Among English-speaking nations the literary and educated class have not been conspicuous in national and international politics: now in every land they are summoned to the rescue and promotion of civilization. Of this class, the poet and patriot, Victor Hugo, stood pre-eminent in reproving the wastefulness by war of the king and nobles, and in arousing the toilers, who work incessantly to repair this waste. He demanded a true history of the nations, ɖeclaring that history does not mean war.* How grand Hugo's utterance of his mission-"The poet has charge of souls," and "the drama has a national mission, a social mission, a humane mission." His fifty volumes show every where the devotion of the poet's thought to "the continuous development of human society." His last years were consecrated to opposition to war. His message was

DISARMAMENT FOR EUROPE.

He exhibited the sad conditions of the Continent with a tenth of its able-bodied men under arms and a fifth of its able-bodied women doing the loathsome and laborious work of man-in the field, in the barn, in the stable, in the street, on the railway. How marked the vindication of Voltaire, May 30, 1878, at Paris, upon the hundreth anniversary of his death, a man who was put under the ban of Europe, of the church because he proclaimed a religion of peace against a religion of war, and of the state because he breathed in his works the ridiculous stupidity of war as a mode of seeking justice! Victor Hugo's language is:

"If to kill is a crime, to kill much can not be the extenuating circumstance. [Laughter and bravos.] If to steal is a disgrace, to invade can not be glory. [Continued applause.] Te Deums are of small significance here: homicide is homicide; bloodshed is bloodshed; it alters nothing to call one's self Cæsar or Napoleon; in the eyes of the Eternal God a murderer is not changed in character because, instead of a hangman's cap there is placed upon his head an emperor's crown. [Long acclamation. Tripple salvo of applause.] Ah! let us proclaim verities! Let us dishonor war! No; bloody glory does not exist. No; it is not good, and it is not useful to make corpses. No; it can not be that life should travail for death. No; O mothers who surround me, it can not be that war, the thief, is to continue to take your offspring. No; it can not be that women are to bear children in anguish, that men are to be born, that communities are to plow and sow, that the peasant is to fertilize the fields, and the workmen enrich the cities, that thinkers are to meditate, that industry is to perform its marvels, that genius is to execute its prodigies, that the vast human activity is to multiply in the presence of the starry heavens its efforts and its creations in order to produce that frightful international exposition which is called a field of battle! [Profound sensation. The whole audience arises and applauds the speaker.] The true field of battle-(pointing to the exhibition)-behold it! It is the rendezvous of the masterpieces of human labor which Paris at this moment offers to the world!"

His address at the Peace Congress at Paris in 1849 has become a peace classic. It thus concludes:

*Lingard says,

History is nothing but a picture of the miseries inflicted on the multitude by the passions of the few."

A day will come when the only battle-field will be the market open to commerce and the mind opening to new ideas. A day will come when bullets and bomb-shells will be replaced by votes, by the universal suffrage of nations, by the venerable arbitration of a great sovereign senate, which will be to Europe what the parliament is to England, what the diet is to Germany, what the legislative assembly is to France. A day will come when a cannon will be exhibited in public museums, just as an instrument of torture is now, and the people will be astonished how such a thing could have been. A day will come when those two immense groups, the United States of America and

THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE

shall be seen placed in presence of each other, extending the hand of fellowship across the ocean, exchanging their produce, their industry, their arts, their genius, clearing the earth, peopling the deserts, improving creation under the eye of the Creator, and uniting, for the good of all, these two irresistible and infinite powers-the fraternity of men and the power of God."

LORD SHAFTESBURY, THE EMINENT PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ARBITRATION ASSOCIATION.

If we have lost Victor Hugo in France, we lament the removal of the Earl of Shaftesbury from the counsels of the Arbitrationists of Great Britain. He was not only an earnest advocate of our principles, but he gave his means and his counsel to the British Arbitration Society, and was a regular attendant upon its meetings. He took a lively interest in the Brussels International Conference. He wrote from St. Giles's House, Cranborne, Salisbury, October 14th, 1882:

"Let me assure you that you have my most earnest and hearty good wishes, nay, fervent prayers, for the success of your endeavors. You will

*THE INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION

CONFERENCE Iwas held October 17-20, 1882, at the Palais de la Bourse, Brussels, Belgium. Distinguished gentlemen from all parts of the world participated in the proceedings and discussions, and read papers of deep interest.

