you the following extracts, not having hitherto noticed this last plan for abolishing war hinted at by any of your correspondents.

Mr. Thone, in a sermon from James iv. 1, 2, 3, "From whence come wars and fightings amongst you," &c. preached in the parish-church of Gowan, on the public Fast 1779, after describing the misery of countries become the theatre of war, in terms sufficiently pathetic to produce in the most unfeeling mind a dislike and aversion to the horrors thereby produced, proceeds thus, page 140,"Let me add, that it is very seldom that a prince or a kingdom gains any thing at all either money or territory, even by a successful war. They lust and have not, they kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain. On either side, let the war be ever so keenly entered into, let the principal subjects be all a-stir, and grasping at the executive power from the sovereign's hands; let them levy many regiments at an enormous expence; let it be supposed that the war hath cost the lives of millions of brave men, and millions also of treasure; and that, in the dreary course of many tedious campaigns, many of the enemies being killed, and their treasure also exhausted, the war on one side is so far crowned with success. Let it be further supposed, that each of the parties hath conquered from its opposite some town, or some barren island, or equally barren territory; yet, in the conclusion, it commonly happens that all things are agreed to be restored and settled on the same footing they were when the war began. Look at the treaties of peace that have been made in Europe for above one hundred years past, and you will find that this, or something nearly like this, is a preliminary article in the treaty. The high belligerent or contracting parties agree, that whatever any of them has conquered from the other, in the course of the war, shall be faithfully restored, and that every thing shall remain for ever in that same state in which it was when the war broke out. Ridiculous! Why then did the war break out at all? What is now become of the elevated hopes, the loud boasting, and the proud expectations, of thorough success? The mountain was in travail, was in hard labour, was uttering mighty groans, and not so much as one contemptible reptile is produced. Why then, after so many instances of successless war, why venture to repeat the dangerous trial. This view of war is so evidently ridicu

lous, that, many years ago, I have heard some able and enlightened people maintian, that the time would soon come when the princes of Europe, and their ministers, however weak and ignorant they may be supposed to be, (and weak and ignorant, it is said, many of them are, to an amazing degree,) will so clearly perceive their interest, that they will finish all their differences by arbitration, or some other quiet means, without any longer entering into war; a state of things which I fear is rather to be wished than hoped for. Hitherto it would seem that the rulers of kingdoms do often kindle up the flames of war without knowing why, without having any special reason to do so.. A long and bloody war was not long ago between Great Britain and France, and, upon a retrospective view of it, politicians and historians are, it seems, at a loss to tell what was the cause of it. Aukward children, when they meet in the street, or in the field, they perhaps for a little look angrily at one another, then one of them reaches his neighbour a blow, which is soon returned-each of the two is joined by his friends-the clamour rises on the green-hats fly offthe hair is pulled-faces are scratchedheads perhaps are broken—and coats and shirts are torn;-in a while they grow weary of giving and receiving blows, and leaving off the fray, they agree to live in peace. Kings and ministers of state are just biggrown children; they are like the children I speak of, with this particular and unhappy difference, that, instead of fighting out the needless quarrels they have raised, betaking themselves to places of shelter, they hound out their innocent subjects to battle, and involve the nation they misgovern in bloodshed and expence, and, perhaps, by levies and by heavy taxes, first weaken it, and then gradually reduce it to absolute poverty, to utter ruin and contempt."

He also adds, page 142, "Whensoever a war, even a lawful war, hath commenced, there are many unjust and cruel things doue, done from immemorial practice, some of which,perhaps, cannot be avoided. In war, it is usual to consider the prince and his subjects as making only one person, and of course to conclude, that whatever injury the prince hath done, the subjects may be justly punished for it; and from this fiction the injured fall upon the subjects of the injurious prince by sea and land, and either kill them, or strip them of all they have. This is at present, and hath long been, for aught I know, the

