ned Frenchman or Italian has a horror of
sacerdotalism as the beginning of the end, always and everywhere, and
as the only religion in those countries is sacerdotal, they are, alas,
in their national capacity, bereft of any religious guidance or
inspiration. We are, therefore, unable to see anything in Spain's
present position, but the working of the inevitable law of
Compensation, which is sovereign over States as over individuals,
though there are many of us who believe that the avowed humanitarian
objects of the American Government might have been attained by peaceful
methods, had not the country been goaded into a fever of restlessness
and impatience by that deplorable phenomenon of democratic institutions
known as the "yellow press".

At all events, the feeling universal in this country in the early
spring of this year, showed how far and fast we are travelling along
the road which will lead us to the final abandonment of warfare as
unworthy of rational men. Doubtless we are in advance of other nations
in this respect. But that is only what history leads us to expect. We
were the first to free slaves, abandon duelling, reform prisons and
criminal law, and erect humanitarianism into a veritable religion. And
have we not taught representative institutions to the world? We are
evidently destined, I believe, to lead the way towards the final
surrender of war. We keep no standing army. We shall never again
enter on a war of conquest or aggression. Our naval armaments and such
military power as we possess are notoriously created and maintained for
defensive purposes only. Brigandage and pillage we have most certainly
been guilty of in past times, but such a policy could not now survive
the day it was mooted. We are in the last trenches, preparatory to
finally abandoning the field.

But here it will be urged that there are circumstances which render war
absolutely inevitable, such for instance as an unjust aggression upon
the territory we own, or even live upon; an attack on the national
honour, or a reckless disregard of rights sanctioned by treaty or
international usage. Were arbitration in such cases even admissible,
we may conceive the would-be aggressor unwilling to have recourse to
it, or possibly to abide by its award. What is a government to do then?

Now, arguments and pleas such as these are valid enough against a
proposal of universal disarmament to be compulsorily carried out in six
months or a