The name of the founder and president of the Association was Hodgson Pratt. The Duke of Westminster, the Earl of Ripon, the Bishop of Durham, and others were among its directors. Its headquarters were in London.
Hodgson Pratt, a man of lofty ethical and philanthropical principles, had, within a few years, journeyed over the Continent for the purpose of calling into existence branches of his society. Since then there were in Stuttgart a “Württembergischer Verein,” Fr. von Hellwald, president; in Berlin a provisional committee, Professor Virchow, president; in Milan a “Unione lombarda per la pace,” Professor Vigano, president (after him, Teodoro Moneta); in Rome an “Associazione per l’arbitrio e la pace,” Ruggero Bonghi, Minister of Instruction, president. Others in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
The appeal which the London society had adopted as the basis of its propaganda, a copy of which Dr. Löwenthal handed me, contained the following introduction:
Lately a member of the English ministry declared that England’s greatest interest is peace. Could not the same thing be said of every civilized country?
The international political conditions in the civilized world when contemplated arouse no less astonishment than reflection.
On the one hand men of every rank and of all shades of opinion desire progress, the common advantage and happiness of mankind; and the object of all the endeavors of the men of science, the enlightened writers and thinkers, culminates in the accomplishment of this progress and well-being.
On the other hand, in opposition to these endeavors, the fruits of industry and diligence are constantly sacrificed in behalf of military objects, and this sacrifice serves to delay and hinder all progress.
Has the time not arrived, at the close of the Nineteenth Century, for all men to consult together and get into agreement to put an end to this folly, this terrible plague which can be avoided only through a common understanding and endeavor?
But how arrive at this result? Through the irresistible power of widely directed and energetically organized public opinion.
The means for attaining this propaganda and this organization is to be found in the formation of a great league, with branches in all European cities.