AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR EUROPE. 37 1 



At the same time this great reform is not to be achieved at once, 

 it must be by gradual steps, by tentative advances, yet that it will 

 be achieved we may rest assured, scoff who may. 



War, we must remember, is an institution of 2,000 years' growth, 

 nay, we must add 4,004 with iSgijand say 5,895 years' growth, and 

 cannot be overthrown in a day. 



It has struck its roots deep down into the custom and practice of 

 nations, around it has been thrown a halo of false prestige, false 

 renown, false patriotism, and false glory, which will take long and 

 strong efforts to overthrow. 



Of one thing we may be quite certain, Europe has had enough of 

 Conferences of Crowned Heads, of the meetings of the Imperial 

 Sovereigns of powerful States, of men who have, at one period or 

 another, taken part in an aggressive policy; for have not these 

 Conferences of the Emperor of Russia, of the Emperor of Austria, 

 of the Emperor of Germany, and formerly of the Emperor of 

 France, generally unsettled the sea of politics, and cast a dark 

 shadow over the surface, and have they not generally preceded an 

 overt act, either the partition of a kingdom, or the appeal to the 

 wager of battle ? 



Europe has had enough, too, of Congresses of men, who have 

 met after desolating wars, under the high-sounding titles of 

 Ambassadors Plenipotentiary, in order to give greater authority to 

 the terms of peace, dictated by the conqueror to the conquered. 



Such was the Congress which met at Vienna in 18 15, after that 

 prolonged period of human carnage that culminated in Waterloo, 

 and which unmapped the map of Europe, distributed kingdoms, 

 divided states, not only without consulting, but in direct opposition 

 to, the will and wish of their peoples. 



Such was the Congress which met at Paris in 1856, after that 

 measureless calamity, the Crimean War, which cost the Allies and 

 Russia ], 000,000 of lives, and _;^34o,ooo,ooo of the hard-earned 

 earnings of the people. 



Such was the Congress which met at Frankfort in 187 1, after 

 that unjustly-declared, and cruelly-waged Franco-German War, 

 which involved the slaughter of 250,000 of the manhood of the two 

 nations, and the expenditure of ^^41 7,000,000 sterling, "a terrible 

 bill of blood," leaving a dire legacy of hatred and thirst for revenge. 



These Conferences of Crowned Heads, these Congresses of unhappy 

 memory, Europe has had enough of, and now longs for peace, for 



