battle 800 Mexicans lay dead on the field, and only 2 Spaniards were wounded.

AMELIORATION OF WAR, GOOD POLICY.

In whatever shape it comes, war must ever be the greatest calamity which nations can suffer.

Still, great as is this evil, it may be lessened or aggravated by the mode in which it is conducted; and he surely does no slight service to mankind who introduces into the deadly strife of warring nations rules of fair and honourable dealing-rules by which all useless cruelty is forbidden, and all personal and individual animosity is checked, if not utterly subdued.

It has been said, indeed, that in those who wish to diminish strife it is unwise to render the intercourse of warring armies less ferocious and destructive. By stripping war of its horrors it is supposed that we foster a warlike spirit, and invest the horrible business of slaughter with an attractive and deceiving character. If, indeed, we could hope to put an end to all war by making it terrible, then we might admit the justice of this argument; but of this happy state of universal peace we have no expectation: neither do

we believe that we should conduce to its attainment by creating and increasing ferocious habits amongst opposing nations. Cruelty begets cruelty; one atrocity creates another, by way of reprisal; and national animosity is kept alive and heightened by a desire to gratify personal hatred and revenge.-Edinburgh Review, Jan., 1842, p. 314.

DR. JOHNSON'S OPINION of war.

Dr. Johnson laughed at Lord Kames's opinion that war was a good thing occasionally, as so much valour and virtue were exhibited in it. "A fire," said he, "might as well be thought a good thing. There are the bravery and address in the firemen extinguishing it; there is much humanity exerted in saving the lives and property of the poor sufferers: yet, after all, who can say that a fire is a good thing?"

CHARACTER OF A CONQUEROR.

"A conqueror," said Gustavus Adolphus, "is one who, in his passion for glory, deprives himself and his subjects of all repose. He rushes

forward like a torrent, carrying desolation in his path, and filling the world with terror, misery, and confusion."

The best troops in France have never been

able to stand against British bayonets.

BATTLE OF WATERLOO-DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

"The duke of Wellington stated that he considered Buonaparte did his duty in this glorious battle, and fought it with infinite skill, perseverance, and bravery; and, in ascribing the victory to the superior physical force and constancy of British soldiers, he added, never had he fought so hard for victory, and never, from the gallantry of the enemy, had he been so near beaten. During the action the gallant duke was everywhere to be found encouraging, guiding the troops, and, like the genius of the storm, borne upon its wings, directing its thunders where to burst. This contest raised the glory of England to its highest pitch, and gave the last and most decisive proof that in every age, and in every country, under every disadvantage of circumstances, numbers, and situations, from the days of Cressy and Agincourt to the present time, by land and sea, the British have ever been victorious over their ancient and presumptuous foes. The French had persuaded Europe, as well as themselves, that Buonaparte was the greatest military genius of past or present times; that his generals were all perfect tactitians; and that the

troops of the grande nation were the best in the world. This opinion was at its height when the duke of Wellington commenced his glorious and unparalleled career in Portugal and Spain; but every operation of the British army under his command tended to remove the film from the eyes of our too vain antagonist, and also satisfied our own troops, as well as the whole world, that the dormant energies and innate courage of British soldiers needed but the proper stimulant and a fair field to re-act the valiant deeds of their ancestors, who had emblazoned in the pages of immortality the actions of Cressy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, as proud beacons for their posterity, who have proved themselves apt scholars in acquiring military fame, and can with satisfaction point to the records of the victories of Marlborough in the last age, and also to those in the present century of his unconquered and perfect successor, who never attacked the French without defeating them; who, in retreating, retired in such order as neither to raise the hopes of the enemy, nor abate those of his own troops; who never gave an opportunity, and never lost one; whose movements were so rapid as even to deceive and astonish the active French; who foiled