge of war, and probably into war itself; and I
want to read it to you for the purpose of showing you the
shadowy and imaginary grounds on which you are to go
into this terrible misfortune. He spoke of the Ministry
of which he was proud to be a member (laughter); Lord
Derby and Lord Carnarvon were proud to he out of it.
(Loud and prolonged cheers.) The day will come and
the hour draweth nigh, it these peop3e enter into
this war, when every honest and intelligent Englishman
will be anxious to gay, "I had no part whatever in this
policy (cheers), and was no supporter of the Government."
(Renewed cheers.) But Mr. Hardy says of the Govern-
ment that they were "not prepared to se2_ a great shadow
cast by other nations of the world." That is, on this
nation a great shadow cast (Laughter.) Now, 'try to
lay hold of that in your mind; you cannot lay hold of
it with your fingers. (Laughter.) He says, "There might
not be in the overshadowing immediate danger S' to Eug-
land ; but, as Lord Salisbury well said, I suppose in his
famous despatch :—" Turkey dismemb_red, pitiful, and
powerless, or rather a Power in the hand of another-
Power, exercising dominion over a great part of the
earth, presented a danger through which England's
Interests in Europe might suffer. (Laughter.) Now,
observe, this was said to 3,000 or 4,000 hard-headed York-
shiremen (laughter), and I presume it had some effect upon
them. (Renewed laughter.) I recollect in Lord Clarendon's
"History of the Great Rebellion" he gives an anecdote of a
gentleman whose name, I think, was Mr. L'Estrange, who
lived down in Kent, and who raised a troop of soldiers for
the defence of King Charles I. He describes him in this
way :—" He spoke to them in a manner peculiarly his own,
and being not easy to be understood, he the more pre-
vailed with the men of Kent." (Loud laughter.) And
so it is in a manner peculiarly his own (prolonged laughter ;
—boisterous, reckless, and illogical, and with language
not easy to be understoud— Mr. Hardy did the more pre-
vail with the men of Bradford. (Renewed laughter.)
No, I ought not to say the men of Bradford (hear,
hear), but what they call, in softened phrase, the Conser-
vatives of Bradford (A voice: "The Jingoes," and
laughter.) Read the passage once more, and have some
commiseration for your Conservative friends, whose sense
has not enabled them to detect the utter absurdity and
nothingness of this passage, (aear, hear.) They are not
prepared to see a great shadow cast by other nations of the
world; there might not be in the overshadowing immediate
danger to England, but, as Lord Salisbury had well said, a
Turkey dismembered, pitiful, and powerless—by which
I suppose that they intend in future through their war, if
they go into it, to have a Turkey again which is not dis-
membered, and which is not pitiful, and which is not
powerless (cries of " Never '')—" a Turkey dismembered,
pit•ful, and powerless, or rather a Power in the hands of
another Power exercising dominion over great parts of the
earth, presented a danger through which England's inter-
ests and Europe's interests might suffer." Not " will "
suffer, but " might " suffer—a distant and a remote and
a shadowy, and at best an imaginary evil; and yet on this
" perhaps." It recalls to my mind a passage of one of our
not-often-read poets. He says :

"On this, 'perhaps,'
This peradventure, infamous for lies,
We build our mountain hopes,
Spin our eternal Schemes."
(Cheers) And if we had Mr. Hardy's policy and that of his
Government, I fear we should rush into the enormous, the
incalculable crime for which language has no word but one
which conceals its meaning—(hear, hear) —hut a crime which
involves a multitudinous murder, the shedding of torrents
of blood over many of the fairest regions of the globe.
