favoured by heaven, as totally to destroy some remarkable place, then a verbose hymn [the mass] is sung. *** All courtiers pay a certain number of orators, to celebrate these sanguinary actions. * * * They are all very long winded in their harrangues. *** But, in not one of all these discourses, has the orator the spirit to animadvert on war, that scourge and crime that includes all others. Put together all the vices of all ages and places, and never will they come up to the mischiefs and enormities of one campaign.

"Ye bungling soul physicians! to bellow for an hour and more, against a few fleabites, and not say a word about that horrid distemper which tears us to pieces! Burn your books, ye moralizing philosophers! Whilst the honour of a few shall make it an act of loyalty to butcher thousands of our fellow creatures, the part of mankind dedicated to heroism will be the most execrable and destructive monsters in all nature. Of what avail is humanity, benevolence, modesty, temperance, mildness, discretion and piety! when half a pound of lead, discharged at the

distance of six hundred paces, shatters my body: when I expire, at the age of twenty, under pains unspeakable, and amidst thousands in the same miserable condition-when my eyes at their last opening, see my native town all in a blaze, and the last sounds I hear, are the shrieks and groans of women and children, expiring among the ruins!"

Ah! when shall Christendom wipe away the reproaches cast on it by infidels and pagans! When will the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus understand his precepts and conform to his example?

NO. 27.

"THE PROFESSION OF ARMS" AS A Trade.

This is a subject, which I am sensible, must be handled with the utmost caution, lest in my zeal to forward the best interest of my fellow creatures, I should wound the feelings of some humane and generous soul, who under the influence of early prejudice, has taken up, as a trade to get a living by, a pro

fession, the practice of which is closely associated with sighs and tears, injustice and oppression, robbery and murder.

It has been hinted to me, by friends, that some of my previous remarks on the military profession, have given offence by their severity. It is my opinion, that this misconception arises from want of discrimination, which it has been my constant study to make apparent; but it is next to impossible, to make a thing so plain, that prejudiced eyes, which see every thing obliquely, will see it clearly. My remarks have, generally, been applicable to the profession of arms as a trade, or occupation, in which I am free to acknowledge, there may be generous, benevolent, and I may add, strange as it may appear, christian men engaged, who have carried on the trade of war, with as little reflection as the benevolent Newton carried on the slave trade. Whoever has seen his reflections on that abominable traffic, written in the latter part of his life, will see how much his opinions changed, and we have witnessed a like change in some men of the military profession, and hope to witness many more.

The

reader may perhaps recollect a former notice of a British officer, who lately resigned his commission and its emoluments, from a conviction, that the practice of war is incompatible with a christian profession. A French officer, also, who served with credit under Bonaparte, has been convinced by reading the tracts of the British Peace Society, and has become an advocate for peace, to use his own words "in defiance of the remembrance of his former profession,-in defiance of all the seductions which attend military glory."

"Let it be remembered that to bestow good names on bad things is to give them a passport in the world, under a delusive disguise." (Knox's Essays, No. 34.) The glitter and applause, which have accompanied all successful wars, however unjust, has been the main spring of war, and it is chiefly because the profession of arms, after having passed through certain formula, which is of ten the only thing that distinguishes it from highway robbery, is considered almost universally honourable, that wars have continued from generation to generation. It is true,

I have endeavoured to apply the touchstone, to the glittering habiliments of war, and it is perhaps, impossible, in such an attempt to avoid the imputation of severity.

I have, generally, avoided all personality. But, it must be remembered, that in stepping forward, to advocate the cause of peace, I have not lost the privilege of a citizen of a free republic; and that public characters are a fair object of public observation. Nor am I without precedent and example, in the meek and benevolent Saviour, who reproved the chief men among his people, to the face. True, I do not, like him, know their hearts, and I do not like him, judge their hearts—it is of their actions only, that I judge.

I have been led, at this time, to these reflections, by reading Com. Porter's letter to the Hon. Mr. Dickerson, and the following paragraph in particular :—

"The profession of arms has never been deemed dishonourable, and whether I go to learn it, or to teach it, malignity alone, can find cause, to censure me.'

I must allow, that, in common with my Saviour, with the apostles and primitive