am that the man who has drunk in the en- | deplore it as the deadliest interruption, tire spirit of the gospel-who, reposing which ever had been given to the interests himself on the faith of its promised immor- of human virtue, and to the march of hutality, can maintain an elevated calm amid man improvement. O! how it should swell all the fluctuations of this world's interest every heart, not with pride, but with gra-whose exclusive ambition is to be the titude, to think that the land of our fathers, unexcepted pupil of pure, and spiritual, with all the iniquities which abound in it, and self-denying Christianity-sure I am with all the profligacy which spreads that such a man will honour the king and along our streets, and all the profaneness all who are in authority-and be subject that is heard among our companies-to unto them for the sake of conscience--and think that this our land, overspread as it is render unto them all their dues-and not with the appalling characters of guilt, is withhold a single fraction of the tribute still the securest asylum of worth and liberthey impose upon him-and be the best of ty-that this is the land, from which the subjects, just because he is the best of most copious emanations of Christianity Christians-resisting none of the ordi- are going forth to all the quarters of the nances of God, and living a quiet and a world-that this is the land, which teems peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. from one end to the other of it with the But it gives me pleasure to advance a most splendid designs and enterprises for further testimony in behalf of that govern- the good of the species-that this is the ment with which it has pleased God, who land, where public principle is most felt, appointeth to all men the bounds of their and public objects are most prosecuted, habitation, to bless that portion of the globe and the fine impulse of a public spirit is that we occupy. I count it such a govern- most ready to carry its generous people ment, that I not only owe it the loyalty of beyond the limits of a selfish and contractmy principles-but I also owe it the loyalty ed patriotism. Yes, and when the heart of my affections. I could not lightly part of the philanthropist is sinking within him with my devotion to that government at the gloomy spectacle of those crimes which the other year opened the door to and atrocities, which still deform the histhe Christianization of India-I shall never tory of man, I know not a single earthly withhold the tribute of my reverence from expedient more fitted to brighten and susthat government which put an end to the tain him, than to turn his eye to the counatrocities of the Slave Trade-I shall never try in which he lives-and there see the forget the triumph, which, in that proud-most enlightened government in the world est day of Britain's glory, the cause of hu- acting as the organ of its most moral and manity gained within the walls of our en- intelligent population. lightened Parliament. Let my right hand It is not against the government of my forget her cunning, ere I forget that coun- country, therefore, that I direct my obtry of my birth, where, in defiance to all servations-but against that nature of man, the clamours of mercantile alarm, every in the infirmities of which we all share, and calculation of interest was given to the the evil of which no government can exwind, and braving every hazard, she nobly tinguish. We have carried a new political resolved to shake off the whole burden of arrangement, and we experience the result infamy, which lay upon her. I shall never of it, a temporary calm-but we have not forget, that how to complete the object in yet carried our way to the citadel of hubehalf of which she has so honourably led man passions. The elements of war are the way, she has walked the whole round hushed for a season-but these elements of civilized society, and knocked at the are not destroyed. They still rankle in door of every government in Europe, and many an unsubdued heart-and I am too lifted her imploring voice for injured Africa, well taught by the history of the past, and and plead with the mightiest monarchs of the experience of its restless variations, not the world, the cause of her outraged shores, to believe that they will burst forth again and her distracted families. I can neither in thunder over the face of society. No, shut my heart nor my eyes to the fact, that my brethren, it will only be when diffused at this moment she is stretching forth the and vital Christianity comes upon the earth, protection of her naval arm, and shielding, that an enduring peace will come along to the uttermost of her vigour, that coast with it. The prophecy of my text will where an inhuman avarice is still plying obtain its fulfilment-but not till the fulfilits guilty devices, and aiming to perpetuate ment of the verses which go before it;among an unoffending people,, a trade of not till the influence of the gospel has cruelty, with all the horrid train of its ter- found its way to the human bosom, and rors and abominations. Were such a govern-plucked out of it the elementary principles ment as this to be swept from its base, either by the violence of foreign hostility, or by the hands of her own misled and infatuated children-I should never cease to

of war;-not till the law of love shall spread its melting and all-subduing efficacy, among the children of one common nature: not till ambition be dethroned from its mas

