Lay Down Your Arms

been very favourable to the Reformation.” Today there is hardly anyone left who has not dreamed this dream, or who would not confess its beauty. And there are watchers too; watchers conspicuous enough, who are longing to awake mankind out of the long sleep of savagery, and energetically and with a single eye to their object collecting themselves for the purpose of planting the white flag. Their battle-cry is, “War on War,” their watchword, the only word which can have power to deliver from ruin Europe armed against herself is, “Lay down your arms.” In all places, in England and France, in Italy, in the northern countries, in Germany, in Switzerland, in America, associations have been formed, whose object is, through the compulsion of public opinion, through the commanding pressure of the people’s will, to move the Governments to submit their differences in future to an Arbitration Court, appointed by themselves, and so once for all to enthrone justice in place of brute force. That this is no dream, no “enthusiasm,” is proved by the facts that the questions of the Alabama, the Caroline Islands, and several others have already been settled in this manner. And it is not only people without power or position, like the poor blacksmith of a former time, who are now cooperating in this work of peace; no, members of parliament, bishops, professors, senators, ministers are inscribed on the lists. I know all this (which is unknown to most people), because I have kept in communication with all those persons, with whom Frederick established relations in the pursuit of his noble aim. What I found out, by means of these persons, about the successes and the designs of the peace societies has been duly entered in The Protocol of Peace. The last of these entries is the following letter which the president of the International Arbitration and Peace Association, having its headquarters in London, wrote me in answer to an inquiry bearing on this subject:⁠—

International Arbitration and Peace Association,

“London, 41 Outer Temple, July, 1889.

“Madam⁠—You have honoured me by inquiring as to the actual position of the great question to which you have devoted your life. Here is my answer: At no time, perhaps, in the history of the world has the cause of peace and goodwill been more hopeful. It seems that, at last, the long night of death and destruction will pass away; and we who are on the mountain-top of humanity think that we see the first streaks of the dawn of the kingdom of Heaven upon earth. It may seem strange that we should say this at a moment when the world has never seen so many armed men and such frightful engines of destruction ready for their accursed work; but when things are at their worst they begin to mend. Indeed, the very ruin which these armies are bringing in their train produces universal consternation; and soon the oppressed peoples must rise and with one voice say to their rulers: ‘Save us, and save our children from the famine which awaits us, if these things continue; save civilisation and all the triumphs which the efforts of wise and great men have accomplished in its name; save the world from a return to barbarism, rapine and terror!’

“ ‘What indications,’ do you ask, ‘are there of such a dawn of a better day?’ Well, let me ask in reply, is not the recent meeting at Paris of the representatives of one hundred societies for the declaration of international concord, for the substitution of a state of law and justice for that of force and wrong, an event unparalleled in history? Have we not seen men of many nations assembled on this occasion and elaborating, with enthusiasm and unanimity, practical schemes for this great end? Have we not seen, for the first time in history, a Congress of Representatives of the parliaments of free nations declaring in favour of treaties being signed by all civilised states, whereby they shall bind themselves to defer their differences to the arbitrament of equity, pronounced by an authorised tribunal instead of a resort to wholesale murder?

“Moreover, these representatives have pledged themselves to meet every year in some city of Europe, in order to consider every case of misunderstanding or conflict, and to exercise their influence upon Governments in the cause of just and pacific settlements. Surely, the most hopeless pessimist must admit that these are signs of a future when war shall be regarded as the most foolish and most criminal blot upon man’s record?

“Dear madam, accept the expression of my profound esteem.

“Yours truly,

“Hodgson Pratt.”

There is also to be found in the blue book the manifesto of a prince, dated March, 1888, a manifesto from which at last, breaking with old usage, instead of a warlike a peaceful spirit shines forth. But the noble one, who left these words to his people, the dying one, who with the last effort of his strength grasped the sceptre which he would have swayed as if it had been a palm branch, remained helplessly chained to his bed of pain, and after a short interval all was over.

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“Mother, will you not put your mourning off for the day after tomorrow?”

Rudolf came into my room with these words today. For the christening of his firstborn son is fixed for the day after tomorrow.

“No, my dear,” I replied.

“But think; at such a festival you surely will not be mournful. Why then keep the outer signs of mourning?”

“And you will not be superstitious, and fear that the black dress of the grandmother will bring bad luck to the child?”

“Oh no; but it does not harmonise with the surrounding gaiety. Have you then sworn an oath?”

“No; it is only a firm resolution. But a resolution linked to such a memory⁠—you know my meaning⁠—that it partakes of the inviolability of an oath.”

My son bowed his head, and did not urge me further.

“I have interrupted you in what you