they have invited the Western Powers to agree to these terms.
This action has placed the Governments of the Western Powers in a most
cruel dilemma. If they refuse the German o?er, they are unmasked before the
world and before their own Labour and Socialist Parties: they make it clear to
all that they are continuing the war for purposes of territorial aggrandise-
ment. If they accept the o?er, they a?ord a triumph to the hated Bolsheviks
the autobiography of bertrand russell 292and an object lesson to democratic revolutionaries everywhere as to the way
to treat with capitalists, Imperialists and war-mongers. They know that from
the patriotic point of view they cannot hope for a better peace by continuing
the war, but from the point of view of preventing liberty and universal peace,
there is something to be hoped from continuation. It is known that unless
peace comes soon there will be starvation throughout Europe. Mothers will
be maddened by the spectacle of their children dying. Men will ?ght each
other for possession of the bare necessaries of life. Under such conditions the
sane constructive e?ort required for a successful revolution will be impos-
sible. The American Garrison which will by that time be occupying England
and France, whether or not they will prove e?cient against the Germans, will
no doubt be capable of intimidating strikers, an occupation to which the
American Army is accustomed when at home. I do not say that these thoughts
are in the mind of the Government. All the evidence tends to show that there
are no thoughts whatever in their mind, and that they live from hand to
mouth consoling themselves with ignorance and sentimental twaddle. I say
only that if they were capable of thought, it would be along such lines as I
have suggested that they would have to attempt to justify a refusal to make
Peace on the basis of the German o?er, if indeed they do decide to refuse.
Some democrats and Socialists are perhaps not unwilling that the war
should continue, since it is clear that if it does it must lead to universal
revolution. I think it is true that this consequence must follow, but I do not
think that we ought on that account to acquiesce in the refusal to negotiate
should that be the decision at which our Governments arrive. The kind of
revolution with which we shall in that case be threatened will be far too
serious and terrible to be a source of good. It would be a revolution full of
violence, hatred and bloodshed, driven by hunger, terror and suspicion, – a
revolution in which all that is best in Western civilisation is bound to perish.
It is this prospect that our rulers ought to be facing. It is this risk that they
run for such paltry objects as the annexation of African Colonies and
Mesopotamia. Labour’s war aims accepted almost unanimously on December
28th are on the whole very sane, and might easily form the basis for the
immediate initiation of negotiations. Labour at the moment has enormous
power. Is it too much to hope that it will use this power to compel some
glimmer of sanity on the part of the blinded and maddened rulers of the
Western Powers? Labour holds the key. It can if it chooses secure a just and
lasting peace within a month, but if this opportunity is allowed to pass by, all
that we hold dear will be swallowed up in universal ruin.
The above article was that for which I was sentenced to prison.
the first war 293To Professor Gilbert Murray 57, Gordon Square
London, W.C.1
15th February 1918
My dear Gilbert
I am very much touched by the kindness of your letter. It really is good of
you to act when our views are so di?erent. Of course if I had known the blaze
of publicity that was going to be directed upon that one sentence of the
Tribunal, I should have phrased it very much more carefully, in such a way as to
prevent misunderstanding by a public not used to the tone of exasperated and
pugnacious paci?sts. Unless the Government had prosecuted, no-one but
paci?sts would ever have seen the sentence. Certainly it is a thousand to one
that no American would ever have seen it. I wrote for the Tribunal once a week
for a year, generally in great haste in the middle of other work. In the course
of this time it was almost unavoidable that I should emit at least one careless
sentence – careless that is as to form, for as regards the matter I adhere to it.
So far as I can discover, the immediate cause of the prosecution was the fact
that I had ceased to write these articles, or indeed to take any part in paci?st
work beyond attending an occasional Committee. I made up my mind to this
course last autumn, but it was impossible to carry it out instantly without
inconvenience to colleagues. I therefore informed the ??? that I would cease
to be their Acting Chairman at the New Year. Accordingly, the last article I
wrote for the Tribunal appeared on January 10, a week after the article for
which I am prosecuted. It seems that the authorities realised that if they
wished to punish me they must act at once, as I should not be committing
any further crimes. All my plans were made for going back entirely to writing
and philosophical lecturing, but whether I shall now be able to resume these
plans when I come out of prison is of course doubtful. I do not much dislike
the prospect of prison, provided I am allowed plenty of books to read. I think
the freedom from responsibility will be rather restful. I cannot imagine any-
thing that there could be to do for me, unless the American Embassy were to
take the view that the matter is too trumpery to be worth a prosecution, but I
cannot say that I have any great desire to see the prosecution quashed. I think
those of us who live in luxury on money which is secured to us by the
Criminal Law ought to have some idea of the mechanism by which our
happiness is secured, and for this reason I shall be glad to know the inside of a
prison.
