A FEW THOUGHTS ON WAR. fellow creatures have been slaughtered, and their deathless spirits hurried to the bar of eternal justice. And with regard to those who are immediately engaged in war, the military, how few, if any, when embracing a soldier's life, entertain correct notions respecting the true nature of the "Profession." There is something very significant in the following "confession," which we have extracted from a paper entitled, "The Confessions of a Nervous Soldier:" 66 6 My father," says the writer, "intended me for the Church; but before half of my education was completed the family interest' underwent a change, in which the army came into the ascendant. I was instantly called away from Greek and Hebrew, the fathers, doctors, and eminent divines, who waged war against the enemy of mankind,' and sent to a private college expressly devoted to the study of fortification, military tactics, and engineering; in short, the whole art of blowing up towns and killing the greatest number of men with the least waste of life and treasure on our own side. I really, in my heart, saw nothing inhuman in all this. I only saw man in the abstract-man as the enemy'-and not man as, my fellowcreature. I never, therefore, realised the horrors of war to myself, and no soldier ever does until he is in the thick of it, and then it is too late to think, and moreover, very dangerous.' This "confession" requires no comment from us-it speaks for itself. "Real war," observes the late Robert Hall," is a very different thing from that painted image of it you see on a parade, or at a review. It is the most awful scourge that Providence employs for the chastisement of man. It is the garment of vengeance with which the Deity arrays himself when he comes forth to punish the inhabitants of the earth. It is the day of the Lord, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger. But terrible as war is, we are aware that much false glory has been thrown over it by those who, of all men, ought to have known better, viz., the teachers of mankind. Poets, Historians, Philosophers, and Divines, have for ages 'joined hand in hand,' and have put forth all their energies in arraying the dark war-fiend in the garments of light. But, thank God! the Divine form of Truth is rapidly approaching the hideous monster, and soon shall she tear away the drapery which, for so long a time, has concealed the "cloven foot" of this demon of strife and blood! A FEW THOUGHTS ON WAR. Here is a magnificent picture of the War-fiend 6 "Lo! where the giant on the mountain stands, Destruction cowers to mark what deeds are done." There is a great deal of truth in the following old quotation:"What, speaking in quite unofficial language, is the net purport and upshot of war. To my own knowledge, for example, there dwell and toil, in the British village of Dumdrudge usually some five hundred souls. From these, by certain natural enemies' of the French, there are successively selected, during the French war, say thirty able-bodied men : Dumdrudge, at her own expense, has suckled and nursed them; she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood, and even trained them up to crafts, so that one can weave, another build, another hammer, and the weakest can stand under thirty stone avoirdupois. Nevertheless, amid much weeping and swearing, they are selected, all dressed in red, and shipped away, at the public charge, some two thousand miles, or say only to the south of Spain; and fed there till wanted. And now to that same spot in the South of Spain, are thirty similar French artisans, from a French Dumdrudge, in like manner wending; till at length, after infinite effort, the two parties come into actual juxtaposition; and Thirty stands fronting Thirty, each with a gun in his hand. Straightway the word 'Fire!' is given: and they blow the souls out of one another, and in place of sixty brisk useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcases, which it must bury, and anew shed tears for. Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the devil is, not the smallest! They lived far enough apart; were the entirest strangers; nay, in so wide a universe, there was even unconsciously, by commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them. How then? Simpleton! their governors had fallen out; and, instead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make these poor blockheads shoot." Again, consider the pernicious influence of war on the morals of society. How great the contrast between what may be denominated the war-code, and that grand moral law which all moral creatures are bound to revere and obey! The former inculcates hatred, envy, malice, revenge, and "all uncharitableness;" the latter commands us to cultivate a spirit of kind A FEW THOUGHTS ON WAR. ness, forgiveness, active benevolence, and sympathy with suffering. The first is the patron of fraud, injustice, cruelty, and licentiousness; the latter not only frowns on these detestable vices, but presses on our attention the sublime claims of truth, justice, mercy, and purity. We say then, nor do we fear contradiction, that morality has no greater enemy than the foul war-fiend. Let us, for an instant, glance at those countries where war rages. What abominable vices are there practiced! Drunkenness, theft, fraud, murder, blasphemy, ah! and crimes at the mere mention of which the great heart of humanity sickens, are perpetrated without shame, fear, or remorse! The elements of social, moral, and religious order are either banished from human society, or thrown into strange inextricable confusion.” The House of God is deserted, the domestic retreat violated, and scenes of depravity-heartless depravity-everywhere abound. How does it become the friends of morality and religion to use all their influence in the furtherance of peace, truth, justice, and