outrages upon the surrounding country. "Merrie England," after the Norman Conquest, was full of them. In those days "the good old rule" sufficed "the simple plan, That they should take, who have the power, The name of noble then pretended not to mean more than robber-chief; and the worthy thief boldly took by force of arms that which is now sneakingly filched under cover of a Treasury-order. But those days of glorious villainy have passed away from civilized Europe. The lesser robbers are obliged to pay some deference to the delicacy of social opinion, and to work in secret; none may openly carry on the old game, except the "Lord's Anointed." The crowned banditti still drive, by the mere terror of their name, thousands and tens of thousands of christian men to horrible destruction; in order that the rest of Christendom may be amused with the fight, and the contrivers of the play find opportunity to pick their pockets. Sorely seem we to regret those palmy days of ruffian chivalry. Not availing ourselves of our insular position, so favourable for peace, there cannot be a quarrel in the remotest corner of the world, but England must be there, not to part the combatants, but to encourage the strife, to see fair play and prevent the game from flagging;-nay, there can be no sign of tumult but we most diligently foment the disturbance; nor can we suffer any long duration of peace, without eagerly digging up the hatchet and inciting the nations to their old brutality. Well have we earned the infamous brand of the Bull-dog of Europe! Not that we mean to slur over English bravery. We honour the genius of a Nelson or a Wellington, though we could wish their talents had been more usefully and honourably directed; we admire the animal courage of the heroes of Ciudad Rodrigo and Waterloo :-but the higher we esteem the men, the more must we deprecate the brutal torture of their heroic lives, the wasteful pouring out of their noble blood, to manure the fields of the foreignerthe reward of our most glorious victories. Surely the life of a great man could be better employed! Surely some happier destiny might be achieved for the thousands of our gallant army, than the discipline of the Cat, and its usual recompense, an agonizing death on the battle-field or in the hospital. And what is the conquest acquired by their heroic self-sacrifice? What gain they for their country? What is our gain? National debt; the squalid poverty of millions; national depravity ;—how long is it since we might have said-national brutality. What are the People the better for war? Must not we bear more taxes-the transmuting of our sweat and blood to gold-for the gratification of our rulers' cupidity and perverseness? Is not the country, after every war, overrun with crime and worst profligacy? What else can be the result of the letting loose upon society of all the evil passions which war engenders? The heroic commanders who drive thousands of peasants into a river-will they, on their return home, respect the rights of "their own" peasantry? or will they not become the fittest agents of home tyranny? It is proved so. Are not they, the defenders of war's worst atrocities, the honourable landlords who clear their estates of the wretched tenants whom war-debts have impoverished, driving them from their homes to perish with cold and hunger? Are not these things of late occurrence-among us Christians. And the gallant fellows who figure at the storming of an "enemy's" town-an enemy with whom they have no quarrel, whom, indeed, they never saw or heard of before the day of hostile meeting, who fire dwelling-houses, and brutally ravish the wives and daughters of those whom they have murdered-will they return home to be peaceable and orderly citizens? Ask of the miles around any of our garrison towns, how much a regiment of heroes favours the morality and happiness of their neighbourhood! And yet the worst of these villains are not worse than they are compelled to be by the inevitable tendencies of the influences of a military profession. Many may be the really honourable exceptions from this accusation; but they are exceptions by some fortunate interference preserved from the general contamination, and existing despite of the surrounding evil circumstances. The wonder is that standing armies, the essential concomitant of systematic war, do not spread disease and vice into the extremest corners of the land they curse with their presence. A standing army is a perpetual plague; and the idleness it fosters (that parent of so many vices) the very least of its mischiefs. We have dismantled the feudal castles. Even in England there is peace between neighbouring villages and townships. We have actually outgrown our inland antipathies, and the Tweed is no longer a barrier between foes. Why should the Ocean be?