pect of warfare, and in showing the distress and crime which are concealed beneath the pomp of military exploits and operations. If the glories of war furnish the materials of thousands of volumes of history, romance and poetry, its curses and evils may surely be sufficient to furnish matter for the publications of the Peace Society. The press is free, it may be put in operation at a moderate expense, and the hope of diffusing the kind of information proposed, is neither preposterous nor

unreasonable.

But the objector may still ask-for whose benefit all this is attempted? He may admit that our object is good, and our means adequate to its accomplishment, but may continue to doubt whether it be of sufficient importance to require his cooperation.

In answer to this objection, we have to remark, that if no higher motive prevail, self interest will attract attention to the considerations in favour of peace, which we are attempting to lay before the public. It may certainly be shown that war is a tremendous evil, vastly more ruinous to human happiness than former generations have been aware of. If this be true, and we can bring mankind, or any portion of them to believe and feel it, we may reasonably hope that self-interest will lead them to avoid the errors of ignorance under which their forefathers suffered so much. We are not aiming to build up any sect or party. We are simply endeavouring to teach unreflecting men how to estimate and avoid one class of evils. We are asking for no self sacrifice; for the control of the brutish propensities is a triumph, and not a sacrifice. We are seeking to dissipate a delusion, inherited from ages when reason and religion were enslaved by the base propensities. We are pleading the cause of humanity and religion, of enlightened self interest, against the voice of passion, prejudice, and misguided bravery. And we have every reason to believe we shall make ourselves heard. The evils of war are real and serious. They second our appeal. Mankind will eagerly embrace any hope of escape from them. We believe their full hideousness has never been made known. We are conscious that we have the pow

er, with perseverance and energy, to make them known, at least in some degree. Shall we not have the thanks of our fellow-men? When the evils of war are fully portrayed, will not self-interest render the practice more rare?

It is vain to deny that a pacific disposition is pervading mankind. We are far from claiming this fact as the result of our labours. Civilization and Christianity are the great antagonists of war. Yet a disposition to peaceful relations has been considerably increased by clearer views of the evils of warfare. Mankind begin to compare what they lose with what they gain by warfare, and find the former immeasurably outweighing the latter.

It is true that at the present moment when the evils of war are distant, a discussion of those evils does not violently arrest the public attention. But let the question of peace or war seriously arise, and the arguments and facts which Peace Societies are now quietly collecting and laying up, will be sought for and examined. At such a moment, ere the fatal step is taken, both rulers and people will review the neglected arguments and statistics. If war be unchristian, if it be clearly destructive of national wealth and commerce, if its objects may be peacefully obtained and its manifold evils avoided-in such a moment, the consideration of these facts will be thorough and intense, both on the part of rulers and people, before either will venture to appeal to arms.

It is, moreover, a well known fact that many eminent men, in all Christian countries, are taking new views of this subject. The evils of war are attracting attention. The spirit of philanthropy is awakened. Men have pity for the sufferings of their fellow-men. They are questioning, in various directions, whether these sufferings may not be avoided. Commerce is gaining such ascendency and uniting itself so closely with all the interests of the community that her voice is heard against every proposition to resort to arms. The merchant will listen to our arguments when we show how war annihilates his interests. The Christian will hear us, if we can evince the inconsistency of war with the principles of his religion. The VOL. II. No. 11. 11

patriot will regard our suggestions, if we can show that national difficulties may be amicably adjusted. The most selfish man in the community will hear us tell him of the inevitable disadvantages entailed upon himself by rushing to arms. We shall thus speak to willing ears, and write for eager eyes. An imperceptible influence will flow into the minds of men from the press. Literature will change its tone. Military glory will be coupled with many painful associations. The ambition of the truly great will be directed into other channels; they will strive to be the benefactors, and not the scourges of their race. The conqueror will feel that both aspects of his operations will be painted; that the trump of victory will be answered by the groans of the wretched; and that, how great soever may be the achievments of his valour, posterity, at least, will assuredly know that they were not untarnished by the infliction of unutterable distress.

