The papers of Monday published a statement on Prussian methods
and aims made by Sir Edward Grey to the London representative
of the Chicago Daily News. It is a remarkably compact survey of how Germany persisted in making war ; the cumulative force
of the examples of Prussian determination to rule by force is over- whelming. We can only refer the reader to the argument, but we must quote what Sir Edward Grey says about the prospects for mediators :—
" When persons come to mo with pacific counsels I think they should tell me what sort of peace they have in mind. They should let mo know on which side they stand ; for the opponents do not agree. If they think, for example, that Belgium was innocent of offence ; that she has been unspeakably wronged ; that she should be set up again by those who tore her down, then, it seems to me, they should say so. Peace counsels that aro purely abstract, and make no attempt to dis- criminate between the rights and the wrongs of this war, are ineffective, if not irrelevant."
That is excellently said by one who loves peace as much as any Englishman living. Peace without securing ourselves and our friends against Prussian methods for the future does not enter into our calculations. Those who offer peace merely for the sake of peace, and not for what it pledges us, will waste their breath.
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