Semi=weekly graphic., 1898-08-31
He Even Proposes That All the Coun- tries of Europe Cease Buying
 Exc SSiFa Armament.
UNIVERSAL AND
 LASTING PEACE
The Car Considers the Present Time Favorable For Such q Move, and Even Invites all Interna-
 tiOnal Conference.

St. Petersburg, Aug 30.--By order of Emperor Nicholas, Count Muravieff, the foreign mininster, on Aug. 2t, handed to the foreign diplomats at St. Peters burg note declaring that the mainte- nance of peace and the reduction of the excessive armaments now crushing all nations is the ideal for which all gov ernments ought to strive. The czar con- siders the present moment favorable for the inauguration of movement looking to this end and invites the powers to take part in an international conference as means of thus ensuring real and lasting peace and terminating the pro- gressiye increase of armament.
 The text of the note Is as follows:
 "The maintenance of general peace and the possible reduction of excessive armamen5s which weigh upon all na- tions present themselves in existing con ditions to the whole world as an ideal toward which the endeayors of all goy- ernments should be directed. The hu- manitarian and magnanimous ideas of his majesty the emperor, my august master, have been won over to this view ill the conviction that this lofty aim is in conformity with the most essential interests and legitimate views of all the powers, and the imperial government thinks the present moment would be very favorable to seeking the means.
 "In internal discussion is the most ef- fectual means ob assuring all people beneft-a real durable peace above all putting an end to the progressive devel- opment of the armaments.
 s.In the course of the last 20 years the longing for general appeasement has drawn very pronounced intercourse of civilized nations, and the preservation of peace has been put forward as an ob- feet of international policy. It is ill its name that great states have concluded among themselves powerful alliances.
 s'It is the better to guard each, though they have developed in proportions hith- erto unprecedented, their military forces and still continue to increase them with out shrinking from any sacrifice.
 Nevertheless all these efforts have not yet been able to bring about the be- nificent result in the desired pacifcation.
 "The financial charges following the upward march strike at the very root of public prosperity The intellectual and physical strength of the nation, la- bor and capital are mostly diverted from their natural application and are unpro- ductiyely consumed Hundreds of mil lions are devoted to acquiring terrible engines of destruction which though to- day regarded as the last work of sci ence, are destined tomorrow to lese all their value in consequence of some of the discoveries in same field. National culture, economic, progressive and the production of wealth are either paralyz- ed or checked in development How ever, in proportion as the arrangements of each power increase they less and less fulfil the object the governments have set before themselves
 "The economic crisis, due in great part to the system of ornaments, Font rance and the continual danger which lies in this massing of war material are transforming the armed peace of our days into crushing burden which the peoples have more and more difficulty in bearing.
 ,It appears evident that this state of things were to be prolonged it would in. evitably lead to the 5eEy cataclysm it is desired to avert, and the horrors where. of every thinking being shudders at in advance.
 "To pat an end to these incessant ar maments and to seek the means ot warding off the calamity which is threatening the whole world-such is the supreme duty today imposed upor all states.
 "Filled with this idea, his majesty has been pleased to command me to pro- pose to all the governments whose rep