Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Neither shall we make any comment upon the singularity of the time
selected for these demonstrations. The members of the Congress
expressly set forth, that it was their desire to impress upon the
governments of Europe the folly of maintaining large establishments,
and we presume that they entertained some reasonable hope that their
remonstrances might at least be heard. We need scarcely point out to
our readers the eminent fitness of the present juncture for carrying
these views into effect. We have great faith in the extent and power
of human idiocy, but we hardly supposed that any body of men could
have been congregated, possessed of so much collective imbecility as
to conceive that this was a proper moment for securing the conviction,
or enlisting the sympathies of any government in their scheme. We are,
however, forced to conclude, that a good many of them are sincere; and,
believing this, our regard for their honesty rises in a corresponding
ratio with the decline of our respect for the measure of their
intellects. It would probably be unjust and wrong to confound some of
these simple souls with men of the stamp of their new ally, who use
their association merely as a means for the promulgation of part of
their political opinions, but who, in reality, are so far from being
the friends of peace, that they seem bent upon using their utmost
efforts to involve the whole of Europe in a new and desolating war.
While, therefore, we drop for the present any further notice of the
proceedings of the Peace Congress, we feel it our imperative duty to
trace the steps of Mr Cobden since, arrayed in sheep's clothing, he
chose to make his appearance in the midst of that innocent assembly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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