New-York tribune., 1874-09-08
PEACE AND PATRIOTISM.

n advocate of universal peace, but this year
he declines to attend the Conference at Geneva
which has for its object the establishment OF
good will on earth. He thinks peace an ex-
cellent and beautiful thing. He has written
magnifcently about it, in his marvellous prose
and in those verses which go far to disprove
the assertion of Diderot that poetry cannot be
written in French But he does not allow his
attachment to peace to develop into fanati-
cism. There is a point where devotion to
pacific principles becomes absurd, in Mr.
Hugos opinion; and that is the preference OF
peace to revenge. France must whip Ger
many, get back Alsace and Lorraine, and
slice of the Rhineland beside the five mil
liards and perhaps five more as consequential
damages, the French army must take Berlin,
and sing once more in chorus the musical
insolence of Alfred de Musset's "Nous
"rayonus eu, votre Rhin Allemand'-and then
peace will once more be rare and lovely
thing and Mr.. Hugo will go to Geneva with
pleasure, and make better speech than any
one there on the beatitude OF the peace
makers and the horrors of war.
Few men can sneer at the great poet and
philanthropist for this lapse from philanthro-
themselves, Once in a great while man Is
found who stands by his principles when the
mass of his cOuntrymen hold it dishOnOr, but
such one rarely gains glory either from his
neighbors or from pOsterity. New-England
people still talk of estlmable citizens of the
last century who died of the Glory rot" and
every village in the country has hard-headed
thinker who did not rally around the flag,
and who will never be forgiven for it. AS
long as patriotism continues creditable, and
we do not by any means say that this will be
forever, men of sympathetic nature will side
with their own country against its enemies,
even when the adversary represents the
principles for which they have always con-
tended 1t is not possible for a Frenchman of
to-day to subordinate his hatred of Germany
or his desire for vengeance, to any other con-
sideration whatever. 1t was often said during
the war that France needed lesson to
chasten her warlike arrogance. But the ef-
feet of the lesson she received was not
to diminish the war party, but utterly
to abolish the peace party within her
borders. The most violent prejudces give
way before this passionate one. The free
thinkers of France are beginning to defend
the papacy because they imagine it threat
ened by Bismarck. Imperialists and Bourbon
lists favor Carlism in Spain, because they think
that the Hohenzollerns oppose it. Every hope
and aspiration of Frenchmen tend to the re-
establishment of their lost prestige and the
humbling of their victorious enemy. They
have persuaded themselves that their interests
coincide with their passions in this matter.
War, if successful, will be highly profitable.
They feel they cannot afford to lose so much
money and SO many square metres OF terri
tory.
Least of all will it lie within the province
of the Peace Conference of Geneva to con-
denim the great poet of France for inconsst-
ency. There is not a more militant body of
sages in existence than those who annually
come together under the shadow of the Swiss
mountains to resolve in favor OF universal
peace. They usually comprise representatives
at war with religion, at war with society, with
marriage, with capital, and occasionally more
exalted and more thorough geniuses who have
sworn not to rest until they have abolished
the law of gravitation. Only O half dozen
years ago, the principal parsonage at their
meeting was Gen. Garibaldi, who had already
taken part in some half-score wars, and
was even then planning another. 1t is
unjust to expect moro consistency from
philanthropists than from other people, and
particularly unreasonable to look for reason
lust now from French members of the League
of Peace. Even in Germany where philosophy
and Weltoultm pervade the air there is not
absolute integrity of position on these points.
In 1869 there were many peace advocates in
Germany. They disappeared the next year,
and are now only slowly reappearing under
the conviction that peace is an excellent way
to keep what war has gained