IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 fe 
 
 ^/ 
 
 v.- 
 
 ./ 
 
 *:. 4;^ 
 
 c 
 
 J^^ 
 
 ^^^s? 
 
 w^- 
 
 
 i 
 
 1.0 
 
 1.1 
 
 tiitM | 2.5 
 
 L25 III U 116 
 
 — 6" 
 
 I 
 
 ^14 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WIST MA!U STRUT 
 
 WnSTH.N.Y. ;'K^SO 
 (716) •72-4303 
 
 

 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CiHIVI/iCIVIH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notas/Notas tachniques at bibliographiquas 
 
 Tha Instituta has attamptad to obtain tha bast 
 original copy availabia for filming. Faaturas of this 
 copy which may ba bibiiographically uniqua. 
 which may altar any of tha imagas in tha 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 □ Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 D 
 
 n 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Couverture endommagte 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restauria at/ou pelliculAe 
 
 I I Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 I I Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes giographiquas en couleur 
 
 n ^ 
 
 Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 RaliA avac d'autras documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La re liure serrie peut causer de I'nmbre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge intdrieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^as 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela Atait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas M filmias. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires supplimentairas: 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a M possible de se procurer. Las details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la mithoda normale de filmage 
 sont indiquAs ci-dessous. 
 
 □ Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 □ Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommag^as 
 
 I I Pagas restored and/or laminated/ 
 
 f 
 
 n 
 
 Pages restaur^as et/ou pelliculAes 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxei 
 Pages ddcoior^es, tachet6es ou piqudes 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages d6tach6es 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of prir 
 
 Quality in^gaia de I'impression 
 
 Includes supplementary matarii 
 Comprend du materiel supplim^ntaira 
 
 Only edition avviilable/ 
 Seule Edition disponibio 
 
 I I Pagas discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 
 I I Pages detached/ 
 
 r~~| Showthrough/ 
 
 I I Quality of print varies/ 
 
 r~~| Includes supplementary material/ 
 
 I I Only edition avviilable/ 
 
 7 
 s 
 T 
 v« 
 
 IV 
 
 t 
 
 b( 
 rli 
 rfl 
 m 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pagas totalament ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc.. ont 6ti filmies A nouveau de fapon A 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est filmA au taux da reduction indiqu* ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 
 
 
 
 
 14X 
 
 
 
 
 1IX 
 
 
 
 
 22X 
 
 
 
 
 26X 
 
 
 
 
 30X 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12X 
 
 16X 
 
 20X 
 
 24X 
 
 28X 
 
 aax 
 
itails 
 ( du 
 odifier 
 une 
 mage 
 
 The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 Library of the Public 
 Archives of Canada 
 
 The im'jyes appearing here are the best quality 
 possitle considering the condition nnd iegi tiiity 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Original copies In printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol -^> (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol ▼ (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 L'exemplaire film* fut reproduit grAce A la 
 gAnArosit* da: 
 
 La bibliothdque des Archives 
 publiques du Canada 
 
 Las images suivantes ont M reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nettet« de l'exemplaire flim«, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 fiimage. 
 
 Les exempiaires orlginaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprimte sent filmte en commenpant 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 dernlAre paga qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'iiiustration, soit par le second 
 plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exempiaires 
 orlginaux sont film6s en rommenpant par la 
 premlAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'iiiustration et en terminant par 
 la derniAre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la 
 dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbols — ^ signlfie "A SUIVRE", le 
 symbols y signlfie "FIN". 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre 
 fllm«s i des taux de reduction diffirents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre 
 reproduit en un seul ciich«, 11 est film« A partir 
 de I'angle sup«rleur gauche, de gauche A drolte, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 lilustrent la mAthode. 
 
 rata 
 
 Biure, 
 
 : 
 
 IX 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
/yt<t y^^n^ ■^'^ 
 
 
 PEACE OR WARP'^'"^^^^^ 
 
 
 .i^'^t. 
 
 THE 
 
 QUESTION CONSIDERED 
 
 i-^-' 
 
 WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO 
 
 THE DIFFERENCES EXISTING 
 
 % 
 
 
 BETWEEN THE 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 AND 
 
 GKEAT BRITAIN. 
 
 V; 
 
 BY A 
 
 CLERGYMAN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
 
 liATELV RESIDENT IN AMERICA. 
 
 O what are these } 
 Death's ministers, not men 1 Who thus deal death 
 Inhumanly to man : and multiply 
 Ten thousand fold the sin of him who slew 
 His brother ; for, of whom such massacre 
 Make they, but of their brethren, men of men ? 
 
 Milton. 
 
 LONDON : 
 SAMUEL HOLDSWORTH, AMEN CORNER, 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1839. 
 
.V r 
 
 Clarke, Printers, Silver Street, Falcon Square, London. 
 
wmm 
 
 W 
 
 PEACE OR WAR? 
 
 Few things are more striking to the considerate 
 mind than the rapidity with which changes come 
 over the political horizon. All may be serene 
 and bright around, and may seem to promise an 
 indefinite period of tranquillity and happiness ; when 
 suddenly the cloud arises, and though, at first, it 
 be not bigger than a man's hand, soon descends 
 in torrents, and overwhelms the plains. The cause 
 of this is obvious. War, in general, is described in 
 Scripture as proceeding from our lusts which war in 
 our members,* and the reason of the suddenness 
 of its threatenings or its appearance is similar ; — 
 the inflammable nature of man's passions; the 
 eagerness with which every real or even imaginary 
 insult is resented; the mutual criminations and 
 taunts which are bandied from party to party, till, 
 whatever may have been the original causes of pro- 
 
 * James iv. 1. 
 
vocation, the secondary or superseding causes are far 
 greater. Just as, in the exercise of memory, we 
 often almost lose sight of the objects which pro- 
 duced the first impression, and remember only our 
 remembrances, so in the case of national quarrels, 
 the first affront or injury soon falls into comparative 
 obscurity through the evil tempers and evil actions 
 to which it has given birth. " Behold," saith St. 
 James, " how great a matter a little fire kindleth ; 
 and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so 
 is the tongue among our members, that it defileth 
 the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of 
 nature, and it is set on fire of hell."* 
 
 But this fact of the torrent-like impetuosity of 
 the passion for arms, a fact to which all history 
 bears witness ; and of which we have at the pre- 
 sent moment but too painful an evidence, in the 
 suddenness with which two great and friendly na- 
 tions; or, rather, two divisions of a people — the 
 same, to a great extent, in origin, the same in 
 literature, in language, in taste, and in religion — are 
 placing themselves in opposition to each other ; and 
 forgetful, to a great extent, of the law of kind- 
 ness, and of all the peculiar ties which should bind 
 them together, are menacing each other with the 
 horrors of war; is of itself sufficient to claim the 
 most forbearing temper of mind in all interested 
 in the matter, to make us anxious for that calm- 
 
 * James iii. G. 
 
ness of spirit which alone gives wisdom; and to 
 lead us to reflect on the probable consequences of 
 any hasty or intemperate acts. ; 
 
 It is with the view of urging these considera- 
 tions upon his brethren, both British and American, 
 that the writer ventures to address these pages to 
 the public. He is aware of the limited extent alike 
 of his powers and of his influence. He wishes they 
 were far greater, for the sake of that cause of hu- 
 manity and religion which he has at heart. But, 
 such as they are, they are dedicated intensely in 
 this matter to the promotion of the interests and 
 happiness, and highest honour of the two countries. 
 And he may be permitted to plead in extenua- 
 tion of his boldness in coming forward in the 
 work — a work, in so far as it is political, op- 
 posed to his tastes, that he has passed some 
 years in the United States, that he has not a 
 few affectionate friendships there, as well as at 
 home, and that while, as an Englishman, he dwells 
 with gratitude on much of the history of his own 
 country, as one who rejoices in the happiness of 
 the world, he feels a lively interest in " the ex- 
 periment in government which is being made on 
 a large scale," to use the words of Paley, on the 
 other side of the Atlantic ; and yet as one who is 
 sure, that whatever may be the form of govern- 
 ment, there must be other and higher principles 
 at work than any mere legislation can supply for 
 the essential comfort and superiority of a people 
 
6 
 
 viz., the principles of virtue and goodness, of 
 justice and patience from man towards his fel- 
 low. 
 
 Of all the ills that human hearts endure. 
 How small the part that laws can cause or cure; 
 Still to ourselves in every place consigned, 
 Our own felicity we make or find. 
 
