St. Paul daily globe., 1885-05-01
NO PROSPECT FOR PEACE.

There is no prospect for peace between
Russia and England. While Mr.. GLAD
STONE has expressed longing for peace it
is very evident from the tone of his great
speech in parliament the other day and the
energy with which he is preparing for hos
tilities that he has no hope of a peaceable
adjustment of the difficulties between his
country and the Russian government. The
English people have settled down to the
conviction that war is inevitable, and,
though not as enthusiastic as on some other
occasions in the past, are practically a unit
in the determination to go in and win like
Britons. Ihey have got it into their heads
that in some way England has been grossly
insulted by Russia, and when the average
Englislman, the representative of the bone
and sinew, the material which must do the
fighting after all, gets an idea of this sort
into his Uranium, it matters not how absurd
it may be, no force of argument and no
power of rhetoric will drive it out. A mule
is the conceded illustration of stubbornness,
but when an Englishman of the lower
order, who generally permits other
people to do his thinking for him, under
takes to think for himself and reaches
conclusion, his bulldog tenacity completely
eclipses that of the mule or the animal to
which he is sometimes compared. When
the matter in question concerns the nations
honor he becomes dangerous to those he be-
lieves to be tampering with it. The COM
mon people of England have somehow got
ten the notion that Mr.. GLADSTONE has
not been as careful of British honor in this
affair with Russia as he ought to have been,
and their grumblings are beginning to- tell
on the British cabinet. The knowledge Of
this feeling is having its effect in strength
ening the waning courage Of some of the
cabinet officers, and Mr.. GLADSTONE him
self is not Indifferent to it. The premier's
eyes have at last been opened to the fact
that Russia has been duping him all along,
and is trying still further to use his simplic-
ity as shield while she continues prepara-
tions for the capture of Herat and the alb
sorption of Afghanistan.
1t must be conceded in behalf of Mr..
GLADSTONE, however, that no war minis
ter has ever made more careful and elabor-
ate preparations for the safety and honor
doing so, it is true, more in sorrow than in
anger, for his longing for peace has bordered
on timidity. He has even played at a game
of diplomacy with Russia. in which. his adj
versary's hand has all the time been stocked
against him. AT last he seems to have yielded
to the inevitable and is prepared to meet the
issue from which he has apparently been
shrinking. He has taken every precaution
to preserve the time-honored reputation Of
the English navy, and he has the army in
formidable condition. While Russia has
been moving her legions towards the shores
of the Caspian, Mr.. GLADSTONE has been
quietly maturing an agreement with Turkey
by which he hopes to make the Russian
battalions useless after they reach their
destination. Friends of the premier who
profess to divine his thoughts and schemes
say that Mr.. GLADSTONE is persuaded that
the revolutionary element in the czars do
minions will welcome war as its golden
opportunity, and that bold strike for