66 THE THE WORLD. God Wills; CAMBRIDGE, MASS LONDON, January 2nd, 1899. The New Year opens well with the Man Hopes!" beginning of the first serious con As certed effort on the part of the sane and reasonable members of the English people to arrest the fatal drift of the modern State towards war, bankruptcy and anarchy. The evil has long been admitted, but mankind has folded its arms in despair. Now, in the last years of the century, it ventures to hope that after all there may be a way of escape. in Bunyan's immortal allegory, it is the key of hope that alone can open the lock which Giant Despair has turned upon Christian and his comrade. When the peoples begin to hope, that fact in itself is a prophecy of victory. "The dreams which nations dream come true," said the poet long ago; and Lowell has taught us that "Nor is he far astray who dreams That every hope which rises and grows broad, Even Lord Salisbury Hopes. It takes some faith to hope, and it must be admitted that faith is not the quality which pre-eminently distinguishes the Prime Minister of England. Nothing is more natural than for a statesman of his somewhat cynical temperament to fold his arms and declare that the malady which the Tsar diagnosed in his Rescript is as inevitable and as incurable as death. But even Lord Salisbury has flashes of hope; and the Daily News has well reminded us that Lord Salisbury, in the question of the Peace Conference, acted as the herald of the Dawn. In November, 1897, Lord Salisbury proclaimed, as the one hope of the nations, the coming together of the Powers for the purpose of giving practical effect to the consciousness of solidarity which has been fostered by all the distinctive discoveries of the century. It was a notable speech, that Guildhall utterance of Lord Mayor's Day, 1897. We seem to be listening to a kind of Continental antiphony, in which Lord Salisbury led off with his deep bass, proclaiming that the competition in armaments, unless prevented, would end in a terrible effort of mutual destruction which would be fatal to Christian civilisation. He then proclaimed, as the one hope which sustained him in the face of this menacing catastrophe That the Powers might gradually be brought together in a friendly spirit until at last they should be welded together into some international constitution which might give to the world at last, as the result of their great strength, a long spell of unfettered commerce and contented peace. The On That was in November, 1897. August 27th, 1898, the Tsar took up Tsar's Response. the strain, and proclaimed that "to put an end to these incessant armaments and to seek the means of warding off the calamities which are threatening the whole world was the supreme duty which is to-day imposed on all States." By way of contribution to the doing of his duty he summoned a Conference, and what Lord Salisbury had already stated he more or less repeats in another form, when he says:- It would converge in one powerful focus the efforts of all the States which are sincerely seeking to make the great conception of universal peace triumph over the elements of trouble and discord. It would, at the same time, cement their agreement by a corporate consecration of the principles of equity and right, on which rest the security of States and the welfare of peoples. A Continental Antiphony. It would indeed be possible to trace this Anglo-Russian antiphonal exercise a stage further back, for in 1894 came the first overture from St. Petersburg, informal and unofficial, intimating that the Russian Government would willingly second any overture in that direction made by the English Government. To that Lord Rosebery's Cabinet made ready response; and, but for the unfortunate outbreak of the Chino-Japanese war, we might at this moment have been rejoicing in the happy result of an international understanding. But it was ordered otherwise, and so the work had to be begun all over again. This time the first verse in the anthem was England's, the second Russia's; now in the Continental choir the turn has come for the Englishspeaking people to make their answer to the Tsar's invitation, and this they are beginning to do with no uncertain sound. The Rescript had no sooner reached this country than steps were taken, notably at Birmingham and elsewhere, to hail with enthusiasm the Imperial initiative; but these efforts--although much greater than any one would imagine, thanks to the persistent way in which they were ignored by the press-failed to produce the effect on the world which was necessary. They may, therefore, be regarded as a preliminary rehearsal of the full outburst of popular enthusiasm which is now becoming daily more and more audible in our midst. our Attitude? No better work could be taken in What should be hand in the last years of a century which has brought the evil of armaments to an unprecedented pitch. The way in which the problem is faced by the different sections of our people is an admirable test of the reality of their faith in the future of the world, and their recognition of the obligations and responsibilities of the position of the British Empire. To read much of the disparaging criticism which abounds in the press, it might be imagined that England has no responsibility in this matter beyond tamely waiting to hear what the Emperor proposes with a languid determination to pick as many holes in the proposition as possible. This assumption that we are, as it were, a mere critic in the stalls, betrays an utter lack of appreciation of our true position. The Emperor is quite right in stating in his Rescript that to seek the means of warding off calamities threatening the whole world is the supreme duty, that lies upon all Statesthat is to say, it is our supreme duty quite as much as his or any other Power's. England's True Rôle. From him to whom much is given, much is expected; and from the British Empire, which has been so nobly dowered by the Destinies with all that constitutes power, prosperity, and greatness, mankind has a right to expect something more than a mere tardy, grudging faultfinding when the world is confronted by so tremendous a problem. What our people wish for is that England should take the lead. Even if the Russian Government were to abandon the task of endeavouring to arrive at an international agreement, we ourselves should make the attempt. At the last great European Congress, when Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury went to Berlin to mutilate and mar, as much as within them lay, the liberating work accomplished by Russia in Turkey, there was no lack of an English programme or of an English initiative. We did bad work then, but we had at least a policy which we sent our strongest statesmen to carry out. What is wanted for the Peace Conference at St. Petersburg is the same vigorous national acceptance of our responsibility as a foremost Power in the Parliament of the Nations. It is a rôle to which we are called alike by our traditions, our principles, and our destinies. Question. Compared with the importance of The Paramount arriving at some solution which would, in Lord Salisbury's phrase, "give the nations a long spell of unfettered commerce and contented peace," all minor questions such as bemuddle the brains of party politicians are but as Tweedledum and Tweedledee. If our social and political reformers and others but knew their business, they would postpone all discussion of their rival remedies until they had made a serious beginning towards the arrest of the progress of Militarismus, which, like a ravening monster, devours daily more and more of the earnings of the people. It is simply nonsensical to forget amid discussions as to Old Age Pensions, the Improvement of Education, or even the much more burning questions of the Housing of the Poor and the Reduction of Railway Rates, that all the money with which those improvements ought to be carried out. is being drawn as by an irresistible suction into the maw of the armed peace. If the Peace Conference comes to nothing, and the game of beggar-my-neighbour goes on as merrily as it has been doing of late, the unexecuted portion of the Russian Naval Programme, entailing an expenditure of 14 millions, will be proceeded with to the bitter end; but if the Peace Conference meets and succeeds |