ART. I.-A Meditation on WAR; begun towards the end of the reign of Bonaparte, and now concluded.

"It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the Magistrate, to wear weapons and serve in the wars.”

Church of England.

Articles of the

I remember many years ago (for I am now somewhat aged) to have met with a serious but rather odd advertisement, by a bookseller in Paternoster-row, of "The New Whole Duty of Man, containing the faith as well as practice of a Christian, made easy for the practice of the present age; as the Old Whole Duty of Man was designed for those unhappy times in which it was written; and supplying the Articles of the Christian faith, which are wanting in that book though essentially necessary to salvation! &c." The above quoted article, seems to be among those which set forth this new whole duty of the Christian, as settled by the Church since her lapse in the middle ages-but surely it is a truism. For who can doubt that what the Magistrate commands is lawful? It is lawful (if by no other law) by the law of the Magistrate's will: and this is in fact the ONLY law and authority by which wars are waged, to the present day. But the great question among Christ's followers-since we are with Christians (though under Cæsar) in this affair is this, Can the practice of War be right, according to the immutable standard of right and wrong set up in the New Testament? 'Christian men'men of undoubted moral integrity and of acknowledged piety, have worn weapons and served in the wars, under the authority of Government, and licensed by the Church in this her article. Time was, that

it was lawful thus to de, by the Law of God. It was permitted to Israel under the Old Covenant-yet not to this people at their own discretion, and according to their own policy, will, and pleasure. They were to consider themselves (it is plain from their whole history) as the ministers of God's justice, the instruments of his vengeance: and their kings were prohibited the use of chariots and cavalry, that they might not be tempted, at any time, wantonly to invade the territories of a neighbour; and so bring upon their own people the sure scourge of vindictive retribution.

Something like this permissive dispensation, towards those who have not in this thing yielded their necks to the yoke of Christ, has been, down to a time within the memory of most of us, the lot of the inhabitants of Europe. Called to a service which excludes the claim of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, stripe for stripe and burning for burning,' and supporting such as profess to teach the peaceable doctrine, we have yet seen them engaged in wars-kingdom against kingdom-nation against nation-cast into alliances and confederacies, for retaliation and reprisals, if not for cupidity of conquest-changing sides in these struggles at the will of their rulers, and fighting against those whom, just before, they were assisting in arms!

From this state of things-(in disobedience to Christ though serving Cæsar) have resulted consequences of distress and misery to the people; some, such as we, favoured and exempted, learned only by reportothers which, though we should have shut our eyes and stopped our ears, we could not avoid suffering under-a third sort which, with every disposition to charity, we could not but admit to exist. The blood of mankind flowed in torrents such as humanity shudders to contemplate, provinces were laid waste, villages and towns, nay cities, burned-whole nations mourned, sitting in the sackcloth of despair! The sea, that medium which should connect us in amicable and useful intercourse, become a highway for pursuit and plunder; stained ever and anon with deeds of blood!

So much for WAR, in its open and acknowledged results: but who shall fathom its hidden depths? Who shall declare the corrupting practices, the lies, the perfidies of its political agents; the violence, the brutality, the impiety of its military ones; the venal sordid spirit, the cringing cunning rapacity of its adherents for gain? What a spectacle of fallen nature would these present to a redeemed mind, could they be laid open to our view! But they remain in secret, impossible to be traced out-the train of the vast Leviathan drawn after him in the boiling deep! They will not escape the notice, or evite the judgment of MESSIAH when, as the Invincible all-conquering WORD, he shall ride forth to decide the last controversy with the nations.

When I reflect on these things, and consider the end for which Christ came into the world-when I contemplate his first Advent, at which Heaven itself came down, proclaiming glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will to men '-when I remember his most pure doctrine and most perfect example; in all which no excuse, no cover for such proceedings is found, I am naturally led to ask,

Why do Christians thus-what can be the cause of this delusion? Have they indeed another law than Christ's, from which to deduce their practice? They have, they teach another law-they turn their backs on CHRIST, and learn of Cæsar! To the Civil Magistrate, bearing the sword (the inheritor of his power) they resort, as to their Moses; they make him their Leader and Commander, and thus attempt to justify their conduct!

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The error in judgment is manifest, the delinquency proved but Charity must be exercised towards those yet found involved in it. They can plead, alas! the precedents of many ages passed under a profession of the Christian faith. There is evident, too, among us some disposition to turn about and reform. Twenty successive years of peace, between the two most active belligerents, now promise better things for posterity. Let us hope, yea ardently desire, that between England and France at least, (those former rivals and disturbers of Europe) the long peace may continue still. What can we do, next to an upright, kind and peaceable conduct towards our neighbours, to promote this blessed result? WE MAY PROCLAIM AND SPREAD SOUND PRINCIPLES.

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'From whence come wars and fightings among you-come they not your lusts which war in your members?'-Of those very stirrings of your corrupt nature which, appearing in the wrathful child [Eph. ii, 3,] and continued in the headstrong youth, ripen in the man unsubject to the law of God into every form of mischief? But for such instruments as these, collected on the breaking out of a war by sudden thousands, at the first beat of drum, what could our Christian officer do-the man of piety and of moral rectitude-in the practice of his profession? To him, the whole may indeed appear a science— a fine display of human talent, spirit and endurance:—but let it come to action, to a storm in the breach of the fortress, or a sea-fight, (as it must if any thing great be effected) how does he feel in beholding the conduct of his chosen instruments, now? Can any thing more resemble the actions of wolves and tigers-or, if it be not so, are his men fit for any desperate service? Let us strip the fiend of his kingly mask, and behold his visage naked! Is it not the very face of Apollyon, the king of the children of pride-the minister of death and destruction? Can a Christian advance his cause-employ his instruments and still serve Christ, his rightful master?

