"the Plenipotentiaries hoped that the Governments not represented at the Congress will unite in the sentiment which has inspired the wish recorded in the present protocol."

Although this declaration was not all that was desired, being optional and recommendatory, rather than positive and obligatory, still, bearing in mind that this was the first time that this happy innovation had been seriously considered by statesmen for incorporation into a Treaty between the Great Powers of Europe, bearing in mind also that at that time, so recently as thirty-two years since, the principle of Arbitration was looked upon as Utopian and visionary, and that its recognition by the Congress was accomplished in face of many difficulties, such a success must undoubtedly be considered as an immense triumph, "the moral effect of which," as was observed by Joseph Sturge, "it was impossible to estimate;" an opinion which has been amply borne out during the period that has intervened.

Emphatic and influential were the testimonies of such men as the late Earl of Derby, who declared in his place in the House of Lords, to be "to the endless honor of that Congress," and, of William Ewart Gladstone, who, in the course of a speech in the House of Commons described it as "a very great triumph." And an honorable gentleman, who moved the address in reply to the speech from the throne, rendered still more eloquent testimony when he said that it "throws around peace an additional bulwark, and sets a landmark in the progress of civilization and humanity."

Thus ended this inglorious Crimean War, a war, which not only involved the enormous expenditure of 340 millions sterling, but above all, and to which no amount of treasure can compare, involved the sacrifice of one million of precious lives, the manhood, the bread-winners of Russia, France, England, Turkey, and Sardinia, a war, which instead of settling, unsettled the Eastern Question, which gave that most effete and corrupt nation Turkey, a new lease of cruel and despotic power over the subject races in her Empire, a

war, which more than anything else consolidated in a neighbouring nation France, the dynasty of the Bonapartes, that in 1870 well-nigh brought her to the verge of ruin, a war, which prepared the way in 1876 for the terrible massacres in Bulgaria, and the ruthless destruction of human life in the insurrections of Montenegro and Servia, and finally precipitated the Russo-Turkish War of 1876 and 1877.

No thanks to the Government which declared that devastating Crimean War, nor to the Parliament of England which sanctioned it. But to the men who opposed it, preeminent amongst whom stand the names of Cobden, Bright, and Gibson in Parliament, and of Richard, Sturge, and Bowly out of Parliament, is due the imperishable renown for having resisted it almost alone, in the face of unmeasured obloquy. In the eloquent language of the brave champion for peace, the unmitred because incorruptible statesman, John Bright, theirs is the great consolation that "not one word of mine hath ever, shall ever, sanction the squandering of my country's treasure, or the spilling of one single drop of my country's blood."

WAR IN CHINA, 1857

Scarcely had the pæans of exultation ceased, scarcely had the ink dried on the parchment roll of the Treaty of Paris, which concluded the war with Russia, when the nation was stirred, and stirred painfully, by the shout of a war in China, and the terrible bombardment of Canton, with its defenceless and innocent population of a million-and-a-half souls, by a squadron of the British Fleet under the command of Admiral Seymour. And wherefore? For a cause the most trivial and unjustifiable that history has ever recorded.

It appears on the evidence of the Official documents and

by the statements of the Ministers of the Crown, to have arisen in consequence of the seizure by the Chinese Authorities at Canton in October 1856, of the piratical Lorcha, called the " Arrow," which was manned by a gang of notorious pirates under the command of an Englishman, but an alien to his country and her fair fame.

The career of this smuggler, told in the boastful recitals of the crew, and corroborated by several merchantmen, had been for some time engaged in scuttling and massacring whenever and wherever the opportunity presented itself. To the discredit of the Flag of England, she had hoisted the British Ensign as a cloak for her dark deeds, and to shield her from capture in her depredatory exploits, an illegal act, justified only on the ground of her having an Englishman, a vile adventurer on board who was directing her operations of smuggling and reprisals. Immediately on her seizure, the English Consul at Canton, Mr. Parkes, addressed a peremptory demand to the Governor-General of the Canton Province, Commissioner Yeh, for her release, requesting also an apology, and compliance therewith within 48 hours, at the peril of the bombardment of the City.

