IN

N an article published in the Revue des Revues in January, 1896, I said that if I wished simply to enumerate all the events which, during the course of that year, gave evidence of the progress of pacific ideas, I should not have to write a mere review article, but a volume.

This was true eighteen months ago. It is a hundred times more true to-day, and the following pages, however full they may be, can only give an imperfect idea of what has been said, written, and done and of what is being done every day in the most widely separated parts of the globe to prepare for that better era for which humanity sighs.

I will say but little in reference to the incessant work which is still being prosecuted in every land and in every tongue, by word of mouth and by the press, by means of lecture, newspaper, book, pamphlet, and illustration, and by the arbitration and peace societies. I shall merely note the more and more rapid increase of these as well in number as in importance.

In Germany, in Switzerland, and in Italy there is now scarcely a place of any importance where there is not one of these societies, and their activity takes the most diverse forms. Sometimes there may be popular soirées such as I witnessed in the largest hall at Berne, consisting of readings, recitations, and singing, with an organ accompaniment joined by a choir of two thousand voices. Or, as at Basle and Frankfort, poetry or recitations from plays by popular actors, such as Richard Feldhaus, or the representation of a drama from the celebrated romance by Mme. la Baronne de Suttner. "À Bas Les Armes."

Elsewhere, at Gotha, the Landeslehrerversammlung, the official journal of the Association of German Teachers, discusses how the school may contribute toward the peace movement, and the

address of Rector Friebel excited enthusiastic applause. It may be presumed," adds the journal which reports this address, "that by degrees all German teachers will take that place in the pacific ranks which comes to them by right." This is perhaps a more satisfactory and more effective reply than that which La Société Française pour l'Arbitrage Entre Nations received to the programme which it had issued for competition. This society further reopens this competition for 1899, and the Bureau de Berne addresses an appeal to teachers in all countries which cannot fail to exert an influence.

On their part, the peace societies of the Grand Duchy of Baden, at Pforzheim, at Offenburg, at Constance, and at Lorrach have sent a petition to the second chamber of the States at Carlsruhe, to obtain some reform in the direction of teaching history in a more pacific spirit. At the same time the general assembly of the People's partyVolks partie met at Manheim, and decided that all the deputies elected by this party should be asked to take the earliest opportunity of proposing in the Reichstag the calling of a conference to consider the adoption of international treaties of arbitration, with a view to a general disarmament.

At Munich Dr. Conrad excited enthusiasm by his vehement speeches against war and militarism. At Stuttgart Pastor Umfried denounced these evils in the name of the Gospel. It is true that his crusade did not please every one, and some Christians (of another school than this) were found ready to accuse him before the ecclesias- tical authorities, who did not hesitate to censure him. Pharisees are always the same. But the brave pastor has not yielded to them, and the crowds which press more and more to hear him speak have forced them to keep silence.

At Gotha, to which I have just alluded, old soldiers actually applauded M. Raush in his attack on war.

In an opposite direction, in Portugal, where as yet very little had been done openly, the movement, principally instigated by the energetic perseverance of M. Magalhoes Lima, has acquired such prominence that in the programme of the fêtes which are to be held in 1898 on the occasion of the four hundredth anniversary of the discoveries of Vasco de Gama, they have given an official announcement of a meeting of a congress of peace; and further, that at present it is intended to hold the ninth meeting of the Interparliamentary Union at Lisbon. Turin, where an international meeting of students is to be held, contended and still contends with Lisbon for the preference.

In France, in addition to the circles already existing, the influence of which is increasing daily, we have witnessed the creation of a Woman's International League for Disarmament, under the auspices of which Mme. Camille Flammarion has just published a manifesto of rare beauty, entitled "Lettre au General X." It is impossible that such a spirited appeal should not be appreciated by all who are capable of understanding and feeling.

The English societies, and the International Arbitration and Peace Association in particular, have not ceased to protest in the name of patriotism as well as in the name of humanity against British jingoism. On several occasions they have passed votes of censure against the Soudan campaign in Egypt and other military actions on the part of Great Britain. The Peace Society, through their general secretary, Mr. Evans Darby, has forwarded to the President of the French Republic and other government officials a petition coming from the Universal Alliance of Protestant Ministers in Europe, America, and Australia. M. Félix Faure, in transmitting this document to the minister of foreign affairs, has willingly given, through this minister, the assurance of his sympathy with the general sentiment expressed in this petition. The Arbitration League, in its turn, has sent its general secretary, Mr. Randal Cremer, to America on a third mission.

He car

ries with him a memorial to the Senate and to the Government of the United States in favor of the conclusion of an arbitration treaty with Great Britain. It is known that though the treaty concluded between the two governments last year failed to secure in the Senate at Washington a majority of two-thirds of the votes which the Constitution requires, yet it wanted very little to have attained this exceptionally high require. ment; and President McKinley, the mouthpiece of the general sentiment of the nation, has not

hesitated to pronounce in favor of the resumption of negotiations.