With my very warmest thanks,
Yours ever a?ectionately
Bertrand Russell
the autobiography of bertrand russell 29457 Gordon Square W.C.1
27.3.18
Dear Gilbert
You have been so very kind that I feel I ought to write to you in regard to
what is being done in my case. Assuming that the sentence is con?rmed, it
seems it will be the thing to ask for 1st Division. This will need preparing
soon, as things move slowly. Hirst is willing to approach Morley, Loreburn,
Buckmaster, & Lansdowne, asking them to write to Cave. It seems to me that
Asquith & Grey might be willing to; also a certain number of un-political
learned men. If you were willing, you could do this better than any one else.
If private representations fail (as they probably will) letters to the Press will
be necessary. All this will have to be done quickly if it is to be e?ective.
I saw E. D. Morel yesterday for the ?rst time since he came out, & was
impressed by the seriousness of a six months’ sentence. His hair is completely
white (there was hardly a tinge of white before) – when he ?rst came out, he
collapsed completely, physically & mentally, largely as the result of insu?-
cient food. He says one only gets three quarters of an hour for reading in the
whole day – the rest of the time is spent on prison work etc. It seems highly
probable that if the sentence is not mitigated my mind will not remain as
competent as it has been. I should regret this, as I still have a lot of philosophy
that I wish to do.
Yrs ever
Bertrand Russell
From E. M. Forster Alexandria
12-2-18
Dear Russell,
In the middle of a six course dinner at the Club last night I was told that
you were in prison. This is to send you my love. I suppose they will let you
have it when you come out.
Here all is comfort and calm. One will become very queer indeed if it, and
the war, last much longer.
Your fraternally
E. M. Forster
From Lancelot Hogben London April 10th. 18
Dear Mr Russell
I am only writing a little note to tell you how splendid I think your stand
has been. Being an ex convict, I understand a little at what cost you have been
true. It is inspiring to us who are younger men and who see so many of our
own friends succumbing to cynical indi?erence or academic preoccupation
the first war 295to know that there is at least one of the Intellectuals of Europe who have not
allowed the life of the mind to kill the life of the spirit . . . This is rather
ine?ective, but well,
Good luck
Yours very sincerely
Lancelot Hogben
From G. Lowes Dickinson 11 Edwardes Square
W. 8. Ap. 19, [1918]
Dear Bertie
I wish I could have seen you, but I haven’t been able to ?t it in, and I go
away today for the rest of April. I hope to be there on May 1st. It is di?cult to
have any hope. I suppose the best thing that could happen now would be for
you to get ?rst-class imprisonment. If they ?ne you, you will I suppose be
called up at once, and have to go through the mill as a ??. The only chance is
that the brute [Lord] Derby has gone from the War O?ce and I understand
that Milner is more sympathetic to the ??s. We are governed by men as base
as they are incompetent, and the country, maddened by fear and hate, con-
tinues to will it so. I blush all over to be English, sometimes. Yet one knows
that the individual Englishman is a decent, kindly well-meaning chap. It’s the
pack, and its leaders, that are so vile. But what use in words? One can alter
nothing; and human speech seems to have lost all meaning. To change the
subject, I am reading Aristotle on the Soul. It’s refreshing to be back at a time
when the questions were being examined freshly by ?rst-class minds. Aristot-
le’s method of approach might be yours. One sees however, I think, that the
conception of ‘substance’ has already ?xed thought in a certain unconscious
rut. In my old age, owing I suppose to you and others, I ?nd my mind more
disencumbered and active than it was in youth. But the packs of wolves will
not be satis?ed until they have killed o? every free mind and brave soul.
That’s the secret object of the war. So long.
G.L.D.
[Lowes Dickinson]
From C. P. Sanger 58 Oakley Street
Chelsea, S.W.3
28th April 1918
Dear Bertie
Although we haven’t met much lately, you are constantly in my thoughts.
It’s di?cult to say what one feels – you have always been so very much to me
and I can’t bear the thought that you may go to prison, though I know that
your fortitude and self control will bring you safely through the ordeal. It’s a
mad world – a nightmare. I sometimes think I shall wake up and ?nd that it
the autobiography of bertrand russell 296was a dream after all. I hope that reality will prove to be better than appear-
ance – if there is anything besides this absurd world of blood and explosives.
