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OF PEACE.

ADVOCATE

1 8 5 4.

APRIL,

THE EASTERN
OR,

THE

THREATENED

WAR

QUESTION:

BETWEEN

RUSSIA

AND

TURKEY.

do not propose now to consider the various

aspects and bearings of
this question
; but itmay be well to gather from it a few lessons of wisdom
and warning.
toprovoke, rather
is the obvious
One of these
tendency of the war-system
We

This point the present crisis brings out in bold relief.

than prevent war.
there been no such system, there is little reason to suppose, that Europe
duration no human
forecast
would now have been on the eve of a war whose

Had

can predict, and whose evils no arithmetic can ever compute.

Without
the
to their hand by this system, how could
vast and terrible machinery
provided
on the northern provinces
so
of Turkey,
or
have pounced
Russia
suddenly

at once their troops for battle on the

theWestern
powers have dispatched
or the Balt ic ? It is
or their fleets for conflict in the Black
Sea
Danube,
had nearly a million of warriors at command, and the
the Czar
just because
some two millions more, all in constant readiness
for slaugh
rest of Europe
that the flames of war now threaten to rage from one
ter and devastation,
end

Christendom.
It is a natural offshoot, a
legiti
result of their war-system
; and every one, not blind or
see and admit the fact. We
in its favor, must
know

to the other of European

mate

and

mad

with

palpable

prejudice
the stale

we are not
plea of necessity for all this?a
question
even if
a
not
but"
such
could
strictly true,
discussing;
plea,
disprove
to her military
that Europe
is indebted
our
system for her present
position,
of a general war.
prospects
of Power,
that figment and ignis
shows the Balance
This
crisis, moreover,
to be equally insufficient for the preservation
fatuus of European
diplomacy,

well

enough

now

to see the shrewdest and best informed,

long marvelled
into the
in
their chase plunging headlong
this
and
phantom,
chasing
now be
to
the
avert.
Such
is
very evils they professedly
sought
spectacle
NO. IV.
VOL. XI?MONTHLY.
of peace.
statesmen

We

have

50

The

Eastern

April

Question.

fore us. The

? Why, England
of power a conservator of peace
and
balance
if not solely for the pres
their hosts mainly,
avowedly mustering
of pow
ervation of what they deem a proper and indispensable
equilibrium
er in the great
It is ostentatiously
States.
family of European
proclaimed
are

France

the justification, the dire yet inevitable

neccessity of the com
it is, that
and
conflict.
The
is
certain
;
object
certainly
good
equally
ing
the spawn of her primitive pagan
of Christendom,
barbar
the war-policy
of insuring this object, than an ultimate appeal
ism, knows no other means

as the cause,

to arms.
Both
these points we freely conceede
; but can any person of
idea of a
ordinary intelligence fail to see, that this long and fondly cherished
of power in Europe
has pushed her to the brink of the war now
balance
it is this that has occasioned
threatened ? Indeed,
nearly all the great wars
for the last two or three centuries ; and it seems to us
of the Old World
man in his senses should
cling to to this notorious,
passing strange, that any
of peace ; a follj second only to
fomenter of war as a guardian
immemorial
to keep himself
in a storm at sea clasping an anchor
that of the simpleton
!
from drowning
can we

Nor
of war

fail to see, in the case before us, the utter folly and absurdity
of Right.
at the process proposed
Look
; and what

as an Arbiter

does it contain, or what security does it give for a right

of justice
some law as a rule of
a
to inter
eous result ? Justice requires
judge
right,
into
trustworthy agents to carry the sentence
pret ar?d apply that law, and
one of these requis
in the coming
Can we discover
execution.
struggle any
is the law ? The will of the Czar de
ites in a process of justice V What
one way, and that of the Sultan
with his allies, insisting on the very
ciding
are the
same
These
blind with preju
Who
?
despots,
judges
opposite.
dice, and mad with passion, taking each his own view of the case, and per
element

or wrong, in its enforcement

act
by fire and blood, each party
sisting, right
as accuser, witness and judge in his own case.
And who are to be the
ing
sentences ? Motley
hords of half-bar
executors of these contradictory
and the wide-spread
barians from the wilds of Russia,
provinces of Turkey,
ur more of
cut-throats drilled for the work of hu
professional
as
of human hyenas let loose on
their trade,vast menageries
butchery
there to settle
and the shores of the Bosphorus,
the banks of the Danube,

half

a million

man

of right, to carry oui this process

of war justice ?
question
even
moralists
statesmen
and
and
that
Christians,
philosophers,
strange
in this noon of the nineteenth century, should gravely talk of international

the pending

How

so brutal and fiendish ! What

a commentary
by a process
! What
themselves
of
Christian
calling
governments
Christianity
ing shame on the civilization of the age !

justice

on the

a burn

to see what a war-spirit

the present emergency has
we cannot
so defi
the
continent
of
Respecting
Europe,
speak
developed.
on this point, because
to let us
the press there is too much muzzled
nitely
It is truly lamentable

how the people feel ; but in England

where popular
there seems to be a very general
free and full an utterance,

know

sentiments find so
disposition

to sus

The Eastern

1854.

51

Question.

conflict. In reporting an abstract of the

tain, if not to urge on the threatened
one of our contemporaries,
news by a late steamer
from Europe,
probably
"
with as much truth as sang froid, says,
there
among the people of England
of such
is an excellent spirit infavor of the uar!" We
question the excellence
a spirit in any case ; but we see no reasoE to doubt that it is just now devel
ominous
somewhat
and
itself there in unwonted
energy.
oping
English
to be nearly unanimous
in justi
journals, both secular and religious, appear

a resort to the dread arbitrament of the sword.

