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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 249, 21 October 1870, Page 2

Mk. FitzGerald on the European War. — The following is an extract from a lecture recently delivered in Wellington by Mr. FitzGerald on " Government :" — " May we not ask at this moment, what

has modern civilization done for us ? — what does not our Christianity and our boasted enlightenment demand of us, in the dealings between nation and nation ? It is difficult to speak with becoming calmness on such a subject when every mail brings to us the appalling narrative of one of the most meaningless, most unnecessary, and most wicked wars which the world has ever seen. I took occasion not many months ago, in aa address in this room, to denounce in no uncertain terms, the shame to our boasted civilisation, of seeing vast armies, in a time of profound peace, waiting for the first excuse to fall upon each other — the disgrace to our age that the best efForO of mechanical ingenuity, and the largest portion of the public incomes of slates should be devoted to purposes of destroying human life and annihilating the labors of generations of men. We have before us the miserable result. Without time for consideration, without the chance afforded for calmer counsels to bo given, or dispassionate voices heard, within a few hours after the Foreign Minister had announced that never was the work of his department more barren of interest, — we see two of our allies, with whom we were most intimately connected by diplomatic relations, flying at each other's throats, for a cause which the world around can hardly divine, and in which the future welfare of mankind can be in no way concerned. When I read in the paper the other day, that five hundred horses had been driven into a field in France, and there shot down as an experiment, used as a living target, to exhibit the destructive power of a new military engine, I thought I was reading some scene in the old ampitheatre at Rome ; and I remembered how in that great empire the cultivation of savage spectacles had been ! coeval with the decline of national glory. If there were no other work left for Governments to do, this alone should be the effort of every man worthy of the name of statesman — to put an end to unnecessary wars. I say not that, with our still imperfect civilization, wars may not, for many an age, be a part of the scheme for the education of the world. Still, for long ages the \yfinal court of appeal for nations will no I doubt be the sword. But so long as States remain in time of peace armed to the teeth, so long will war be an appeal to passion, not to right. In private life at no remote period, men wore swords by their sides, and every petty quarrel was the excuse for the shedding of blood. We have grown to feel that law and the opiniou of society can defend individuals from insult as effectively as the sword. But amongst States it would seem that the world has made no progress. History will probably search in vain amongst the annals of the dark ages, for auy war waged by personal ambition or national passion, more aimless or more wanton than that which is now desolating the provinces of the Rhine.