Napoleon, and concluded after about twentytwo years' existence. The cost to this country, I dare say, all told, was a thousand millions sterling; and yet now everybody-nobody more than Lord Russell-everybody, or almost everybody, condemns that war; and I believe that by greater moderation and greater wisdom on the part of the government and the press and the people of this country it might have been avoided. It left us with five hundred millions of debt accumulated, in addition to the previous debts, during the continuance of that one single but prolonged struggle. We condemned, as I said, the American war a few years after it was over; I mean that your forefathers did. Our fathers condemned the French war not long after it was over; and since then we have had another war of great magnitude, but of not very long continuance, which generally goes by the name of the Crimean war-war with Russia-the main portion of the struggle taking place in the Crimea. But now, as far as I can judge, everybody perhaps I ought not to say "everybody," because, perhaps, Her Majesty's ministers would not agree with me, but nearly everybody-condemns that war; and I think every single man who knows anything about it would admit that we gained absolutely nothing but discredit and loss loss of life and increased debt-from the struggle which this country carried on with Russia twenty-two years ago. In the placard calling this meeting there is a statement of how much is spent every year in armaments and matters connected with wars past or to come-how much a month, how much a week, how much a day, how much an hour, and I don't know whether it is not my duty to say how much per minute. But now take another illustration. You can form some idea of an estate of two thousand acres of the best land in your Welsh counties, and you will perhaps be surprised when I tell you that our expenditure of fifty millions per year for past wars and for present military expenses is equal to the swallowing up every day for the six working-days of every week during the year of an estate of that magnitude. Now, can it be possible that anything like this is necessary? It seems to me that the whole world is wrong-that everything is wrong in the creation and arrangement of the conditions under which men live on this earth, if man himself is not very wrong, having brought matters to this dreadful condition. war. Take the last great case that I have referred to-the case of the Russian or Crimean At the time it was being waged there was not one man in twenty who really knew anything about it. At this moment I don't believe you could find one man in a hundred throughout England who could give you any clear account of the war-the progress of negotiations, the difficulties which were met with and which were not overcome, and, finally, of the state of things which precipitated the catastrophe and brought on that lamentable and most inglorious struggle. But now look back to the passions which were exhibited at that time. You see what a change has come. Like as it was with the American war that was condemned, as it was after the French war that was condemned, so it is now after the Russian war that is all but universally condemned; so that we have come-I believe the nation has come mainly and by a vast majority-to the conclusion that the object was unworthy of our efforts and that the result was absolute and entire failure. But, leaving for a moment the question of expense, I will ask you to consider the question of the loss of life. A most minute and careful history of the war has been written by a gentleman with whom I am acquainted, who was in Parliament for several years, very near where I sat-Mr. Kinglake, who has paid most scrupulous attention to every fact with regard to the war; and I see it quoted from his book that he believes, first and last, that not less than one million of men lost their lives in connection with that struggle. Remember who were concerned. The chief were Russia, Turkey, England, France and the kingdom of Sardinia, which is now the kingdom of Italy. The French lost more men, I believe, than we did; the Turks, possibly more than either of them; the loss of Russia is not to be counted; and we stand now in this lamentable and terrible condition-that we were the country that went rashly and violently and passionately into the war. We have not a single thing of the slightest value to show for it, but on the other side we have that vast loss of treasure and sacrifice and slaughter of a million of human beings. Some people think that the loss of life in war is a very common thing, and that it is not worth talking about. They think a soldier takes his wages and stands his chance. I recollect being disgusted during the time of the war by the observation of a gentleman at the dinner of a person of high rank in this country and of the party by whom the war was originated. He said, "As for the men that are killed, I think nothing of that. A man can only die once, and it does not matter very much where he dies or how he dies." Now, I think it matters a good deal. It matters a good deal to widows and orphans and sisters and friends. It matters a good deal to thousands-scores of thousands and hundreds of thousands of men who are cut off in the very flower of their youth that they should be thrust with the passionate thrust of a bayonet or rent asunder by shot and shell-killed, it may be, at once, or left lingering