Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-04-30
"DUMB DOGS ALL
ARE THE ENeLIsH CLERoY FOR PEACE
or FOR WAR.
Reputable and Representative journal Takes
Them Severely 10 Task for Their Fail
ure 10 Raise Their Voices for
Peace on Earth.

one of the ablest and most philosophical
writer's of our day, who In tho pages OF a
review is rs brilliant and incisive as he Is
woolly and uninteresting In the columns of
Gazette, discourses In the Quarterly concern
ing the hollowness of our so-called AYE of |
Progress. The conclusion at which he arrives
is that there is very much of muchness In
man, and that the "heir of all tho ages in the
foremost files of time" differs but In thin
veneer from the aboriginal savage. Says
melancholy moralist:
Like the savage, the Englishmar, French
man or American makes war; like the saw
age, he hunts like the savage, he dances
Ike the savage, he indulges in endless delib-
GRAFTON | like the savage, he sets an extrava-
CANT value ON rhetoric like the savage, he isa |
man OF party, with newspaper for totem, |
instead OF a mark on his forehead or arm I; |
and, Ike i. savage, he is apt to make Of his |
totem his god. He submits to having these |
tastes and pursuits denounced i'm books, |
speeches or sermons but he probably derives
pleasure from them than from anything else
he does.
There is 80 much justice in these observa
tons that we can only wonder that the writer
did not point the force of the illustration, as
he might easily have done, by timely refer
ence to the essential savagery of the political
notions which of late have possessed many of
his friends at the India Office. The ideas of
Sir Henry Rawlinson and the editor OF the
Times for instance, on all subjects I'm which
Russia is concerned, seem to differ but little
from these which agitate the cerebral conyo-
lutions Of the Sioux on the war path.
POLITICIANS BETTER THAN PREACHERS.
Both Russian and English governments
throughout this crisis, IT must in justice be
admitted, have displayed much more regard
for the conscience of mankind than the men
who conduct their newspapers, and as we
have far more newspapers than Russia the
ofiense has been far greater on our side. Just
"a tIsaCa Ca. lot,
i'm the lobbies of the House of Commons, and
i'm our leading Journals but couched i'm more
picturesque phrase, might have been heard
amidst the wigwanns of the Iroquois when
they discussed the proposal to start on the
| war trial against the Hurons or the Blackfeet
Where the red man said scalps the white
man says prestige. No wonder then II one
| to whom the India Office IL as familiar as his
| club. should come 10 the conclusion that
| civilization is sham, that Christianity is a
delusion, and that with us the essential saw
age Is only masquerading beneath temporary
| broadcloth.
Yet the Quarterly reviewer Is wrong.
| There Is progress, though he sees it not
| Civilization Is something more than n name,
| and the Christian ideal has still power over
| the hearts and lives, and even over the poll
cies, OF men. But that there is room for
doubt no one can deny. What spectacle can
be afforded more calculated to make men
sceptical of the hold which we do not say
Christianity, but the elementary principles of
ethics common to all religions, have upon
| Englishmen to-day, than the contrast that is
afforded between the blatant bray of our bel
licose newspapers and the profound silence of
our pulpits Here il a great nation called
| upon TO decide one of the most momentous
issues ever submitted to a free people. Upon
their verdict depends the veal or the woe OF
countless millions Of the human race. If
they decide for war the world will be given
over TO homicide, and the accumulated re-
sources Of patient industry will be con sumed
| sword tyn l.
nents. If ever there was n time in the history
OF our people when all who can assist in
calming the passions which would interfere
with impartial judgment, i'm placing men on
guard against the prejudices which might
lead them TO disregard the laws of evidence,
and In reminding them OF the enormous i'm
| portance, now that they are called upon 10 be
judges in their own case, of the necessity for
selfcGntrol, and scrupuious regard for truth
and fairness, should make themselves heard
now Is the time. We say nothing about the
elevated morality of the creed which our
clergy are benefited i'm order to preach. We
confine ourselves rigidly to the fundamental
elements of all morality, the simple common
places ON which society rests, and we ask,
what have our clergy done to remind Eng
lishmen in this great crisis of the importance
OF being on their guard against the prompt
ings of passion, and bringing to the decision
OF the greatest question that can ever con-
'front.' nation of most careful and impartial
Judgment, and the most anxious desire to
!
single important step under the influence OF
popular excitement or national animosity?
"DUMB DOGS ALL"
What have they done? They have been
dumb dogs all. Who are those who have
spoken up, we do not say for peace, but
merely to put men on guard against misjudg-
ment against taking for granted that our OPP
ponent is always in the wrong-against, in
short, all those sins of temper which i'm The
/ N N i'm
Ihe archbishop OF Canterbury He has been
silent So with only one bright exception,
the bishop OF Manchester have been all the
prelates of tho established church Until
Bishop Fraser spoke the only contribution to
the spiritual guidance of this people i'm the
grayest OF all moral issues supplied by our
national church was sermon by canon of
Litchfield, who reminded his congregation
that although war, at first sight was dia-
bolical scourge, yet many blessings flow to
nations from it-a discourse which reminds
us OF the grim jest of the impentent Yankee,
who guessed that if all was true that the
preacher said, he would, at any rate, have no
coal bills to pay in the next world. Who
! are those who have spoken i'm words of tenn
| perance and sobriety and reasonableness?
DR.; Dale, of Birmingham, Mr.. Morley, Mr..
churchman in the whole four. Even the
| professors of the religion of humanity have
| thrown their influence on the other side.
The Salvation Army, whose general has set
/ UeAC MOnuay as u udy OI ldSllnB ana
| prayer among all his followers that so great
disaster as war between England and Russia
| may be averted, shows more appreciation of
| the duties of a religious teacher than all the
| hierarchy OF the establishment In such
| crises better a thousand times the Fetiales of
| pagan Rome than national church which
Is dumb when 1t might prevent the perpe.
tration of national crime, and which, in the
midst of the din of passion and prejudice
| utter no word in favor Of calmness and of
impartiality in judging the questions whose
| Issue involves the dread arbitrament of war.
England's Obligation to Humanity.
| From Gladstone's Speech.
One thing I will venture to say with regard
| to that sad contingency, an outbreak of war
| rupture of relations between two great
powers like Russia and England one thing
l will say, with great strength of conviction
and great earnestness, in my endeavor to
impress IL upon the committee, that we will
strive to conduct ourselves to the end of this
diplomatic controversy in such way as that
If unhappily 1t is to end in violence or rup-
ture, We may at least be able to challenge the
verdict OF civilized man Kind, upon q review
OF the correspondence, upon a review of the
demands and refusals, to whether we have
or whether we have not done all that men
could do by every just and honorable effort
to prevent the plunging of two such coun-
tries, with all the millions that own their
sway, into bloodshed and strife. Loud
cheers.
Soldier of Peace.