 In entering on the proposed subject, it will be 
 important that the attention of the reader should 
 be called to the general question of the nature 
 and consequences of war. It is to be feared that, 
 by very many, this point has never been regarded 
 as it deserves to be. There is something highly 
 captivating to the mind in the narrative of mar- 
 tial achievements. It would almost appear as 
 though there were a kind of spiritual conspiracy 
 to place the genius of war before the human 
 imagination in so fascinating an attire and attitude 
 as to render it resistless. The hideousness of 
 its features is studiously concealed, while every 
 thing that can give it attraction is cast around it. 
 Many of the noblest and best spirits of each suc- 
 cessive age have followed warfare as a profes- 
 sion, the highest energies are called forth in its 
 pursuit, the whole of science is laid under con- 
 tribution in order to success in it ; while the gaudy 
 colours, the music, the " magnificently stem ar- 
 ray" with which it meets us, dazzle the senses, 
 and ensnare the thoughts. Historians, too, and 
 poets and painters have been lavish in their sa- 
 
crifices to the demon, while the milder virtues have 
 been untold and unsung. Of the millions who 
 have sought to fulfil in peace, and by daily duty, 
 the ends of their rational nature, almost all have 
 passed away in obscurity, while the hero, as he 
 is called; — the man who has imbrued his hand 
 in blood, who has swept along as a pestilence, carry- 
 ing dismay and death every where in his path — 
 has been held up to the admiration of the world, 
 and become an object of imitation, though often 
 deserving only of universal abhorrence. 
 
 It is with such warnings that Milton, with a 
 feeling infinitely superior to many who have built 
 the lofty verse, makes the prophetic Michael address 
 our first father. 
 
 For in those days might only shall be admired. 
 And valour, and heroic virtue, called: 
 To overcome in battle, and subdue 
 Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite 
 Man-slaughter, shall be held the highest pitch 
 Of human glory ; and for glory done 
 Of triumph, to be styl'd great conquerors, 
 Patrons of mankind, gods, and sons of gods : 
 Destroyers rightlier called, and plagues of men. 
 Thus fame shall be achiev'd, renown on earth ; 
 And what most merits fame, in silence hid. 
 
 We are scarcely aware of the false taste which 
 exists almost eveiy where on this topic. Our edu- 
 cation is usually highly martial. This is not said 
 merely of those who are being trained to the profes- 
 
8 
 
 ' 
 
 III 
 
 sion of arms but of the whole of society. What 
 form the prominent objects in the books we read, 
 the pictures on which we gaze, the statues and monu- 
 ments which suiTound us, and which h^ve fired 
 our imagination in youth"? Are they not too 
 often only deeds of bloods Indeed, the civilised 
 nations have profited so highly by this perpetual 
 indoctrination of the glories of war, and have altoge- 
 ther made such little advances above a state of 
 barbarism in this respect, that they are always 
 prepared for an outbreak ; and minds who would 
 recoil from the destruction of a beetle will talk 
 of the " imminent deadly breach," and the strife of 
 contending millions of their fellow men, their bre- 
 thren, their fellow Christians, those who should 
 be heirs with them of the peacefiil glories of the 
 beatified state, without either regret or aversion. 
 Especially, perhaps, among a people like the 
 British, whose fame has been greatly made by 
 warlike deeds, and who have not for generations ex- 
 perienced the march of hostile troops through their 
 borders, and to whom therefore war is known in 
 comparatively few of its fiercer woes; or like the 
 Americans, whose history is chiefly before them, 
 and who, in so far as they have been engaged 
 in conflict, have not been without success; espe- 
 cially among such peoples is the unholy spirit 
 likely to be rife. 
 
 In this instance these nrtions are indeed, as 
 has been hinted, greatly formed upon one mould. 
 
 s 
 
 rf 
 
!) 
 
 and a similarity of spirit naturall) is found where 
 a similarity of educacioi. and of circumstances has 
 gone before. It is then just in the proportion 
 in which so vicious and mischievous a propensity 
 may be likely to prevail among them, that they 
 need to be reminded of true principles, in this 
 respect, to ponder seriously the nature and con- 
 sequences of war — to unlearn, if it be possible, 
 this portion of their education, and to seek that 
 pure and heavenly wisdom which shall lead them 
 to live not only in peace, but in relations of the 
 truest amity. I shall not soon forget the diflFerent 
 emotions with which I visited the monument of 
 General Brock, the commander who fell in the 
 English service at Queenston; and the spot near 
 Philadelphia where the wise and peacefiil Penn 
 made his treaty with the Indians. The one place 
 is a barren eminence, whence the useless but costly 
 tower, built to commemorate the event, seems to 
 frown defiance at the neighbouring states, from 
 which it is only separated by the Niagara, the 
 stream of which hurries by as though unwilling 
 to linger in a scene of blood. The latter is a 
 piece of ground in a valley hard by the wide and 
 tranquil Delaware, and now indeed is gradually 
 being covered with houses and resounds with the 
 hum of commerce. Apt emblems both of the 
 results of war and of peace! 
 
 It was in gazing on these and other such scenes 
 that I first had my consciousness fully awakened 
 
10 
 
 lil 
 
 " % 
 
 to the evils of war. During my residence at home 
 I had of course heard of the march of hostile 
 armies, and of the career, sometimes brilliant, some- 
 times unfortunate, which they had made ; yet, 
 though always averse to strife, I confess I had 
 never become fully possessed with the idea of its 
 results ; but as I visited one field of slaughter 
 after another, and was told here the British drove 
 the Americans over the heights, bayoneting the rear, 
 and causing the advanced in flight to fall and perish 
 in the river beneath ; there again the Americans re- 
 ceived the order to restrain their fire till they could 
 see the whites of the eyes of the advancing column 
 of British, and then with the most deadly aim with 
 musketry and grape shot let fly upon them ; — here 
 again a party of French grenadiers found a line of 
 British drawn up three deep on the verge of a 
 precipice, and, charging, thrust them 
 
 Sheer o'er the craggy banier : — 
 
 and there the Indians — the Heathen children of the 
 forest — led to engage in the fight, be it remembered, 
 by the conflicting Christ iatis — fell upon the village 
 at midnight, and tomahawked and scalped the in- 
 habitants, and set the houses in a flame, reducing in 
 a few hours the fruits of years of virtuous industry to 
 the solitude, though not to the awful beauty, of the 
 natural forest; — when. I say, my mind was convers- 
 ant with such scenes, how could it fail of Ijeing greatly 
 
11 
 
 exercised on the subject of war, or how can I be 
 satisfied now that a crisis has again arrived without 
 urging each party to consideration before they venture 
 upon conduct which may produce similar, but yet 
 more dreadful crimes. 
 
 For let the real nature of war be reflected upon. 
 What is it ? It is the endeavour to gain by force 
 some end on which the national mind is fixed. It 
 is like a private quarrel, in which instead of seeking 
 to make up the matter amicably, or even of having 
 recourse to the methods of arbitration which the law 
 may supply, the parties shall determine in a spirit of 
 revenge to do all the injury possible to each other, 
 not stopping short of death. 
 
 It must be owned indeed that nations are not- 
 placed in precisely the situation of individuals, be* 
 cause there is no international judicature to bind a 
 country as there is a domestic judicature to compel 
 an individual convicted of wrong doing; but this 
 difference is in effect less than it may at first sight 
 appear to be ; for while on the one hand desperate 
 individuals can readily evade human laws, and are in 
 fact in such a state of mind often found to do so, 
 nations on the other hand might often adjust disputes 
 among themselves, or appeal to the decision of some 
 disinterested third party ; — so that the case in which 
 war may be deemed unavoidable is an extremity of 
 the most rare occurrence, if it ever arise at all. 
 
 Thus then, in effect, the cases of war and of private 
 conflict may be considered as very nearly parallel; 
 

 with the exception that in the instance of the in- 
 dividuals the combat has the extenuation of being 
 usually a matter derived from personal resentment, 
 and is also very limited in its results ; while war is 
 carried on by parties between whom no cause of 
 personal enmity can be pleaded, and blasts with its 
 fatal influences half a continent or half a world. 
 What is the number of men, I ask, which Britain 
 has lost in her wars during the last 200 years'? 
 Who can compute it*? Shall I venture too much 
 if I ofifer the supposition that it has been a sixth 
 average portion of her inhabitants during that time ? 
 How many again fell through the influences of war 
 in our last dreadful campaigns *? Would 10,000,000 
 restore to Europe the number of her fallen sons ? 
 Is, then, human life too long, that we need thus to 
 shorten that which, left to stretch itself out to its 
 greatest limit, is but "as a tale that is told?" or is 
 earth too happy that we thus call forth the devouring 
 sword to add to its sorrows and its pains ? or is our 
 globe over populous that we are fain to thin its in- 
 habitants by this moral pestilence '? Surely the wilds 
 of America and of Australia, not to speak of our own 
 land, may yet bear an influx of people, which must 
 render such a cause quite needless. But it is not 
 only in the pains of death, in the circumstance of 
 multitudes of the very flower of earth being cut down, 
 "as the grass whereof the mower fiUeth not his hand, 
 neither he that gathcreth sheaves his bosom," that 
 we trace the sufferings produced by war, jBickness, 
 
 111' 
 
13 
 
 brokenness of constitution, mutilation for life, — a 
 miserable exit, amid blood and wounds and oaths, 
 and the roar of cannon, or in the wretched hospital, 
 or on the parched or frozen ground — unwept, un- 
 pitied, ungazed on by the eye of wife or mother or 
 friend, may await the combatants ; — they have 
 generally with a light heart entered into their pro- 
 fession, and volunteered the probabilities of arms: 
 but there are others who must know scarcely less of 
 anguish, and who are innocent of this great trans- 
 gression. Yes, the widow, the orphan, the parent 
 who had hoped that his son would be the staff of 
 age ; these all learn the bitterness of war. Anxiety 
 and care cloud the soldier's and the seaman's home, — 
 he who gladdened it is gone — when he is next heard 
 of how can they tell whether it shall be in the mad 
 flush, the insolent triumph of victory, or whether the 
 formal gazette shall announce that he has perished 
 with a multitude of others amid scenes of blood. 
 
