They made the belligerents settled by amicable reference. apparently sincere and strenuous efforts for this purpose, by mediating first alone, and then in concert with other friendly powers. They seem to have adopted in good faith the principle of arbitration recommended to all governments by the Peace Congress of Paris in 1856, and made an honest effort to secure their adoption by the parties in the present war. 3. There is no little encouragement, moreover, "in the fact -a fact which certainly cannot be paralleled in any former period of European history that the contending parties were restrained for nearly three months from actual conflict by the anxious endeavors of other friendly states to find a pacific solution for the difficulty without having recourse to the bloody wager of battle. When we remember that the disputes of nations have been for so many ages, and by almost universal consent submitted, to the arbitration of "violence and sword-law," it is hardly to be expected that this sinister supremacy can be overthrown in a day. It is only gradually, and after many efforts and failures, that we can hope to see the dominion of reason and justice substituted for that of brute-force, in the regulation of international affairs. But every honest attempt of that nature tends in the right direction, and contributes to the ultimate triumph of a principle which is more and more felt, not only to be right in the abstract, but in harmony with the requirements and aspirations of the age, and in fact absolutely necessary to save civilization from being swamped by material and military predominance." 4. There is still another fact of very emphatic significance connected with this war, viz.: that "it has been entered into not only without the concurrence, but against the earnest and loudly expressed protests of the people in every country, with the exception of Sardinia, where the popular passions have been sedulously excited by the government. In France, especially, despite of all restrictions placed upon press and tribune, public opinion has pronounced in most unmistakeable tones against war. In a remarkable pamphlet published in Paris at the commencement of the Italian discussions, the writer, adverting to the state of public opinion on this subject, says: Go, no matter where, and get information. Penetrate into the garret of the poor man, into the workshops, the farm-yards, the petty shops and larger warehouses, in every spot, on all sides, you hear but one voice, and that voice raised in favor of general tranquility. On every side you will be assured that France not only does not believe in It is quite true, and not at all inconsistent with this testimony, that the people, when their passions are awakened by the progress of events, and by every kind of artful appeal to their pugnacity and pride, may be lashed into a sort of artificial enthusiasm for the very thing they have most deprecated. But the fact stands on record, and will no doubt be yet remembered when the day of reckoning comes, that the potentates have plunged the nations into the guilt and misery of war, at the time when all Europe was longing and passionately pleading for peace." Here certainly are omens, of hope and peace. Such facts, so rare in past ages, prove beyond all reasonable doubt such a wide and deep-seated aversion of the public mind to war, as has very seldom preceded an appeal to arms. It indicates an altered tone of popular feeling on the subject, and promises in future a more peaceful order of things. WAR SELDOM SUCCESSFUL. The last war with England, waged for the very purpose of establishing the freedom of the seas, and abrogating this right of search, failed entirely of its object. We were ready and glad to agree to terms of peace which wholly ignored the question. Another attempt might be similarly unsuccessful. Wars seldom accomplish the precise object for which they are waged. Circumstances change, and the aims and ends of belligerents change during a war, so that often the negotiations for peace do not recognize the original cause of quarrel. A war between powers equally matched, like those of England and America, seldom attains what cannot be acquired by negotiation. MOBILIZATION. This word means, in military parlance, calling troops into active service; and a terrible significance it is, not only to the army, but to society at large. By the Prussian law, every men is a soldier up to the age of 40; and consequently, from the moment the mobilization takes place, all business is at an end, and every thing sucked into the vortex of the war movement. The tribunals, work-shops, railways, and administrations of all kinds, are forced to give up to the army their most able hands; there remain only women, children, and old men. 933416A AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY. THIRTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY. THE Society met, pursuant to due notice, May 23, at 3 P. M., in the vestry of the Park Street Church, Boston. On motion of Rev. J. Sanger, D. D., the Rev. FRANCIS WAYLAND, D. D., one of the Vice-Presidents, was called to the chair. The records of the Society's last Annual Meeting were read and approved. An abstract of the Treasurer's Report was laid before the Society, and adopted. The Corresponding Secretary, on behalf of the Board of the Directors, read their Annual Report, which, after discussion, and some slight modification, was adopted, and the Secretary directed to present a brief abstract at the public exercises in the evening. On 'nomination by a committee previously appointed, the following list of officers for the ensuing year was unanimously chosen:-(See page 320.) Benj. Greenleaf, Esq., suggested the expediency of publishing a PEACE ALMANAC, and kindly offered to furnish gratuitously the astronomical calculations for it; whereupon it was Voted, That the question and mode of publishing a Peace Almanac for 1860, be referred to the Executive Committee. Adjourned to the public services in the Church at 7 1-2 o'clock. FRANCIS WAYLAND, D.D., LL.D., in the chair. The exercises were open ed in the evening with prayer by Rev. JOHN WADDINGTON, of London. The newly elected President, after brief appropriate remarks on the progress and hopeful prospects of the cause, introduced the Rev. GEO. B. CHEEVER, D.D., who had been appointed to deliver a Eulogy on the late President of the Society, Hon. WILLIAM JAY. On the conclusion of the discourse, which was listened to by a large audience, a vote of thanks was passed to the Speaker "for his able and interesting Address, and a copy requested for the press." ANNUAL REPORT. The Society has been called the past year to mourn the loss of some of its most distinguished members. In October last its beloved and venerated President, Hon. WILLIAM JAY, was taken to his rest and his reward; and our Directors, at a special meeting summoned on the