who are appointed to command them; yet the disparity be tween officers and soldiers in an army, is about the same as that between slave-drivers and slaves. Is it not then a manifest absurdity to suppose that the rulers of a free people have a right to make such distinctions between their constituents as the following-to select favourites and give them the power of slave-drivers, with a compensation from 50 to 200 dollars a month; and then compel others to leave their families in wretchedness, poverty and despair and to enter the ranks of an army, and expose their health, their lives and their everlasting happiness, for the paltry sum of five or six dollars a month! and that too while many of these conscripts could earn at home three or four times the wages allowed by the govern ment, and would be exposed to lose a far greater sum by leav. ing their business! Shall freemen be exposed in this manner to be driven from all the comforts of domestic life, and expose ed to all the contaminating vices, plagues and dangers of a military camp?

No man is compelled to be a contractor for our armies, The government advertises for contractors; those who are willing to engage, state their terms, and the business is set tled not by conscription but by contract, No man is compelled to serve as a general, a colonel, a major or as a commissioned officer; the government proposes such a compensation as insures a sufficient number of applicants. Besides, the offi- ... cer, if dissatisfied with the service, may resign his commission and return to his family. But the unfortunate conscript soldier is not only compelled into military service, on terms to which he never consented, but he is compelled, by the severest penalties to serve the time appointed by the government, unless sooner dismissed by the king of terrors.

My republican brethren, "these things ought not so to be." We have already incorporated too many of the fatal principles of military despotism with our republican institutions-enough to devour all our rights as freemen, unless we awake and attend to the things which belong to our peace.

If we allow our rulers the power of raising armies by conscription, the next step may be to raise money by arbitrary contributions. The latter however is the less evil of the two,

ousy

and not at all more repugnant to republican principles. Ia some cases many of our citizens have shown a sufficient jealfor their rights. It is not long since a number of mem, bers of congress failed of a re-election, because they had giv en their votes for raising their own wages, or for changing their six dollars a day for a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. But this act was a light thing when compared with vote ing our country into the horrors of war, and consigning thou sands of fellow citizens to slavery and slaughter.

As many of our citizens understand the remedy for encroachments on their liberties, may we not hope that, in future, they will apply it by a judicious us of the right of suffrage?that in the exercise of this right they will have due regard to men of pacific principles-to men who are republi cans in heart, as well as in profession?—and that they will suffer men to retire peaceably to private stations, who have so little regard to unalienable rights, as to evince a disposition to devote their fellow citizens by thousands to conscription, vasz salage and death ?

But, in justice to a majority of our rulers, as well as a majority of other citizens, it probably should be supposed that, having derived their opinions from tradition and custom, they have never seriously reflected on the enormity of the principles of war, nor on the absolute tyranny of conscription; that they have not been aware how far the rights of our citizens have already been violated by the wars in which we have been engaged; that, when they shall have duly reflected on the subject, they will be convinced of the incompatibility of the whole system of war with republican principles, and also that, as a nation, we must sink under the weight of a military despotism, or save ourselves by adopting the principles of peace. For, on due reflection, it must be clear to every intelligent mind, that we may as reasonably expect to keep our fires from going out by using water for fuel, as to support republican institutions by encouraging a spirit of war, and military estab

lishments.

THE WARS AND WAR DEBT OF GREAT BRITAIN.

In a work published at Edinburgh, in 1817, entitled "Pictures of War," we find the following statements :

"Since the year 1000, there have been twenty-four different wars be tween England and France-twelve between England and Scotland-eight between England and Spain, and seven in other countries-in all fifty-one

wars!

"Those with France alone occupied upwards of 250 years; and perhaps It might be shown by calculation, that out of 8 centuries since the year 1000, there have not been 100 years in all of general peace as it respects England.” "At the conclusion of the war which ended in 1697, the national debt was 24 millions and a half. At the conclusion of the last war in 1815, the national debt amounted to no less than one thousand and fifty millions!”

It cannot be doubted that the revenue of Great Britain has been more than sufficient to cancel all the expenditures of her government, excepting what has been devoted to the purposes of war and military establishments. Hence the whole of the present enormous debt may be set to the account of war, and may be termed " the price of blood."

