CHANGED PUBLIC OPINION AS TO RECENT WARS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4559, 30 October 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHANGED PUBLIC OPINION AS TO RECENT WARS.

(From the Peace Society’s Papers.)

A silent conviction has forced itself on the public mind, that in the conflicts of opinion that have taken place -within the’last twenty years between the men of peace and their opponents, the event has proved that the former were, in the main, right. The Russian war, for instance—for opposing which Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. Sturge, Mr.. Pease, Mr. Richard, and others, were attacked with a violence of which those who do not remember that time can hardly form any conception —is admitted on all hands to have been a blunder ; and it is felt, though perhaps not openly avowed, that it would have been better, in every sense, if the nation had then listened to the counsels of the friends of peace. So, again, in reference to the ignoble succession of panics, principally as respects our French neighbors, to which our countrymen delivered themselves very much under the inspiration of the Press, there is a lurking sense of dishonor and ridicule associated with the remembrance of those national hysterics, and an implicit acknowledgment that the men who refused to be carried away with them really acted the rational and dignified part. It is beginning also to be perceived that some of the principles for which the Peace Party has been contending have in them more of wisdom and sound national policy than their opponents once suspected. The principle, for instance, of non-intervention, for which they have long and earnestly contended—meaning thereby, not as is sometimes most untruly alleged, non-intercourse with other nations, or want of interest in the general affairs of the world, but simply abstaining from meddling in the quarrels of others—is now accepted and acted upon habitually by our statesmen of all parties. Then the principle of arbitration is slowly admitted not to be so utopian and impracticable as it was once alleged to be. This is indeed admitted with a strange reluctance, and with as many reservations and qualifications as possible. But the force of facts can no longer be resisted, that many disputes that used to lead to war, are now actually disposed of by peaceful mediation, or amicable reference.