The above rapid sketch glances at the chief obstacles to the extinction of war, and in what remains of this discourse, I shal dwell a little more particularly on as many of them as my time will allow me, finding it impossible to exhaust so wide a topic, within the limits of the public services of one day.

tery over the affections of the inner man;| -not till the guilty splendours of war shall cease to captivate its admirers, and spread the blaze of a deceitful heroism over the wholesale butchery of the species;--not till national pride be humbled, and man shall learn, that if it be individually the duty of each of us in honour to prefer one another; then let these individuals combine as they The first great obstacle, then, to the exmay, and form societies as numerous and tinction of war, is the way in which the extensive as they may, and each of these heart of man is carried off from its barbaribe swelled out to the dimensions of an em- ties and its horrors, by the splendour of pire, still, that mutual condescension and its deceitful accompaniments. There is a forbearance remain the unalterable chris-feeling of the sublime in contemplating the tian duties of these empires to each other; shock of armies, just as there is in contem--not till man learn to revere his brother plating the devouring energy of a tempest, as man, whatever portion of the globe he and this so elevates and engrosses the whole occupies, and all the jealousies and prefer- man, that his eye is blind to the tears of ences of a contracted patriotism be given bereaved parents, and his ear is deaf to the to the wind;-not till war shall cease to be piteous moan of the dying, and the shriek prosecuted as a trade, and the charm of all of their desolated families. There is a gracethat interest which is linked with its con- fulness in the picture of a youthful warrior tinuance, shall cease to beguile men in the burning for distinction on the field, and peaceful walks of merchandise, into a bar-lured by this generous aspiration to the barous longing after war; not, in one word, till pride, and jealousy, and interest, and all that is opposite to the law of God and the charity of the gospel, shall be for ever eradicated from the character of those who possess an effectual control over the public and political movements of the species; not till all this be brought about, and there is not another agent in the whole compass of nature that can bring it about but the gospel of Christ, carried home by the all-eye pities them. No sister is there to weep subduing power of the Spirit to the con- over them. There no gentle hand is present sciences of men;-then, and not till then, to ease the dying posture, or bind up the my brethren, will peace come to take up wounds, which, in the maddening fury of its perennial abode with us, and its bless- the combat, have been given and received ed advent on earth be hailed by one shout by the children of one common father. of joyful acclamation throughout all its fa- There death spreads its pale ensigns over milies; then, and not till then, will the every countenance, and when night comes sacred principle of good will to men circu-on, and darkness around them, how many late as free as the air of heaven among all countries--and the sun looking out from the firmament, will behold one fine aspect of harmony throughout the wide extent of a regenerated world.

It will only be in the last days, "when it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it: And many people shall go, and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people;" then and not till then, "they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

deepest of the animated throng, where, in the fell work of death, the opposing sons of valour struggle for a remembrance and a name; and this side of the picture is so much the exclusive object of our regard, as to dis guise from our view the mangled carcases of the fallen, and the writhing agonies of the hundreds and the hundreds more who have been laid on the cold ground, where they are left to languish and to die. There no

a despairing wretch must take up with the bloody field as the untended bed of his last sufferings, without one friend to bear the message of tenderness to his distant home, without one companion to close his eyes.

I avow it. On every side of me I see causes at work which go to spread a most delusive colouring over war, and to remove its shocking barbarities to the back ground of our contemplations altogether. I see it in the history which tells me of the superb appearance of the troops, and the brilliancy of their successive charges. I see it in the poetry which lends the magic of its numbers to the narrative of blood, and transports its many admirers, as by its images, and its figures, and its nodding plumes of chivalry, it throws its treacherous embellishments over a scene of legalized slaughter. I see it in the music which represents the progress of the battle; and where, after being inspired by the trumpet-notes of preparation, the whole beauty and tenderness of a drawing

room are seen to bend over the sentimental | land, ere the propnesied influence of the entertainment; nor do I hear the utterance gospel shall bring its virtuous, and its paci

