Mr. Richard (M.P. for Merthyr Tydvil) won a battle against
the Government on Tuesday,—carrying by a majority of 98 to 88 ]TIiSH resolution for an address to the Crown, "praying her Majesty that she will be graciously pleased to instruct her Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to enter into communica- tion with foreign Powers with a view to further improvement in International Law, and the establishment of a general and per- manent system of International Arbitration." Mr. Richard's speeoh was not germane to Mr. Richard's motion. It was an eloquent and rather grandiloquent panegyric on peace, and the policy of arbitration in cases of international quarrels, without any regard to the question whether the motion would tend to promote either peace or arbitration. Mr. Gladstone himself, who replied to Mr. Richard, and tried (in vain) to dissuade him from pressing his motion, by going with him all but up to his goal and then turning suddenly aside, made the same blunder. He eulogised Mr. Richard's object, but intimated that Mr. Richard's proposal was just a very little premature. We have, we believe, shown elsewhere that the proposal was not even a step to the end in view, unless Mr. Richard is willing—which he is not —to approve alliances for the purpose of compelling reuctant nations to resort to international arbitration and to abide by it ; and though that might be the first step to the end in view, it would unfortunately lead to it by the circuitous route of a long series of wars. Mr. Richard would do better if he would preach on the force of ex- ample, and let alone a "general and permanent system," till he has provided a general and permanent force to support the system. Mr. Richard loves peace not wisely, but too well.
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