THE STATE OF EUROPE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIV, Issue 44, 25 February 1887, Page 15

THE STATE OF EUROPE.

§HE state of Europe is far from satisfactory. The nations there, already well armed, ai\3 busily engaged in increasing their armaments. Even I ngland, which might be considered safe from Continental complications, is preparing for war. All these warlike preparations are hardly likely to end in peace, unless, indeed, it be the peace of "^ exhaustion, the outcome of a fearful conflict. But the onslaught of nation against nation is not the only conflict to be anticipated nnd dreaded : misgovernment is producing its effects in the internal disorder of all countries Socialism is spreading rapidly, as may be seen from the result of the elections now being held in Germany, and from the advance it has made in France and other countries ; and a period of wide-spread disorder and bloodshed within a short time is not improbable. The revolution set going in the end of the last century is still moving on ; and that revolution means not only nation in deadly conflict with nation, but citizen against citizen. Just and wise concessions made in time would have prevented all tlrs. But privilege, class, and capital would yield up none of their advantages, o^, at most, only few of them, at the call of labour, poverty, and the suffering masses. The natural result has followed, and now men behold, in breathless expectation and alarm, government armed against government, and the proletariat against wealth, rank, capital, against, indeed it may be said, all property. And all this after years and years of public secular education that was to have given peace and prosperity to civilised people. In view of the present state of things, must it not be said that the enormous expenditure on education that has been going on for half a century and more in some countries, and for a quarter of a century in others, has been in vain ? During all this time politicians have waged war on the Church, endeavoured to weaken her influence, and lost no opportunity of putting obstacles in her path. Would it not be well if another conrse were tried, and liberty given to the greatest moral influence in the world to work out her beneficent designs in her own way ? Opposition to the Church has failed to bring peace and plenty. Opposition to the Church has not succeeded in pacifying nations, and preventing the spread of Socialism. Would

it not be wise to try the efficacy of that institution which established the truce of God in the middle ages, succeeded after a long struggle in mitigating the lot of the slave, and ultimately putting an end to slavery ; that institution which civilised Europe and elevated one-half of the human race to a position of equality with the other half? Big armies and schools for reading, writing, and arithmetic, etc., without God, have not succeeded in making nations less aggressive and warlike, or in weakening the influence of socialistic theories ; There is, perhaps, more wealth than there ever was before ; but there is certainly more poverty and deeper distress. The rich are richer than they ever were before ; but the poor are poorer and more numerous. And as to morality 1 The less that is said, perhaps,the better. Our divorce courts,our police courts, tell a tale, over which, for the sake of humanity, public journalists ought to draw a veil. The state of Europe is truly appalling. Nor can we regard it merely historically, our relations with it are too numerous and intimate to permit our doing so. What concerns it concerns us very intimately. European affairs react on us in many ways. In this rapid review, the state of Ireland must not be omitted. This state is an embarrassment to England, and lessens her influence in European councils. All statesmen in their dealings with the United Kingdom remember the dissatisfaction that prevails in that country and throughout the entire Irish race scattered through the world. Would it not make a great difference to the Imperial Government were the Irish contented and prepared to join cordially in fighting its battles, and would it not be wise, therefore, to hand over to them the management of their own affairs ? To do so would be not only an act of justice, but also of the highest and widest policy. The world then stands on the brink of an abyss and confusion, the outcome of which no man can divine, and which outcome will not be reached except through calamities which one shudders to contemplate.