 If the warrior's perils and sufferings call not forth 
 our compassions, surely at least, unless our hearts be 
 stone, we cannot fail of sympathizing in the anxieties 
 and sorrows of those who are interested in his welfare, 
 or dependent upon his aid. Let an accident happen 
 in the neighbourhood in which we dwell, what con- 
 cern is felt, and that most properly, for the sufferer ; 
 what enquiries are made of the friends, what condo- 
 lences with them. Every one in the village is on the 
 alert, every countenance bears the expression of con- 
 cern ; and yet shall thousands fall in an engagement. 
 
14 
 
 ilfil 
 
 or pine out their miserable lives in captivity, or pass 
 their remaining days on earth in a sort of living death 
 through their wounds, or cause to their surviving 
 friends an age of mourning ; and scarcely a thought 
 will be given by the world to these effects, or an at- 
 tempt be desired by it beforehand to adjust the dif- 
 ferences which lead directly to them. What an inex- 
 plicable thing is human nature ! How greatly do our 
 crimes furnish our woes ! 
 
 . But there are other consequences of war, beside 
 the bodily pangs of the victims and the laceration 
 of feeling to the friends, which deserve notice. 
 The pecuniary embarrassments produced by it 
 afford another striking exemplification of its evil 
 tendency. These, compared with other effects, will 
 be accounted slight ; yet are they, in fact, the causes 
 of much and long continued personal suffering. 
 
 The immediate consequence of war on commerce 
 is to stop it almost entirely. War may, indeed, pro- 
 duce a feverish activity among a few classes of manu- 
 facturers, and force a portion of the capital of the belli- 
 gerent nations into new channels for a time ; but then 
 all this is nothing in comparison of the money and the 
 hands which are altogether deprived of opportunities of 
 exercise ; and the articles which are produced for the 
 purposes of warfare want the germinating power which 
 peaceful manufactures possess ; one remarkable cha- 
 racteristic of which is, that they multiply the demands 
 for industry, as they supply those demands. No 
 sooner has war been declared than the merchant-ship- 
 
 htii! 
 
15 
 
 ping of each power finds itself placed in new and em- 
 barrassing circumstances. Much of it is compelled to 
 remain altogether in port ; the portion that endeavours 
 to maintain a traffic is obliged to endure the delays and 
 the expense, as it needs the protection of a warlike 
 convoy. A few of the better built and swifter mer- 
 chant-ships relinquish their useful and honourable oc- 
 cupations to join in the strife ; and, under letters of 
 marque, take up the character which their commanders 
 and crews have previously most dreaded and abhorred, 
 namely, that of pirates. This last would most probably 
 be the dfetincltion of the beautiful and fast ships now 
 plying as "Liners" between the American and Bri- 
 tish ports; though on which side they would be 
 compelled to fight may be doubtful, as they are as 
 much the property of British as of American houses. 
 Nor does agriculture languish less than trade. Under 
 peculiar circumstances the effect of war may not be 
 immediately injurious to this branch of industry. In 
 the late French war, for instance, the English mar- 
 kets were greatly raised, but in the long run the con- 
 sequences are most fatal. Witness the distresses of 
 the farmers and landed proprietors on the return of 
 peace, when theun'^atural prices suddenly failed. And 
 this is taking the most favorable supposition. But let 
 a country be the field of war — and this must always 
 be the case somewhere — and then let the results to 
 agriculture be viewed. Instead of waving harvests 
 and prosperous husbandmen ; what are the features 
 that strike the eye after a year or two's campaigning ? 
 
16 
 
 111 
 
 
 urn 
 
 
 The young men have been taken from the ploug}i,?^i\4 
 the wain, to drive the artillery horses and to form, t\\& 
 ranks, the villages are devastated, the fields neglect A 
 famine succeeds to plenty and pestilence to health ! 
 Alas ! for the land which is trampled by the war hors^ 
 and illumined by the torch of strife ! The injury i& 
 inflicted in a few days, or months ; but a generation 
 must pass away ere the region visited by this scourge 
 shall recover from the ruin, and regain the advantages 
 of peace. " Why do you think. Sire, of attempting a 
 descent on England ^ you cannot hold it ! " was the 
 question put by a general of Napoleon to that gifted 
 but ambitious man. " True ;" was his reply, " I do 
 not think of attempting to retain it ; but if I can spread 
 my troops upon it for a week, I can so despoil it, as. 
 that no Englishman shall be able to live in it for a 
 hundred years to come !" We deem, however, that 
 our insular position preserves us from the proba-, 
 bility of invasion. Granted ; but when we contem* 
 plate entering upon a war, we do in effect but propose 
 to produce such evils on some other soil. r r .*?', 
 
 How great a reproach to Christendom is it, that 
 any of the nations, should ever be found acting in a 
 spirit which might justify the remarks of the ancient 
 Briton Calgacus, respecting the Romans: " Quorum 
 superbiam frustra per obsequium et modestiam effu- 
 geris; raptores orbis, postquam cuncta vastantibus 
 defuere terrae, et mare scrutantur : si locuples hostis 
 est, avari; si pauper, ambitiosi: quos non Oriens, 
 non Occidens, satiaverit: soli omnium, opes atque 
 
17 
 
 inopiam pari aflfectu concupiscimt : auferre, tnicidare, 
 rapere falsis nominibus, impermm; atque, ubi solitu- 
 dinem faciunt, pacem appellant."* 
 
 A single remark will suffice on the methods to 
 which war compels governments for the supply of 
 men. At first bounties are offered ; but these after 
 a time fail to bring forward recruits. Conscriptions 
 and impressments follow. Thus we act out upon 
 our own shores a system of man stealing, worse in 
 some respects than the slave trade. We force un- 
 willing victims upon crimes and sufferings the most 
 appalling which human nature can know. This fact 
 speaks volumes. A theory which pleads necessity 
 for the infringement of man's most obvious natural 
 rights must in itself be atrocious. 
 
 But another evil consequence connected with fiscal 
 matters remains to be spoken of, viz., the taxa. 
 tion which so surely follows warlike deeds. Cole- 
 ridge, in his piquant lines called the " Devil's Walk," 
 thus describes the feelings of that personage during 
 one portion of his progress. 
 
 As he stood upon Westminster Bridge he saw 
 
 A pig down the river float ; 
 The pig swam well, but at every stroke, 
 
 It was cutting its own throat. 
 
 He looked on the sight with gloating eyes 
 
 Of joy and exultation, 
 For it put him in mind of his daughter war. 
 
 And her darling child taxation !" 
 
 * C. C.Tacit. Agric.30. 
 C 
 
18 
 
 11 
 
 
 I 
 
 ■!,i 
 ■i 
 
 •jl; 
 
 State burdens are a long continued memento of martial 
 glory. We are not in much danger of forgetting our 
 victories to be sure ; but if we were, the tax-gatherer 
 is a sort of " flapper," who may serve half-yearly to 
 recal our attention to them ; but then, what is not 
 quite so flattering to the national vanity, his book 
 bears also the account of our disasters ! These are 
 some of the cords made by our "pleasant vices" to 
 whip us ; and that, too, long enough after " honour has 
 pricked us on." We are still paying for some of the 
 heroic acts of our great great grandfathers. It is true 
 that a national debt is by some thought to be an ad- 
 vantage ; I will not now dispute that point ; but this 
 may be said, that no one who has lived in a country 
 in which imposts are scarcely known can fail of being 
 sensible of the evil done to Imman happiness by a 
 weight of taxation. It is a pressure upon the springs 
 of virtuous industry, which, if a people is enabled to 
 rise from, only proves how much more would be in 
 their power, were they not suffering from the depres- 
 sion. But as it is well for us to know the precise re- 
 sults of our wars in this respect I subjoin a tabular 
 view which will put us in possession of the facts.* It 
 commences with the Revolution of 1688. 
 
