IT does not require any extraordinary sagacity in a commercial assembly
to appreciate the dire evils of war. The great interests of trade
enfeebled by it, the enterprise of better times paralysed by it, all the
peaceful arts bent down before it, too palpably indicate its character
and results, so that far less practical intelligence than that by which I
am surrounded would be sufficient to appreciate the horrors of war. But
there are seasons when the evils of peace, though not so acutely felt,
are immeasurably greater, and when a powerful nation, by admitting the
right of any autocrat to do wrong, sows by such complicity the seeds of
its own ruin, and overshadows itself in time to come with that fatal
influence which great and ambitious powers are sure to exercise over
their weaker neighbours.
Therefore it is, ladies and gentlemen, that the tree has not its root in
English ground from which the yard wand can be made that will measure—the
mine has not its place in English soil that will supply the material of a
pair of scales to weigh the influence that may be at stake in the war in
which we are now straining all our energies. That war is, at any time
and in any shape, a most dreadful and deplorable calamity, we need no
proverb to tell us; but it is just because it is such a calamity, and
because that calamity must not for ever be impending over us at the fancy
of one man against all mankind, that we must not allow that man to darken
from our view the figures of peace and justice between whom and us he now
interposes.
Ladies and gentlemen, if ever there were a time when the true spirits of
two countries were really fighting in the cause of human advancement and
freedom—no matter what diplomatic notes or other nameless botherations,
from number one to one hundred thousand and one, may have preceded their
taking the field—if ever there were a time when noble hearts were
deserving well of mankind by exposing themselves to the obedient bayonets
of a rash and barbarian tyrant, it is now, when the faithful children of
England and France are fighting so bravely in the Crimea. Those faithful
children are the admiration and wonder of the world, so gallantly are
they discharging their duty; and therefore I propose to an assembly,
emphatically representing the interests and arts of peace, to drink the
health of the Allied Armies of England and France, with all possible
honours.
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