am bound to him or his heirs, but to put love between my children and his children, who are cousin-germans; and it seems to me that what I thus give, I employ to good purpose! ""* Honour to him who never grasped by force or cunning any new acquisition; who never sought advantage from the turmoils and dissensions of his neighbours, but studied to allay them; who, first of Christian princes, rebuked the spirit of war, saying to those who would have him profit by the dissensions of his neighbours, "Blessed are the Peace-makers;"† who abolished trial by battle throughout his dominions; who aimed to do justice to all his people, and to all neighbours, and in the extremity of his last illness, on the sickening sands of Tunis, among the bequests of his spirit, enjoined on his son and successor, "in maintaining justice, to be inflexible and loyal, neither turning to the right hand nor to the left! " + The history of the trial by battle will illustrate and bring home to your minds the chances of war, and the consequent folly and wickedness of submitting any question to its arbitrament. As we revert to those early periods in which it prevailed, our minds are impressed by the barbarism which we behold; we recoil, with horror, from the awful subjection of justice to brute force; from the impious profanation of the character of God in deeming him present in these outrages; from the moral degradation out of which they sprang, and which they perpetuated; we involve ourselves in our self-complacent virtue, and thank God that we are not as these men, that ours is, indeed, an age of light, while theirs was an age of darkness! But are we aware that this monstrous and impious usage, which our enlightened reason so justly condemns in the cases of individuals is openly avowed by our own country, and by the other countries of the earth, as a proper mode of determining justice between them? Be upon our heads and upon our age the judgment of barbarism, which we pronounce upon those that have gone before! At this moment, in this period of light, when the noonday sun of civilization seems, to the contented souls of many, to be standing still in the heavens, as upon Gibeon, the relations between nations are governed by the same rules of barbarous, brutal force, * Joinville, Hist. de St. Louis, p. 142; Guizot, Histoire de la Civilization en France, tome iv. 151. + Benoist soient tuit li apaiseur.—Joinville, pp. 143, 144 ; Guizot. Sismondi, Histoire des Franç. viii. 196. which once prevailed between individuals. The dark ages have not passed away; Erebus and black Night, born of Chaos, still brood over the earth; nor shall we hail the clear day, until the mighty hearts of the nations shall be touched, as those of children, and the whole earth, individuals and nations alike, shall acknowledge one and the same rule of Right. Who has told you, fond man! to regard that as a glory when performed by a nation, which is condemned as a crime and a barbarism, when committed by an individual? In what vain conceit of wisdom and virtue do you find this incongruous morality? Where is it declared, that God, who is no respecter of persons, is a respecter of multitudes? Whence do you draw these partial laws of a powerful and impartial God? Man is immortal; but States are mortal. He has a higher destiny than States. Shall States be less amenable to the great moral laws? Each individual is an atom of the mass. Must not the mass be like the individuals of which it is composed? Shall the mass do what individuals may not do? No. The same moral laws which govern individuals govern masses, as the same laws in nature prevail over large and small, controlling the fall of an apple and the orbits of the planets. It was the beautiful discovery of Newton, that gravity is a universal property of matter, a law obeyed by every particle in reference to every other particle, and connecting the celestial mechanism with terrestrial phenomena. So the Rule of Right, which binds the single individual, binds two or three when gathered together-binds conventions and congregations of men-binds villages, towns, and cities-binds states, nations, and empires-clasps the whole human family in its sevenfold embrace; nay more Beyond the flaming bounds of place and time, it binds the angels of Heaven, the Seraphim, full of love, the Cherubim, full of knowledge above all, it binds, in self-imposed bonds, a just and omnipotent God. It is of this, and not of any earthly law, that Hooker speaks in that magnificent period which sounds like an anthem; "Of law no less can be said, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in Heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, the greatest as not exempted from her power; both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." We are struck with horror and our hair stands on end, at the report of a single murder; we think of the soul that has been hurried to its final account; we seek the murderer; and the law puts forth all its energies to secure his punishment. Viewed in the clear light of truth, what are war and battle but organised murder; murder of malice aforethought; in cold blood; through the operation of an extensive machinery of crime; with innumerable hands; at incalculable cost of money; through subtle contrivances of cunning and skill; or by the savage brutal assault? Was not the Scythian right, when he said to Alexander, Thou boastest, that the only design of thy marches is to extirpate robbers; thou thyself art the greatest robber in the world?" Among us one class of sea-robbers is hanged as pirates; another is hailed with acclamation :— Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hic diadema.