Mr. McKinley had previously stated in a letter to Mr. Alfred Love, president of the Peace Union of Pennsylvania, that "the citizens of the United States have the right to be proud that their country is in the van in the efforts which are being made for international arbitration." And England at the same time boasts that no less than thirty-three disputes have been submitted to arbitration. There is, therefore, reason to hope that on this occasion negotiations will not be fruitless.

It is also known that resolutions favoring the conclusion of other treaties of this kind have been formulated by the French Chamber of Deputies, by the Austrian Chamber, and by the Scandina vian Parliament; that a petition having the same object in view has been returned to the chancellor of the German empire, and that the attention of the Government at Washington has been recently recalled to an old suggestion emanating from the federal government of Switzerland.

II.

Indeed, from day to day confidence in the efficacy of arbitration is becoming more marked, or rather I should say that facts clearly demonstrate its growing efficacy.

The year 1896, at the time it was becoming history, was described by the press as the year of arbitrations. The year 1897 will have no less claim to the title.

The

To cite only some few cases of arbitration, taken haphazard, we have seen during the year the President of the French Republic authorized to decide between Costa Rica and Colombia; the King of Portugal between England and Brazil, in regard to the Island of Trinidad; President Lacheral chosen as arbitrator between a Frenchman and the republic of Venezuela; France, Sweden, and Chile referred to M. Janssen. long-standing question of contested territory between France and Brazil has been at last submitted for amicable settlement. It is hoped that the same result will be reached in the matter of the Hawaiian Islands, as also in the question of Delagoa Bay. And quite recently Professor Martens, nominated by Czar Nicholas II., has been called to preside over the court which is to meet in Paris to settle the frontier question between Great Britain and the aforesaid republic of Venezuela.

Clear-headed men, such as our friend Mr. Hodgson Pratt, have long ago pointed out that among the commonest causes of misunderstanding are incorrectness of information and the

vexatious comments to which it gives rise. In order to remedy these annoyances and these dangers, attempts have been made in several countries in England, in France, and in Germanyto establish international committees with the object of enlightening public opinion and dissipating misunderstandings. The name of "Entente Cordiale" has been given to this movement, and in England it has been notably supported by Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Gladstone.

It was in reference to this movement that the "Grand Old Man" wrote the following significant lines: "I consider that we should give to Europe-France naturally included a reasonable explanation on the subject on which she has an especially strong feeling.'

In Berlin the same interest appears to animate a man of strong personality, Lieutenant-Colonel von Egidy, a thinker, writer, and orator of the first rank to whom we have had the privilege of listening at Hamburg, and it is under the influence of most broad-minded impulses that he has founded a review, the title of which, La Conciliation, sufficiently explains its object. Conciliation of citizens, conciliation of peoples, by a return to justice and all the remedies which she can give.

Furthermore, the too frequent demonstrations which still take place in Germany to celebrate the souvenirs of the last war no longer excite anything but official enthusiasm, and are almost always the cause of explanations or of regret to politicians and to the press. And to come back

to London, when it was a question of celebrating the anniversary of Trafalgar, on all sides one heard objections to this untimely arousing of injudicious and offensive Chauvinism. The celebrations, in fact, met with little response.

Let us inquire of the learned bodies. Everywhere we meet the same condemnation of war and the same laudation of justice and pity.

In Russia the international congress of doctors of medicine, striving to remedy the too glaring injustice of Switzerland toward that son of hers who first brought the horrors of the battlefield before the eyes of Europe, and aroused public opinion. on the subject from which resulted that noble movement known as the "Red Cross,' awarded to Henri Durant the prize of the city of Moscow of the value of five thousand francs.

At Paris M. Cornu, president of the Academy of Sciences, represents modern nations, "although groaning under the barbarous law of blood and iron, yet on great occasions lifting their eyes toward those serene regions which shine above hatred and jealousies, and joining together to honor those great men whose toil increases the common heritage of intelligence and

the fame of their own country as well as the general welfare of humanity."

M. Berthelot, addressing L'Union de la jeunesse republicaine, stated that "to-day public opinion that is to say, the will of the people enlightened by an educating science-shows itself in Europe in imperious force and compels rulers to adopt as their fundamental principle the continual development through peace of the material welfare, the health, education, and true morality of the people they govern." A statement which had already been made in another form before the German Reichstag by Baron de Marshall, the under secretary of state for foreign affairs, who declared that "wars of aggression belonged to the past, and that in all nations, even among those that considered they had cause to be dissatisfied with their condition, there existed a profound desire for peace.”