 Such is an abstract of our warlike expenditure up to 
 the peace of Paris in 1814. The outlay caused by the 
 subsequent struggle during the ninety days which ter- 
 minated in the battle of Waterloo, deserves to be men- 
 tioned by itself The British expenditure for that period 
 is considered to have averaged 1,000,000/. a day ! 
 
 * See opposite. 
 
 U'4 
 
eo 
 
 CO 
 
 (N 
 
 O 
 
 «o 
 
 ■8 „ 
 p a 
 
 1 
 
 g ' 
 
 t 
 
 V 
 
 l>. 
 
 «8 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ 
 
 •o 
 
 
 41 
 
 
 
 
 W 
 
 
 <u 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 a> 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 ,o 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 u 
 
 js 
 
 t 
 
 o 
 
 «« 
 
 > 
 
 a> 
 
 <«^ 
 
 Q 
 
 o 
 
 IS 
 
 d 
 
 >«< 
 
 OR 
 
 n 
 
 9) 
 
 « 
 
 n 
 
 
 •S 
 
 a> 
 
 b 
 
 43 
 
 O 
 
 •iJ 
 
 .d 
 
 o 
 
 g 
 
 a 
 
 4) 
 
 OJS 
 
 •5 
 
 *» 
 
 P-JS 
 
 01 
 
 U 
 
 
 
 H^ 
 
 « 
 
 I* 
 
 V 
 
 «<-i 
 
 .£3 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 >, 
 
 s 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 A 
 
 ts 
 
 §- 
 
 
 t 
 
 S 
 
 o 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 ^ 
 
 .a 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 ■o 
 
 , 
 
 s 
 
 u 
 
 CS 
 
 n 
 
 
 <*ri 
 
 m 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 es 
 
 S 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 "9 
 
 if 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 ©I 
 
 CO 
 
 •E 
 
 ■O 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 = s 
 
 CO 
 
 s 
 
 
 o 
 
 § 
 
 o 
 
 © 
 
 "1* 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 ©i 
 
 
 05 
 
 CO 
 
 oi 
 
 '* 
 
 «s 
 
 00 
 
 © 
 
 ©5 
 
 X 
 
 5 
 
 n up 
 
 
 © 
 
 00 
 
 •^ ©I 
 
 c 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 ©I 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 9) 
 
 V 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 CQ 
 
 I 
 
 s 
 
 5" « 5 o 0) 
 
 CO -o 
 
 S3 « 
 
 O 1^ 
 CO « 
 
 ,d aj « t- .g 
 
 
 .2 M 
 
 Ota 
 
 .i)'^ 
 
 A> C CO 
 
 t>. CO 
 
 CO !>• 
 
 01 
 
 CO 
 
 b 
 
 X 
 
 CO 
 
 C3 
 
 5; '^•> 
 
 g 
 s 
 
 
 00 
 
 © 
 
 00 
 
 X 
 
 u 
 
 O 
 
 CO 
 
 s 
 
 •2 
 
 fa 
 
 CO 
 
 "J 
 
 CO 
 
 X 
 
 CO 
 9) 
 
 X 
 
 ©1 
 
 i 
 
 X 
 
 <1 
 
 I— 
 
 
 X 
 
 ^ 5 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 X 
 
 s 
 
 O) 
 
 
 .0 
 
 a> 
 
 Ui 
 CS 
 
 s 
 
 4) "O 
 O § 
 
 t 
 
 > 
 o 
 
 es 
 
 9) 
 
 M 
 
 h 
 
 a 
 
 C 
 
 o_ 
 
 § 
 t 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 CS 
 
 u 
 
 e 
 '3 
 a. 
 
 fa 
 
 CS 
 
 a. 
 en 
 
 a^ 
 
 X 
 
 u 
 
 e 
 
 :s 
 
 fa 
 
 u 
 
 CS 
 
 'C 
 
 a 
 
 c 
 
 o 
 
 CS 
 
 •8JBMJO-ON 
 
 e< 
 
 eo 
 
 ws 
 
 CO 
 
 X 
 
20 
 
 ^ii' 
 
 V 
 
 m'^ 
 
 The other nations must have incurred, if not equal;! 
 yet vast expenses ! While as to America it may be 
 sufficient to state, that such was the want of money 
 produced there by our last brief war, that bank notes 
 were in circulation for one halfpenny sterling. u" i 
 
 It is true that the energies of the British people are 
 equal to entering upon further wars, and that such is 
 our capital and credit, that the sums we might yet 
 raise in case of emergency are incalculable ; it is like- 
 wise true, that the United States, which were growing 
 rich by being the carriers of the world during our late 
 awful struggle with the nations, and which has with- 
 in the last four or five years been enabled to pay oif 
 the debts which it had contracted in war, by a system 
 of duties upon all imported articles, chiefly British,' 
 and the sale of public lands, for the most part to emi«'> 
 grants from the British isles (both of which sources 
 of revenue must be checked, if not entirely stopped, 
 by war with us) ; it is true, that these two nations 
 might renew conflicts which have now happily sub- 
 sided ; yet how fatal to the interests of both must be 
 an outbreak. How many bankruptcies, how much 
 misery arising from pecuniary difficulties will inevita- 
 bly ensue. No man will argue that the British have 
 not burdens enough at present. Nor will any pru- 
 dent person think that America, whatever be the 
 resources of her soil, and the enterprise of her people, ' 
 is fitted, just as she is rising from the effects of the fire 
 of 1835, and the panic of 1836, to undertake such an 
 expensive service. .. t ni;i'.)ii| mm hj^d 
 
 The British expenditure in Portugal during the 
 
 Hi 
 
21 
 
 late war was 1,000,000/. per week. No company 
 would form the expenses of either Britain or Ame- 
 rica, I should think, should they engage in a 
 conflict, for less than half that sum for the same 
 time. It would probably cost the British most, 
 because they would be at the expense of transport 
 to Canada ; but there are points which deserve more 
 peculiarly the consideration of America. For in- 
 stance, what is there that can so much endanger 
 the American Union as war with Britain? The 
 southerners could reap no advantage from the exten- 
 sion of territory to the north of their own country ; 
 while they look to ours as the chief market for 
 their produce. This of itself is sufficient to make ' 
 them regard with coldness such a project; while 
 the fact of their dwelling amidst a population of 
 2,250,500 slaves, who are known to be favourable 
 to the British in consequence of our emancipation 
 acts, would render a rupture the most fatal thing' 
 to their interests that can be well imagined. I was 
 told, when in the States, by an American officer of 
 high standing, that it had been ascertained on good 
 authority, that the French had designed in case the ^ 
 differences between themselves and the States in 
 1835 had proceeded to extremities, to train the 
 slaves in Martinique and Guadaloupe to arms, and ' 
 to promise them liberty on the condition that they, ' 
 in company with a suitable European force, and 
 100,000 spare stands of arms, should land in Flo-' 
 
 4 
 
 rida, and proclaim freedom to all American negroes 
 who would join the standard. The same thing was 
 
 \/ 
 
22 
 
 talked of among the British authorities during the 
 last war with America, but the design was laid 
 aside at that time, on the ground that it would pro- 
 duce rebellion among the slaves of our own colonies. 
 Now, however, that slavery in the West Indies 
 has expired, that difficulty has also ceased, the 
 negroes would enter with enthusiasm into the mea- 
 sure, and no doubt the effect of it would be very 
 decisive. Sincerely as I desire to hear of the wise 
 emancipation and moral elevation of the slaves 
 throughout the world, I shudder at the contempla- 
 tion of such a catastrophe as this ! The chain and 
 the whip would be carried away in a torrent of 
 the white man's blood. The southern states would 
 become a miserable and degraded negro empire, 
 strong enough, with the help of their climate, and 
 their swamps and mountains, to make the recovery of 
 it on the part of the whites hopeless, yet with 
 neither enterprise nor civilization enough to render 
 the inhabitants either happy or useful. It would 
 take centuries to restore the south to any thing like 
 its present flourishing condition. Doubtless the 
 chivalrous Southerners, like the patriotic New Eng- 
 landers, who during the late war refused at great per- 
 sonal inconvenience to use any British manufactures, 
 would be ready to do and to bear much for the justly 
 valued union, for 
 
 " Old Virgiuie neber tire ! "—(Negro choms.) 
 
