770 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



referred to, well repay perusal and reperusal. It may truly be 

 said that we do not as yet know in the full sense what liberty is, 

 and it may be added that, if the military spirit resumes possession 

 of the world, as it is threatening to do, we are not likely to know. 

 In a well-written article on this subject by Mr. A. B. Ronne, in a 

 preceding number (June, 1895) of this magazine, it was pointed 

 out that, since the close of the war of secession, there have been 

 many manifestations of a more arbitrary spirit in the Government 

 of this country than the people had previously been accustomed 

 to, and that the idea of " regulation " was altogether too much in 

 the air. There is one thing to be said on this point, and that is, 

 that the misuse of liberty leads to regulation. Were there only 

 one nation in the world, that nation might fall under a tyranny 

 if its citizens could not use their liberties aright. If peace helps 

 liberty, liberty should take counsel of justice and moderation, so 

 that Peace be not ashamed of her work. We must learn to curb 

 in peace those lusts that lead to war. A nation whose own inter- 

 nal condition was wholly satisfactory could by no possibility be 

 dragged into a war of aggression, and would run extremely little 

 risk of having to wage a war of defense. In such a nation the 

 feelings that prompt to war would be wholly lacking. 



We began this article by referring to the fact that very seri- 

 ous impediments, which we were glad to believe were largely of a 

 moral kind, seemed to stand in the way of war between civilized 

 nations in the present day ; and, even as we have been writing, 

 news comes that the principle of arbitration is more and more 

 commending itself to the common sense and common humanity 

 of mankind. There seems at the present moment every probabil- 

 ity that, as between England and the United States, that principle 

 will ere long be adopted as a fixed and, as it were, constitutional 

 mode of settling international differences ; and if once this step is 

 taken the effect on the world at large will be very marked. Gov- 

 ernments that have not advanced to the same point will seem to 

 occupy altogether an inferior position ; and it will not be long 

 before their subjects begin to inquire with no little urgency why 

 they can not enter into similar treaties and, by so doing, put an 

 end to the terrible tension and hideous waste of human labor 

 which the present situation involves. An article in the February 

 number of the new international magazine Cosmopolis a happy 

 omen, we take it, of the better times to come reviews in a very 

 interesting and encouraging manner the progress which the prin- 

 ciple of arbitration has made in the world. Since 1S72, we learn 

 that is, since the Alabama arbitration " nearly forty cases have 

 been settled by arbitration ; the large majority of these refer to 

 differences between American republics, or of European states 

 with American republics. The United States referred ten dis- 



