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the many public questions discussed fifty or sixty years ago (and
since) the peace question, with its immeasurable possibilities, interested
me the most. I naturally desired to attend the Brussels Peace Congress
in September, 1848, but did not expect to do so, as I was not able
to meet the necessary expenses. But a few days before the Congress
met I received, to my surprise and delight, a letter from Henry Richard
(afterwards M. P.), the secretary of the London Peace Society, saying
that his committee, in consideration of the assistance I rendered
the peace movement, and particularly the speeches I delivered at Chartist
meetings in Nottinghamshire, offered me a free delegate's ticket to
Brussels and back and free lodgings there during the Congress. |
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The joyful news
saluted me like the sunshine of a June morning. I accepted the offer
with suitable thanks, and went with about 150 other delegates from
this country to the first International Peace Congress, with Cobden,
"The International Man," as its chief ornament and spokesman.
One of the delegates to the Congress was Mr. John Bradley, ex-mayor
of Nottingham, who informed me that, after I left the town about six
months before, it was resolved to thank me for my courageous conduct
and speeches, that £10 was collected to be presented to me,
and that the thanks and the money had not been sent because my address
was not known. Mr. Bradley then and there, to my surprise and delight,
presented me £10. I felt as if fortune had showered on me special
favours-first in having my expenses as a delegate to the Congress
paid, and secondly to receive, without expectation, such a-to me at
the time-splendid present. |
| The
Brussels Congress was a success. It received the active support of
the Belgian Prime Minister, the patronising smile of the Belgian King,
a considerable share of public attention, and the good wishes of the
lovers of mankind everywhere. That Peace Congress, though it encountered
opposition, and got pelted with sneers, was historic, as it was the
first of the kind, and it sowed seed which has since germinated, and
from which may now be seen the prospect of an international harvest.
Just fifty years after-and fifty years are not much in the life of
nations-Government representatives from the independent nations of
Europe and America met at The Hague, in response to an invitation
from the Czar of Russia, to consider and afterwards to sanction the
general truthfulness and applicability of the principles enunciated
at the Brussels Congress, and to suggest methods for their practical
adoption. Had the South African Republics been represented at the
Hague Conference, as they wished to be, or had Kruger's repeated appeals
to submit the matters in dispute to arbitration been adopted, South
Africa would not have been blasted by British power; we should not
have entered on a costly and cowardly war, and thereby weakened our
position in the world, incurred the reproach, and called down the
general condemnation of civilised peoples. |
| Two
other International Peace Congresses, under the guidance of the same
committee, with Cobden as leader, took place-one at Paris in 1849,
and the other at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1850. I attended both, and
on each occasion paid my own expenses, as in the meantime I had made
some financial headway. The Paris Congress, with Victor Hugo as chairman,
was a complete success. Having a few months before written a biographical
sketch of Lamartine, which appeared in the People's Journal, and knowing
that he had married an English lady, I summoned up sufficient courage
to call on him, and was granted a short and sweet interview. I presented
him with a copy of the People's Journal containing the biographical
sketch, which he accepted with stately politeness. He said he was
an admirer of English institutions, and that he cordially hoped the
Peace Congress then sitting would produce good fruit. It so happened
that on the same day the members of the Congress, in answer to a special
invitation from M. de Tocqueville, attended a reception at the Foreign
Office. It also happened that M. de Tocqueville had married an English
lady, and I said, when I had the privilege of being introduced to
him, as two French Ministers who immediately succeeded each other
in the Foreign Office had married English ladies, I hoped it would
assist to unite England and France in the bonds of peace. He replied
in excellent English, and warmly expressed a similar desire. That
desire has recently received partial fulfilment in improved relationships
between the two countries. |
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