Le Pierre Hyacinthe, of Paris, and the late Dr. Hasker, of the German Reichstag, were among the acting Presidents. Mr. Gladstone declared himself in sympathy with the Conference.

The Earl of Derby said that "all efforts to substitute arbitration for war deserve support, and their success, though necessarily imperfect, needs not be the less real. Everything that tends to make wars less frequent is so far a gain to mankind."

The Bishop of Oxford said that he wished "well to all such efforts with his whole heart. It may be very long before public war shall be abolished, and a recognized international judicature substituted; but every discussion of the subject hastens that most desirable consummation, and this work will not be in vain."

The Bishops of Durham and Exeter were equally emphatic in avowals of entire sympathy with the Conference.

Hon. Mr. Morley said that he was in hearty accord with the Conference. "However far we may be from the full recognition of the peace principleand I quite believe we are rapidly approaching it-I have no doubt that it is our duty to urge by every means in our power the determination of the people of various countries to insist that international disputes shall be referred to arbritation."

SUNSHINE OVER ALL.

"What folly then," the faithless critic cries,

With sneering lip and wise world-knowing eyes,

"While fort to fort, and post to post repeat

The ceaseless challenge of the war-drum's beat;

need patience and perseverance, and many obstacles will be in your way. But you will have done much, by God's blessing, to make wars less frequent. -Your obedient servant, "SHAFTESBURY."

This is a paragraph of the record of the International Arbitration Association of England:

It will always be for this Association a just cause of satisfaction that its first President was Lord Shaftesbury. Though worn out by a half century of labor, he said: "I cannot refuse to help you, if you think I can be of use."

And round the green earth, to the church-bells' chime,
The morning drum-roll of the camp keeps time.
The dream of peace amidst a world in arms,

Of swords to ploughshares changed by Scriptural charms;
Of nations, drunken with the wine of blood,
Staggering to take the pledge of brotherhood,
Like tipplers answering Father Matthew's call-
The sullen Spaniard and the mad cap Gaul;
The bulldog Briton, yielding but with life,
The Yankee swaggering with his bowie-knife,
The Russ from banquets with the vulture shared,
The blood still dripping from his amber beard,
Quitting their mad Berserker dance to hear
The dull meek droning of a drab-coat seer;
Leaving the sport of presidents and kings,
Where men for dice each titled gambler flings,
To meet alternate on the Seine and Thames
For tea and gossip, like old country dames!
No! let the cravens plead, the weaklings cant;
Let Cobden cipher, and let Vincent rant;
Let Sturge preach peace to democratic throngs,

And Burritt, stammering through his hundred tongues,
Repeat in all his ghostly lessons o'er

Timed to the pauses of the battery's roar;

Check Bau or Kaiser with the barricade

Of 'Olive leaves' and resolutions made,

Spike guns with pointed Scripture texts, and hope

To capsize navies with a windy trope;

Still shall the glory and the pomp of war

Along their train the shouting millions draw;
Still dusky labor to the panting brave

His cap shall doff and beauty's kerchief wave,
Still shall the bard to valor tune his song;
Still hero-worship kneel before the strong;
Rosy and sleek, the sable gowned divine
O'er his third bottle of suggestive wine,

To plumed and sworded auditors shall prove
Their trade accordant with the law of love;

And Church for State and State for Church shall fight,
And both agree that might alone is right."

Despite the sneers like these, oh, faithful few,
Who dare to hold God's word and witness true,

Whose clear-eyed faith transcends our evil time,

And o'er the present wilderness of crime

Sees the calm future with its robes of green,

Its fleece-flecked mountains, and soft streams between,
Still keep the path which duty bids ye tread

Though worldly wisdom shake the cautious head;
No truth from heaven descends upon our sphere
Without the greeting of the skeptic's sneer;
Denied and mocked at till its blessings fall

Common as dew and sunshine over all. Whittier.

B. GRATZ BROWN

died December 15, 1885. He was an earnest advocate of arbitration. In the Senate of the United States he presented a scheme for a World's Arbitration Congress at Washington, by which all differences among nations may be adjusted without resort to war. He was born in Lexington, Ky., in 1824, graduated at Yale College, a citizen of Missouri in 1850, a successful lawyer, and a member of the Legislature of Missouri for several terms. I first met him at the residence of a kinsman of Senator Thomas H. Benton, to whose fortunes he was allied. His earnest devotion to Benton in the excited controversy then raging attracted my attention. During his whole career he was identified with the German population. Though a southerner, he made the first speech in a southern legislature for emancipation. It was delivered at the peril of his life, and at the almost certain sacrifice of all hope of political preferment. He founded the St. Louis Democrat as the organ of the freesoilers. In 1860, he called the first Republican Convention held in a Slave state. He was made United States Senator, and declined a re-election in 1866; 1870 he was elected governor of Missouri.

