AT THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE: 11-1899 273 



things for the human race, including considerable ad 

 vantages, in many cases, for themselves. 



Best of all, by far, was John Bellows of Gloucester, our 

 old Quaker friend at St. Petersburg, whom I was exceed 

 ingly glad to take by the hand : he, at least, is a thoroughly 

 good man sincere, honest, earnest, and blessed with good 

 sense. 



The number of documents, printed and written, com 

 ing in upon us is still enormous. Many are virtually ser 

 mons displaying the evils of war, the blessings of peace, 

 and the necessity of falling back upon the Bible. Con 

 sidering the fact that our earlier sacred books indicate 

 approval by the Almighty of some of the most blood 

 thirsty peoples and most cruel wars ever known, such a 

 recommendation seems lacking in actuality. 



This morning we had another visit from Sir Julian 

 Pauncefote, president of the British delegation, and dis 

 cussed with him an amalgamation of the Russian, British, 

 and American proposals for an arbitration tribunal. He 

 finds himself, as we all do, agreeably surprised by the 

 Eussian document, which, inadequate as it is, shows 

 ability in devising a permanent scheme both for media 

 tion and arbitration. 



During the day President Low, who had been asked by 

 our delegation to bring the various proposals agreed 

 to by us into definite shape, made his report ; it was thor 

 oughly well done, and, with some slight changes, was 

 adopted as the basis for our final project of an arbitration 

 scheme. We are all to meet on Monday, the 29th, for a 

 study of it. 



In the evening to the concert given to the conference by 

 the burgomaster and city council. It was very fine, and 

 the audience was large and brilliant. There was music 

 by Tschaikovsky, Grieg, and Wagner, some of which was 

 good, but most of it seemed to me noisy and tending no- 

 whither ; happily, in the midst of it came two noble pieces, 

 one by Beethoven and the other by Mozart, which gave 

 a delightful relief. 



II.-18 