Never was such an outrageous demand made by a repre sentative of England, and never was the intervention of the power of England more grossly abused, for on the evidence of Sir John Bowring, the British Plenipotentiary at HongKong, the "Arrow" had no right whatever to hoist the British Flag, her license had expired a month previously, and he declared she was, on that account, to say nothing else, in no way entitled to the protection of the English Flag.

With such irrefragable testimony, and in face of the revolting deeds of pillage, loot, and wholesale human carnage which followed, no wonder Mr. Richard stirred himself, and by the scathing power of his pen, and the energy of his influence, moved Parliament and the country towards an indignant condemnation, as severe and merited, as ever befell the actors in that diabolical transaction, the

representatives as well as the Ministers of the Crown who defended, and even gloried therein.

Mr. Richard incontestably proved that the "Arrow" was not an English vessel, as she was built by Chinese, owned by Chinese, manned by Chinese, with the exception of this soi disant Englishman on board; and remarkable to say, when the vessel was boarded no flag was flying, but that immediately on her seizure this counterfeit British flag was hoisted, in order to shield her in her illegal character as a smuggler from her just fate; and the conclusion which he arrived at was this, that the seizure was a pretext, not the justifiable reason, for forcing on a quarrel with China, substituting another "casus belli," in the language of Admiral Seymour himself, which was none other than to compel the Chinese Government to declare the port of Canton open, not for legitimate commerce, Oh! no, but for the compulsory traffic, in the very teeth of the wishes of the Chinese Government, of that most detestable opium traffic, a traffic verily "in pestilence, poverty, vice, madness, and death."

Well may Englishmen blush at the recital of such a deed, forced on not by diplomacy and negotiation, bad enough as that would be, but forsooth, forced at the mouth of the cannon, belching forth desolation and destruction, until the whole city was enveloped in flames, "in the horror of which men and women and children, innocent infancy and helpless, were ruthlessly immolated."

The nation was moved, the press had the courage to denounce this outrage on humanity, including such organs as The Saturday Review The Spectator, The Examiner, Daily News, Morning Aavertizer, Leeds Mercury, and a score of others, all of whom lifted their voices in severe condemnation of this bombardment, whereby they poured red-hot shot and shell into the city of Canton, crushing and pounding in one indiscriminate massacre its population, without justification, based on pretensions the most false,

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and therefore as the most wanton and treacherous deed with which the British name was ever identified.

Parliament too was moved. In the House of Lords the question was introduced in a most masterly speech by the late Earl of Derby, powerfully supported by Lord Lyndhurst and Earl Grey, and in the House of Commons on the motion of Mr. Cobden, a debate extending over four nights followed, which will long be memorable, from the fact that nearly every man of weight and influence off the Treasury Bench joined in denunciation, a debate worthy of the occasion, full of intellectual power, lofty, earnest, and

severe.

Two grand speeches deserve notice, those of Mr. Cobden and Mr. Gladstone. The former for two hours and-a-half seized the attention of the House, holding it in willing and delighted captivity by an eloquence of charming simplicity, logical facts and truths, which carried conviction and admiration to the assembled senators of England.

The speech of Mr. Gladstone was, as might be expected, the most brilliant of all, distinguished by the truest eloquence, masterly, full of high principle and earnest conviction. A few quotations may be permitted.

"There is not war with China, no Sir, but there is hostility and bloodshed, a trampling down of the weak by the strong, a terrible and abominable retaliation. (Cheers.) War taken at the best is a frightful scourge to the human race, and because it is so, the wisdom of ages has surrounded it with strict laws and usages. You have dispensed with all these precautions. (Cheers.) You have turned a consul into a diplomatist, and that metamorphosis is forsooth to be at liberty to direct the whole might of England against the head of a defenceless people. You go to China and make war upon those who stand before you as women and children. You can earn no glory in such warfare. We hear of calamity heaped upon calamity, of cruelty heaped upon cruelty."

He closed by a powerful appeal as follows:

"With every one of us it rests to shew that this House, which is the first, the most ancient, and the noblest temple of freedom in the world, is also the temple of that everlasting justice without