The Academy of Morals and Political Sciences, after having at one of its meetings awarded the most important of its prizes to De Brazza, that peaceful conqueror who never fired a shot and has found a way to extend French influence and civilization without ever violating the laws of justice and humanity, caused to be read at the public meeting of the five academies a special treatise on the life and works of this beneficent hero.

I cannot recall this honor without mentioning an idea, already alluded to elsewhere, at the congress at Antwerp by an American lady, Mrs. Horst, and at the congress at Hamburg by M. Haberland, president of the Berlin Peace Society, namely, the international flag, suggested by the Countess de Brazza, upon which could be read the motto, Pro concordia labor, and which each nation, in renouncing all acts of violence, would have the right of placing on its own particular flag.

The inventor of the greatest destructive power yet known, Nobel, after having during his life declared that his object had been not only to find fresh resources for labor, but to render the vile art of killing one another so terrible that it should become impossible to continue to exercise it, at his death consecrated his immense fortune to the advancement of industry, science, arts, letters, and every form of civilization, and especially arranged a magnificent annual bequest in favor of the crusade of the enemies of war.

Inspired by a similar sentiment, a descendant of one of the marshals of the First Empire, Madame de Blocqueville, daughter of Davout, Prince of Eckmühl, left by her will a considerable sum to erect upon the most dangerous point of the Brittany coast a light-house, called the light-house of Eckmühl, hoping," she said, "that the lives lost through war's fatalities would be compensated by the lives snatched from the tempest."

Is it necessary to give further confirmation of

these tendencies ?

The Danish Parliament, imitating the Swiss Government, voted to the international peace fund at Berne a subsidy of two thousand crowns. The Norwegian Parliament, in granting also a subsidy to the same fund, records a resolution that such allotment shall each year be comprised in the regular financial bill. And one of the press agencies of Paris, in sending to the papers the autographic correspondence, asks, "When shall we see the great powers following this example and creating also side by side with their ministers of war a minister of peace ?"

III.

I cannot, you well understand, dwell long upon the annual reunions in which our principal representatives of the peace societies of the world regularly give their testimony; firstly, because their doings are recorded in the regular reports, to which it is easy to refer; secondly, because it would be difficult for me to give an account of them without putting myself too much in evidence. Nevertheless, how can I pass in silence that vote of the interparliamentary conference at Brussels empowering, in case of need, those of its members to whom the administration of its permanent deputations is intrusted, to call a meeting of the delegates, to report upon affairs which are occupying public attention, and address to the governments in the name of Europe impartial memorials upon such matters ? Is not the very thought that such intervention should be possible the proof of a new state of public feeling, and does it not do equal honor to the members of the interparliamentary union who conceived it and to the governments which they have judged capable of comprehending its high signification?

What, moreover, was that spontaneous intervention of the great powers in the settlement of the Græco-Turkish war if it were not an attempt at arbitration—in a far different form, doubtless, from that of which we dream, and still very imperfect, but real nevertheless?

In 1886, on the occasion of a similar complication, M. de Freycinet, replying to a question which I thought proper to ask him, did me the honor to declare from the parliamentary chair that it was time to substitute for the brutal roar of the cannon the voice of reason, of justice, and of humanity," and supporting his words by deeds, he was fortunate enough the same day to cause the two governments interested to listen to firm and enlightened good advice. The six great powers have not been so readily listened to this time. And the public, which sees only what

passes under its very nose, have been able to ask what purpose have the representatives of the peace party served in this matter. They have the right to say that there must have been inactivity. The international peace office in the month of March, 1897, recalled in a public document the fundamental principles of international law, showing its application to the present conflict, and a little later the French Arbitration Society caused to be forwarded to the Turkish and Greek governments on the one side and to the six governments acting in concert on the other addresses to which the most serious attention was accorded. I know this to be a fact, and I hereby recognize and express my gratitude to those to whom it is due.

IV.

To pass to another land. How can one ignore the welcome given to the peace lovers of all nations, and especially to those in France, by the committee of organization of the congress at Hamburg in the first place, and then by the entire population? I do not allude to the inauguration meeting of the congress-beautiful as it was -and of the addresses of welcome that were there exchanged. I say nothing of the important speech of the president, M. Richter, nor of the eloquent harangues of Dr. Lovenberg and of Senator Herz in the name of the city of Hamburg, or of M. Haberland in the name of the united societies of Germany; one can readily believe that they were not merely orthordox compliments. But what can be said of that great public meeting, free to all, to which crowded several thousands of persons, who during three and a half hours with patience, or rather with unflagging interest, listened to and applauded eight or ten orators, Germans like Colonel von Egidy or the Baroness Suttner, English like Mr. Hodgson Pratt, or French like myself, and who at midnight, instead of hastening to take their repose, crowded around the commissioners who had charge of enrolling new members, just as in other days volunteers pressed around the recruiting officer? What shall we say of those workmen leaving off their work, of those sailors crowding on the decks of their ships to salute the steamer on board of which we entered the harbor, and vying with one another in shouting and waving their caps, "Friede! Friede ! Peace! Peace! Down with war! Down with powder!" Significant manifestations, sudden and quite spontaneous, and which, moreover, were exceeded in importance the same day by the words exchanged on the summit of Sullberg around the immense table at which Baron Suttner presided.