* 66 It was amidst the thunders which made Sinai tremble, that God declared—" Thou shalt not kill ;" and the voice of these thunders, with this commandment, has been prolonged to our own day in the echoes of Christian churches. What mortal shall restrain the application of these words? Who on earth is empowered to vary or abridge the commandments of God? Who shall presume to declare, that this injunction was directed, not to nations, but to individuals only; not to many but to one only; that one man may not kill, but that many may; that it is forbidden to each individual to destroy the life of a single human being, but that it is not forbidden to a nation to cut off by the sword a whole people? When shall the St. Louis of the nations arise? the Christian ruler or Christian people, who shall proclaim to the whole earth, that henceforward for ever the great trial by battle shall cease; that it is the duty and policy of nations to establish love between each other; and in all respects, at all times, towards all persons, as well their own people, as the people of other lands, to be * Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 105. The ancient laws of Ina recognise numbers as the only distinction between an army and a band of robbers; "Fures appellamus societatem septem hominum; septem usque ad xxxv turmam; et deinde esto exercitus." governed by the sacred rules of right, as between man and man! May God speed the coming of that day! I have already alluded, in the early part of my remarks, to some of the obstacles to be encountered by the advocate of Peace. One of these is the war-like tone of the literature, by which our minds and opinions are formed. The world has supped so full with battles, that all its inner modes of thought, and many of its rules of conduct seem to be incarnadined with blood; as the bones of swine, fed on madder, are said to become red. But I now pass this by, though a most fruitful theme, and hasten to other topics. I propose to consider in succession, very briefly, some of those influences and prejudices, which are most powerful in keeping alive the delusion of war. 1. One of the most important of these is the prejudice to a certain extent in its favour founded on the belief in its necessity. The consciences of all good men condemn it as a crime, a sin; even the soldier, whose profession it is, confesses that it is to be resorted to only in the last necessity. But a benevolent and omnipotent God cannot render it necessary to commit a crime. When war is called a necessity, it is meant, of course, that its object cannot be gained in any other way. Now, I think that it has already appeared with distinctness, approaching demonstration, that the professed object of war, which is justice between nations, is in no respect promoted by war; that force is not justice, nor in any way conducive to justice; that the eagles of victory can be only the emblems of successful force and not of established right.* Justice can be obtained only by the exercise of the reason and judgment; but these are silent in the din of arms. Justice is without passion; but war lets loose all the worst passions of our nature, while "high arbiter Chance more embroils the fray.' The age has passed in which a nation, within the enchanted circle of civilization, will make war upon its neighbour, for any professed purpose of booty or vengeance. It does "nought in hate, but all in honour." There are professions even of tenderness which * Le recours à la force, soit par le combat judiciaire, soit par la guerre privée, était le mode le plus commun de mettre fin aux procès. Mais la force n'est pas la justice; les plus grossiers esprits ne les confondent pas long temps. La nécessité d'un autre systême judiciaire, d'un véritable jugement, devint bientôt évidente.-Guizot, Histoire de la Civilization, tome iv. 89. mingle with the first mutterings of the dismal strife. Each of the two governments, as if conscience-struck at the abyss into which it is about to plunge, seeks to fix on the other the charge of hostile aggression, and to assume to itself the ground of defending some right; some stolen Texas; some distant, worthless Oregon. Like Pontius Pilate, it vainly washes its hands of innocent blood, and straightway allows a crime at which the whole heavens are darkened, and two kindred countries are severed, as the veil of the Temple was rent in twain. The various modes, which have been proposed for the determination of disputes between nations, are Negotiation, Arbitration, Mediation, and a Congress of Nations ;* all of them practicable and calculated to secure peaceful justice. Let it not be said, then, that war is a necessity; and may our country aim at the true glory of taking the lead in the recognition of these, as the only proper modes of determining justice between nations! Such a glory, unlike the earthly fame of battles, shall be immortal as the stars, dropping perpetual light upon the souls of men! 2. Another prejudice in favour of war is founded on the practice of nations, past and present. There is no crime or enormity in morals, which may not find the support of human example, often on a most extended scale. But it is not to be urged in our day that we are to look for a standard of duty in the conduct of vain, mistaken, fallible man. It is not in the power of man, by any subtle alchemy, to transmute wrong into right. Because war is according to the practice of the world, it does not follow that it is right. For ages the world worshipped false gods; but these gods were not the less false, because all bowed before them. At this moment the larger portion of mankind are Heathen; but Heathenism is not true. It was once the practice of nations to slaughter prisoners of war; but even the spirit of war recoils now from this bloody sacrifice. In Sparta, theft, instead of being execrated as a crime, was dignified into an art and an accomplishment, and as such admitted into the system of youthful education; and even this debasing practice, established by local feeling, is enlightened, like war, by an instance of unconquerable firmness, which is a barbaric counterfeit of virtue. The Spartan youth, who allowed the fox * For a sketch of the labours and examples which tend to the establishment of a System of Arbitration, or a Congress of Nations, see Appendix, Note C. |