The strange hallucination of the French that we desire war
with them has induced the Gaulois to "circularise" a number of English notabilities, and Tuesday's issue contains answers, amongst others, from Cardinal Vaughan, the Bishop of London, Lord Russell of Killowen, Lord Rosebery, Sir P'rederiok Carrington, Sir John Colomb, and Mr. Arnold- Forster. Needless to say, the writers are unanimous in repudiating the notion that England wishes for war with France. Sir Frederick Carrington does not exaggerate when he says, " I share the belief, which is that of every reasonable Englishman, that nobody dreams of so astounding an act of madness as a declaration of war with France ; " and Lord Russell of Killowen understates the truth when he declares that any " public man in either of the two countries who uses expressions calculated to create or excite feelings of animosity between the two peoples is acting contrary to the interests of the two countries." The appearance of these letters in the Gaulois is all the more creditable because of the reactionary and anti-English bias of that journal. It is to be hoped, therefore, that they may reassure those sensitive Frenchmen who have evolved this chimera of English aggression out of the consciousness that they are not ready for war, and that therefore some one—England for choice—is bound to attack them at the earliest opportunity. The French have always been at the mercy of their logical subtlety.
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