1894 THE ARBITRATION ALLIANCE 323 



The unexampled increase in the expenditure of the 

 European states upon their armaments led the Arbi- 

 tration Alliance this year to issue a memorial urging 

 the Government to co-opei-ate with other Govem- 

 ments in reducing naval and military burdens. 

 Hi.xley was asked to sign this memorial, and replied 

 to the secretary as follows : — 



HODESLEA, EASTBOTTElfK, 

 June 21, 1S94. 



Deae Sir — I have taken some time to consider the 

 memorial to which you have called my attention, and I 

 regret that I do not find myself able to sign it- 



Not that I have the alightest doubt about the magni- 

 tude of the evils which accrue from the steady increase 

 of European armaments ; but because I thinV that this 

 regrettable feet is merely the superficial expression of 

 social forces, the operation of which cannot be sensibly 

 affected by agreements between Governments. 



In my opinion it is a delusion to attribute the growth 

 of armaments to the "exactions of militarism." The 

 "exactions of industrialism,'' generated by international 

 commercial competition, may, I believe, claim a much 

 largei share in prompting that growth. Add to this the 

 French thirst for revenge, tbe most just determination of 

 the German and Italian peoples to assert their national 

 unity ; the Eussian Panslavonic fatiaticism and desire for 

 free access to the western seas ; the Papacy steadily fishing 

 in the troubled waters for the means of recovering its lost (I 

 hope for ever lost) temporal possessions and spiritual 

 supremacy ; the " sick man," kept alive only because each 

 of his doctors is afraid of the other becoming his heir. 



When I think of the intensity of the perturbing 

 agencies which arise out of these and other conditions 

 of modem European society, I confiss that the attempt 

 to counteract them by asking Governments to agree to 