patiate. I wished, in particular, to have laid it fully before you how the extinction of war, though it should withdraw one of those scenes on which man earns the glory of intrepidity; yet it would leave other, and better, and nobler scenes, for the display and the exercise of this respectable attribute. I wished also to explain to you, that however much I admired the general spirit of Quakerism, on the subject of war; yet that I was not prepared to go all the length of its prin

of a single sigh to interrupt the death-tones fying controul to bear with effect on the of the thickening contest, and the moans of counsels and governments of the world. the wounded men as they fade away upon I find that I must be drawing to a close, the ear, and sink into lifeless silence. All, and that I must forbear entering into several all goes to prove what strange and half-topics on which I meant at one time to exsighted creatures we are. Were it not so, war could never have been seen in any other aspect than that of unmingled hatefulness; and I can look to nothing but to the progress of christian sentiment upon earth, to arrest the strong current of its popular and prevailing partiality for war. Then only will an imperious sense of duty lay the check of severe principle, on all the subordinate tastes and faculties of our nature. Then will glory be reduced to its right estimate, and the wakeful benevolence of the gospel chas-ciples, when that war was strictly defensive. ing away every spell, will be turned by the treachery of no delusion whatever, from its simple but sublime enterprises for the good of the species. Then the reign of truth and quietness will be ushered into the world, and war, cruel, atrocious, unrelenting war, will be stript of its many and its bewildering fascinations.

It strikes me, that war is to be abolished by the abolition of its aggressive spirit among the different nations of the world. The text seems to tell me that this is the order of prophecy upon the subject; and that it is when nation shall cease to lift up its sword against nation; or, in other words, when one nation shall cease to move, for the purpose But again, another obstacle to the extinc- of attacking another, that military science tion of war, is a sentiment which seems to will be no longer in demand, and that the be universally gone into, that the rules and people of the earth will learn the art of war promises of the gospel which apply to a no more. I should also have stated, that on single individual, do not apply to a nation this ground, I refrained from pronouncing of individuals. Just think of the mighty on the justice or necessity of any one war effect it would have on the politics of the in which this country has ever been involved. world, were this sentiment to be practically I have no doubt that many of those who deposed from its wonted authority over the supported our former wars, looked on sevecounsels and the doings of nations, in their ral of them as wars for existence; but on transactions with each other. If forbearance this matter I carefully abstain from the utbe the virtue of an individual, forbearance terance of a single sentiment; for in so doing, is also the virtue of a nation. If it be incum- I should feel myself to be descending from bent on men in honour to prefer each other, the generalities of christian principle, and it is incumbent on the very largest societies employing that pulpit as the vehicle of a of men, through the constituted organ of questionable policy, which ought never to their government to do the same. If it be be prostituted either to the unworthy object the glory of a man to defer his anger, and of sending forth the incense of human flatto pass over a transgression, that nation tery to any one administration, or of regalmistakes its glory which is so feelingly alive ing the factious, and turbulent, and disloyal to the slightest insult, and musters up its passions of any party. I should next, if I threats and its armaments upon the faintest had time, offer such observations as were shadow of a provocation. If it be the mag- suggested by my own views of political nanimity of an injured man to abstain from science, on the multitude of vulnerable vengeance, and if by so doing, he heaps coals points by which this country is surrounded, of fire upon the head of his enemy, then in the shape of numerous and distant dethat is the magnanimous nation, which, re-pendencies, and which, however much they coiling from violence and from blood, will do no more than send its christian embassy, and prefer its mild and impressive remonstrance; and that is the disgraced nation which will refuse the impressiveness of the moral appeal that has been made to it.-O! my brethren, there must be the breathing of a different spirit to circulate round the globe, ere its christianized nations resign the jealousies which now front them to each other in the scowling attitude of defiance; and much is to do with the people of every

may tend to foster the warlike politics of our government, are, in truth, so little worth the expense of a war, that should all of them be wrested away from us, they would leave the people of our empire as great, and as wealthy, and as competent to every purpose of home security as ever. Lastly, I might have whispered my inclination, for a little more of the Chinese policy being imported into Europe, not for the purpose of restraining a liberal intercourse between its different countries, but for the purpose of quieting in

