In the heat of their very natural and most righteous
indignation at German barbarity, some people seem to forget that to destroy any German town would be to destroy a good deal of art in the form of pictures or architecture. This is true, however low we place the standard of German art. Many artistic things have been imported to German towns, and many could not be removed, or would escape notice even if some kind of attempt were made to save them. In thinking of the destruction of the maw it is easy to overlook the precious small things contained in it. Let us illustrate what is proposed by a perfectly logical analogy. Suppose it were suggested that we should punish the Germans by slitting up valuable paintings of the old Dutch school because they happen to belong to Germano. Every mind would revolt from the barbarity and idiocy of the thing. Yet that is what is being proposed, though the issue may be a little obscured. During the Indian Mutiny it was proposed that the great Mosque at Delhi should be turned into a Christian church in order to punish the rebels. John Lawrence successfully resisted this senseless idea. The countrymen of Lawrence may be trusted to resist to-day a proposal that is just as little likely to serve the ends which we all have in view. Make the Germans pay the last pfennig for restoring what they have destroyed. Let them be forced to give works of art to replace what is lost. Let them pay the extreme penalty of murder where murder is proved. But let us not destroy things for the sake of destroying them.
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