if even so intensely virile an observer as ex-President Roosevelt is stung into protest. Only a year ago he strongly stated that "something ought to be done as soon as possible" to check the present rivalry; adding his opinion that "there is no insuperable difficulty in the way-granted sincerity on the part of the Powers." Improvements in the means of communication, greater facilities of intercourse, the spread of education, particularly in regard to foreign languages, a growing sense of the solidarity and interdependence of the trade of the world, the internationalisation of science and invention, are all contributory causes converging in the same direction,-contributing to that better mutual understanding between men, to the growth of that corporate sense of oneness which is the best safeguard to the peace of the world. But the work is still lamentably incomplete! 1 There is no reason why England and Germany should not be good friends. There is no question at issue between them which cannot be settled by discussion -certainly none which could justify war-but there is a great deal of mutual suspicion. People in England think that Germany has designs upon us: Germans are persuaded that we mean to attack them. Both are wrong. . . . Let the British and the German nations get to know one another better. Mutual understanding is the remedy for suspicion and nervousness. In no other way can these ailments be cured.2 Reason is for us, for War is an outrage upon reason. Justice is for us, for War tramples justice underfoot. Civilisation is for us, for War is the incarnation of barbarism. Above all Religion is for us, for we have the benediction of Him Who has said, "Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the Sons of God." 3 1 H. H. ASQUITH. 2 SIR FRANK LASCELLES. 3 HENRY RICHARDS. 66 CHAPTER XI DIFFICULTIES "THERE is no insuperable difficulty in the way— granted sincerity on the part of the Powers." Were they, in fact, sincere," the only possible cry had surely been, from one and all, that of Malcolm to Macduff "Good God, betimes remove The means that make us strangers! But the means that make us strangers are man's work, not God's; and man must find the means for their removal. It is useless to say with our Olney poet "Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else, Physical barriers, thanks to natural and mechanical science, are practically demolished. The adamantine mountains which remain, are mountains of ambition and ill-will. And these will continue to "make enemies of nations" as long as ever it is thought to promote national honour by arming, and overarming;-against the moral sentiments of the world. The change required can only come by the gradual substitution of good feeling for bad among all nations. “What a scene, what a prospect, does the whole of Europe present at this day! and not only Europe, but every Government and every civilisation through the world, which is under the influence of the European mind." Unhappily Newman's ejaculation fits the situation to-day no less than when he penned his Apologia, if the European mind is expressed in its diplomacy. Nevertheless, it cannot be doubted that the general conscience has enormously advanced in power of sensitiveness and perception during the last half-century. And this book would not have been written except for the belief that civilised mankind is gradually approaching the point when it will refuse to reconcile itself any longer to the idea of brute force alone being decisive in the world's affairs. If the God Whom Christ revealed, in any real sense governs the world, it is simply unthinkable that international relations will always be at the disposal of the biggest battalions, and the nations for ever condemned to the present cut-throat competition in armaments. And this anomaly which outrages our Faith, is no whit less an outrage upon our Reason and sense of Justice. So far from such sardonic spectacles as we have lately witnessed within the comity of nations giving the lie to any hope of a new régime; they seem to be rather calculated to stir all reasonable men to join the crusade for its establishment. No doubt there is plenty of glass in the roof of the British Empire, and a quantity of very mixed material in its foundation. Nor is any English writer in a position to throw stones, or to denounce in accents of horrified self-righteousness what appear like examples of that policy of " grab " which still stalks the world naked and unashamed. There is a proverb about the flattery of imitation, which might furnish a ready retort. Moreover, there are motives connected with the bed-rock facts of life as it is, which may lead statesmen to the perfectly sincere conviction that what appears like flagrant piracy, actually is political necessity,-necessity which knows no law. Protest, however, holds good none the less against the reigning political system which forces the politician into courses of action barely defensible even as a miserable pis aller. When, in the twentieth century, an honourable member of the Triple Alliance suddenly descends upon one portion of North Africa; and when two other and still greater Powers could seriously contemplate hurling millions of men against each other in a dispute about another portion which belonged to neither, “at a time when masses of their own subjects were protesting that the conditions of life at home had become intolerable, and that their Governments had failed to solve the most urgent and elementary of domestic problems; "-when such things take place, the irony of the situation cries aloud. And the cry, in the ears of a fast growing number of sane and reflecting men, is not for 15-inch guns instead of guns of 13.5, but for political righteousness which shall at least reflect the laws of Moses, even if, after 2000 years, it still repudiates the law of Christ. For the whole accepted code of international conduct is now seen more clearly than ever to be nothing short of a travesty of the most rudimentary maxims of Morality, that very Morality which "is the nature of things," and therefore has its own irresistible way of avenging disobedience. When all is said that may be said in mitigation, the fact remains |