AN ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 163, 1 July 1876, Page 4

AN ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.

Don Arturo de Marcoartu, recently a member of the Spanish Cortes, has issued an Essay in favor bf International Arbitration, in wbich be observes that " During tbe preeant peace, wbich the Emperor of Germany asserts to be as calm and as lengthened as tbat which Europe enjoyed during the 20 yeare which preceded the reconstruction of tbe Germanic Empire, cultivated and religious Europe arms and arrays more thau 5,000,000 soldiers, or as many in number as the whole population of Belgium ; annually expends in war about £300,000,000 sterling ; and if to this we add £350,000,000 interest . upon national debts, chitfly contracted for war purposps, we bnve an amount of ; more lhan £650,000,000 per year, or say nearly £2 000,000 a day as tbe . gam whicb Europe in these latter days ' dedicates to secure her own'extermination aud destruction. As it is almost impossible to estimate the precise cost of pauperism in Europe, it is well to remember that in England and Wales alone £150,000,000 have been expended under that head within the last 25 years ! The deaths occasioned by tbe different wars which have occurred during the present century in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, exceed in number the whole population of the city of London, and it is absolutely impossible to calculate the myriads of millions which these wars have cost, ahd have destroyed. Aod, absorbed as we are in our preparations to resist ' wars between nations, we never imagine that we are by such a system exposing ourselves to provoke a social war oi classes ; and we forget tbe existence of more than 5,000,000 of destitute poor who afflict the heart of civilised Europe with their piteous lamentations — 5,000,000 of laborers who deeply and keenly feel the consequences of resolving international consequences by the means of force and enormous war imposts, and who might in their turn j determine to attempt the employment of force, and in their brutalised despe- j ration devastate with the fire-brand bt Socialism the achievements of many I generations."