THE FRIENDS' MANIFESTO ON WAR.
[To THE EDITOR OF TILE "SPECTATOR."] Six,—Lest the letters on this subject from a clergyman and a Friend, both unnamed, should create a wrong impression, may I ask you to , publish either the " Plea for a Peaceable Spirit " itself or the following observations? The document in question—the phraseology of which may be open to criticism—does not discuss the origin or justice of the present war, a political question, which, as Friends (like most othe- denominations) are divided upon it; is rightly and expressly excluded. It•repeats the well-known tenet of Friends, that all war, is .necessarily un-Christian, and appeals to the ,present war, with'. its bloodshed, devastation, and physical suffering, as . well as the feeling of bitterness it has engendered; in evidence of that tenet, which is held by all Friends who .cais properly call themselves, so. This doetrine of Friends, is independent ofthe justice of any particular.war. Indeed, the greater the, justice• of this war the more convincing to, those who hold the Quaker ideal is the evidence it affords that war is in its essence alike un-Christian and inconclusive, and that no amount of justice in the cause will make it less so.7-I am; Sir, &c., • " • HOWARD HODGKIN.'. Hutton Hall, Gisborough, Yorks.
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