BURKE AND THE WAR.
[To THE EDITOR OP TH1 "SPECTATOR."] Stu,—I do not think that the man in the street has realized the difference between this war and other wars. I also
observe that some amiable persons and nations are speaking of peace. I venture to call the attention of your readers to the words of Burke in the first of his three letters on peace with France, which aptly describe our present situation :-
" We are in a war of a peculiar nature. It is not with an ordinary community which is hostile or friendly as passion or interest may veer about; not with a State which makes war through wantonness and abandons it through lassitude. We are at war with a system, which by its essence is inimical to all other Governments, and which makes peace or war as peace and war may best contribute to their subversion. It with an armed doctrine that we are at war."
So far Burke. Does the decent Englishman realize that this armed doctrine means the substitution of everything that he has been taught to hate and despise for everything that he has been brought up to respect and care for—that falsehood is to take the place of truth, brutality that of humanity, hatred that of kindliness and good feeling P The man who would make this clear to the nation at large would do a great
service and bring in many recruits.—I am, Sir, &c., A. J. GRANT DUFF.
Earl Soham Grange, Framlingham.
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