occasion, say, "while acknowledging the hand of God in this event, we desire to record our high estimate of his distinguished and manifold excellencies as a man, a Christian, and a model Christian Patriot, Philanthropist and Reformer, but more especially our grateful sense of the important services he long rendered to the cause of Peace. As our President for the last ten years of his life, his well-known and universally respected name has been a tower of strength; and besides the liberal contributions of his purse, we have been indebted to his polished and powerful pen for three Annual Ad dresses before our Society, for his unanswerable Review of the Mexican War as waged in the interest of Slavery, and for his brief but admirable Essay on Peace and War, embodying the practical idea of Stipulated Arbitration as a substitute for the sword. His interest in our great work, though slow in its rise, steadily increased to the last. We thank God that we have been permitted so long to enjoy his leadership in the cause of Peace, and now to embalm in our hearts so precious a memory of his worth and his services." Among other prominent friends of our cause, death has not been so busy the past year as in the preceding one; but we have lost several whom we shall long and seriously miss. Hon. ROBERT RANTOUL, a much honored Vice-President of our Society, and for many years a personal friend of its Founder, William Ladd, has died since our last anniversary in a ripe old age. Another venerable and highly esteemed friend, Rev. ALVAN UNDERWOOD, has passed to the peace-maker's reward. Up to the age of nearly eighty, he retained a fresh and active interest in our cause; and not long before his death he subscribed, from his small resources, a hundred dollars towards our thirty-thousand dollar fund, with the hope, if his life should be spared, of increasing his subscription. THE FINANCES OF THE SOCIETY,- though far less favorable than the friends of God and man ought to have made them, have been much better than our fears. We have kept the balance on the right side of the ledger, and still have continued, even in these trying times, nearly our ordinary scale of operations, and in some departments have done considerably more than usual. Our income from all sources, including a small balance from last year, has been $4,783.38, and our expenditures, $4,619.43, leaving in our treasury a balance of $163.95. Bequests. We observe with pleasure a growing disposition among our friends to remember this cause in the final distribution of their property. Several illustrations of this have come to light the last year; and we trust their number will steadily and widely increase. The Founder of our Society, whose memory is destined to be sweetly fragrant long after that of warriors shall have rotted with their bones, set in this respect an example worthy of all praise, by devoting his property, as he had his life, to an enterprise identified, as ours ever must be, with the highest welfare of our whole race. The bulk of his estate was reserved for the support of his widow; but on her decease, which occurred more than three years ago, it was all to be consecrated to the cause of Peace. The will was contested by the heirs at law; but the final decision of the case, recently made by the Supreme Court of the State of Maine, awards all that remains of his property to our Society as residuary legatee. How much that may turn out to be, it is quite impossible now to foresee; but nothing has yet come, or is likely to come for some time, into our hands, or those of Mr. Ladd's trustees. It is clear we cannot rely on this resource for the means of sustaining our cause, but must hereafter, as heretofore, look to the liberality and zeal of its living friends for its successful prosecution. OUR AGENCIES-have been somewhat less than usual. Our Secretary has continued the same services as heretofore; and, besides nine Local Agents selected to look after our cause each in his respective vicinity, and perform such labor in its behalf as they can consistently with their duties as pastors, and without charge to the Society, we have commissioned during the year four Lecturing Agents. Two of these have recently entered our service, one as our General Agent; and the other two have labored only a part of the time. OUR PUBLICATIONS - have been considerably increased. We have issued the usual number of our periodical, a new edition of one of our stereotyped volumes, and a number of our stereotyped tracts larger than for several years before. We have stereotyped only one new work, a tract of twenty-four pages by Hon. AMASA WALKER; and we are glad to see that the London Peace Society has already published the same popular and effective argument against the folly of military armaments. In various ways, we have, by our own publications, or by the use of our funds, put before the public an amount of matter on the subject of Peace, equivalent to more than twelve million tract pages, or an average of more than three thousand such pages for every dollar we have expended during the year in our entire operations. All this besides the current expenses of our office, and what we have done by our lecturing agents. In such ways we have contrived, with our very slender means, to keep the subject more or less before the public mind. We have sent our periodicals to a somewhat large number of preachers in different denominations, to all our leading religious newspapers, and to the best of our secular papers, in the hope of stimulating them to co-operate with us in this great Christian Reform. How much light we may have spread by these means on the subject through the community, it is of course impossible to estimate; but we think the incidental influences thus silently diffused will be found in time to act like leaven on the general mind, and contribute largely towards forming the christianized public opinion that shall at length undermine and sweep away the whole war-system forever. Such a consummation is most devoutly to be wished. Every year, every day, has from time immemorial been proving how urgently it is needed. It is the great want of our age, and of all ages. Patriotism, Philanthropy, Religion, all are sighing for the relief of some expedient whereby nations can be rescued from the enormous evils inseparable from the war-system; a system requiring for its support even in a time of peace more than thrice as much treasure, talent and life as would suffice to evangelize the whole pagan world. The present state of Europe ought to be an irresistible argument in favor of increasing efforts in this cause a hundred fold. Had there been from the first such efforts on its behalf as its vast importance demanded, they would ere this have effected a change in the opinion and policy of Christendom that must have arrested all serious danger of such a conflict as now threatens the Old World. |