-We have bound over the pettier robbers to keep the peace at least in semblance. Can we not pacify the greater villains? Alas! brute force is still paramount, though it is married to fraud, and hides its deformed visage under the mask of depravity. But the very hiding is a proof of its quailing. And if Vice is compelled to pay even this pitiful homage to Virtue, we may hope that the time is not far distant, when the false lipservice will be buried with the olden lies, when the reclaimed thralls of evil shall pay heart-homage to a Virtue better than mere form, a thing of daily life, of fruitfulness and peaceful joy. "When will your trials teach you to be wise? O prostrate Lands, consult your agonies!" NOAH WORCESTER. Noah NOAH WORCESTER is the founder of Peace Societies in America. Worcester was a minister of the gospel, of orthodox opinions. By the time he was surrounded by a family of young children, he had changed his opinions, and found himself an Unitarian. He avowed the change, resigned his parish, and went forth with his family, without a farthing in the world, or any prospect of being able to obtain a subsistence. He wrote diligently, but on subjects which were next his heart, and on which he would have written, in like manner, if he had been the wealthiest of American citizens. He devoted his powers to the promotion of Peace principles, and the establishment of Peace Societies. Whatever may be thought of the practical effects, in a narrow view, of such societies, they seem to have well answered a prodigious purpose in turning men's contemplations full on the subject of true and false honour, and in inducing a multitude of glorious experiments of living strictly according to a principle which happens to be troublesome in its application. The great living apostle of the peace-men is Noah Worcester. The leaders of the abolition (of Slavery) movement are for the most part peace-men; an inestimable circumstance, as it takes out the sting from the worst of the slanders of their enemies, and gives increased effect to their moral warfare. Human nature cannot withstand the grandeur of the spectacle of men who have all the moral power on their side, and who abide unresistingly all that the physical power of the other side can inflict. The boldest spirits tremble, hearts the most hardened in prejudice melt, when once they come into full view of this warfare; and the victory rests with the men of peace,-who all love Noah Worcester. Nearly twenty years ago he was encompassed with distresses for a time. Indeed, his life has been one of great poverty till lately. He is not one of the men to be made rich, or to spend his thoughts on whether he is happy or not. He was sent into the world for a very different purpose, with which poverty could but little interfere. But in the midst of his deep poverty came sickness. His two daughters were at once prostrated by fever, and a severe struggle it was before they got through. Two friends of mine nursed them; and, in the discharge of their task, learned lessons of faith which they will be ever thankful for; and of those graces which accompany the faith of the heart,--cheerfulness of spirits, and quietude and simplicity of manner. My friends were not at the beginning fully aware of the condition of the household. They were invited to table at the early dinner hour. On the table stood a single brown loaf and a pitcher of water. Grace was said, and they were invited to partake with the utmost ease and cheerfulness; and not a word passed in reference to the restriction of the fare. This was what God had been pleased to provide, and it was thankfully accepted and hospitably shared. One of his daughters now lives with him and cherishes him. She has changed her religious opinions; but she has not changed towards him. They are as blessed in their relation as ever. Noah Worcester was seventy-six when I saw him, in the autumn of 1835. He was very tall, dressed in a grey gown, and with long white hair descending to his shoulders. His eye is clear and bright; his manner serious but cheerful. His evening meal was on the table, and he invited us to partake, with the same grace with which he offered his harder fare to the guests of former years. He lives at Brighton, a short distance from Boston, where his daughter manages the post-office, by which their humble wants are supplied.-Harriet Martineau. British Amusements.-Thankless for peace (Peace long preserved by fleets and perilous seas), Its ghastlier workings (famine, or blue plague, However dim and vague, too vague and dim And technical in VICTORIES AND DEFEATS, Like mere abstractions, empty sounds to which As if the fibres of this godlike frame Were gored without a pang; as if the wretch, Pass'd off to Heaven, translated and not kill'd; Coleridge. REVELATIONS OF TRUTH. CHAP. XIV. I HEAR the tramp of advancing hosts; a long array of warriors splendidly attired is winding down yon mountain's side: what is that army, and whither goeth it? Are they freemen marching to defend their native frontier from the encroachment of a tyrant, successful patriots ready to assist the less fortunate aspirants for Liberty, or rebels who would accomplish their own freedom? Are they emigrants from a rich and over-peopled country, who would reclaim the desert, extending far and wide the blessings of cultivation and knowledge? They are the purchased slaves of a coward, the minion of a profligate woman; they are hired to rob, to murder, and to be murdered; they would try, by the unerring touchstone of success, whether or no man hath a right to commit wrong. They are encountered by another army, the worshippers of the same God, like them hired and sworn to murder those who have never wronged them. Their leaders are the noble, the generous, and the brave; many are their deeds of heroism: thousands lie butchered upon the trampled corn-fields; many long years shall not repair the evil of the one day's ravage and its followers, plague, famine, vice, and desolation. Look upon the field of glory! I see the wild dogs disputing for the dead, their foul fangs buried in the yet warm and quivering flesh: these are the gleaners of the harvest; man hath gathered in the full sheaves, grudgingly he leaveth of his abundance. I see one dying, yet