S. IRENAEUS PRIME.

Dr. Prime was the early and constant friend of the arbitration movement. His pen and voice aided our cause. My last call (1885) at the office of the New York Observer found Mr. Prime full of hope of the triumph of peace. He emphasized the remark that this work of arbitration is not exceeded by any in honor or in grand results. He wrote in the New York Observer (which he edited since 1840, and in which he had a controlling interest since 1858):

"It is the darkest phase of human nature that war is almost always popular. Kings and great generals dread it, but the outcry of the people bears them into the field of battle."

"War is the crime of all crimes. One side or the other, oftentimes both sides, are criminal."

Dr. Prime was born at Ballston, N. Y., March 4, 1812. He read Latin at 8, and Greek at 9; was a Presbyterian clergyman at 20; and was the author of twenty different works, all promotive of a higher civilization.

The American Arbitration League laments the demise (since our last annual report) of one of its honorary presidents and hearty supporters, the late

ULYSSES S. GRANT.

In the orations of this year Gen. Grant has been presented to the public as a soldier. His more mature and more eminent sentiments and conduct have been disregarded. Notable exceptions have been the addresses of (his wise and good friend) Senator Logan and of the Hon. Mr. Boutwell.

Grant knew what war meant, and he knew that the military sentiment and habit must be laid aside to lessen the danger of war, that the sentiment and habit of peace are essential to secure peace. Hence he looked with no favor upon military parades.

Twenty years ago he gave peace to a country possessing grander possibilities than any other land on earth, and to a people educated by heroic endurance and fitted by fiery affliction to appreciate their opportunities and to make their possibilities realities.

There never was a parallel to the capitulation of the 9th of April. A quiet business meeting; the utmost courtesy that could be shown to the conquered commander, without any exuberance in speech or tragic expression in action; an agreement of mercy drawn up and signed, and then-provisions for the defeated and an assurance of safety. Such a thing has been suggested in poetry, but sober history records nothing so simple, so powerful, so pathetic. There have been military heroes who have conquered nations and accepted the surrender of armies, thrones, crowns, and empires, and have imposed their own hard condition on the vanquished; but Grant was the first conqueror to meet the conquered as brother meets brother, to minister to their wants as if they were his honored guests, and to send them home with a benediction. So long as history or tradition shall endure, the memory of Appomattox shall shed a halo of glory around the name of Grant. And as in the progress of the race from higher to higher intellectual and moral planes the ideal hero shall become a grander conception, the fame of

THE HERO OF APPOMATTOX

shall grow in grandeur.* It was as a peace-maker and a lover of peace, magnanimously disowning all pleasure, or pride in his triumphs, and generously rejoicing in a restored Union and a rehabilitated citizenship, that he won the love and homage of the whole people. His rise from the obscurity of humble and almost ignoble station, from surroundings which promised him only the most prosaic and commonplace existence, to the supreme command of the victoriousarmy in the greatest war of modern times and to the great civil office he successively filled, will be the marvel of history; and for generations that splendid career will be held up to American youth as an inspiration and an example, and to illustrate the possible greatness which lies before him. From the national point of view it is of less consequence that a great career is open to every American boy than that some Americans in every generation should have the INBORN POWER LIKE GRANT, To do great things when there are great things to be done.

We may well leave to the patient sociologist the task of tracing out the underlying and surrounding forces which produce in this

*"After the surrender of Lee they (the Union Army) began, without out orders, to salute him (Gen. Grant) with cannon, but he directed the firing to cease, lest it should wound the feelings of the prisoners, who, he said, were once again our countrymen."-Gen. Badeau in Century, May, 1885.

The same writer says that Gen. Grant refused to have a picture of the surrender of Lee placed in the rotunda, because "he should never consent, so far as he was concerned, to any picture being placed in the Capitol to commemorate a victory in which our own countrymen were the losers." In the preliminary negotiations for Gen. Lee's surrender, he wrote: "Seriously hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life.' Ger. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant his sword, who received it with an evident desire to embarrass the Confederate leader as little as possible. Grant appeared without sword and in the most modest attire.