War, as we
have seen, is with barbarous races both a necessity and a favourite
occupation. As long as civilization comes into contact with barbarism,
it remains a too frequent necessity. But as between civilized and
Christian nations it is a wretched absurdity. One sympathizes keenly
with wars such as that which Russia has lately concluded, for setting
free a kindred race endowed with capacity for progress, and for humbling
the worthless barbarian who during four centuries has wrought such
incalculable damage to the European world. But a sanguinary struggle for
the Rhine frontier, between two civilized Christian nations who have
each enough work to do in ithe world without engaging in such a strife
as this, will, I am sure, be by and by condemned by the general opinion
of mankind. Such questions will have to be settled by discussion in some
sort of federal council or parliament, if Europe would keep pace with
America in the advance towards universal law and order. All will admit
that such a state of things is a great desideratum: let us see if it is
really quite so utopian as it may seem at the first glance. No doubt the
lord who dwelt in Haddon Hall in the fifteenth century would have
thought it very absurd if you had told him that within four hundred
years it would not be necessary for country gentlemen to live in great
stone dungeons with little cross-barred windows and loopholes from which
to shoot at people going by.
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