THE PEACE CONGRESS AT GENEVA.

West Coast Times, Issue 678, 26 November 1867, Page 3

THE PEACE CONGRESS AT GENEVA.

At the Peace Congress at Geneva, on Monday, September 9, Garibaldi, acting as president, opened the proceedings in these words: — "'All natior.s are sisters, and war between them should be impossible. All their quarrels should be referred to a congress, the members of which should be named by the democratic societies of all nations. The Papacy should be declared deposed from among human institutions. The religion of God ought to be adopte.d by the congress, and each of its members should undertake to propagate it throughout the surface of the globe. The congress should consecrate to the worship of the Almighty the select men of science and intelligence, and regard as " obsolete priests and ignorance. Democracy alone can destroy the scourge of war by the overthrow of falsehood and despotism. The slave alone has a right to make war against tyrants. A permanent central committee should be instituted at GeneTa, with a branch in all the capitals of the civilised world. The present Congress is the precursor of the grand assembly of the nations in the futnre. Despotism cannot be overthrown in one day ; but from this moment its fall may be predicted, and the erection of justice on its ruins. The free men of the whole world are brethren, and ought to sustain the Congress with all possible energy now and always. The second meeting of the Congress on September 10 was crowded and tumultuous, though M. Jolissaint, the president of the day, opened the meeting with a speech in which he invited the members to moderation. M. E. Quinet addressed the Congress on the two first questions of the progromme, and lamented the death of the human conscience under the heel of despotism. The world, he said, will not be redeemed till the people become conscious of their fall— till the new God appears — but between this time and then what tears j\ ill be shed! "Let the soldiers of right and liberty," he concluded, " spring from the earth to follow the hero whom I see at your head — Garibaldi." The temper of the Congress was once more aroused by M. Dupont, a delegate from the society of workmen, " who were proscribed by the bourgeois republic of 1038," who asked for the abolition of all sects with their permanent armies of priests, and the destruction of all churches as well as of all barracks ; -and Baron de Ponnant, who said that in Christianity there were two contending moralities— one which was pagan and good; the other, peculiarly Christian, which brought war and not peace among nations and families. He estimated at 100,000 the number of men who fell yearly a sacrifice since 1791 in wars which had their foundation in religious principles. The sitting was brought to a conclusion by M. Cataret, who made a speech in favor of peace and moderation. They must have public opinion on their side before they could succeed, not the opinion of a few or even thousands, but the opinion of millions. He invited the Congress to confine itself to the last article of the programme, and to shout forth with unanimous voice to all parts of Europe — " Anathema to war." ♦