Let it, then, no longer be lightly said, that the friends of peace are weak fanatics, who only deserve toleration and pity. If there be a nobler earthly aim than theirs, let it be pointed out. If more reasonable means were ever applied to a worthier end, let that end and those means be designated. The friends of peace demand, not merely toleration and indulgence, but approbation and assistance. They ask who are for war and who for peace? Who are for concealing from mankind the evils of a barbarous custom, and who are for exposing and removing them? They demand whether it be not both laudable and practicable to bring to light the evils of war, and to suggest means for its total abolition? If this be fanaticism, they covet the distinction it confers. It will be found that their objects are not merely harmless, but positively useful; that they are already proceeding to carry them into effect with zeal and success, and are beginning to witness useful results from their exertions.

ARTICLE III.

WILLIAM PENN.

BY THE EDITOR.

PERHAPS there are few persons who have not formed some notion of William Penn. He is generally imagined as a plain, honest old gentleman, dressed in a peculiar costume, seated under some wide spreading tree of the Pennsylvanian wilderness, making treaties with the natives. Most persons have heard or read that he was peculiarly inclined to peace, that he lived in great harmony with the savage tribes by which his government was surrounded, treating them with a paternal tenderness, and in turn treated by them as a father. Most persons, perhaps, are also acquainted with the fact, that for seventy years, the repose of his infant colony of Pennsylvania, though defended by no arms but those of justice and of peace, and situated in the very bosom of many savage nations, was not disturbed by any hostile incursion. His character as a legislator is, however, but very partially understood, the independence and wisdom of his opinions but little known, the force of his principles and the sacrifices which he made to sustain them but very imperfectly appreciated.

His life was one of contrarieties. Born to wealth and rank, and in a gay and licentious age, he was in extreme youth distinguished by the gravity and sobriety of his deportment. It is said, that at the age of eleven, while alone in his chamber "he was suddenly surprised with an inward comfort, and an appearance of external glory which gave rise to religious emotions, producing within him the strongest conviction of the being of a God, and of the capacity of the human soul for holding communion with him. The stamp. of the Divinity, he believed was then put upon him. Be this as it may, it is certain that at a very early age his religious sobriety alarmed his father, courtier and knight as he was, and he

* Admiral Sir William Penn.

endeavoured to give a different turn to the character of his son. First, he tried the effect of blows, and that failing, expelled him from his house. Then relenting, he recalled him, and sent him to Paris, with the hope that the scenes of that gay metropolis would revive in him the charms of worldly splendour; but the effect was only temporary and apparent. Again he sent him to the polished court of the lord lieutenant of Ireland, but with out success. Penn felt himself called with a nobler vocation than that of power and rank; a sacred fire was enkindled within him, which no human agency could extinguish or repress.

The heir of a warrior, he became a son of peace-a plain, persecuted preacher of religion, he became the proprietor and founder of a province-born to enjoy the favour of the great, he relinquished it for the society of the obscure and persecuted; in an age when the light of liberty was in danger of being extinguished, he perceived its beauty, he felt its genial influence upon his soul. The friend of Sidney and of Locke, he was imbued with the same spirit; but especially as the advocate of religious liberty did he rise superior to the age in which he lived. To the cause of religious liberty he mainly devoted his life. For this he spoke, for this he wrote, for this he suffered; open, free from guile, his principles of religious liberty caused him to be again and again calumniated and assailed as a Jesuit; upright, virtuous, unoffending, five times was his person imprisoned with the purpose of restraining the freedom of his mind. Vain purpose! The Old Bailey, the Sessions, the Tower, the Dock-Newgate-all could not control the ethereal liberty of his soul. Something within told him that he was appointed to labour for the deliverance of Israel; he renounced the brilliant prospects of worldly aggrandizement which opened before his youthful mind, preferring affliction, in the cause to which he was devoted, to enjoying the pleasures of sin. It would be interesting to trace his history through all its eventful scenes, but it is with him as a legislator, that, as advocates of the cause of peace, we are mainly concerned. Our chief purpose in this article is to depict William Penn as a ruler, in his intercourse and relations with other powers.