IT
WAS TRUE THAT THE WARS ARE MADE BY RADICALS AND RADICALS
KILL THOUSANDS
OF POOR CREATURES FOR THE SAKE OF POWER ...
ELECTRIC POWER OR POLITIC
POWER IT'S THE SAME POWER...
people clamoured for ministers, on both sides, having ceased
to regard themselves as more than the instruments of the
people's wishes.
It was true that they were Radicals, and
that the Radicals, till their turn of power came, had professed
to hate war ; that they had denounced Lord Beaconsfield, and
turned him out of office, for the jingoism which they were now
adopting. But after we had seen them reddening the sands of
Africa with the blood of tens of thousands of poor creatures
who had been killed without a scruple to escape an adverse
vote in the House of Commons, one could not deny that even
they, or at least the politicians among them, might be willing,
for the same object, to kill as many more in Asia.
But why were the people themselves so eager ? Not one
in a thousand of them could pretend that he had studied the
question, and was satisfied that only a war could save our
Indian Empire. Danger to the empire might be the excuse ;
it could not be the motive. I began to think that Lord
must have been right when he said to me : ' The reason why
the English wish to fight Russia is that they enjoy fighting,
and Russia is the only one of the Great Powers with whom
they could fight with the slightest hope of a favourable result.'
Prudent persons, before they undertake any important enter-
prise, balance the result to be gained with the cost of gaining
it. A war set going with Russia under the existing conditions
would continue either till Russia was exhausted and fell to
pieces in revolution ; or, if we were the unsuccessful party
as it was at least possible that we might be till there was
another rebellion in India. Either alternative promised in-
calculable misery to millions of the human race ; yet we, who
could not manage our own South Africa, who were letting
Ireland slip from us, as wanting strength or wanting courage
to hold it, were preparing with a light heart to carry fire and
sword into the ends of the earth.
Russia, we were told, was extending her conquests in Central
Asia. Had we made no conquests in Asia ?
Russia's Asiatic
subjects, counted altogether, do not exceed thirty millions.
The Empress of India has two hundred and fifty millions.
Russia was attacking the Afghans.
Had we never attacked the Afghans ?
Russia was a danger to the Indian Empire.
She might encourage disaffection there, and if she could she
would. How could we know that she would ? and if she did,
might she not plead our own example : only seven years ago
we had formed a deliberate plan to stir up a revolt in Turkestan 1
We satisfy ourselves that when we do these things it is for the
good of mankind, but that when others do them it is wicked
and not to be permitted. Such a plea as this will hardly pass
current in the intercourse of nations. For myself, I thought
that the war now so clamoured for would be a wicked war,
and I clung to my conviction that our better genius would
somehow keep us out of it. The greatest fool in the House
of Commons, if left to himself and to his own small under-
standing, would steer the ship of the State better than the
galaxy of genius had done which formed Mr. Gladstone's Ad-
ministration ; but even they, I trusted, would still keep us clear
of this fresh disaster.