That our readers may have a more correct and impressive view of this sanguinary debt, the result of some calculations will be presented.

The one thousand and fifty millions sterling, is four thou sand six hundred and sixty six millions, six hundred and sixty six thousand, six hundred and sixty six dollars and two thirds.

The interest of this debt at six per cent is two hundred and eighty millions of dollars annually.

Suppose this amount of interest to be paid annually in silver, it would require 17 men, 12 hours in every day to count, -the money at the rate of 60 dollars each, every minute.

To count the principal at the same rate in one year would require 295 men.

Admitting 17 dollars to be one pound avoirdupois, the whole debt is equal to one hundred and twenty-two thousand, five hundred and forty-nine tons of silver.

Supposing this silver to be all transported in waggons, one ton to a waggon-and allowing four rods for each team, the teams would occupy a distance of 1531 miles.

If silver should be received into the public treasury at the rate of one ton a week it would require two thousand three hundred and fifty six years to cancel the debt, without any regard to the interest.

At the rate of one ton a day, it would require three hundred and thirty-five years-the interest still out of the question.

Admitting the annual interest at 6 per cent. to be averaged on the days of the year, the treasurer might pay out twenty tons of silver every day without cancelling any part of the principal.

Suppose the population of the world to be seven hundred millions, and the British debt to be averaged as a poll tax on every human being, man, woman and child, the share of each would be upwards of six dollars and a half.

The interest of this debt at six per cent is sufficient to afford an average salary of two hundred and eighty dollars a year to a million school-masters-or five hundred and sixty dollars Teach to five hundred thousand Missionaries or school-masters.

It has been said, and perhaps truly, that the debt of GreatBritain has been a means of binding the nation together and of preventing a revolution in the government. It is however unquestionable that to pay the interest of such a debt, even at four per cent. must occasion a vast amount of pauperism, oppression and distress. Nor can it be denied that the enormous expenditures by which this debt has been iucurred, might have been appropriated to better purposes than the destruction of mankind.

It is well known that self defence, the attainment and preservation of liberty and peace, have been the avowed objects of these expenditures. Such has long been the policy of Christian nations. But if any truth can be established by facts and experience, it is easy to demonstrate, that this policy is all a delusion-and that its genuine tendency is to multiply the miseries of war. Great Britain has made an ample experiment of this policy. Her present debt proves that she has not been sparing in her expenditures to be always prepared for war; and yet if her own citizens are correct in their statements, she has been at war with one nation or another, or in a state of civil war, more than three fourths of the time for 800

years. Such is the testimony which the history of Great Britain gives against the delusive principle, that preparations for war are the best means of preserving peace. Our own history is giving the same testimony in a manner which will be felt, if not understood.

If all the property which Great Britain has expended in her military career had been devoted to benevolent and pacific purposes-in humanizing the character and meliorating the condition of her own citizens, and in diffusing the benign principles of the gospel at home and abroad; she would have been at this day the admiration of the world. Her national debt, in that case, would have been a monument of national glory, far superior to her thousand ships of war and all her trophies of conquest and bloodshed. Such a debt contracted in doing good would have had a far more salutary influence to bind the nation together and to preserve peace, than a debt contracted on the principles of military ambition, and in spreading and preparing to spread carnage, desolation and wo among the human family.

A cement composed of an enormous debt, mingled with a proportionable quantity of blood, is very liable to be dissolved by the anger of Heaven and the passions of men. Were it not for the saving tendency of the numerous institutions of a benevolent character, which have within thirty years been established in Great Britain, we might safely infer from the history of Providence, that the time is at hand when that nation must fall from her military height, like Babylon and Rome. But on the ground of the late wonderful and redeeming efforts of Christians in that kingdom, and the mercy of that God who has excited this spirit of benevolent enterprize, we "hope better things, and things which accompany salvation."

Since the disruption between Great Britain and this country, there has been no want of a disposition on our part, to reproach that people on the ground of their national debt, and to predict their overthrow. Yet we retain the very principles, maxims and spirit which have brought on that nation such a terrific load of debt and guilt. We even glory in being her rival in the pursuit of sanguinary fame; and we follow her example with an avidity which might induce a belief that we