372 AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR EUROPE. 



the cry has gone up to Heaven, " Give peace in our time, 

 O Lord." 



Of late years there has grown up in Europe, and in America a 

 powerful public opinion, against war, which is gradually- penetrating 

 everywhere, and its watchful eye is steadily fixed upon those schemes 

 of diplomacy and of military ambition, which are opposed to the 

 true interests of mankind. 



That public opinion, as the Italians well call it, is the " QUEEN 

 OF THE WORLD," and upon it we must rely to checkmate the 

 schemes of ambitious statesmen and Rulers. 



It says to the statesmen and governments of Europe, since you 

 can find no other mode for settling national disputes than that of war, 

 since war is not only a blunder but an unmitigated curse, and that 

 after you have been fighting you have always to meet in Conference 

 or Congress, to arrange by mutual concert and concession the matter 

 in dispute, we ask you, Would it not be better to meet before, before the 

 expenditure of countless millions of money, and before the slaughter 

 of vast numbers of valuable human lives ? We ask you, in the 

 narne of the millions slain by war, in the name of the widows 

 and orphans, in the name of our common humanity, to accept and to 

 carry out in practice this great principle of International Arbitration. 



Unfortunately, we shall have but a very lame reply to this just 

 demand, for governments are too much under the power and the 

 control of the war- vested interests of Europe. 



The military class, with some exceptions, surround every throne, 

 in fact, they occupy the thrones of Europe, and are the GeneraUs- 

 simos of their gigantic Armies and Navies ; they fill up every 

 avenue to Royalty and Diplomacy; they have the ready ear of 

 Monarchs and of statesmen ; they occupy, in overwhelming num- 

 bers, seats in the Legislatures ; and, by the power, and, through the 

 influence of the Press, they almost dictate terms to the Governments. 



It is, therefore, with the peoples of every nation that this great 

 question must rest. To them we must address ourselves, and say : If 

 your Governments, whether they be Imperial, Monarchical, or Re- 

 publican, become involved in a dispute with another nation, 

 with whom you are, and with whom you desire to be, at peace, and 

 from some sinister motive, personal pride, personal honour, or 

 personal ambition, refuse peaceful arbitration and rush madly into 

 war, visit those governments with the greatest amount of censure; 

 deprive them of power, remove them from oflSce, and let them make 