humanity; for it is by the glorious light of these great principles that the godless maxims and dark practices of | war shall be dispelled for ever from our earth. And what a school of morals is war for the soldier! A life of peril, adventure, plunder, bloodshed, and dissipation has, we fear, in numberless instances, proved fatal to the very existence of those pure and lofty principles of morality, without which man is either a brute, or, what is far worse, an incarnate fiend! Accustomed, then, to deeds of violence and of blood, is it surprising that the soldier should at length become so hardened as not to hesitate at the commission of any crime, however dark or horrible, especially should that crime be sanctioned or commanded by his superior in the "profession ?" We were once told by a soldier that, if ordered by his officer, he would shoot his own brother! O war! thou first-born of hell! too long hast thou cursed this beautiful portion of Jehovah's empire! But thou shalt perish, and this weary earth shall repose beneath the smile and sceptre of the Son of God! Yes, the millennium of the Prophets, and the "golden age of the poet shall yet dawn on our world. A period shall arrive in this cld world's history, when the whole family of man shall well together in harmony and love. What a bright-what a THE SLAVE SHIP. glorious time will that be! The sound of war shall no more be heard in the land. The dagon of discord shall fall before the ark of the God of Peace. The dark demons, lust, rapine, and murder, shall be banished from the dwellings of men; and angels, yes angels, shall again visit our beautiful planet, and rejoice over it with joy unspeakable. "Then shall the reign of CHRIST commence on earth, And starting fresh, as from a second birth, Lavenham. ALPHA. THE SLAVE SHIP. In the year 1830, there was hovering on the African coast a large clipper brig called the Brilliante, commanded by a desperado named Homans. Homans, said to be an Englishman by birth, was known along the whole coast and in Cuba, as the most successful slaver of his day. The brig was owned by two men residing in Havanna, one an Englishman and the other a Spaniard. She was built to carry six hundred negroes, and in her Homans had made ten successful voyages, actually landing in Cuba 5000 negroes! She carried ten guns, had thirty sweeps, (or large oars,) and a crew of sixty Spaniards, most of them old pirates, as desperate as their commander. An English brig of war which attacked her was so cut up in her hull and rigging that she was abandoned and soon after sunk; and an English sloop of war which attempted to carry the Brilliante with boats, was beaten off with great slaughter. Now it was known that Homans was again on the coast, it was resolved to make another attempt to take him, with the evidence of his guilt on board. The arrangements for this purpose were all well made. He was allowed to take in his cargo of negroes and set sail. The Brilliante had not lost sight of the coast when the quick eye of her commander discovered that he was entrapped. Four cruisers, three of them English and one American, had been lying in wait for him, and escape was hopeless. In running away from one he would come in reach of another. Night was coming on, and Homans was silently regarding his pursuers, when suddenly the huge sails flapped idly, the wind died away, and the slaver was motionless on the waters. This will not do," Homans muttered, knocking away the THE SLAVE SHIP. ashes from his cigar, "their boats will be down on me before I am ready for the visit;" and as he said this, his stern face lit up with a smile, the expression of which was diabolical. was evident enough that he meditated some desperate plan. It A dozen sweeps were got out, and the vessel moved slowly through the water. Meantime, the darkness having deepened, Homans proceeded to carry out his design. The cable attached to the heaviest anchor was taken outside of the hawsehole, and carried round the rail of the brig, extending from the bow, aft round the stern, and then forward round the other side. The hatches were then taken off, and the negroes passed up, each securely ironed by the wrists. As the miserable wretches came up from the hot hold into the fresh air, they expressed by their looks a gratitude which would have softened the heart of any but the fiend in whose power they were. Without a word they were led to the side, and made to bend over the rail, outside of which the chain ran. The irons which clasped their wrists were then fastened by small chains to the links of the cable. It was slow work, but at the end of four hours, six hundred Africans, male and female, were bending over the rail of the brig, in a painful position, holding by their chained hands the huge cable which was attached to a heavy anchor, suspended by a single sling from the bow. Homans himself examined the fastenings to see that every negro was strongly bound to the chain. This done, he ordered the pen work of the hold to be broken up, brought on deck, bound up in matting, and well filled with shot and thrown overboard. The work was completed an hour before daybreak; and now the only witnesses of Homan's guilt were attached to that fatal chain. Homans turned to the mate, and with a smile full of meaning, said in Spanish, " Harro, take an axe and go forward. The wind will come off to us soon. Listen to the word, and when you hear it, cut the sling." The man went forward, and Homans turned and in vain endeavoured to penetrate the darkness. "I don't want to lose the niggers," he said, speaking aloud, "and yet I dare not wait until daylight. I wish I knew where the hounds were." At that instant the report of a gun reached his ear, and then another, and another, and another, in different directions. The cruisers were firing signals. "That's enough," exclaimed Homans, "I know where you |