 But when thus, not only their prosperity, but their 
 influence over their coloured neighbours, their 
 
23 
 
 estates, their families were periled, would they not 
 pause and consider before they took up the sword ? 
 would no disposition be manifested to make a second con- 
 vention like that of Hartford, in Connecticut, which 
 expressed the unwillingness of the New Englanderi 
 to combine their forces against the mother country — 
 " home" as many still kindly and fondly call Old 
 England ; and which would not have been broken 
 up but for the advance of the British general Rosse 
 to Washington, and his burning of the capitol, with 
 military honor no doubt, but in miserable retaliation, 
 for the conflagration, on the American part, of 
 Toronto. I am sorry to have been obliged to dwell 
 on these points ; my mind recoils from them ; I have 
 only adduced them to remind both peoples, as far 
 as this little treatise may extend, of the probable 
 statistic results of their engaging in a war. 
 
 One word more — Britain is said to have spent 
 4^1,500,000,000 ste ling on her wars; what would 
 not £1,500,000,000 laid out in promoting the welfare 
 of our race accomplish ! 
 
 But the reader's mind will now be; prepared 
 to perceive that there are worse eifects from war 
 than either the pangs of the wounded and dying, 
 the anguish of their friends, or the monetary 
 embarrassments of the nations ; I allude to the 
 moral consequences certain to arise. "Men are 
 not stocks and stones;" they cannot be spectators 
 or hearers of such things, and not be moved in mind 
 by the relation. It is passion that first leads to 
 war, and war again results in stirring up all the 
 
m 
 
 |i'; ! 
 
 
 baser and more violent passions. Craft, anger, 
 hatred, debauchery, revenge ; all that there is of the 
 serpent or of the tiger in the heart is brought jrth 
 by war. " It setteth on fire the course of nature, 
 and is itself set on fire of hell!" We cannot ima- 
 gine a sight on which angels, if such are affected 
 by the things of earth, can look with equal ab- 
 horrence and grief, or over which de\ils would more 
 fully rejoice, than that of two nations preparing for 
 war. All friendly feeling, with all friendly inter- 
 course, is banished. The heavenly affections due 
 from man to man, and which alone can suitably 
 prepare us for dwelling in bliss together in a future 
 state, L-y making us, while on earth, helpers of 
 each other's peace and joy, the bearers of each 
 other s burdens, the communicators to each other of 
 happiness, are at once lost sight of To devour and 
 murder is henceforth the sole aim of those who 
 should be brethren; to sink, burn, or destroy, 
 the almost satanic commission with which men scour 
 the seas. Prayers to a common God, and through a 
 common Saviour, are offered for mutual destruction. 
 He who can by force or fraud most annoy or injure 
 God's noblest work on earth, is honoured as the 
 greatest of human beings; every social tie is broken, 
 virtue is accounted folly, and vice deemed the 
 highest virtue. Oh the infatuation of the heart, 
 that can thus say "evil be thou my good," and can be 
 willing itself to enter, or to force others, upon an 
 untried eternity, and to the bar of God. un])rcpared, 
 
25 
 
 ■^ 
 
 presumptuous, with blood upon the hands, curses 
 on the lips, hell in the heart ! *' 'v « ..i 
 
 ' " The reflection," says Paley, a writer unequalled 
 in his peculiar excellencies, though very defective as 
 to the foundations of morals, " the reflection calcu- 
 lated above all others to allay that haughtiness of 
 temper which is ever finding out provocations, and 
 which renders anger so impetuous, is that which 
 the Gospel proposes; viz., that we ourselves are, 
 or shortly shall be, suppliants for mercy and 
 pardon at the judgment seat of God. Imagine our 
 secret sins all disclosed and brought to light ; ima- 
 gine us thus humbled and exposed; trembling 
 under the hand of God ; casting ourselves on his 
 compassion ; crying out for mercy — imagine such a 
 creature to talk of satisfaction and revenge; re- 
 fusing to be entreated, disdaining to forgive, extreme 
 to mark and to resent what is done amiss; imagine, 
 I say, this, and you can hardly frame to your- 
 self an instance of more impious and unnatural 
 arrogance."* 
 
 But the moral evils of war are not confined, any more 
 than its physical and soc ial sufferings, to the period 
 or circumstances of the campaign. They branch 
 out in every direction and extend for generations. 
 A highlander, who wr.s dying, was visited by a minister 
 of religion: the divine pressed him to repentance, 
 anu asked him if he retained any known sin. The 
 dying man was silent. The minister began to re- 
 
 ' ' * Pstlcy, M. F»hil. p. 166. ' 
 
an 
 
 m: 
 
 I 
 
 
 m 
 
 T", 
 
 
 26 
 
 capitulate his possible offences, and especially dwelt 
 upon the duty of forgiveness. Still the highlander 
 made no reply ; at length the clergyman asked him 
 "why he was silent, and expressed his fear that his 
 conscience was not clear on this point. The high- 
 lander acknowledged, " True, I received an affront 
 in early life from a Grseme, who acted as he did, 
 in part, from being of a rival clan; and I cannot for- 
 give the man." He was again exhorted to put aside 
 thoughts and feelings so unsuited to a dying hour. 
 Once more he became buried in silence, when the 
 mixiister further accosted him in the same terms. At 
 last he burst forth in ihe exclamation, " Well, then, if 
 I must forgive the Graeme, I do forgive him ; but, 
 (turning to his son, a child who sat weeping by his 
 , bed-side), may a curse fall upon you, Donald, if ever 
 you forgive Michael Graeme !" This instance may be 
 extreme, yet, making all requisite deductions, enough 
 will remain to show the enduring nature of resent- 
 ment, the depth of feeling with which injuries are 
 brooded over in the mind, and, in short, that absorb- 
 ing power thereof, which (to cite a further instance) 
 led another dying soldier to say, — when, expressing his 
 hatred against his enemies, he was reminded of the 
 saying, " Vengeance is mine," saith the Lord, " I will 
 ripay." — " Ah ! I suppose vengc. nee must belong to 
 God, for it is too sweet a morsel for any child of 
 
 man !" 
 
 And this spirit of hostility, in various degrees, and 
 modified according to circumstances, is found to per- 
 
27 
 
 vade the minds of the greater part of the inhabitants 
 of countries who have fallen into war ; and that too, 
 for an almost indefinite period. Witness the results 
 in this respect between England and France ; the de- 
 caying, it is hoped, yet still unexpired embers of their 
 former fiery contest. There is in nature and reason 
 no more cause for ill-feeling between the inhabitants 
 of the two sides of the channel, than there is for the 
 existence of such a spirit between the people of Kent 
 and Essex, of Long Island and Connecticut ; for surely 
 no one will conten*^. that twenty miles of water oflfers 
 a more valid motive, in the reason of things, for con- 
 tempt and dislike, than one mile ; or that our love 
 and our hatred ought to be calculated by the square 
 league and apportioned by the compasses on a map. 
 The same is equally true between the British and the 
 Americans ; and until it can be proved that the latitude 
 and longitude of a place form the proper grounds for 
 the exercise towards its people of o\i: sympathies, or 
 the reverse, it must remain certain that nothing can 
 be more wicked than these narrow and ill-judging 
 prejudices. It seems, indeed, a law of our social 
 nature that our charities should begin at home. He 
 who attends the best to domestic duties will be most 
 prepared to extend his benevolence through the earth. 
 But our danger is that of suffering our feelings to be 
 too much concentred on objects around us. We 
 forget how essentially the human heart is alike in 
 every part of the earth. 
 
 Hence is it that we are so ready to take up a 
 
{'■ i\ 
 
 a 'I'M 
 
 M 
 
 1: 
 
 _ ilii 
 
 m 
 
 28 
 
 quarrel and to run to arms ; and hence do provocatio'ns*' 
 increase in a sort of geometrical progression. Each!' 
 crime produces many ; each sarcasm begets a legiottl'^ 
 It has been well said, that the blood of martyrs is tfee*' 
 seed of the church ; nor is it less sure that the^ 
 blood of heroes is the germ of fresh wars. Few in- * 
 cidents in history are more affecting than the meeting' 
 of Montcalme and Wolfe upon the heights of Abra- ' 
 ham ; both eminently courageous and skilful ; both in ; 
 the flower of age, yet both at that melancholy interview 
 suffering the agonies of death. But though thei 
 Canadian territoi^ was wrested from its French pos- * 
 sessors — ^though an action was achieved which for' 
 brilliancy never was surpassed — ^though the war was 
 concluded ; yet the leprosy is after nearly teM* a cen- 
 tury breaking out anew ; and it is impossible not to 
 trace the present American troubles to the conquest 
 of that cheerless region, the subjugation of those few 
 settlers! * > !? 
 
 But there are peculiar evils of a moral nature con- 
 nected with the chance of hostilities between the 
 States and Britain. Our language is one, and that 
 alone, if there be war, will be a cause of the increase 
 and prolongation of ungenerous tempers ; for every 
 vindictive or cutting speech of one party is sure to be 
 reverberated by the other. Then, as the hate of 
 brothers is proverbially strong, so, should enmity arise 
 between us, we both have to fear unmitigated fierce- 
 ness. Then, being chiefly of the Anglo-Saxon race, ■ 
 we are likely to carry on matters with the energy 
 
 ! 
 