For an account of that meeting especially I refer not only to the official minutes to which I have already alluded and to the reports given in favorable newspapers, such as L'Independance Belge, La Paix par le droit, or L'Arbitrage entre nations, but to the whole Hamburg and German press, not excluding the Berlin press. Certain French newspapers of that class which consider it unnecessary to ascertain facts before discussing them or to admit them when they know them were pleased to denounce those unpatriotic souls who, according to their lights, had gone to humiliate the name of France on German soil. Let them read the speeches made by the general secretary of the office at Berne, M. Ducommun, and some others, among whom I place myself," in which reference was made to that Rhine which should never have been either German or French, in which the failings and errors which have separated the nation which this river should have united are deplored, and which appealed for bloodless remedies allowing universal and beneficent reconciliation: they would then see how, without in any way hurting the patriotism of other nations, the patriotism of one's own nation may be maintained or increased. They will see also how a broader view of the real needs as well as of the true duty of those great communities calling themselves nations is gradually forming and strengthening itself above all private egoisms, blind judgments, and unjust ambitions by the blending of superior wisdom and high-mindedness, and begins to demonstrate that solidarity, so long misunderstood, which should unite them in a common respect for the right and in the common pursuit of universal progress.

V.

It may, in truth, be said that a new soul is forming and new times are preparing, as were predicted during the last century, among others by that worthy man Vincent de Gournay, whose memory has been recently brought back to mind, and referred to somewhat later by our own famous Laboulaye in those addresses in which he graciously gave us the weight of his words and showed the society of labor gradually assuming its position in driving back the party of rapine and violence; epoch already heralded by the arts, which before long will celebrate its triumph, and everywhere will raise up a new literature and change the trend of human thought.

It would really take too long to recount all that might be cited on this subject. For instance: "L'Humanité future et l'œuvre internationale," by M. Magalhoes Lima; "Vertus militaires et les bienfaits de la guerre," by M. Gabriel Monod; "L'Idee

de Patrie," by M. Louis Legrand; "La guerre telle qu'elle est," by Colonel Patry; "L'Armée nouvelle," by Urbain Gohier; "La Bataille d'Hude," by Paul Adam; "Vatenguerre," by Emile Bergerat; "L'Avenir de la race blanche," by Novicow; "Marmaduke, Emperor of Europe," published first in English and afterward adapted in German by Mme. de Suttner; "L'Arbitrage international," by Pierre Souvestre, which appeared in the "Memorial diplomatique; le Disarmement," by Leon Laffite; "Comment se fera le disarmement," by Gaston Moch, and in the same way in L'Independance Belge, a whole series of reviews of publications on war and peace. And we may also cite, what but a short time since would have been considered impossible, the formation of an association of peace-loving journalists, through whose endeavors perchance the columns of the press will no longer be systematically closed to reassuring information and conciliatory explanations, and finally, we must mention the "Fraternité par correspondence," to use the title happily hit on by the Revue des Revues, commenced in the schools through the happy inspiration of intelligent teachers and extended, thanks to the efforts of the Revue des Revues, the REVIEW OF REVIEWS, and the Bureau Français de la Paix, to persons of all ages and all classes and of any language, and which society, while teaching ideas and sentiments at the same time as idioms, will gradually dissipate mutual ignorances and dissolve misunderstandings into kindly harmony, thereby demonstrating, for the happiness and through the wisdom of all, the truth of the English proverb: "All discord harmony misunderstood.'

But it is well that I confine myself to the mere mention of names, for I am obliged to pass over a thousand interesting subjects, such as the excellent articles in the "Maître pratique," the course of international law and arbitration, for consular and diplomatic students, instituted in Japan through the influence of Mr. Michel Revon; the annual meetings at Lake Mohonk, in the United States; the meetings of the members of the New York bar, as well as those at Mystic, which were attended by the farmers and their families from all the surrounding neighborhood; the honor tendered at Rome to the memory of Bonghi and of Jules Simon; the congress of the Institute of International Law at Copenhagen, which was presided over by our fellow-countryman and col· league Arthur Desjardin, and the ministerial and royal addresses delivered on that occasion; the congress of the press in Sweden and the wellchosen remarks to which M. Claretie there gave utterance-I must be satisfied to leave this review incomplete, which, all incomplete as it is, contains some allusion to every part of the vast field of action to which it lays claim. There is, however,