26 JULY 1851, Page 1

The Peace Congress, with its annual conferences, appears, like its

predecessor the Anti-Slavery Society, to be in a fair way to be- come one of our national institutions—a kind of volunteer Foreign Office, or diplomatic depot. Meetings at which Sir David Brewster presides, which M. de Girardin visits and Victor Hugo recognizes, and which are backed by the whole influence of Exeter Hall, are realities. Many who regard the idea of univer- sal disarmament as a dream, admit that the propensity to war is so strong in society as to render the counteraction of a sect which carries its principles to the other extreme not undesirable. A piece of wood which has got a twist may be straightened by bend- ing it for a time in the opposite direction. During the threedays that the Congress sat this week, some abstract principles and sen- timents were expressed, and well expressed, which command the assent of all reflecting men. The practical suggestions at the conferences were perhaps less felicitous. Mr. Cobden expatiated on his scheme of national arbitration ; but he does not make much progress in imparting to it a more definite and practical shape ; he does little more than repeat what he has been saying for years. The resolution condemnatory of loans for warlike purposes was supported with singular reticence. Mr. Gurney, "though he fully concurred in the terms of the resolution, was not prepared to agree in all that had been said of it" ; and Mr. Cobden declared, that the same considerations which weighed with Mr. Gurney pre- vented him from going fully into the question—he felt himself precluded from "showing up" the financial condition of Austria. The Peace Congress, in short, like most of the movements that emanate from Exeter Hall, appears to combine the best possible intentions with a certain helpless awkwardness in its attempts to realize them.