and Martens) strenuously
try to prove that in the recent call of all nations to universal peace
and the present incitement to war, because of the seizure of other
peoples' lands, there is no contradiction. Diplomatists, in their refined
French language, publish and send out circulars in which they
circumstantially and diligently prove (though they know no one believes
them) that, after all its efforts to establish peaceful relations (in
reality, after all its efforts to deceive other countries), the Russian
Government has been compelled to have recourse to the only means for a
rational solution of the question--_i.e._ to the murder of men. The same
thing is written by Japanese diplomatists. Scientists, historians, and
philosophers, on their side, comparing the present with the past, deduce
from these comparisons profound conclusions, and argue interminably about
the laws of the movement of nations, about the relation between the
yellow and white races, or about Buddhism and Christianity, and on the
basis of these deductions and arguments justify the slaughter of those
belonging to the yellow race by Christians; while in the same way the
Japanese scientists and philosophers justify the slaughter of those of
the white race. Journalists, without concealing their joy, try to outdo
each other, and, not hesitating at any falsehood, however impudent and
transparent, prove in all possible ways that the Russians only are right
and strong and good in every respect, and that all the Japanese are wrong
and weak and bad in every respect, and that all those are also bad who
are inimical or may become inimical toward the Russians--the English, the
Americans; and the same is proved likewise by the Japanese and their
supporters in relation to the Russians.

Not to mention the military, who in the way of their profession prepare
for murder, crowds of so-called enlightened people, such as professors,
social reformers, students, nobles, merchants, without being forced
thereto by anything or anybody, express the most bitter and contemptuous
feelings toward the Japanese, the English, or the Americans, toward whom
but yesterday they were either well-disposed or indifferent; while,
without the least compulsion, they express the most abject, servile
feelings toward the Tsar (to whom, to say the least, they were completely
indifferent), assuring him of their unlimited love and readiness to
sacrifice their lives in his interests.

This unfortuna