on the field or in hospital, dying of intense and inconceivable agonies. What is it that is so valuable as life? What happens if some unfortunate visitor to this place or unfortunate and helpless boatman is drowned in your bay? Does it not make a sensation in your community? Is there not a feeling of grief that passes from heart to heart until there is not one man, woman or child amongst you that did not feel that a calamity has happened in your neighborhood? And what if there be a wreck? I was in this neighborhood two or three days after the wreck of the Rothesay Castle, forty-five or forty-six years ago, and I suppose nearly a hundred men and women were drowned on that occasion; I was down at the scene of the wreck of the Royal Charter, only a few years ago, when nearly four hundred persons were drowned. Did it matter nothing? I saw a poor grayheaded man there wandering along the beach, as he wandered day after day, in hope, not that he might find his son alive, but that he might find even the dead body of his son that he might be comforted by giving it a fitting burial. These things give a shock to the whole district, to the whole nation, and rightly and inevitably so. Look, again, to the accidents on the railways. Take the sad accident in this county-the most appalling that has ever happened on any railway in this kingdom: I mean the accident at Abergele, when men were destroyed in a moment, apparently without a moment's warning. Take the terrible accidents that happen from time to time in the collieries in various parts of the country. See what woe is caused by them, and remember, as you must remember, how every family in the country is stirred and filled with grief at the narrative of the disasters that have occurred. Well, now, take other things that happen that distress us connected with the loss of life. Take the private murders that are committed throughout the kingdom and hangings that take place of the criminals who have been guilty of these murders. All these things fill us at times with sorrow and cover our feelings and our hearts with gloom. And now take together all the accidents from boats that you have ever heard of, all the accidents from shipwrecks that have ever been recorded; take all the accidents on railways since railways were first made, and all the accidents in mines since the bowels of the earth were penetrated to obtain coal for the use of man; and, besides these, take all the lamentable private murders which have been caused by passion or cupidity or vengeance; and take all the hangings of all the criminals-and there have been far too many under the law of this country-more brutal in this matter, I believe, in past times than even now, and than the laws of any other Christian country,-I say take all these phases of destruction of human life, add them all together and bring them into onebring them all into one great sum-and what | are they in comparison with the millions of human beings who have been destroyed and slaughtered in a single Russian war? And the war only lasted two only lasted two years, and the French war lasted more than twenty years. Almost half the time from the accession of Williaın III. in this country up to 1875-almost if not more than half that time-this Christian country was engaged in sanguinary struggles with some other so-called Christian nations on the Continent of Europe. Now, seeing what was paid for the Russian war, and seeing what an entire failure it turned out with regard to the pretended objects which it was supposed likely to secure-the people of England did not go into war in their passionate moments without some idea that some good is to follow-seeing how much we have lost and how great was the crime we committed, is it not astounding there should be any man, much more than that man should be in the lofty position of prime minister-ruler of this nation-who should by unadvised, unwise speaking invite the nation to involve itself in another war that may be no less prolonged, that may cause equal loss and equal slaughter, and that undoubtedly will result in a total failure, as the war twenty-two years ago which we had. And it is the old story now just as it was in those days-that Russia is an aggressive power. I am afraid almost all powers as opportunity offers have been aggressive, but he would be a most ingenious calculator who could show that there was any power in the wide world that during the last hundred years has been more aggressive than that power which we in this meeting form a humble and small party. It is said now, as it was said then, that Russia was aggressive, and that of Russia intended to conquer Turkey and cap- | regard to this great Eastern Question. Why, ture and hold Constantinople, and to domi- if you were some poor and hapless criminal nate alike over Europe and over Asia. There brought to trial before one of your courts and was not the slightest proof of it. All the before a jury, if liberty only is at stake, there proof was the other way. Russia, from the is more care still. You have advocates on beginning of these disturbances, has made each side, you have witnesses for the prosethe most distinct and frank offers to the Eng- cution and for the defence, you have an imlish government as to the terms in which the partial jury, and the judge is careful that Russian government and people believe that nothing shall be said against the prisoner peace might be made, to the enormous and