But if things can be improved, it is you and those like you who will do it
and the younger men – if any of them survive – will look to you.
Yours fraternally
C. P. Sanger
P.S. Daphne36
directs me to send her love.
From G. B. Shaw Ayot St Lawrence
Welwyn, Herts.
18th March 1918
Dear Miss Mackenzie
I am naturally a good deal concerned about Russell; but I can do nothing:
he must help himself, and that vigorously, if he is to win his appeal. At his
trial there seems to have been no adequate defence: he, or his counsel, should
have talked for a week and clamoured to the heavens against tyranny and
injustice and destruction of popular rights and deuce knows what else in
order to make the authorities as sorry as possible that they had stirred up
these questions, even if they had obtained the sentence all the same. Russell is
not an imbecile who cannot defend himself. He is not a poor man who
cannot a?ord a strong bar. He is practically a nobleman with a tremendous
family record on the Whig side as a hereditary defender of popular liberties.
Yet the impression left on the public is that he has been disposed of in ten
minutes like an ordinary pickpocket. That must be to some extent the fault of
himself and his friends. It seems like a repetition of the monstrous mistake of
Morell’s plea of guilty, which must have been made under silly advice under
the impression that guilt is a question of fact, and not of the ethical character
of the action in question.
The only matter that is really in doubt is whether Russell should conduct
his own case or employ counsel. In his place I should unhesitatingly do the
job myself. A barrister will put up some super?cially ingenious plea which
will give him a good professional chance of shewing o? before the Court of
Appeal, one which will not compromise him by any suspicion of sympathy
with Russell’s views, and the failure of which will be a foregone conclusion.
Russell will have no preoccupations of that sort; and he can, as an amateur,
take liberties with court procedure which a barrister cannot. He is accus-
tomed to public speaking, and therefore not under the necessity of getting
another man to speak for him simply through nervousness and inexperience.
His case is not by any means a weak one. To begin with, he can point out
that he is being prosecuted for a hypothetical prophecy occupying half a
dozen lines in an article containing several positive statements which have
since turned out to be entirely wrong and might even have been dangerously
the first war 297misleading. He was wrong about the Bolsheviks, about the Constituent
Assembly, about the German and Austrian Governments. Yet no exception is
taken to these errors.
But when he got on to the soldier ground taken by Lord Lansdowne, and
argued that a continuation of the war must lead inevitably to starvation
throughout Europe, a ridiculous pretext is found for attacking him. The war
is full of ironies: the belligerents claiming to be the defenders of liberties
which they have all been engaged at one time or another in vigorously
suppressing. The Germans forget their oppression of Prussian Poland, and
denounce England as the oppressor of Ireland, Egypt and India. The French
forget Tonquin, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and the Bonapartist regime,
and revile the Germans as conquerors and annexationists. Italy forgets Abys-
sinia and the Tripolitaine, and claims Dalmatia and part of the Austrian Tyrol,
whilst driving Austria from the Trentino on nationalist grounds. Finally,
America, which has been engaged in con?icts with her own workers which
in Colorado and some other States have almost approached the proportions of
a civil war, assumes the mission of redeeming the German proletariat from
slavery. All these ironies have been pointed out again and again in the bitterest
terms by philosophic journalists, except the last which Russell was the ?rst to
hint at very mildly in The Tribunal. Immediately some foolish censor, knowing
nothing about irony or history or anything else except the rule of thumb of
his department, pounces on the allusion as something that has not been
passed before, and therefore must be challenged.
But the main point is that if Russell, in spite of his social and academic
position, is to be savagely punished for writing about the war as a Paci?st and
a philosopher, the intimidation of the Press will be carried thereby to a point
in England which it has not yet attained in Germany or Austria; and if it be
really an advantage to be a free country, that advantage will go to Germany.
We are claiming the support of the world in this war solely on the ground
that we represent Liberal institutions, and that our enemies represent despotic
ones. The enemy retorts that we are the most formidable and arbitary Empire
on the face of the earth; and there is so much to be said for this view in
consequence of our former conquests that American and Russian public
opinion is sorely perplexed about us. Russell can say, ‘If you like to persecute
me for my Liberal opinions, persecute away and be damned: I am not the ?rst
of my family to su?er in that good cause; but if you have any regard for
the solidarity of the Alliance, you will take care to proclaim to the world
that England is still the place where a man can say the thing he will &c.
(peroration ad lib.).