In
fying, if not demanding
a
we lately read, in a religious paper of England,
long and elaborate
on the duty of war in this case, but volunteer
editorial, not merely
insisting
a sort of military
the best mode of its management,
an
lecture
about
ing
of its operations.
must
outline of its tactics, a programme
in candor
We

deed,

to the atrocities of war,

that this clerical exhortation
is not a fair
as a
in
; but we fear that the mass
body
England
specimen of Christians
even of the religious community there, countenance
an ap
and encourage
arms.
could we expect
a
If so, what
from the people at
peal to
large, but
fierce and wild war-spirit ? So we find it; for we are complacently
told,
that the army is recruited with great ease, and that the navy, for a wonder

presume,

notice, is likely to be manned without the odious necessi

It would seem, indeed, that the people of England
have
for the war, and that her rulers, after restraining
them as

worthy of grateful
ty of impressment.
almost

clamored

they safely could, now find themselves

by the popular
compelled
to set about it in downright earnest, and to make
the most formidable
for the struggle.
preparations
long
voice

as

more
of much
larger and
had fondly, though strange
of peace, and the
ly imagined that ?he war-spirit, from the long continuance
a
of
sentiments
third
of
last
the
century, was
during
really
spread
pacific
or
or restraint of
Alas !
dying out,
coming under the control
juster views.
u
is not so tamed."
Leviathan
The serpent, basking in the sun, went to sleep
No ; the war-spirit has not been dead,
awhile, but did not dream of dying.
an

What

strenuous

is here for the necessity

argument
! Some
efforts in the cause of Peace

but only in comparative

repose, and ready to rush forth at the first blast of
a
war.
to
the bugle
have
summoning
Nearly a whole
popular
generation
of the evils inseparable
from the strife of arms ;
grown up personally
ignorant

this ignorance
will doubtless
render it comparatively
to man
easy
Should
it continue for any length of
fleets, and raise armies for the conflict.
time, we foresee, with moral
certainty, a turn in the tide that will make vast
multitudes
besides its immediate
rulers "cried
victims, rue the day when
and

let slip the

Stdl this cannot alter the fact, now
havoc, and
dogs of war."
so patent to every observer, that the
war-spirit is thoroughly roused not only
in England,
and not likely to be restrained from
but all over the Continent,
a war that may
convulse
the
whole
civilized
yet
world, and put back its gen
eral improvement more than half a century.
But

all

certainty

this, say the apologists

of still greater
evils.

for war,
Possibly

could

not be avoided

not under

without

the war-policy

so

the
Jong

52

The

Eastern

April,

Question.

itmight have been

; but
by a timely,
throughout Christendom
prevalent
honest and earnest adoption of such a policy as the friends of peace recom
Still are we
mend.
taunted with the inefficacy of our principles, because
threatened.
But how could they ?
forsooth they do not avert the war now
have had no chance by a fair trial. They have not been put in prac
They
cure without an application
? If not applied, how
tice ; and can medicine
If the people
can it be held at all responsible
for the result ?
abet, and
rulers adopt a wTar-policy, with what propriety can they turn round upon
'
there you see the inefflcacy of your peace-policy?
peace men, and sa /,
stretched across a comet's
a feather before a hurricane of fire ; a cobweb
'
our
of the war-sys
! The
inefflcacy of
policy ? Ko, ye champions
path
result of your own policy,
tem, this is your work, not ours ; the legitimate
and carry
Just embrace our principles,
not of ours in any sense or degree.

then may
them in good faith into practice by a set of appropriate
measures,
to
but
it
is
absurd
their
if
actual
;
can,
you
inefflcacy
palpably
prove
you,
this without such a trial. Not one of our peculiar princi
assert or assume
to
have any of the parties in the pending dispute pretended
one way or the other, re
can
decide
its
nothing,
progress
adopt
their efficacy, a whit more than the death of a patient who never
specting
if taken in season,
could prove that the medicine,
took a specified medicine,
had actually discard
If the nations of Europe
would not have cured him.

ples

or measures

; and hence

in its
the arbiter of their disputes ; if they had provided
as we propose for a rational, equitable, peaceful adjust
such
expedients
place
if they had not only pledged, but practically
train
ment of their difficulties;
in
instead of war ; if they had
to the use of these substitutes,
ed themselves
for such a process by stipulated arbitra
season made all due arrangements
of
the public mind to rely on this for the determination
tion, and accustomed
ed the sword as

the redress of their alleged

; then, but
grievances
a fair experiment,
and might, if the result
made
have
they
had been a failure, have said with some show of reason, that our principles
are visionary, and our measures
powerless.
of our views, as
But we cannot now dwell on the prevalent misconceptions
and

their controversies,
till then, would

not

less can we advert to the important bearings

effort to do
as a great Christian
of Peace, considered
of internation
war as a recognized
of
evil
and
the
system
away
hoary
gigantic
invite attention to these points, but must reserve our com
We
al justice.
ments on them to a future occasion.
seen

in the case before

us; much

of this crisis on the Cause

view

Gibbon's
violation

Commerce
and honest
England
Revolution

of War.?War,

of every principle
check

principles,
was

herself

(of 1792)

even

of religion

to War.?The
the less it will be

in its mildest

and humanity.

form, is a perpetual

more any nation

in danger of War.?

the nurse that by her opposition,

into vigorous maturity.?Cobden.

traffics, upon
Cobden.
rocked

free

the French