Europe in a State of War.
EVERY day the importance of the prosecution of the great work inaugurated at Brussels for substituting law for brute force as an arbiter between nations is becoming more apparent. The London Times most truly indicates the evil and danger of the present War System. It says:— “Europe is striving still to add to the number of her effective soldiers. Her present state is scarcely less truly one of actual war, though no shot is fired in anger and no trumpet as yet blown for battle. Her armies are arrayed against one another, though none of them has passed beyond the limits of its own frontiers. Modern war has long been a question of comparative resources, and these are expended during the continuance of peace as lavishly as they could be if the very name of peace had been given up. If such a state of things is permitted to continue, it will be a disgrace to European statesmen. It is on their shoulders that the real blame is to be laid. It is they who have fostered the mutual suspicions which have thus led unnecessarily to mutual ill-feeling. To whatever causes all this is to be ascribed, whether we are to refer it to the misplaced timidity of those by whom it has been brought about or to mere vanity and love of military display, the fact remains still that the evil work done is almost as great as any the world has yet suffered from, and is even more difficult to remedy. Our hope must be that the great nations of Europe will outgrow their present folly, and turn their attention to worthier and more profitable aims, and we wish only that we could discern any signs that gave near prospect of so important a revolution.”