The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1888-08-10
JOHN BRIGHT ON WARS.
The Great Peace Apostle Reviews the Useless
Struggles Of Queen VictOria'S Reign.
From the London Standard.

Jones, a member OF the Peace society,
on 1.-THE Late Panic in Europe, and
it's Lessons" At the conclusion OF
the lecture John Bright said:
with reg&lG 70 this question OF
! peace, we are really as lar off as our
fOrefathers were, and nearly as saw
age and barbarous. A French states
man, a member of the French cham
Der, said, speaking OF England and its
foreign policy, that we were in a state
of peace soothed by occasional acts Of
rapine.' Laughter. That phraseto
a large extent describes the condition
in which our country has been during
the whole reign of the queen. Sir Rob-
ert Peel is the only practical peace
prime minister | have known in near
ly forty-four years l have been in the
house OF commons, and | reCollect
the sOlemnity and almost the grief
with which he addressed the house
OF commons on one occasion when
there were differences with the United
States, which differences were fOrtu-
nately arranged, and peace vas pre-
served. Now, how many wars have
we had during the queens reign? We
have had war in New Zealand, and l
reCOllect q clergyman of the Church Of
England telling me how shocked and
Mortified his sOn-One OF the officers
engaged-was on one occasion at see
ing the dead body of a New Zealand
woman who had been killed fighting
by the side of her husband or her
brother, against us, in q val in which
that officer was obliged to admit
that the New Zealanders were entire
ly right and we were entirely wrong.
We have had three vars in China.
We had a Zulu war not thong ago, made
absolutely by a man without any or
ders from this country, a mar who
professed to be really influenced by
the Christian faith and religion. That
cost us q great many English lives,
and we destroyed the Zulu nation, at
the same time brining confusion into
that part OF South Africa. We have
had a Scind war, in which one of the
Napiers was concerned, a warrior which
he had not the slightest justification
or instruction from this country.
Then there was the great Sikh war,
by which the Punjaub was annexed
to the English dominion in India.
There were also two Afghan wars, for
which there vas not a particle OF JUS
tlficatioh, in one OF which q whole
English army was destroyed. We
heard during Mr.. Jones' address some
thing about the cruelty to animals in
war. Now, in the last Afghan warno
less than $4,000 camels we're destroy
ed. You can easily imagine what they
must have suffered, to say nothing of
the suffering OF the Afghans and In
dams, who must have suffered enor-
mously also. Then we have had three
Burmese wars, the second of which /
recollect was got up on pretenses abso-
lutely fraudulent and scandalous.
''Then we come to the Crimean war
the really big war Of our time, though
it did not last very long. But as to
its severity and the mortality caused
by it nc man is able to make an ac-
curate computation. A book written
by a French general, who lately visit
ed the Crimea in connection with the
cemeteries there, estimates that the
bodies OF $50, 900 men are lying there.
/ believe the Russians alone buried
more than loo, 900 on the north side
of Sebastopol, and the 100000 does
not include the vast number of
Turks who died in hospital at
Scutari, or the tens of thousands of
Russians who died in their long march
es from the north to re-enforce. their
army ct Sebastopol. Kinglake, in his
history, estimates that one million
men lost their lives in that struggle,
a number about equal to every adult
man in this vast city OF London. And
what were all these lives sacrificed for?
Absolutely nothing whatever, because
the only apparent result was a slight
limitation put upon the Russian gov
eminent with regard to it's future fleet
in the Black sea, and that was surren-
dered the moment the Franco German
war broke out; for the emperor of
Russia knew that England herself
could not insist pm the continuance OF
the limitations. There was a meet.
ing of statesmen, as they are called, in
this city and the limitation was with.
drawn, and Russia is now Just as free
in every respect as she was before the
Crimean war. Since then we have had
a little ofwhati is called military opera
tAOhSA ~ ABHpt. ASMhSn NOT WdF, BECAUSE
war was never declared, but we made.
war, notwithstanding, on a country
with which we we're VIGOROUSLY and
professedly at peace. The lombard
ment Of Alexandria WAS q sort of
peace which the public OF this country
have not been enthusiastic about.
The French fleet lett and would have
nothing to do with it. The admiral
and ali thefi lee were furious when they
thought the Egyptians were going to
surrender, and that there would be no
fighting. You will ind that in the blue
books and in the newspapers. The
bombardment took place, a number
Of people We're killed, the city was
partly burned down, and then
they followed the war into
the Soudan. during which. at the low
est calculation from 40, 900 to $4,000
lives were Loaf. Ionce proposed that
the foreign Office shouldbe burntdown
and il w0ald be q very good thing if
all It's treGties we're burned with
it. Conceive the cost 81 tie
wars that have occurred within
the reign OF the queen. Go back
Il further. To kha&4eab bhoinnino ~