24 OCTOBER 1868, Page 3

Mr. Grant Duff delivered his annual address to his constituents

-on Tuesday. It was as incisive as usual, but its main point was s denunciation of " that terrible Moloch, more destructive than the God of War himself, an armed peace." He believed that a -desire for partial disarmament was widely diffused among the Parliaments of Europe, and he suggested that in some one week -of next spring a simultaneous proposal for reductions should be made in every European legislature then sitting. Such a move- ment, Mr. Grant Duff contended, would attract great attention, -and compel all Governments to enter on their justification. That is true, if the proposal were carried ; but we do not exactly see how the universal defeat of the economists would tend towards .economy. Would it not, on the contrary, seem to give to the armed peace the sanction of a European consensus ?