This is the best advice I can give in the matter as Russell’s friend.
Yours faithfully
G. Bernard Shaw
the autobiography of bertrand russell 29810 Adelphi Terrace W.C.2
29th April 1917 [1918]
Dear Bertrand Russell
I have an uneasy feeling that you will take legal advice on Wednesday, and
go into prison for six months for the sake of allowing your advocate to make
a favourable impression on the bench by advancing some ingenious defence,
long since worn out in the service of innumerable pickpockets, which they
will be able to dismiss (with a compliment to the bar) with owl-like gravity.
I see nothing for it but to make a scene by refusing indignantly to o?er any
defence at all of a statement that any man in a free country has a perfect right
to make, and declaring that as you are not an unknown person, and your case
will be reported in every capital from San Francisco east to Tokyo, and will be
taken as the measure of England’s notion of the liberty she professes to be
?ghting for, you leave it to the good sense of the bench to save the reputation
of the country from the folly of its discredited and panic striken Government.
Or words to that e?ect. You will gain nothing by being considerate, and
(unlike a barrister) lose nothing by remembering that a cat may look at a
king, and, a fortiori, a philosopher at a judge.
ever
G.B.S.
To my brother Frank Brixton
June 3, 1918
Existence here is not disagreeable, but for the fact that one can’t see one’s
friends. The one fact does make it, to me, very disagreeable – but if I were
devoid of a?ection, like many middle aged men, I should ?nd nothing to
dislike. One has no responsibilities, and in?nite leisure. My time passes very
fruitfully. In a normal day, I do four hours philosophical writing, four hours
philosophical reading, and four hours general reading – so you can under-
stand my wanting a lot of books. I have been reading Madame Roland’s
memoirs and have come to the conclusion that she was a very over-rated
woman: snobbish, vain, sentimental, envious – rather a German type. Her last
days before her execution were spent in chronicling petty social snubs or
triumphs of many years back. She was a democrat chie?y from envy of the
noblesse. Prisons in her day were more cheerful than now: she says if she were
not writing her memoirs she would be painting ?owers or playing an air.
Pianos are not provided in Brixton. On the other hand, one is not guillotined
on leaving, which is in some ways an advantage. – During my two hours’
exercise I re?ect upon all manner of things. It is good to have a time of leisure
for re?ection and altogether it is a godsend being here. But I don’t want too
much godsend!
I am quite happy and my mind is very active. I enjoy the sense that the time
the first war 299is fruitful – after giving out all these last years, reading almost nothing and
writing very little and having no opportunity for anything civilised, it is a real
delight to get back to a civilised existence. But oh I shall be glad when it is
over! I have given up the bad habit of imagining the war may be over some
day. One must compare the time with that of the Barbarian invasion. I
feel like Appolinaris Sidonius – The best one could be would be to be like
St Augustine. For the next 1000 years people will look back to the time before
1914 as they did in the Dark Ages to the time before the Gauls sacked Rome.
Queer animal, man!
Your loving brother
Bertrand Russell
To Colette 5th July 1918
Beloved I do long for you – I keep thinking of all the wonderful things we
will do together – I think of what we will do when we can go abroad after the
war – I long to go with you to Spain: to see the great Cathedral of Burgos, the
Velasquez in Madrid – the gloomy Escorial, from which madmen used to
spread ruin over the world in the days before madness was universal – Seville
in dancing sunlight, all orange groves and fountains – Granada, where the
Moors lingered till Ferdinand and Isabella drove them out – Then we could
cross the straits, as the Moors did, into Morocco – and come back by Naples
and Rome and Siena and Florence and Pisa – Imagine the unspeakable joy of
it – the riot of colour and beauty – freedom – the sound of Italian bells – the
strange cries, rich, full-throated, and melancholy with all the weight of the
ages – the great masses of ?owers, inconceivably bright – men with all
the beauty of wild animals, very erect, with bright swiftly-glancing eyes –
and to step out into the morning sunshine, with blue sea and blue hills – it is
all there for us, some day. I long for the madness of the South with you.