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The remedy lies, plainly, in a full subjection to the TRUTH; to the blessed Gospel of the Everlasting GOD, to the spirit of his Son within Is this change perfected-can we so much as pronounce it in progress, in the hearts of those who delight in war; who vindicate its atrocities as the necessary adjuncts of their art-the auxiliaries of the science they cultivate? I think I see the blush of shame on the cheek of the ingenuous professor, while he reads the question. Let us follow, then, the steps and copy the example of him who was meek and lowly in heart, though with access (when it might please him to ask for it) to power invincible. I do not expect that defensive preparations and proceedings, and the maintenance of some force to restrain the wicked

(for he beareth not the sword in vain Rom. xiii, 4) should all at once be laid down by the Magistrate. One and the same series of changes, wrought by the introduction both of a better disposition among Rulers, and a better moral and religious training among subjects, will at once prepare nations for a peaceable conduct towards each other, and their Chiefs for a policy which shall exclude all war. Let us

in conclusion bless God for the degree in which some of them are become, already, pacific, candid and forbearing towards each other. Ed.

ART. II.-Case of a Friend carried prisoner into France in 1811; with a Letter from the Minister of War thereon.

In the autumn of 1811 a member of the Society of Friends, going in a Weymouth pacquet to Guernsey, was taken by the French and carried into Cherburg. On his way from this port to the Depôt at Longwy, he wrote a letter to the French Minister of War, the Duke of Feltre, requesting that he might be liberated, or exchanged for a French prisoner or prisoners, here, (which he thought he might have had interest sufficient to procure) and urging, as a reason for the Emperor's compliance, his principle as a Quaker; which was sufficient to prevent his ever bearing arms against the French nation.

The reply of the Secretary at war, sent to the Commandant at Longwy, which is here annexed, refuses distinctly to admit of any such plea; the French Government recognizing no differences of religious belief, and regarding the individual merely as a British subject, and as a hostage for some Frenchman, among the many in captivity at the time with us.

"Le Sieur Jean Hargrave, Anglais capturé sur un bâtiment de sa nation, et qui est en route pour se rendre au Depôt de Longwy, a adressé une demande a S. Exc. Le Ministre de la Guerre, afin d'obtenir sa libertè, et qu' il motive sur ce que la Secte religieuse des Quakres, dont il est membre, a pour principe de ne prendre aucune part dans les actes d'hostilité entre les nations. Vieullez bien, Mons. Le Commandant, lui faire connoitre a son arrivée a Longwy, que le Gouvernment ne peut admettre de distinction suivant la croyance des Individuels, et que sa qualité de sujet de S. M. Brit. doit seule motiver sa detention en France, afin de servir de garantie aux Français prisonniers de guerre dans les Etats de son Souverain : J'ai l'honneur, &c. B. a. Rt.'

The Friend (who is now in trade in Bishopsgate Street, London) was accordingly detained a prisoner about two years and a half, away from his wife and family in England: and might have endured a much longer captivity, but for the peace. The Editor makes the letter public on his authority, and for the sake of a few remarks. The circumstance may prove a warning, in case of any future war in which this country may be involved, to members of our Society, not to venture without an urgent necessity, or the call of duty, within the wind of

CARRIED PRISONER INTO FRANCE.

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such commotion: seeing their peaceable profession does not divest them of the character of combatants for the country, in the view of another belligerent. And it may be justly questioned, whether our own Government would have done as much as was asked, at that time, for a French Quaker taken in a vessel of his own nation. We pay the taxes and suffer distraint for military demands; and thus contribute to the support of the sinews of war; and whatsoever is taken from the aggregate wealth of a country is taken from its ability to wage war. Let us hope, however, that in the event, so much to be deprecated, of our ever being again at war with a maritime power, there may be found another way for the escape of the peaceable trader, by the mutual relinquishment on the part of each belligerent towards the other, of the 'right' (as it is somewhat strangely termed) of detaining merchant vessels found in their ports, or met with on the high seas pending hostilities between them. And above all, in the abolition by like means of the barbarous practice of privateering: of which it is justly remarked by Franklin, that the man who can engage in it would, with equal sang froid and greediness, pounce upon his neighbour's cattle or other goods, found on the highway in his own parish, could he do it with like impunity: the principle of action being the same in both! In the abolition by public opinion of this practice, and of prize-money in the Navy, we shall find, probably, the severest check that the spirit of war and conquest has ever experienced in this Insular kingdom.

"When navigation is employed only for transporting necessary provisions from one country, where they abound, to another where they are wanting; when by this it prevents famines, which were so frequent and so fatal before it became so common, we cannot help considering it as one of those arts which contribute most to the happiness of mankind. When it is used to plunder vessels and transport slaves, it is evidently only the dreadful means of increasing those calamities which afflic t human nature." Franklin, Essays, &c.

He would have the following descriptions of people left unmolested in all wars, by convention among belligerent nations, viz.—1. Cultivators of the earth, because they labour for the subsistence of mankind 2. Fishermen, for the same reason. 3. Merchants and traders in unarmed ships, who accommodate different nations by communicating and exchanging the necessaries and conveniences of life. 4. Artists and mechanics, inhabiting and working in open towns. A beginning has been made, I believe, of proceedings in conformity with the spirit of Franklin's rule, by articles in certain treaties between the United States of North America and other powers-but I have not the means at hand of citing them.

It is clear that, with all these opportunities of oppression, plunder and rapine taken away, the inducements to a voluntary share in warlike operations would become too slight to outweigh the dangers that attend them—and the practice would cease, for the want of hands to take it

up.

Ed.