Year: 1870

nor-s0mething else-to be kicked. A nation


and man win never be under the same moral
law; for they are different things, with differ
ent lives, with different laws OF being, and no
more capable of being included In the same
moral category than fish and an elephant in
the same geological category. But we really
shall not 60 on to write treatise on political
metaphysics.


Let the war system be abolished, says Mr..
Sumner, and the nations be disarmcd. We say
rather, being Americans, let the war system be
abolished by some nation grand and good
enough to disarm the nations Does our bril-
liant dreamer really think that the awful pas
sion and duty of war, as 1t presents itself from
time to time to nations, can be quenched by
the rhetoric of the most brilliant and fne-
hearted sentimentalist? The dream OF univer-
sal peace has haunted men for ages; but
always has there arisen to break 1t up some
storm and terrible necessity, when men in
every age, every nation, every cline have
said Thereafter, at some more blessed and
happy juncture, and for our happier
children. may those things be, but ow
we needs must ourselves fight and kill
and die" Mr.. Sumner has never known
any of these things, OF course. There
never was o time when he thought the duty Of
urging men to die and kill in myriads in
battle field was urgent, primary, paramount,
and that millennium must wait awhile till that
dreadful business was got over. There Is
nothing of SO short memory as your sentimental
rhetorical student Is it we who dream? Or
was there lately civil war in America. Of
which our gifted lecturer was the most fiery
and obstinate inspirer?


We would invite Mr.. Sumner to come back
to the solid Earth, by far the fittest place for
the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commit
tee Of the Senate; and, observing of how
little practical help his counsels are to Ger
many, France or America at this juncture, we
commend further to his notice the neutrality
proclamation issued by the Tycoon Of Japan
in respect of this very war, in which he
solemnly warns his subjects against express
ing opinions in public on the one side or the
other as being infractions of neutrality. 1t
is not that precisely which Mr.. Sumner does,
but something which French and Germans
are both likely to resent. To preach q
pedagoguic sermon about the horrors
and barbarism of war to two great
nations in the thick of fight is,
perhaps, a little cynical for so great philan-
thropist as Mr. Sumner. Perhaps just now
Frenchmen and Germans know and feel a
good deal more about these horrors than any
lecturer can tell them. To proclaim er ca
Medrd the conditions of peace, as they ought
to be, is, moreover, one Of those things whose
futility will not ward off the indignation of the
belligerents. Germans will laugh, perhaps,
but curse little under their breath. You
must play the game of life according to the
rules of the game Of life after all. General
disarmament is very far-off thing. 1t will be
consummated about the time when original sin
is eradicated. But in the meantime one of the
only securities OF the world against war is that
the defeated nation must abide the conqueror's
will. If disarmament and universal peace
ever do become realities on this vexed and
tortured Earth it will only be if and when
there arises one nation mighty enough to declare
that war shall cease and just enough to make
all nations respect its decision with delight.
Mr.. Sumner, with all his faults, has done
something to help to build up that nation, and
he can do more yet. Come back to the solid
Earth and the Senate of the United States, Mr..
Sumner, and leave the ultimate issues of the
world and man to the God who made them
both.