that is not proved, and he warns the jury permanent advantage of the Christian sub- against being actuated by prejudice and to jects of the Porte. It is said-it was said put away what they have heard before the then that Turkey was the only safe keeper trial comes on, and he entreats them, if there of the straits of the Bosphorus and the Dar- be any feature in the case which can leave a danelles—that is, the straits which lead from doubt on the mind of any one of them as to the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. There the guilt of the poor wretch at the bar, that was no proof that Turkey is the safe keeper they shall give their verdict in his favor. of those straits. The Porte held those straits But here you go into a great transaction, a for three hundred years and would not allow great war; you spend your millions of money, any mercantile ship to pass through them, and you send your brothers and sons to the slaughit was only by the power of Russia, and by a ter and you condemn to death, it may be, as treaty with Russia after the war with Russia, in the last case, a million of human beings, that these straits were opened to the naviga- and you have not got a single definite or tion of the mercantile ships of the world. And proved fact to justify the course you have no doubt the time will come, and must come, taken. when these straits will be opened, not only to mercantile ships, but to the ships of the navies of all nations of the world. Now and at a former time it was said, too, that England's interests were at stake-interests in India and interests in the Levant. There was no proof of it then; there is no proof of it now. Of all the speakers in public, of all writers in the press who have written against Russia in this matter and in favor of Turkey and in favor of war, there is not one of them who has been able to lay down accurately and distinctly any kind of proof that the interests or honor of England were concerned in the course we have taken with I deny altogether that there is anything in the aggressive character of Russia, or anything with regard to the guardianship of the straits, or anything with which the honor and the interests of England are concerned, to justify us in the course we are taking with regard to this matter, or that justified us twenty years ago in that war, or would justify us now if the government were to involve the country in another struggle. Look at the map of Europe and measure the distance from London, or, if you like, from the Land's End, round by Gibraltar, the whole length of the Mediterranean, through the Sea of Marmora to Constantinople; you will find that we are close upon three thousand miles away. Does any man believe that the honor and interests of England are so involved in the question of territory or of conquest in that part of the world that it can justify us in vast, tremendous and incalculable sacrifices for a war of this nature. The nations that are nearer to Russia are not afraid of her. Germany is a powerful country, and Austria is powerful, though less powerful than Germany; but both of them have interests as direct and as clear as any interest that we can pretend to have, and yet they can be tranquil. They do not get into a passion. Their prime ministers do not speak-what shall I call it ?—rhodomontade and balderdash. They do not blow the trumpet and call the nations to arms for purely fancied causes like those in whichI say it with as much sincerity as ever I have said anything in my life-in which we have not as much interest as would justify us in sending one single man to slaughter. And now I have said all that is necessary on this occasion. May I ask you, then, to do what you can ?-you are not asked to do more; but whoever you may come in contact. with, whenever you may have the opportunity of discussing this great question, to go to the kernel of it, stripped of all the husk by which statesmen and the press succeed so often in misleading the people, go to the kernel of the matter, and ask yourself the question, Can it be your duty to send out your sons and brothers three thousand miles to the slaughter-it may be of the Russians or any other people? Can it be your duty to do this? Ask your consciences within the sight of Heaven if it can be your duty; and if you cannot find an answer in the affirma | tive, then, I say, have nothing to do with the accursed system, and wherever your influence extends let it be honestly and earnestly in favor of Christianity and of peace. JOHN BRIGHT. FALSE GREATNESS. MYLO, forbear to call him blest Μ That only boasts a large estate, Should all the treasures of the West Meet and conspire to make him great: I know my better thoughts-I know Thy reason can't descend so low. Let a broad stream with golden sands Through all his meadows roll, He's but a wretch, with all his lands, That wears a narrow soul. He swells amidst his wealthy store, Huge heaps of shining ore; And cheats the beam with loads of gold He hugs between his arms. So might the ploughboy climb a tree When Croesus mounts his throne, And both stand up and smile to see How long their shadow's grown. Alas! how vain their fancies be To think that shape their own! Thus mingled still with wealth and state, Croesus himself can never know His true dimensions and his weight Are far inferior to their show. Were I so tall to reach the pole Or grasp the ocean with my span, The mind's the standard of the man. |