The Arbitration Treaty 185 



and we are determined as far as possible to pro- 

 long such conditions. We have no notion of sub- 

 mitting to misery like that of the Middle Ages ; 

 on the contrary, we have got rid of so much of it 

 that we mean to go on and get rid of the whole. 

 Such is the general feeling among civilized men. 

 It may safely be said not only that no nation in 

 Christendom wishes to go to war, but also that the 

 nations are few which would not make a consider- 

 able sacrifice of interests and feelings rather than 

 incur its calamities. For reasons such as these, the 

 states of Continental Europe are showing an in- 

 creasing disposition to submit questions to arbitra- 

 tion, and in view of this situation the fullest mea- 

 sure of success for our Arbitration Treaty is to be 

 desired, for the sake of its moral effect. 



The method at present in vogue on the continent 

 of Europe for averting warfare is the excessively 

 cumbrous expedient of keeping up great armaments 

 in time of peace. The origin of this expedient may 

 be traced back to the levee en masse to which re- 

 volutionary France resorted in the agonies of self- 

 defence in 1792. The levee en masse proved to 

 be a far more formidable engine of warfare than 

 the small standing armies with which Europe had 

 long been familiar ; and so, after the old military 

 system of Prussia had been overthrown in 1806, 



