"The evil effects of wars have left discontent which seeks for fresh wars. The great military outburst of France (it is said) will come one of these days: but if it does come, it will add one more lesson to those which France has received, from Louis the Fourteenth to Napoleon; and which, if these prophets are true, she has received in vain. Victory or defeat will leave the victors exhausted in any future contest, as it did before, and will only have made a fresh subtraction from her means of happiness and solid greatness."-Globe Newspaper, Aug. 3, 1839.

INEQUALITY OF NUMBERS IN WAR.

In a note on the 21st verse of the 20th chapter of Judges, it is said: "On common military principles there is nothing to occasion surprise in the defeat of an army of 400,000 men (the Israelites) by one of about 27,000 men (the Benjamites). It has been the great mistake of Orientalists generally, in all ages, to calculate their prospects of success rather by the numbers than by the efficiency of the men they can bring into action."

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