The other thing I long for with you – which we can get sooner – is the
Atlantic – the Connemara coast – driving mist – rain – waves that moan on
the rocks – ?ocks of sea-birds with wild notes that seem the very soul of the
restless sadness of the sea – and gleams of sun, unreal, like glimpses into
another world – and wild wild wind, free and strong and ?erce – There, there
is life – and there, I feel, I could stand with you and let our love commune
with the western storm – for the same spirit is in both. My Colette, my Soul, I
feel the breath of greatness inspiring me through our love – I want to put the
spirit of the Atlantic into words – I must, I must, before I die, ?nd some way to
say the essential thing that is in me, that I have never said yet – a thing that is
not love or hate or pity or scorn, but the very breath of life, ?erce, and
coming from far away, bringing into human life the vastness and the fearful
passionless force of non-human things.
the autobiography of bertrand russell 30010th August [1918]
If I had been in Gladstone’s place I would never have let Gordon go to
Khartoum, but having let him go I think it was foolish not to back him up,
because it was bound to incense people. It started the movement of imperial-
ism which led on to the Boer War and thence to the present horror. It is
useless in politics to apply a policy people won’t understand. I remember a
talk we had in the woods once about what Allen would do if he were Prime
Minister, in which this came up.
I didn’t realise that the ?lm job you refused was the life of Lloyd George.
Certainly you had to refuse that. One might as well have expected St John
to take employment under Pontius Pilate as o?cial biographer of Judas
Iscariot.
What a queer work the Bible is. Abraham (who is a pattern of all the
virtues) twice over, when he is going abroad, says to his wife: ‘Sarah my dear,
you are a very good-looking person, and the King is very likely to fall in love
with you. If he thinks I am your husband, he will put me to death, so as to be
able to marry you; so you shall travel as my sister, which you are, by the
way.’ On each occasion the King does fall in love with her, takes her into his
harem, and gets diseased in consequence, so he returns her to Abraham.
Meanwhile Abraham has a child by the maidservant, whom Sarah dismisses
into the wilderness with the new-born infant, without Abraham objecting.
Rum tale.
And God has talks with Abraham at intervals, giving shrewd worldly
advice. Then later, when Moses begs to see God, God allows him to see his
‘hind parts’. There is a terrible fuss, thunder and whirlwind and all the
paraphernalia, and then all God has to say is that he wants the Jews to eat
unleavened bread at the Passover – he says this over and over again, like an old
gentleman in his dotage. Queer book.
Some texts are very funny. Deut. XXIV, 5: ‘When a man hath taken a new
wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any busi-
ness: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which
he hath taken.’ I should never have guessed ‘cheer up’ was a Biblical expres-
sion. Here is another really inspiring text: ‘Cursed be he that lieth with his
mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.’ St Paul on marriage: ‘I say
therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even
as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than
to burn.’ This has remained the doctrine of the Church to this day. It is clear
that the Divine purpose in the text ‘it is better to marry than to burn’ is to
make us all feel how very dreadful the torments of Hell must be.
the first war 301Thursday 16th [August 1918]
Dear one, will you be very patient and kind with me the seven weeks that
remain, and bear with me if I grow horrid? It has been di?cult after the
hopes of release. I am very tired, very weary. I am of course tortured by
jealousy; I knew I should be. I know so little of your doings that I probably
imagine more than the truth. I have grown so nervy from con?nement and
dwelling on the future that I feel a sort of vertigo, an impulse to destroy the
happiness in prospect. Will you please quite calmly ignore anything I do these next weeks in
obedience to this impulse. As yet, I am just able to see that it is mad, but soon it will
seem the only sanity. I shall set to work to hurt you, to make you break with
me; I shall say I won’t see you when I ?rst come out; I shall pretend to have
lost all a?ection for you. All this is madness – the e?ect of jealousy and
impatience combined. The pain of wanting a thing very much at last grows
so great that one has to try not to want it any longer – Now here it is: I want
everything as we planned it – Ashford, then Winchelsea if you can. If later I say I don’t want this,
please pay no attention.
To Miss Rinder
37
30th July, 1918
Many thanks for Spectator review. Is it not odd that people can in the same
breath praise ‘the free man’s worship’ and ?nd fault with my views on the
war? The free man’s worship is merely the expression of the paci?st outlook
when it was new to me. So many people enjoy rhetorical expressions of ?ne
feelings, but hate to see people perform the actions that must go with the
feelings if they are genuine. How could any one, approving the free man’s
worship, expect me to join in the trivial self-righteous moral condemnation
of the Germans? All moral condemnation is utterly against the whole view of
life that was then new to me but is now more and more a part of my being. I
am naturally pugnacious, and am only restrained (when I am restrained) by a
realisation of the tragedy of human existence, and the absurdity of spending
our little moment in strife and heat. That I, a funny little gesticulating animal
on two legs, should stand beneath the stars and declaim in a passion about my
rights – it seems so laughable, so out of all proportion. Much better, like