each its restless spirit of alarm, about every would accrue to our trade. Why, my breforeign movement in the politics and designs thren, if this argument is to be admitted, of other nations; because, sure I am, that there is not one conceivable benefit that can were each great empire of the world to lay be offered for the acceptance of the species. it down as the maxim of its most scrupulous Would it not be well if all the men of readobservance, not to meddle till it was med-ing in the country were to be diverted from dled with, each would feel in such a maxim the poison which lurks in many a mischievboth its safety and its triumph;-for such ous publication-and should this blessed reare the mighty resources of defensive war, formation be effected, are there none to be that though the whole transportable force found who would feel that much damage of Europe were to land upon our borders, had accrued to their trade? Would it not the result of the experiment would be such, be well, if those wretched sons of pleasure, that it should never be repeated-the rally- before whom if they repent not, there lieth ing population of Britain could sweep them all the dreariness of an unprovided eternity all from the face of its territory, and a whole-would it not be well, that they were remyriad of invaders would melt away under claimed from the maddening intoxication the power of such a government as ours, which speeds them on in the career of distrenched behind the loyalty of her defen- obedience-and on this event, too, would ders, and strong, as she deserves to be, in there be none to complain that much damage the love and in the confidence of all her had accrued to their trade? Is it not well, children. that the infamy of the slave trade has been swept from the page of British history? and yet do not many of you remember how long the measure lay suspended, and that about twenty annual flotillas, burdened with the load of human wretchedness, were wafted across the Atlantic, while Parliament was deafened and overborne by unceasing clamours about the much damage that would accrue to the trade? And now, is it not well that peace has once more been given to the nations? and are you to follow up this goodly train of examples, by a single whisper of discontent about the much damage that will accrue to your trade? No, my brethren, I will not let down a single inch of the christian requirement that lies upon you. Should a sweeping tide of bankruptcy set in upon the land, and reduce every individual who now hears me, to the very humblest condition in society, God stands pledged to give food and raiment to all who depend upon him;-and it is not fair to make others bleed, that you may roll in affluence;—it is not fair to desolate thousands of families, that yours may be upheld in luxury and splendour--and your best, and noblest, and kindest part is, to throw yourselves on the promises of God, and he will hide you and your little ones in the secret of his pavilion till these calamities be overpast.

I would not have touched on any of the lessons of political economy, did they not lead me, by a single step, to a christian lesson, which I count it my incumbent duty to press upon the attention of you all. Any sudden change in the state of the demand, must throw the commercial world into a temporary derangement. And whether the change be from war to peace, or from peace to war, this effect is sure to accompany it. Now for upwards of twenty years, the direction of our trade has been accommodated to a war system, and when this system is put an end to, I do not say what amount of the distress will light upon this neighbourhood, but we may be sure that all the alarm of falling markets, and ruined speculation, will spread an impressive gloom over many of the manufacturing districts of the land. Now, let my title to address you on other grounds, be as questionable as it may, I feel no hesitation whatever in announcing it, as your most imperative duty, that no outcry of impatience or discontent from you, shall embarrass the pacific policy of his majesty's government. They have conferred a great blessing on the country, in conferring on it peace, and it is your part resignedly to weather the languid or disasterous months which may come along with it. The interest of trade is an old argument that has been set up in resistance to the dearest and most substantial interests of humanity.

III. I trust it is evident from all that has been said, how it is only by the extension of christian principle among the people of When Paul wanted to bring Christianity the earth, that the atrocities of war will at into Ephesus, he raised a storm of opposi-length be swept away from it; and that tion around him, from a quarter which, I each of us in hastening the commencement dare say, he was not counting on. There of that blissful period, in his own sphere, is happened to be some shrine manufactories doing all that in him lies to bring his own in that place, and as the success of the heart, and the hearts of others, under the Apostle would infallibly have reduced the supreme influence of this principle. It is demand for that article, forth came the de-public opinion, which in the long run gocisive argument of, Sirs, by this craft we have our wealth, and should this Paul turn away the people from the worship of gods made with hands, thereby much damage

verns the world; and while I look with confidence to a gradual revolution in the state of public opinion from the omnipotence of gospel truth working its silent, but