29 
 
 and perseverance usually attributed to that family j 
 Then^ being the freest peoples in the world, we shall i 
 afiSbrd a sad spectacle, whimsical, if it were not awful 
 and execrable, to every less favored nation; a spectacle 
 which all the tyrants on earth will be sure to rejoice 
 in, and, while they stir the flames, to point out to their 
 vassals what they will call the consequences of free 
 institutions. Then, as there are many Christians and 
 philanthropists on both sides of the water, who are 
 with equal ardour desiring the conversion and im- 
 provement of the nations lying in darkness, all their 
 combined efforts must be stopped, and their separate 
 efforts checked and injured by the quarrel. Then, as 
 we are worshippers of the same Great God of truth 
 and mercy, and mutually receive a revelation, the 
 grand object of which was to promote glory to God 
 in the highest, peace on earth, — and good will tO' 
 wards men, nothing surely can be more inconsistent 
 than our contentions. The fact is, men blind their 
 minds to the thought of the real effects of war. They 
 ought to revere, but they are apt to deify the thought 
 of the national honour ; and dividing, as it were, the 
 responsibity among millions, are willing to give that 
 suffrage to human misery in a mass, which, were it 
 possible for matters to be left to them personally, 
 they would utterly shrink from. Thus we put our 
 leaders in false positions, and induce them, at times, 
 to plans and acts of hostility, which doubtless they 
 themselves often view with the deepest regret ; or 
 which, if during the excitement they are thought 
 
 'i 
 n 
 
30 
 
 
 ^^i ^j 
 
 « 
 
 lightly of, are likely to recur to them with bitterness 
 in after life, and to yield them anguish on the bed of 
 death. It is not only the common soldier in the field 
 who often feels in *.he spirit of the man, who, leaning 
 thoughtfiiUy on his musket at the close of the battle 
 of Vittoria, in answer to the question, " What are you 
 thinking about *? replied, " I was thinking how many 
 widows and orphans I have made this day for a 
 shilling !" It is not merely the actual combatants who 
 will suffer the sting of remorse for the marks of blood 
 upon their hands. War, as it tends to demoralize the 
 minds of the chiefs^ cannot fail of giving them like- 
 wise anguish in the closing hours of life ; when, as 
 old age is second childhood, some of the best feelings, 
 as well as of the infirmities of our helpless years, 
 return. The melancholy death of Napoleon illustrates 
 this remark. " His hours were now numbered. From 
 the third of May he seemed to be in a continued heavy 
 sleep. The fifth was a day of unexampled tempest 
 in the island : trees were every where torn up by the 
 roots, the sea lashed and rent the shores, the clouds 
 poured down torrents, the winds burst through the 
 hills with the loudness of thunder. In this roar of 
 the elements. Napoleon perhaps heard the old echoes 
 of battle ; the last words on his lips were of war ; 
 " tete d'armee," was uttered in his dream ; and he 
 died. T' i fiery spirit passed away like Cromwell's, 
 in stom; * 
 
 But pamful reflections seem to be the necessary 
 
 • Croly's Life of George the Fourth. 
 
31 
 
 possession of all connected with war. The minister 
 of state suffers no less than his instruments. " In 
 the year 1787, Lord North's sight," says Lady Char- 
 lotte Lindsay, his daughter, and therefore, of course, 
 a witness who would speak as tenderly as possible of 
 her father's state of mind, " began rapidly to fail him, 
 and in the course of a few months he became totally 
 blind, in consequence of a palsy on the optic nerve. 
 His nerves had always been very excitable, and it is 
 probable that the anxiety of mind which he suffered 
 during the protracted contest with America, still 
 more than his necessary application to writing, brought 
 on this calamity, which he bore with the most admi- 
 rable patience and resignation ; nor did it affect his 
 general cheerfulness in society. But the privation of 
 all power of dissipating his mind by outward objects, 
 or of solitary occupation, could not fail to produce at 
 times extreme depression of spirits, especially as the 
 malady proceeded from the disordered state of his 
 nerves. Those fits of depression seldom occurred, 
 except during sleepless nights, when my mother used 
 to read to him, until he was amused out of them, or 
 put to sleep." 
 
 Mr. Wilberforce remarks, that the battle of Au- 
 sterlitz was as certainly the cause of death to Mr. 
 Pitt, who ended his course it will be remembered at 
 the early age of 44, as it was to any who fell in the 
 field. Contrast these reflections and feelings, with 
 those of the Christian philanthropist — the man of ho- 
 liness and peace, on the death-bed, and you will learn 
 
32 
 
 how evil and how bitter a thing it is to be a hero ! and 
 how wrong, therefore, of a nation to urge on any of its 
 people to such a career. 
 
 Nothing has been said of the effects of a disbanded ar- 
 my upon society. We suppose a war terminated. The 
 troops return to their homes. They have been accus- 
 tomed to pillage, to debaucheries, rapes, and murders, in 
 their earlier life; they have had no conscience but the 
 will of their commander, no business but that of doing 
 injury to their foes ; can it be thought that these persons 
 willresume the useful life of peaceful citizens; has the 
 wild excitement of the camp fitted them for the regular 
 industry of the farm, or given them the needful skill 
 for the workshop ? or rather, have not good habits 
 almost universally fled ; and do not they who went 
 forth to be a terror to their country's enemies return, 
 if the^ return at all, to inflict injuries scarcely less 
 deep upon its population. Yes; not only is so 
 much good labour taken by a nation from the improve- 
 ment of its own land, and cast away unprofitably ; but 
 when they, who could have bestowed that labour tread 
 again their native hills, they cause them to be rank with 
 moral weeds and foul with crime ! This is a thought 
 which deserves well the consideration of every people 
 who delight in war. It is of importance to Britain, 
 whose land could yet sustain a population more dense 
 than it at present does ; or whose sons might at least be 
 encouraged to spread themselves over the fertile wil- 
 dernesses with which the earth abounds ; it is of yet 
 higher moment to America, whose wealth is her peo- 
 
33 
 
 pteand who, should she withdraw her sons from tbe<l 
 pldngh and give them the rifle, must do that thing 1 1 
 which shall most tend to restrain her growth, and ^i 
 delay her conquest over the forest and the prairie. 4 
 
 The feelings and prosperity of the emigrants like- « 
 wise certainly deserve some commiseration ; for these 
 are quiet persons, who, led by the promises and? 
 hopes of the new world, have been contented to change 
 their home, on the general faith of the continuance of ^^ 
 peace. In a generation or two, if unmolested, they ^« 
 will become one in spirit with the inhabitants of the^^ 
 land in which they are gone to dwell ; and, in the mean- " 
 time, are adding, in peace, to the strength ; — in war, to 
 the weakness of those who have received them. It 
 were unfortunate, if they who have encouraged the 
 strangers to emigrate ; and who, I gladly testify, treat 
 them with such courtesy and generosity when they are 
 among them, should by any extraneous circumstances iJ 
 be led to turn against them ! Such a course would ^ 
 also be no less impolitic ; for in the need of population 
 which exists in America, the States possessing at the 
 present moment a territory equal to the support of 
 150,000,000 of people, while their whole popula- 
 tion does not exceed 13,000,000, it is desirable for « 
 them to have their numbers increased more rapidly ■^ 
 than they could be by the ordinary prolificalness of ' 
 the human race. Yet, of the emigrants it may be * 
 stated, that as the exports in material to Britain are ' 
 sixty-five in every eighty of all the similar exports from 'i^ 
 the United States ; so the imports of people from Bri« ^t^ 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 ^Ji.V 
 
 m 
 
 \ V 
 
 I 1 
 
 ■. ■ ;H 
 
 tain to America in comparison of the imports from other 
 countries form certainly no less a portion. But all emi- 
 gration would cease on the declaration of war ; nor 
 would it be resumed until many years after a subse- 
 quent peace. 
 
 Such, then, are the effects of war. Such, and 
 other such, the sorrows we should mutually prepare 
 for ourselves by changing our present happy, and in- 
 creasingly important peace relations for international 
 discord. 
 
 His et mille aliis postquam sine nomine rebus 
 Propositiun instruxit mortali barbara munus ! 
 
 Ov. Met. 7, 275. 
 
 Shall both nations then be contented to jeopardize 
 the position they enjoy '? Shall they risk a univer- 
 sal and horrible war '? For no doubt, as other powers 
 are already watching us, so it would not be long that 
 we should either suffer ourselves, or be suffered to 
 fight single-handed. Every nation who owed either 
 of the combatants a grudge, or should think it could 
 profit by the fray, (unless, at least, they should be 
 found far more righteous than ourselves), would enlist 
 on one side, or the other : we might begin the strife, 
 but where, when, or how it would end, who can say •? 
 
