PRIVATE WARS.

"The abuse of private wars was carried to so great an extent in Germany in the 15th century, that not only sovereigns and states engaged in hostilities from interest and revenge, but the lesser barons, and even associations of tradesmen and domestics, sent defiances to each other on the most ridiculous pretences, and in a manner scarcely credible in the present day. We find a declaration of war from a private individual, Henry Mayenburg, against the Emperor himself: another, from the Lord of Prauenstein against Frankfort, because a young lady of the city refused to dance with his uncle: another, in 1450, from the baker and domestics of the Margrave of Baden against Eslingen, Reuslingen, and other imperial cities: another, in 1462, from the baker of the Count Palatine Louis against the cities of Augsburgh, Ulm, and Rothwell: one, in 1471, from the shoe-blacks of the university of Leipsig against the Provost and some other members: and one, in 1477, from a cook in Eppenstein, with his scullions, dairy-maids, and dish-washers, against Otho, Count of Solms."-Coxe's Austria, vol. i. p. 306.

An Archbishop of Cologne erected a castle, and having been asked, by the person to whom he entrusted it, how he should support himself and his followers, replied, that there were four highways in the neighbourhood, and he was at war with all passengers.

WAR FROM PARTY SPIRIT.

The Spanish war, in the time of George II., was the fruit of party spirit. The minister, Walpole, resisted it as long as he could; but was driven into it by his political enemy, Sir W. Pulteney, of whom the Edinburgh Reviewer, of April, 1840, says: "To drive the State into hostile enterprises; to inflame the natural animosities of the giddy vulgar; to plunge all Europe into the calamities of war about nothing-this was the darling object of his most strenuous exertions-this the favourite theme which called forth all his powers-this the vile, accursed ground upon which the choicest flowers of his great genius were lavished. And yet the purpose of all this profligate violence being once compassed in the destruction of his rival, the authors of the Spanish war, with a candour which would

be truly commendable if it were not shameless effrontery, soon after confessed that they had not the shadow of a ground for all their attacks upon pacific measures, and all their base patronage of war."

LUDICROUS MOTIVE OF WAR.

The following ludicrous reason for going to war is found in Darwin's Journey of Travels in South America and the Southern Ocean, p.

499:

"At the present day, there is much less warfare. When Europeans first traded here, muskets and ammunition far exceeded in value any other article: now they are in little request, and are

indeed often offered for sale.

Among some of

the Southern tribes there is still much hostility. I heard a characteristic anecdote of what took place there some time ago:

"A missionary found a chief and his tribe in preparation for war; their muskets clean and bright, and their ammunition ready. He reasoned long on the inutility of the war, and the little provocation that had been given for it. The chief was much shaken in his resolution, and

seemed in doubt; but at length it occurred to him that a barrel of his gunpowder was in a bad state, and that it would not keep much longer. This was brought forward as an unanswerable argument for the necessity of immediately declaring war: the idea of allowing so much good gunpowder to spoil was not to be thought of: this settled the point."

COURTESY IN WAR.

"In the midst of the firing, a white flag having been exhibited in the town, hostile proceedings were immediately suspended; and on a boat proceeding from the shore, the Indian mail from Bagdad was landed, with Suleiman Pacha's compliments to the Admiral. The latter on his part forwarded a letter of warm thanks to the Pacha, accompanied by a packet of wine, taken in an Egyptian vessel, directed to Suleiman. Firing was then resumed." -Hunter's Expedition to Syria.

PARSIMONY IN WAR.

"In conversation one day with a half-pay

officer, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor at St. Petersburgh, upon the state of the sick list among the Guards, I was not a little astonished at his telling me that mercury and quinine were medicines too expensive to be given to the men; and when I adverted as politely as I could to the inhumanity as well as false economy of such a system, he replied, 'Ah, mon cher, a soldier in Russia costs nothing.'"-Jesse's Travels in Circassia.

PRAISE OF PEACE-MINISTERS.

"Nothing is more useful for both the people and their rulers than to dwell on the excellence of those statesmen whose lives have been spent in furthering the useful, the sacred work of peace. The thoughtless vulgar are ever prone to magnify the brilliant exploits of arms, which dazzle ordinary understandings, and prevent any account being taken of the cost and the crime that so often are hidden in the guise of success. All merit of that kind is sure of passing current for more than it is worth; and the eye is turned indifferently upon, and even scornfully from, the unpretending virtue of the true friend of his species, the minister who devotes all his cares to