The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-10-12 00:00:00

MR. BRIGHT ON THE EUROPEAN

SITUATION.

The Correspondent of the Daily News in Rome writes :
Mr. Bright, in answer to an invitation to attend the
Peace Congress lately held at Savona, sent the sub-
joined letter to the Advocate Pietro Sbarbaro, pro-
fessor of law in the University of Macerate, and prime
mover in the commemoration of Alberigo Gentili,
who from his chair in Oxford first propounded the
doctrine of international arbitration. The letter
has been published in the Park, a Bolognese
journal, which prefixes to it the following remarks :
" The distinguished colleague of Cobden and
Gladstone to whom in these later years the popu-
lar classes are indebted for the reforms which
have been vouchsafed them—to whom they owe not
only their material welfare, but their accessicT
to the sphere of sovereignty—has in this
letter raised the signal for the vindication of the
human interests which are bound up with the prin-
ciples of the international solidarity of Europe, and
which everywhere suffer from a state of things which
has become intolerable for the people, and a forerunner
of her social convulsions. May the potent voice of
this great man, whom our Bonghi rightly judged to be
the first and most eloquent orator of the "United
Kingdom, and in whose impassioned and earnest lan-
guage, as Challemel-Lacour said in the Rentz des Deux
Mendes, pulsatel the heart of a Chridtian, shake the
balance of all European society and impress on the
ideas and forces of the Continental democracy that
wise, pacific, and practical direction which alone can
ensure to the people, with the abolition of standing
armies, true and fructifying liberty. . . . The
Conservative English Press will not fail to accuse
as it did during the Crimean War, of sacri-
ficing to the interests of the working classes the
honour, greatness, and glory of England. But
wherever there are men who suffer from calamitous
war, wherever there are factories which suspend their
activity for want of credit or for the breach between
capital and labour, there
.the words of Bright will be
hailed with a cry of gratitude. Certainly, the actual
moment in Europe appears clouded with dark presage,
and in England the war-passion, fed by the old aristo-
cratic spirit, rages more madly than ever But
these clouds will pass away, and with them will dis-
appear the glamour of the war-policy of Lord Beacons-
field, and then the English people and Liberal Europe
will turn wistfully to the men of Manchester, and the
re-accession to power of the Gladstones, the Bright's,
and the Forsters will be welcomed by the two
hemispheres as the return of the land of Wilberforce
and Adam Smith to the policy—truly and uniquely
glorious—the policy of universal justice and peace."

The following is a literal rendering of Professor Sbarbaro's
Italian translation of Ur. Bright's letter :
Rochdale, Sept. 23.
Dear Sir,—l cannot write to you at any length on
the interesting subject of which you have spoken to
me, and I fear my short letter will not reach you in
time for your Peace Congress.
The situation of Europe at this moment is
deplorable; its nations are groaning under the weight
of enormous armies and burdensome taxation. They
are at the same time diejoined in interests and senti-
ments by tariffs, which form an insurmountable
barrier between the peoples of the different States,
and prevent that reciprocity of interests which would
make it impossible for their statesmen to drag them
into war.
How can wars be avoided and standing armies dis-
volved? This is the great question for Earope, and
for every nation of Europt. To my thinking the
diTectest way—l was going to E.ay the only way—to
this great end lips in free tr. de between the peoples of
Europe. If tariffs were abolished, or !. it 010 were
made very moderate, the nat4ohe would tril44 4retlY

with each other, their commerce would increase enor-
mously, and they would bit by bit become like one
grand nation, their commercial interests would multi-
ply on such a scale, and their mutual knowledge
and intercourse would become so intimate, that the
ambition of monarchs and of statesmen would be im-
potent to drive them to war.
The treaty between France and England, negotiated
eighteeg years ago by Air. Cobden, has entirely
changed the sentiments of the two nations to each
other, and if the tariff of France were as free as that of
England the two States would, through their interests,
become as one. If the tariffs of Europe were abolished,
Europe would not fear war and her armies would in a
short time be reduced.

Monopoly in commerce, high tariffs, protection of
the trading classes at the expense of society and the
consumers, such are the allies of great armies and the
grand obstacle to a general and lasting peace in
Europe. Destroy the tariffs or reduce them greatly,
and standing armies will be dissolved, for then almost
every pretext on which they are kept up will have dui.
appeared.
For the disbanding of great armies and the promo.
tion of peace I rely on the abolition of tariffs and on
the brotherhood of the nations resulting from free
trade in the products of industry.
Let us try to impress on public opinion the convic-
tion that the protectionist system, the system of high
tariffs, and the monopoly which some classes are eager
to keep to the detriment of the people, are the prin-
cipal cause and the most powerful support of standing
armies and of frequent wars. If this idea could pre-
vail in Europe then, indeed, should we be able to
welcome the dawn of that day in which armies will no
longer be considered necessary, and high tariffs a
crime against the interests and the happiness of the
people.—l am, with great respect, yours, &c.,

JOHN BRIGHT.

To Professor Pietro Sbarbaro, Bologna.