The Express.
London, England, 1853-10-15 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15.

MR. COBDEN complains that the "enemies" of the I
Peace Society raise the cry, "Oh, these arc a set of
fanatics who, if the enemy were at the gate, would
cry, ' Peace, peace ; these are the people who want
us to disband our soldiers and sailors, and invite the
invasion of some foreign foe; these are the people
who would lay us prostrate at the feet of tho first
horde of brigands that chose to land upoa our
shore:,." Who these opponents arc, who ascribe such
flagrant iniquity to tho Peace Society, it is im-
possible for us to say. Whoever they are, they
may be safely handed over to be oratorically
hung, drawn, and quartered by the members of
the Conference. What ninety-nine hundredths of the
civilised world say is not that Mr. COBDF.N and his
friends wish to invite foreign foes, or desire to lay us
prostrate at the feet of hordes of brigands, but that
the practical following out of his proposals would
issue in the very result ho very properly deprecates.
The objectors to the movements of the Peace Society
do Mr. ConDax the justice to believe that if an
enemy had actually landed on our shores he would
take arms like a man in defence of his hearth and
home. These same opponents, however, desire
strongly that Mr. Cont'EN should never be
put to such extremities. They have a horror
of war and its consequences which equals in

intensity that entertained by the Members
of the I'eace Society, and they therefore
are earnest in their endeavours to prevent the occur-
rence of war. And their ground of dispute with
Mr. tuentai and his friends is that the latter, if
left to follow out their own devices, would provoke
the very evil to be shunned. The Peace Society is
accused not of malevolence bat ignorance. Now, it
surely is not a sufficient answer to this charge to say,
as Mr. COBDI says, that he does not think there
will be invasion. "I wish," are his words, "to
make my profession of faith most distinctly on
this point, and that very shortly. I do
not believe any one is coming to attack
us." The great majority of Englishmen be-
lieve the same thiug, but the grounds for
their belief are totally different from those of
Mr. Cosnex. They believe that their security from
attack is derived from the strength of their position,
both natural and artificial—from their insular situa-
tion and the completeness of their defences. He
attributes, as far as we can see, no particular merit
to the one and condemns the other. He ridicules all
fear, all preparations on account of fear, and states
as the sole ground for this ridicule, " Nobody
intends to invade you." Now, this assertion can
hero no place in the argument at issue between
the Peace Society and the world at large,
unless Mr. COBDEN can go into every coun-
try in Europe and say the same thing,
Will he lift up his voice to the Turks in
Constantinople, and say, " Nobody intends to attack
you " ? Will he lecture tho Piedmontese on the
same text ?—" I do not believe that any one will in-
vade you." Will he make the same declaration to
the inhabitants of Belgium ? If he is prepared to
answer these questions in the affirmative, will he
cross the Atlantic and tell the inhabitants of Cuba
they are quite safe from attack ? Will he sing in
the same strain to the inhabitants of the
countries on the southern border of the I
United States? Will ho cross the Pacific,
and tell the miserable Mantehou Emperor,
cooped op within his narrowed provinces, that he
may demolish his defences, not one of the rebels
" will venture across the Yang-tee-kiang" ? Will he
risk his neck by telling the King of AV A, " you need
not trouble yourself about the British in the southern
parts of your Empire, no one intends to invade
you " ? If he cannot do this, he must be content to
allow that the doctrine advocated by him and his
friends is extremely local and confined in its appli-
cation. If there are really, as we firmly believe,
only three or four countries in the world to whom it
can be said without any danger of denial, " You are
in no danger of invasion", what becomes of the peace
theory ? If it turns out that the only countries
in the world, who may laugh at the threat
of invasion, are those which are the best prepared
for war, is there not a strong presumption that this
kind of preparation is the best guarantee for
peace ?

But what do Mr. COBDEN'S own facts tell ne with
respect to the rights of the question ? " I speak
from information, short only of information from the
first parties acting in these proceedings, when I say
that that which has been done in the East by the
Emperor of RUSSIA was done on the deliberate cal-
culation that it was impossible France and England
could unite to oppose him." The Emperor of
Russi.t then would have been restrained from
committing an act of piracy, had he known
that there wu an armed force in the world
able to prevent the consummation of the villany.
The Cul " deliberately calculated," according to
Mr. COBDEN'S correct information, that England and
France could not interfere, and ho therefore pro.
seeded to his act of spoliation. Can anything show
more strongly the need of an armed police to keep
the peace of the world ? Is it for the Peace Society
to say, " Look at Turkey ; the peace of Europe
would never have been disturbed had the Cz►a
known that France and England would unite their
forces to prevent his committing enact of spoliation."
The very condition of Turkey shows the necessity in
the present state of things of the power of armed
intervention.

How is it that private individuals in all countries
of the civilised world left off the custom of wearing
arms for the protection of the person? How is it
that the weak and the inoffensive no longer go
aimed to the teeth, to protect themselves from the
attacks of the strong and the overbearing? Simply
because the governments in all these countries have
taken upon themselves the responsibility of protect-
ing the weak and the inoffensive against the strong
and the overhearing. It is not because the passions
are less strong now than formerly; it is not that the
wish does not still haunt the breasts of the powerful
and the haughty to bear harshly upon the weak, that
men have abandoned the used defensive weapons. It
is because a higher power takes care that no
breach of the peace shall be committed. But where
is the higher power to control governments? Where
is the authority to say to all governments " Jimarm at
pace, and I will see that no violence shall be onni-
reitted by one against the other." No such authority
sales, and the only mode of supplying the want in
for the strongest of the governments to league ti.%-
gether cod make a covenant to the effect that, in the
*vent of any individual member of the league
attempting to do violence to the rules laid down for
mutual preemie, the rest shall combine to prevent
the injustice taking effect. Now,the very meaning and
utility of such a league Weuld evaporate if any one ;