The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2654, 19 August 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1871.

The summary of news by the Nevada is even more gratifying, so far as the prospect of renewed commerce is concerned, than that by Suez. The colonies and the world are relieved from a burden that acted repressively upon man’s best interests, and with peace, industry and comfort return. So intimately in these.days are nations dependent upon each other for their mutual well-being, that what affects one exerts its influence for good or bad upon the whole. This is one of the consequences of commerce and improved modes of transit. Fifty years ago a war between France and Germany would not have been nearly so serious a matter for the world as it proved to be, although even then the evil was enough ; but the effect was circumscribed. It affected nations mainly through being dragged into the quarrel willingly or unwillingly. War was considered one of the glories of u country, instead of one of its curses ; and meddling with matters of foreign policy, to compel a country to do something that it was unwilling to do. was considered to be a sign of greatness in a nation. These notions have not died out, nor are they likely to be dismissed as unworthy of civilised men until the mass of mankind learns that, in permitting wars they allow that which, however partial in its area, affects more or less immediately every human being. Whenever, in a discussion on this subject, cost is mentioned, some one rises up, and, in a sort of heroic sentimental strain, begins to condemn the mercenary who brings everything to ponnds/shillings, and pence considerations. It is time such chivalrous spirits learn that it is quite possible men who point to what is material in the consideration, have a truer notion of the spiritual connected with it, than those who affect to despise it. What can compensate Germany for the loss sustained in the destruction of fifty thousand men 1 And it must be remembered that this vast number were not of the decrepit and worn out; they were not idlers nor criminal. They were educated, trained, useful, moral citizens, in the prime of life. Many of them, prior to the war, were husbands and fathers, many were drawn from professions or businesses. Unlike the natural selection insisted upon by Darwin, as tending to conserve only the highest type of each species, war unnaturally selects the highest type, the most vigorous, high-spirited, enterprising, and courageous for destruction. The evil did not fall so heavily upon France. Her armies were differently constituted. They were made up of men who were withdrawn from ordinary employments, whose trade was war ; but yet they were recruited from the workmen’s ranks, and, as a necessity, from the most robust of the nation. Here, then, were two nations engaged in the mutual destruction of the finest men that could be found in each country, the loss of whom cannot be repaired. Next we have the immediate cost of the war which mnst bo estimated by tens of millions sterling on each side. Then there is the contingent destruction of property the villages, churches, bridges, farms, forests, corn fields, vineyards, factories, railways, palaces, fortifications, &c. Can anyone calculate the worth of those ? The years of human labor they involved, the time, the talent, the money 1 To add to this list is the ruin of thousands of families deprived of property on which they depended for support: in some instances the father killed, or the mother ) and children reduced to orphanage.

So much for the effect of a war on those immediately connected witli it. But from that centre of destruction, evil spread in widening circles. The nations that looked on were armed and ready for the fray : credit throughout the world was stopped; goods made in expectation of demand for consumption remained on hand : masters failed, men were discharged : wages were reduced : raw material fell in price : and poverty and pauperism spread on every side. The known consequences of such adverse influences, are that with commercial distress come crime and misery : and what compensation is there 1 Absolutely nothing, excepting the triumph of one monarch over another. To New Zealand the consequences have been stagnation of trade, ruin to some of our best firms, and low prices for raw material. We have done something to help these bra whacks in our politics in Otago ; but now the future looks brighter, and we trust that for years to come the English news will be as little interesting, except as to prices, as the telegram we published yesterday. _____