 The war of 1793 was undertaken ostensibly to pro- 
 tect the Dutch — ^to prevent the Scheldt from being 
 opened — to rescue the Netherlands fi-om France, and 
 to restore them to the emperor. These, however, 
 were mere pretexts, the real intention, — and an ob- 
 ject with which we had rightfully nothing to do, 
 
35 
 
 If 
 
 .^f 
 
 was to interpose with the national government of 
 France, and to restore the throne to the Bourbons* 
 It is needless to say how^ signally the object has 
 been defeated ; and now England does not even wish 
 for its accomplishment ! " Duelling," says Paley, 
 " as a punishment, is absurd." But what is war, but 
 national duelling ; and wherein is the recourse to arms 
 by millions less absurd than by individuals ^ Is it 
 not rather infinitely more so ; as it is more wicked and 
 more fatal "? 
 
 But doubtless, both the Americans and ourselves 
 must have some very important end in view, if we think 
 of an appeal to arms when there is before us all this 
 certainty of crime and woe, this uncertainty as to every 
 beneficial result from war. Let us contemplate this 
 object for a moment. It is no part of the design of 
 these pages to plunge the reader into that sea of di- 
 plomacy, which, from the year 1783 to the present 
 moment, has been flowing in upon this question of the 
 north-eastern boundary. 
 
 Those who delight in protocols, reports, despatches, 
 and official communications of all kinds, may certain- 
 ly find in this business a full field in which to expa- 
 tiate; such may consult the folio volumes with 
 copies of which I saw the shelves of the Library in 
 the Fanueil Hall, Boston, laden four years ago, and 
 which, added to as they since have been, and remarked 
 upon by newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic, 
 may from their "lengthiness" afford abundant satis- 
 faction for the most indefetigable amateur in this way. 
 
 d2 
 
36 
 
 ,■'•^ 
 
 
 Further comments on such a mass of evidence 
 would be only like the glosses and explanations of the 
 schoolmen upon Aristotle, which have but served 
 to render "darkness visible." One point however 
 deserves to be kept in memory, viz. — that the land 
 about which the dispute is held, is of little compara- 
 tive value to either party at present, and is not likely 
 to be of much more importance than it is, in our 
 generation. So that if we fight, it will be for the 
 benefit of posterity; a new reason for war, very 
 creditable doubtless to the inventive genius of the 
 age in which we live, but which yet admits of the 
 question, whether we might not as well leave it to 
 our heirs to settle their own disputes. But then, as 
 a basis of settlement, might not the question be 
 offered to the final arbitration of some disinterested 
 third party ; with this understanding, that as the 
 general governments of the two nations are evidently 
 disposed for an amicable arrangement, if on the con- 
 clusion of the matter by the arbitrator either Maine 
 or the colonies should think themselves aggrieved, 
 the general governments should purchase the land 
 in dispute, each of its own party, accordingly as the 
 difficulty might be stated, respectively. Sucli a 
 purchase would not cost either country so much as 
 the equipment of a line of battle ship, and the boun- 
 dary might be struck and the matter might be ended 
 without delay. 
 
 Obvious as such a suggestion may be, I have not 
 seen it mentioned ; but it appears to my mind simple, 
 
37 
 
 feasible, and decisive ; devoid of all injury to the 
 national honor on either side, and such as it is for 
 the interest of the lesser powers, the local govern- 
 ments (who are by far the most vehement) to adopt. 
 The disposition manifested by Britain to mediate 
 between France and America at least proves her 
 general desire for the maintenance of pacific relations 
 with all parties. 
 
 It is told by a Chamois hunter, that being on one 
 occasion in the mountains, he saw two goats, who 
 without observing the difficulty in which they 
 would be placed, had at the same moment walked 
 in opposite directions along a fallen tree which 
 crossed a deep ravine. They met of course in 
 the middle, and the question was what should be 
 done. It was impossible for them to turn back, 
 and equally so to pass. At first they evidently 
 thought of trying their strength, and began to 
 push each other ; but they soon found that this 
 would be a dangerous expedient, as there was ever^ 
 probability that they would topple down together 
 and be dashed to pieces. They paused, — 
 
 I will not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau 
 If beasts confabulate or no ; 
 
 but at least after waiting long enough to confer on 
 the matter, one of his own accord quietly lay down 
 and suffered the other to spring over his back. Thus 
 they both escaped ; and do you not think that the 
 next time they should come near each other it would 
 
i;-;' 
 
 I. t > 
 .. 1 
 B i 
 
 itlh 
 
 '■ I 
 
 1 1 
 
 m 
 
 ■ > t 
 
 38 
 
 be much better for them to be quietly feeding to- 
 gether in pleasant pastures, than that their mL .gled 
 carcases should lie side by side in the valliy for 
 the ravens to pluck out their eyes? or do you suppose 
 that the hunter would deem that either of them acted 
 unworthily in thus settling a ilifRcult matter, or that 
 he would not rather admire the instir'^t which could 
 lead to such an end. Then let us oe not less wise ; 
 let u£ attend to the voice of reason as did the chamois 
 to that of nature ; let us make up with our adversary 
 whiles we are in the way, lest consequences should 
 arise which both parties will afterwards surely deplore, 
 though we may not, cannot retrace! 
 
 No doubt the congests -^vhich took place in the 
 dark ages on the subject of the Aristotelian philoso- 
 phy were thought by the combatants to have been 
 undertaken on very worthy grounds, and when 
 mourners could say, " Our friend is gone to be sure, 
 and never shall we look upon his like again, but 
 then think what he shed his blood for ; yes ! he died 
 for a quiddity ! what reason have we to rejoice?" Or 
 when the inhabitants of a town which had been sacked 
 could encourage e ich other by the thought, " Well ! 
 we fly, our houses are hiirn*, our harvests destroy- 
 ed^ our little ones killed, our peace ruined^ but 
 then a sophism ot Occam 'the most subtil' is with u«, 
 or a sorites of Duns Scotus 'the invincible' is over- 
 thrown;" — when such were the objects, such the 
 triumphs — men would perhaps think their losses 
 scarcely worth the mention. Yet wc have learn- 
 
39 
 
 ed after the lapse oi a few centuries to iaugh at the 
 follies, while we lament the wickedness, which led 
 to such idle heats. Yes, we have put away the 
 great Aristotle himself, by the introduction of a better 
 system of Philosophy. But will not a future age 
 consider the present rivalry of Britain and America 
 as equally futile, and unworthy. Will they not 
 wonder how two nations, the Tnost similar, the most 
 allied by nature and by interests, of any on earth, 
 could be brought to the edge of a fierce and intermin- 
 able war by such a cause as that which now divides 
 Uo ? The present is a material, not a speculative age. 
 Another period may arrive of greater wisdom and 
 purity than either, which will deem a contest about 
 an uncultivated forest as really trifling as about a 
 forest of words. 
 
 There are hrwever some pre-disposing causes which 
 have nothing to do with the dispute, yet bear ui)on 
 the question in hand. The chief of these is the 
 different forms of government of the two empires. 
 Yet this is a most idle controversy. If we can bene- 
 fit each other by the discut^sion, well and good ; let 
 the matter be discussed fidly ; but if the Americans 
 invade our territories or we retaliate upon the 
 Americans for such a reason, how sinful is the con- 
 duct and how unhkely to lead to a relish for each 
 other's views. 
 
 Sympathy is abstractedly an excellent thing? no- 
 thing can be better. We ought to be ready on all 
 occasions to feel for the woes of our fellow creatures. 
 
 ii 
 
¥'■■ ■« 
 
 51 !i 
 
 40 
 
 and to "interpose defence." But we should take care 
 that the objects who receive, deserve our aid, and 
 no less that that aid be limited by the laws of justice 
 and mercy. The " sympathisers " on the American 
 frontier have certainly violated both these plain rules 
 of common sense and common feeling. They have 
 endeavoured to assist a people suffering but little (on 
 their own showing) from governmental pressure, un- 
 burdened by taxes, and prosperous ; and the mass of 
 whom have been rather behind than in advance of the 
 neighbouring British in virtuous energy and the love 
 of freedom. They have too, instead of waiting for the 
 quiet dow of events, and the force of persuasion, 
 assisted in spreading desolation through an un- 
 offending province. Surely no good man of either 
 country can regard them in any other light than as 
 marauders and murderers. They may be free, but 
 their minds are iron-bound in ignorance and pre- 
 judice. They may think of exalting republicanism ; 
 but they expose it to the disgust of the civilized 
 world. 
 
 Assuredlv the rugged youths whom I saw in 
 Westminster Hall looked as little liko Philanthro- 
 pists as can be well imagin^nl ; yet they could draw 
 a trigger and so were, perhaps, good enough for 
 their trade. 
 
