life came to an end within this year was Sir William Jenner, who died on December 11, 1898. Jenner was born on January 30, 1815, at Chatham. His birth, like that of Sir Richard Quain, was lowly. His father was the owner of a small inn, and Jenner, like Quain, received his earliest education at a local dame's school. He showed from his boyish years a strong inclination for the study of medicine, and in 1833 was sent to University College, London, to obtain a medical education. After he had entered the medical profession his upward movement became rapid, and he was soon acknowledged as one of the rising men in the sphere which he had chosen. He became Professor of Clinical Medicine to University College in 1857; in 1861 he was appointed Physician-Extraordinary to the Queen, and in 1863 he became Physicianin-Ordinary to the Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII. He was created a Baronet, in 1868, and may be said to have received all the distinctions appropriate to his services and his success which could have been given to him by recognized authorities abroad as well as at home. He attended the late Prince Consort during the fatal illness which left Her Majesty a widow; attended the Duke of Albany during the many illnesses which ended in his death; was mainly instrumental in saving the life of the Prince of Wales during the dangerous malady which befell him in 1872. Queen Victoria had the utmost reliance on his abilities and his care, and often expressed in words of warmest cordiality her grateful sense of the services he had rendered to her family, and her sincere friendship for him. Sir William Jenner has been described by many of his friends as a man who never formed an undecided or doubtful judgment on any subject concerning which he was called upon to make up his mind. When he saw his way, he saw it quite clearly, and could not be led from it. His emphatic decisiveness is said to

have often alarmed those who had to consult him, and who could not at first accept fully and unreservedly his decision. He appears even to have had in him something of that relish for the contradiction of opinions expressed by others, which Herbert Spencer frankly acknowledges to have been one of his own peculiarities. But those who derived benefit from Sir William Jenner's knowledge, skill, and care could well excuse in him the positiveness with which, when his mind was made up, he overbore all counsels that tended to oppose his decrees. Sir William Jenner's was, indeed, a remarkable career, and it is gratifying to know that it was well rewarded.

CHAPTER XII

PEACE CLAIMS HER VICTORIES

THE establishment of the Peace Conference at The Hague in 1898 is an event which has hardly as yet realized the promise with which it was announced; but it may none the less, despite of all discouragement and all prediction of failure, come to be regarded as the opening of a new and most happy era in the history of the world. The Peace Conference was opened at The Hague in 1899, but it was invited at the end of August in the preceding year. The Conference was the conception of the Czar of Russia, the Sovereign of the Power that had long been regarded by most of the world's civilized States as one of the great disturbers of human peace. The ideas and proposals of the Czar were made known to the world on August 24, 1898, by Count Muravieff, Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Imperial Court of Russia. His momentous despatch began with the declaration that "The maintenance of universal peace, and a possible reduction of the excessive armaments which weigh upon all nations in the present condition of affairs all over the world, represent the ideal aims towards which the efforts of all Governments ought to be directed." Then Count Muravieff went on to tell the various Foreign Offices, and through them civilization in general, that such was the view which absolutely corresponded with the humanitarian and magnanimous intentions of his Imperial master. He was magnanimous enough to say that the Gov

ernment of Russia felt convinced that the same high purpose agreed with the interests and the legitimate requirements of all the Powers, and that the present moment was especially favorable for seeking by way of international discussion "the most effective means of assuring for all peoples the blessings of real and lasting peace, and of fixing a limit to the progressive development of existing armaments."

Count Muravieff passed on to tell his readers that during the previous twenty years aspirations after general peace had grown particularly strong in the consciences of civilized nations; that the preservation of peace had been made the aim of international policy, and that for the sake of peace the Great Powers had been forming strong alliances. Among the readers of the despatch there may well have been at the time a considerable proportion who believed they had good reason to know that the alliances between Great Powers had been formed more often for the purpose of carrying on successful wars than establishing a reign of universal peace. Without pausing to consider this particular question, every one must have agreed with Count Muravieff when he declared that all these efforts "have not yet led to the beneficent results of the desired pacification." One paragraph in this despatch dwelt with great force and justice on the fact that "the ever increasing financial burdens attacked public prosperity at its very roots." "The physical and intellectual strength of the people, labor and capital, are diverted for the greater part from their natural application. and wasted unproductively." Then came a consideration which is impressing itself more and more every year on all minds open to enlightenment, and has never before impressed itself so much and so hideously as it is doing at the present day, that "hundreds of millions are spent to obtain frightful weapons of destruction which, while

being regarded to-day as the latest inventions of science, are destined to-morrow to be rendered obsolete by some new discovery."

But what had the Russian Sovereign to suggest as a practical means of encountering these terrible evils, and accomplishing over them the victory of international peace? The Russian despatch suggested that it was the supreme duty of all States just then to put some distinct limit to those unceasing armaments; and, "impressed by this feeling, His Majesty has been pleased to command me to propose to all Governments accredited to the Imperial Court the meeting of a Conference to discuss this grave problem." Such a Conference, Count Muravieff said, "would, with God's help, be a happy augury for the opening century," "would powerfully concentrate the efforts of all States which sincerely wished to see the triumph of the grand idea of universal peace over the elements of trouble and discord, and would at the same time bind their agreement by the principles of law and equity which support the security of States and the welfares of peoples."

The issue of this invitation to the civilized powers of the world created at first almost a sensation of bewilderment. The question on the lips of most in the outer world was whether such a proposal could be seriously and sincerely meant, and, if so, what hope the Czar could have of any practical good to come from its announcement at such a time. The Czar, it was pointed out, had only quite lately been increasing his own armaments, and was thus regarded as the most formidable and threatening enemy of England in her Indian Empire. Here, it was said, is an apostle, if not the apostle of war, suddenly preaching peace. Was the whole project merely intended to draw forth a refusal from some of the great European Powers, and thus to throw on them the discredit of hav