The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-05-27
PEACE OPERATIONS IN ENGLAND.

PROPOSED CoSrLEryCE or TIE FRIENDS OF PEACE.
The eXigencics Of our cause in England
are rousing the friends there to renewed zeal
in its behalf They have made arrangements
for Special Conference on the subject at
Manchester. on the 27th ana 25,h January,
1854, and the call for it by the Peace Con-
gress Committee, published IL the last Herald
of Peace. is signed by nearly 200 names, a.
mong them seventeen members of Parlia-
ment, such as John Bright, Richard Golden,
and John McGregor, together with such Min
listers of the Gospel as John Angel James,
James Campbell, d. D., John Harris, D. D.,
Samuel Davidson, D. D., Ii. d. There will
doubtless be large gathering, with very
strong array of talent and influence, from
which we shall expect an able and effective
demonstration. The spirit and drift of the
movement will be seen in a few extracts
which we quote from the Address of the
| Manchester Committee:
! at is now more than thirty seven years
since the last great European war disgraced
our common civilization, and brought the con-
tlicting nations to the verge of u general
bankruptcy. i was to have been expected,
that, escaping from the horrors and spoliation
Of that murderous and useless strife they
would have employed the blessings of return
ing peace in repairing the mischief of war,
and that, as first grateful duty, they would,
with settled purpose, and without delay,
have proceeded to tighten the burdens of
groaning industry, by lessening the huge
armaments that created all the suffering and
loss.
"But what are the facts of the case, as
presented to the world in 1852! What, after
these thirty-seven years of profound peace,
with certain distant and dishonorable excep-
tions, during which golden opportunities for
return to wiser, slter, soundc- policy, have
succeeded each other in rapid succession,
through more than one entire generation,---
what, we ask, are the existing facts but that
standing armaments, ruinOus taxation, and
military oppression, have feariully increased,
until the whole industrial market of the world
labors beneath pressure beyond any for
mer parallel-a pressure such as no individual
economy can lessen, and from which no in
genuity can escape!
The United Kingdom forms no exception
to this melancholy statement, but confirms it
in every particular; for, while its national
debt has not been materially diminished, its
war establishment has been tear!ully increas-
ed. In the space OF seventeen years, namely,
from 1884 to 1852, its armed men have
multiplied from l45, ,s45 in the one period, to
272,4Sl in the other; being an addition, in
those comparatively few years. Of no less than
, ll6 ,365 men in arms. And, as if blind ia
tuity had come over our leading statesmen,
with whom the lessons from the past appear
as vol as water poured upon rocks, they have
during the present year, increased this vast
number by 10000 men, in the form of a
militia, at cost of f35o,OOO to the country;
and more recently still, they have demanded
and obtained, for and increased another sum
of E6OO, 900, making together nearly one
million sterling taken from the income Of the
empire in 1852, in addition to the large an
nual expenditure for similar purposes.
"The above is, however, but one out of an
immense number of facts that might be adj
duced in proof of the reckless extravaganza
that characterizes our present national policy.
In 1885, the whole cost Of the army, and
ordnance of Great Britain was Ell ,657,4S7
sterling: in 1852, the charge for the same de-
partments CncIuding the Kafir war; has risen
to the startling sum of { 100000, beingan
increase of no less than 81, 42,5l2 sterling;
and this does not include the f500,00s re-
Gently added to the navy.
"The injury which this immense drain on
our national resources must inHict upon COM
merce is iucalculable. Take Manchester e.
Stafford as an instance; their united popula-
ton of about 10000 inhabitants, according
to the existing average of taxation, pay an
nually, for present, and future wars, no less
than the astonishing SUN of fS75,ooo; and
at this rate, such population, during the last
thirty years of peace, will have lost from
their united resources, forwar purposes alones