Year: 1873

In the HERALD recently we printed an
article from the Pail Mall Gazette commenting
on the address made some two weeks ago by
Mr.. David Dudley Field at the Social Science
Congress, Norwich, England We have no
quarrel with the Pail Mall Gazettc for the liberty
which it has taken with Mr.. David Dudley
Field, his address at the Congress and his
advertisement of his forthcoming work on in
ternational law. 1t is natural for Mr. Field
to be proud of literary work on which he has
labored for seven years. 1t was not unnatural
for him to allude to that work in an address
bearing especially on international law. In
sketching the outlines of his work he was, no
doubt, securing for it o good advertisement
but he was doing no more than most men
| would do in similar circumstances. Ii Mr..
Field expected, rs no doubt he did, that the
| Pail Mall Gazette would lend him some effective
assistance in the matter nearest to his heart
he has reason to be abundantly satisfied.


Our interest in Mr.. Dudley Field and the
Pail Mall Gazette is of different kind We
| printed the article because we felt that the
address of Mr.. Field at the Social Science
\
forth in that able English daily gave fresh
interest to the question of international arbi-
tration and to that cause which is dear to all
who wish to see international questions settled
without recourse to the bloody arbitrament of
the sword. Mr.. Field, it seems, in his
treatise makes four provisions which he
thinks would have the effect of preserving the
peace of the nations. These provisions are
| () simultaneous reduction of the enormous
ornaments which now weigh upon Europe; (2)
that specific notice of causes of complaint
and specific claim for redress shall precede
actual declaration of war (; (3) if no redress
ahigh commission of five to be appointed to
try to conciliate the parties, Land if this fails
| az high tribunal of arbitration to be
appointed, whose award shall be final. It
would be an easy thing to set about demol-
ishing these provisions and showing that in
the present condition of the great ma
| tons such opinions are of the most wildly
Utopian character. This, however, we have
no desire to do The doctrine involved in
these provisions is not new. 1t is old as
Christianity itself 1t is older. The inspired
teachers of ancient Israel, looking down
through the future, beheld the happier day
afar off when the sword should be trans
formed into ploughshare and the spear into
pruning hook, aud when the art of war
should be studied no more. '.Peace on earth
and good will to men, was the burden of that
angelic song which announced to the aston
ished shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem
the advent of the Son of Man. The New


Testament throughout is an elaborate discus


sion and enforcement of the truth that man


should not war with man. 1t is our confident


belief that to another generation war will be


as offensive as slavery has been to this. It is


no honor to the churches no honor to the


men who preach the gospel of peace, that war
should in this late age of the world, be in
vested with SO much Fictitious glory. In this
disgrace all the educated professions to a GER
tain extent share; for the educated forces Of
the Christian world have never been fully put
forth to make an end of war. Peace con-
crosses are not new; but hitherto they have
been more laughed at than encouraged. A
better spirit seems to be developing itself
The Peace Association of England had,
during the last session of Parliament, a
patient and respectful hearing in the
House of Commons and the importance of
its mission was kindly recognized by Her
Majesty the Queen. The raising of the ques-
ton at the Social Science Assembly of savans
at Norwich cannot but have a good effect.
The truth is, the Washington Treaty has,


more than any event which has happened
in modern times, opened the eyes of the
thinking portion of mankind to the horrors
of war. To many, as to the writer in the
Pail Mall Gazette, Mr. Fields provisions in
tended for the preservation of the peace" may
seem Utopian but the time must come-and
the day cannot be far distant, if there be any
truth in Christianity and any improvement in
modern progress-when these same provisions
shall form part of the international law Of the
civilized world


Mr.. Field made good point in favor Of the
ultimate and probable early triumph of his
principles by referring to the rapidly increas-
ing power of the United States-a power
which, in the future, cannot but be welded
on the side of peace. In the not distant
future California will have its sixty-fve mil
lions of inhabitants and Texas will have its
ninety-fve millions, not to speak of
the growth of the other States which lie
between the Atlantic and the Pacific. This
vast population will be self-governing. 1t is
difficult for an Englishman to get rid of the
idea that civil war must yet rend the Union.
The wish is, unhappily, father to the thought.
He cannot understand that the very possibility
of further civil war in the United States perished
with slavery. No further cause of war exists.
No further cause of war is conceivable. The
interests of this whole people, from Maine to
California, are one and the same. Our canals
! and our railroads, ever on the increase. are