it was computed that the war had cost them 120,000 men.:

The Austrians had fought ten regular battles and they estimated their loss at 140,000 menghad

The French made their losses amount to 200,000, the English and their allies to 160,000, and the troops of the circles to 28,000.

At the close of the war, the house of Austria found itself one hundred millions of crowns in debt. In France the credit of government had been nearly ruined, and the people groaned une der the weight of taxes by which they were o verwhelmed.

The English, victorious by sea and land, may be said to have purchased their conquests by immense sums, which they had borrowed to carry on the war, and which almost rendered them insolvent. But Prussia suffered the most for all the powers at war committed ravages there; and the state expended one hundred and twenty five millions of crowns, during the war.

From this picture which we have sketched, the result is, that all the governments at war were overwhelmed with debts, and almost des titute of credit.

If it be required what vast and important events occasioned all this waste of treasure, this destruction of human species, and all the accumulated miscries above described, perhaps the true answer may be, that Louis XV. the first instigator of it, thought it was for his glory; or some proud minister of his had received an af front and wished for revenge; some wanton

con

concubine wished to gratify her caprice, in making or disgracing generals or commanders. Other powers would be seized with contagion, or obliged to arm in self-defence; and thus the whole world became a field of blood for the pleasure of a set of miscreants who, as the author of Cato's letters well observes, fhould be confined in a madhoufe, with their beloved arms along with them to fight and tear each other's flesh, and spill their own detestable" blood, as a sort of satisfaction to mankind, for so much human blood outra rageously filt."

Patriot v. p. 297.

.

BARBAULD AND AIKIN.

ed.

news! great news! glorious news! criyoung Oswald, as he entered his father's House. We have got a complete victory and kil-" bed I don't know how many of the enemy; and we are to have bonfires and illuminations !'

And so, said his father, you think that killing a great many thousands of human creatures is a thing to be very glad about?

Oswald. No I do not think quite se, neither; but surely it is right to be glad that our country has gained a great advantage.

Father. No doubt, it is right to wish well to dur own country, as far as its prosperity can be

pro

promoted without injuring the rest of mankind. But wars are very seldom to the real advantage of any nation; and when they are deemed ever so useful or necessary, so many dreadful evils attend them, that a humane man will scarce rejoice in them, if he considers at all on the subject.

Oswald. But if our enemies would do us a great deal of mischief, and we prevent it by beating them, have not we a right to be glad

of it?

Father. Alas! we are in general very little judges which of the parties has the most mischievous intention. Commonly they are both in the wrong, and success will make both of them unjust and unreasonable. But putting that out of the question, he who rejoices in the event of a battle, rejoices in the misery of many thousands of his species, and the thought of that should make him pause a little. Suppose a surgeon were to come with a smiling countenance, and tell us triumphantly that he had cut off half a dozen legs to day-what would you think of him?

Ostwald. I should think him very hard-hearted. Father. And yet these operations are done for the benefit of the sufferers, and by their own desire. But in a battle the probability is, that none of those engaged on either side have any intereft at all in the cause they are fighting for, but many of them come there because they cannot help it. In this battle that you are so rejoiced about, there have been ten thousand

men

men killed upon the spot, and nearly as many wounded.

Oswald. On both sides?

Father. Yes-but they are men on both sides. Consider now, that the ten thousand sent out of the world in this morning's work, though they are past feeling themselves, have left probably two persons each on an average to lament their loss, either parents, wives; or chil dren. Here are then twenty thousand people made unhappy at one stroke on their account. This however is hardly so dreadful to think of as the condition of the wounded. At the mo ment we are talking eight or ten thousand more are lying in agony, torn with shot, or gashed with cuts, their wounds all festering, some hourly to die a most excruciating death, others to linger in torture weeks and months, and many doomed to drag on a miserable existence for the rest of their lives, with diseased and muti lated Bodies:

Oswald. This is shocking to think of indeed! Father. When you light your candies, then, this evening, think what they coft!

Oswald But every body else is glad, and seem to think nothing of these things.

Father: True they do not think of them. If they did, I cannot suppose they would be so void of feeling as to enjoy themselves in mer riment when so many of their fellow creatures are made miserable. Do you not remember when poor Dickens Kad his leg broken by a Toaded waggon, How all the town pitied him? Oswald.

Oswald. Yes, very well. I could not sleep the night after for thinking of him.

Father. But here are thousands suffering as much as he, and we scarce bestow a single thought upon them If every one of these poor creatures were before our eyes, we should probably feel much more than we now do for all together. Evenings at Home, vôl.ii.

SENTIMENTS ON WAR.

He who makes war his profession cannot be otherwise than vicious.

War makes thieves, and peace brings them to the gallows.

Machiavel. Art of War. b. i.

WAR Suspends the rules of moral obligation, and what is long suspended is in danger of being totally abrogated.

Burke, Letter to Sherriffs of Bristol.

WHEN war begins hell gates are set open.

WAR is death's feast.

OLD ITALIAN PROVERB.

OLD SPANISH PROVERB.

PUT together all the vices of all ages and places, and never will they come up to the mischiefs and enormities of only one campaign.

Voltaire, Philo. Dict. Art. War.