 They'd fill a ditch as well as better men. 
 
 Yet were thes-e " sympathisers" or those who have 
 promoted clandestinely their views, really in earnest 
 
41 
 
 in relieving the woes of suffering humanity ; it would 
 be possible to point their attention to some other 
 portions of our race, more abject than the half feudal, 
 half ochlocratic French Canadians ; and whom, 
 too, they would not be compelled to invade a neigh- 
 bouring territory to relieve. But we turn with 
 aversion from all such sympathisers and such sympa- 
 thy. The reign of peace is not to be promoted by 
 contention, nor the happiness of man by ''rime. 
 
 The forms of government likewise in Britain 
 and America are practically far more alike than 
 the viole"! of either party may be disposed to ad- 
 mit : viiiv i who have lived under both systems 
 must avow, that I can discern, as far as an ordinary 
 man's personal walk is concerned, but little difference. 
 Each form has its advantages and its failings, and 
 each country enjoys more of all that may be deemed 
 the most substantial blessings of life than probably 
 any other land in the world. But this matter has 
 been put in so good a light by Mr. Jacob Abbott, 
 that I concludf ^ . bat I have to say upon the point 
 by quoting hivr - 
 
 " After all, how . \ ^r, it is comparatively little which 
 the Christian community can do beyond its own bounds; 
 and our great work, therefore, is to expand those 
 bounds as rapidly as possible, and to purify and per- 
 fect all that is within them. True piety, consisting, 
 as it does, in ■ onest obedience to God, and heartfelt 
 benevolence trn ardvS man, will doits work in securing 
 human happiness as fast and far as it can go itself 
 
42 
 
 
 It is but a penumbra, — a twilight, of virtue and hap- 
 piness, which can, by the best of efforts, be carried be- 
 yond. We toil to alter human institutions, — forms of 
 government, — modes of religious organization, — or 
 systems of social economy, where we find them bearing 
 heavily upon the welfare or the happiness of men. 
 We forget that it is human depravity which gives to 
 human institutions all their efficiency in evil, and 
 while the depravity remains, it matters little in what 
 forms it tyrannizes over the rights and happiness of 
 men. A despotic monarch can do m i:; mischief 
 than a tyrannical democracy ; in fact, on n catalogue 
 of human despots, arranged in the order of injustice 
 and cruelty, a Republican Committee of Safety would 
 come first and Nero would have to follow. Where there 
 is cold-blooded depravity in power at the head, and 
 corruption in the mass below, no matter for the forms. 
 So in the church, — the worldly spirit which in Eng- 
 land would make a bishop an ambitious politician, or 
 a country pastor an idle profligate, — would in Ame- 
 rica, under a more democratic organization, show it- 
 self in factious struggles between contending parties, 
 or in the wild fanaticism of a religious demagogue. 
 All this does not show that it is of no consequence 
 how our ecclesiastical or political forms are an*anged, 
 but only that we are in danger of overrating that con- 
 sequence, and that our great work is to spread the 
 influence of genuine individual piety every where. 
 This alone can go to the root of the evil. The thing 
 to be done is, not to go on changing institutions, in 
 
 m 
 
43 
 
 the vain hope of finding some form which will work 
 well, while depravity administers it, — but to root out 
 depravity, and then almost any one will work well. 
 We should accordingly learn to look without jealousy 
 and dislike upon the political institutions of other coun- 
 tries even if they do not correspond with our own the- 
 oretical notions. The theories of the reflecting por- 
 tion of the community have but little to do with 
 moulding their institutions; they are regulated by 
 circumstances over which any one generation has but 
 little control. Why, for example, should England 
 quarrel with America for being a republic *? If she 
 had wished to be a monarchy, where, I ask, could 
 she have found a king *? It requires many centuries to 
 lay any firm foundations for a throne. And why 
 should America quarrel with England because she is 
 a monarchy'? Her present constitution of govern- 
 ment is an undesigned result of the growth of cen- 
 turies, that no combination of human powers, which 
 it is possible to effect in a single generation, can 
 safely change." 
 
 It remains only to make a practical application of 
 the preceding observations, and to present it with 
 earnestness but respect to the citizens of both 
 countries. This will necessarily be brief, because 
 the duties which under present circumstances offer 
 themselves are of a negative, rather than of a posi- 
 tive character. Yet, though simple, and such as 
 must commend themselves to every patriot and 
 Christian they are of the utmost importance ; and 
 
 \ i 
 
 M 
 
ii 
 
 m 
 
 V m 
 
 ; 1; ' 
 
 !r1 
 
 1 1 
 
 44 
 
 on an attention to them far more than on any 
 legislative enactments depends the decision of the 
 present controversy, and the future amity of the 
 nations. The respective governments are only the 
 organs of each people, and as the will is swayed, 
 and the mind informed of the great masses of our 
 populations, will the diplomatic relations terminate. 
 
 Let me then urge, that every thing of an 
 irritating and embarrassing nature in speech, or 
 writing, or action, be at once abstained from. 
 Editors of Newspapers and Periodicals should 
 be informed that the public taste is better than 
 that it can be satisfied with the insolence and 
 rhodomontade with which it is sometimes sup- 
 plied. A renunciation of subscriptions is the 
 shortest argument that can be used with such 
 persons, if in despite of the best interests and 
 duties of the countries, any of them be found thus 
 fanning the flames of strife. Then, writers of books 
 of travels calculated to wound the feelings, and 
 to give false impressions of the facts relating to 
 either party should meet with merited disapprobation 
 and neglect. Truth, indeed, and personal honour, 
 sometimes require allusions to the condition of 
 things in a sister coimtry; and it may be for 
 the advantage of that country that statements 
 should be made : — especially when persons have 
 taken up their residence in a land, though it be 
 not that of their birth, does there appear to be a 
 
45 
 
 kind of right of affection to touch, as upon its 
 virtues, so upon its faults. For no nation in the 
 present state of things can be pronounced perfect. 
 But then we should cherish love as well as truth in 
 these criticisms ; and be anxious to benefit only and 
 not to wound. But more than this ; — the Scripture 
 precept runs thus, "in honor preferring one an- 
 other ;" and surely the spirit which is demanded of 
 individuals towards each other is no less beautiful in 
 masses of men towards a neighbouring land. We may 
 in reason cherish our native country ; nor less allow 
 the excellency, and desire the welfare of each of her 
 sisters throughout the world. Nothing can be more 
 pitiful than the ignorant and proud pomposity which 
 makes a man think that all blessings and excel- 
 lencies are concentred in the soil of his birth ; or all 
 propriety in social things limited to the opinions of 
 his youth. 
 
 In general, plans have been devised and followed 
 rather fi^om the convenience and disposition of cir- 
 cumstances, than from merely pure theory ; and 
 while it is the duty of all, to seek the welfare of 
 all ; it is no less so to select favourable opportunities 
 and means for mutual improvement, and to promote 
 good by goodness. The opposite spirit of narrow 
 mindedness and arrogance would be truly ludicrous, 
 were it not so fatal as it is ; and reminds one in its 
 exercise and in its consequences of Gulliver at 
 Lilliput; who, according to the exquisite wit of 
 
m '1 
 
 ,?i 
 
 H <! 
 
 ! 
 
 s g 
 
 'I is,' 
 
 4 
 
 ?5t 
 
 46 
 
 Swift, being invited to dinner with the king, thought 
 it needful " to eat more than usual for the honour 
 of my dear country, as well as to fill the court with 
 admiration. Yet," as Gulliver continues, " I have 
 some private reasons to believe that this visit gave an 
 opportunity to Flimnap of doing me ill offices to his 
 master:" — and in fact it led to all his after troubles. 
 Thus ever does a covetous or boastful temper lead to 
 sorrow, and, as other 
 
 Vices dig their own voluptuous tombs ; 
 
 SO pride, ambition, and revenge, make to themselves 
 their bed of spikes. Let persons who may be in- 
 terested (as no doubt at least many millions of 
 people are interested) in the question which has 
 in these pages engaged our attention, consider the 
 justice of the principles which have been set forth : 
 let them beware lest, through inadvertence, they 
 wound the minds of others, or add fuel to the fire 
 already kindling: let them seek that pure " charity 
 which suffereth long and is kind, which envieth 
 not; which vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 
 doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her 
 own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, 
 rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; 
 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all 
 things, endureth all things ;" and they will discover 
 that this most " excellent way" never faileth ; but that, 
 as in all other cases it is the source of strength, and 
 
 i'''K 
 
""■ipillp 
 
 47 
 
 comfort, and hope ; so here it will be the means of 
 rapidly restoring the present severing relations of 
 America and Britain ; and cause that to be said of 
 nations which once was said respecting individuals. 
 See how these Christians love one another ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 ', I 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 Printed by E., B., and G. Clarke, Silver Street, Falcon Square.