(Enthusiastic cheers)
After some further observations, Mr. Bright concluded his
speech. A vote of tharks having been passed to him (as
Chairman), Mr. Bright rose to acknowledge the compliment,
and was received with great enthusiasm. In the course of
his obsenations he said: I hope that what has been said
here to-night and in the Conference to-day may pass
with more or less length through the great bulk of the
newspapers of tke kingdom, and that all those, and
there, doubtless, are some, who are in a condition of de-
pression with regard to public affairs may feel
themselves encouraged by what has passed here
In all the conflicts of past titnea
there has been none more great, none more noble,
and none more glorious than that to which we have
set ourselves this evening. (Hear, hear.) We are asking the
Christian men and women of England that they shall not
be at the beck of a minister (hisses) in whom hitherto we
have had and the people of England as. I believe, have
had no cause for special confidence. (Hear, hear.) I say,
we are asking the Christian men and women of England
that they shall net accept from him and carry into effect
without such solemn consideration as the question de-
mands what it it should come to pass will be, in fact, the ac-
tual suspensions throughout vast regions of the globe, by the
flat of the English people expressed by Her Majesty's
Minister, who, I believe, will have betrayed their real in-
terest—(cheers)—a suspension for an indefinite period, not
only of the Ten Commandments, but of the Sermon on
the Mount. (Loud cheers.) I spoke, now, I think, more
than a year ago, at.a Welsh watering place where I fre-
quently spend some quiet days, I spoke there on this
question of war, and I asked why it was that the twenty,
thirty, forty, fifty thousand at least of the professed
ministers of Christ in Great Britain and Ireland were dumb
—absolutely dumb—as dumb as the walls of the buildings in
which they minister, in reference to the great question of
peace or war, and I Raked them how it was that, while
there had been Christianity of some sort more or less
advancing for eighteen centuries, still the Christian sen-
timent of the people and the Christian teachings of the
priests had not bean able to overcome, to surmount the
temptations to war which arise from the ignorance of peoples
and the ambitions of potentates and statesmen. (Cheers.)
I am gratified to observe that during the last few months,
during the last year there has been more manifestation of
feeling on this question among the teachers of religion than '
at any former period. I tell them from this platform that
their people cannot become Christians in principle and in
practice until the teachers of Christians themselves
become Converted. (Loud cheers.) We may differ
upon many points of articres in Churches but here
we are all agreed on this—that, if there be anything
definite and distinct in the teachings of the New
Testament, it is that which would leers to amity among
peoples and to love, and justice, and mercy, and peace
on the whole of God's earth upon which His tuna shines.
(Cheers.) If, then, we are agreed upon this, let us, if
it be possible, throw off the hypocrite in this matter.
(Hear.) Let us get rid of our Christianity or get rid of
our tendency and willingness to go to war. (Hear.) War
is a game which, if their subjects were wise, Kings would
not he able to play at, and be they Kings or Queens, be.
they statesmen of this or that colour or party, never let
any man go headlong into any policy that directs for war
until he has thoroughly examined the question by his own
best intellect, brought it to bear on his own Christian
conscience, and decided it for himself, just as if he were
asked to pull the trigger or to use the sword. (" Hear,"
and cheers.) We send men out to engage in the ravages
of war who have no knowledge whatsoever of the question
upon which they have to tight. (Hear, hear.) And not
satisfied now with taking them from our own midst, we
—not we, but some among us (hear, hear)—who have
been menacing India with an invasion from Russia, are
now actually, apparently, on the point of invading Russia by
troops from India, and we, who have been asking Russia not
on any account to go near the Suez Canal, because we re-
qnire it for the traffic of our trade to India, are now employ-
ing that very canal which Russia has not approached in
bringing troops—Mahomedau, half-savage troops—from
India to make war upon the Christian population of Russia.
(Cries of "Shame 1") I think these are questions which we
are bound to consider. (Hear, hear.) I say without hesita-
tion—and I speak to all the people of England (cheers)—I
say that for no such cause as this shall the torrents of
English blood be called to flow which, apparently, are now
on the point of being shed at the command, I will say to the
people, at the betrayal of a Minister who has not one single
drop of English blood in his veins. (Loud cheers.)