sensible; his glazing eyes fixed upon the vulture which he hath not strength to scare away, whose beak drippeth with his blood, who waiteth not for his victim's last gasp ere he commenceth his horrid meal. Over the field of carnage stealeth a woman's form in quest of plunder. She pauseth by one but slightly wounded who sinketh from exhaustion; faintly he implores for aid, for drink to slake his burning thirst; she plungeth a knife into his heart-There is blood for thee: what drink have I to give thee? my object is thy gold. Is not her employment honourable; is she not a help meet for man, worthy to be a soldier's wife? Again she halts; another form is stripped; Poor mangled wretch! he may not long survive :-She taketh not his life, but passeth on. Another female rusheth by, young and lovely, a wife and mother; she claspeth her infant to her breast; her long hair streams wildly back, parted o'er her throbbing brow, where the blue veins seem swollen nigh to bursting: What seeketh she here? She had followed her husband to the wars; a few short hours ago she was locked in his embrace; his farewell kiss yet lingers on her pale cheek: she hath sought him among the returning ranks of his fellow-warriors, and she hath not found him. She is by his side, and he liveth: his head is supported upon her knees; it groweth more heavy-or is she weaker? his languid eyes smile mournfully upon his young bride:-he may not smile again. Woman! thy child is fatherless. Yon stripling was the sole support of an aged and destitute mother; but they tore him from his home to perish in torture for the quarrel of an idiot: the deep gash is in his side; his dying moments are embittered by the thought of his helpless parent. She shall not see him more. Trampling o'er the dying and the dead fiercely dasheth the masterless and pain-maddened steed; he neareth the shuddering boy; his sharp hoof rendeth the forehead of the youth. Who now shall recognize the mutilated corse? What lieth before our feet? A moving mass of gore, shapeless yet holding life: It is he who was made in the image of God! Look upon this limbless trunk steeped in its own blood! Is it not an instructive essay on the morality of tyranny; a happy illustration of the beauty of war? Which shall we most admire? the commanding intellect of the hero, or the god-like heart of him for whom he suffers, God's pure vice-gerent! Surely war is a noble art! Rightly are its professors deemed honourable amongst men, its master-spirits glorified as Gods. Ay! Place their statues within your temples; hang up the blood-stained banners in your sacred fanes; and on the altar write the name of Murder! Hark to the howl of the jackal, the scream of the ravening bird, mingling in pleasant concert with the groans of the dying! Hark to the bitter moaning of the bereaved, the heart-bursting sobs of the widows, the wailing of the destitute orphans! Is it not a sound of joy, an intense and thrilling delight? List to their fitting accompaniment! The full peal of harmony filleth the temples of the Holy One: it is the hymn of the murderers, the loud Te Deum, thanking the Peaceful that he hath permitted the unprovoked butchery of his creatures. God of justice! In thy name have we laid waste the fertile land; we return home laden with the spoil of those who never injured us: accept the trophies we hang upon thy holy shrine! God of pity! Our hands are stained with the blood of thy creatures; we have spared neither woman nor child: we thank thee that thou didst strengthen our arms. God of Love! We have trampled upon the broken hearts of millions: reward us with thy blessing. Fountain of eternal Truth! at thy bidding and for thy glory have we done all this. O Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, look down upon us! Thou, God to whom vengeance belongeth, bless us! And one vile wretch-perchance even viler than the meanest and worst of the hired bandits, his slaves-commandeth the butchery of thousands and tens of thousands of his fellow-beings: and he is obeyed. One blood-thirsty worm is permitted by millions to decimate their bodies, to rack and torture their souls in the mere wantonness of cruelty and Priestcraft scruples not to assert the divinity of his power; and men believe it and suffer. He who croucheth is loyal: he who dareth to lift his voice against such foul perversion of the Truth, such infamous contempt of justice, is stigmatized as a rebel, as destructive of the peace of society. Even so in earlier days the good old monk leaped into Rome's arena; and by his noble courage destroyed the gladiators' peace. Even so the disciples of Christ, refusing to bear arms against their brethren, destroyed the peace of society. The murderer is disarmed, and exclaimeth, There is no more peace: Robbery is denounced, and the thief complaineth that he is defrauded. Men and brethren! be not deceived: there is no divine nor any other right in these robbers and assassins, whereby your souls and bodies should be placed at their disposal. Most ignorantly and superstitiously ye do reverence a mere name: Arise, and put away from among you the unclean thing! How long will ye suffer vice to wear the cloak of virtue; evil to be masked under the name of good? Oppression is not the less evil because it is kingly; fraud is not the less dishonest because it hideth under the garb of a priest: neither is either of them the more tolerable or sacred. Why halt ye between two opinions? Is your religion one of peace or of war? If it is a religion of peace, why are ye the allowers of war? + |