universal

universal practice: and yet it appears to be unjust. Have we not been struck with a sense of this injustice, on seeing French merchants carried prisoners along our streets, who, having acquired a fortune in the Indies, and knowing nothing of any hostility between France and England, were returning peaceably home, and were, on the open seas, fallen upon by our privateers, and robbed of every farthing they had got? And I believe the humane among the French are struck in the same manner, when they see car ried into their prisons any British mer chants who had been captured and robbed by the privateers of France. It is just that the injurer and not the innocent should suffer. Would it not be right, and agreeable to what nature dictates, that kings or their ministers should fight it out, and in their own persons finish the war which they have provoked? Should they not feel and speak the noble sentiments and language of King David, when, for a particular offence of his, a great plague was to come upon his innocent subjects: here, I think, David expresses a strong and a proper sense of justice; here the generosity of his soul appears as illustrious as it doth in any other prayer, or psalm, or speech, or in any action of his life. David said unto God, Is it not I, even I it is, that have sinned, and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me, and on my father's house, but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.' So delicate a sense of justice is surely rare."

Again, in page 150, it is further added, "War is so horrible in its aspect, and so desolating in its progress, that it is not to be gone into from a sudden fit of passion, but after long, and calm, and serious, deliberations, after every method to procure, to buy, peace, hath been tried, and tried in vain. And it should not be begun on account of any transient or frivolous act of injustice, nor should it be begun at all, unless the prince who hegins it is rich, and strong, and power ful, and is in a manner certain of success. Indeed Providence oftentimes confounds the proud and mighty, raises the spirits, and increases the strength, of the weak; and the battle is not always to the strong. Even this consideration will render a cautious prince, or a wise minister, slow to enter into war. One would think that princes, rather than drench the nation in blood, should meet and finish their sense

less differences by friendly conference, or compromise them by arbitration, or by casting lots, or even, as I hinted before, finish them by single combat; which last, however wrong it is in private quar rels, is surely a far less evil than to thin the human species by a desolating war, which the rulers have, from arrogance and a spirit of domination, hastened to commence. Indeed, if the subjects have foolishly approved of the rash steps of their rulers, and have even loudly encou raged them by fomenting their arrogance, and publicly calling upon them to enter into and to continue in coercive, violent, and sanguinary, measures, offering to spend their lives and fortunes in the war, it seems but just in Providence that they should be made to suffer for a long time the calamities of war. Alas! it is com monly the grandees of a country, who, for selfish ends, do thus slavishly beat time with the rash measures of their rulers, and the bulk of the people are made to suffer. If war may be in some sort just, yet it may be very imprudent and inexpedient to enter into it."

In page 152, he says, "Whilst we fast and pray for success in this tedious and lamentable war, let us, let our rulers, and commanders, examine whether there be not some unjustifiable steps which we have already taken." And, in page 153, it is added, "We have fasted several times before. We have prayed for success, and that this inglorious war might soon come to an end; but hitherto things continue just as they were. It is well if our condition be not worse than when we commenced the war: we looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. Stili we look for righteousness, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off. One year of this tiresome war, a second, a third, a fourth, hath gone over our heads, and another year of it is begun. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. May not this be a presumption that Heaven is displeased with our aim, and, by repeatedly counterworking our efforts, intimates to us that abundance of blood is shed already? I sincerely wish, that the fomenters of this war, on both sides of the Atlantic, may be of this mind. I remember that when Otho, in his contest against Vitellius for the Roman empire, had lost a battle, but had stili great resources, and, in the opinion of his friends, great cause to hope for success, he chused at once to take the desperate step of a Roman death, rather

than

surprise, that the polity of Solon did not outlive himself, but that he himself saw, without the power of preventing it, the growing influence of Pisistratus, which terminated in tyranny and despotism.

But the wisdom of Lycurgus, the Spartan legislator, and the excellency of his polity, chiefly appears in effectually guarding against the licentiousness of democracy on the one hand, and the oppression of despotism on the other. Power was so exactly balanced, and so checked and guarded on every hand, that no sooner did one branch of the hody politie overstretch its just limits, and aim at the ascendency, than the others combined to curb and restrain it. This afforded the surest pledge of stability and almost invincible power; this rendered Sparta the bulwark of all Greece; this constituted the inhabitants of Lacedæmon a band of herces, who feared not to combat singly the innumerable myriads of Persia.

The British constitution, which has been so long and deservedly admired through the whole world, is formed in a great degree upon this model; since the three branches of the executive power amongst us bear a close analogy to those of Sparta, and are calculated in the same manner to preserve the balance of power.

Besides the grand outline sketched by the masterly hand of Lycurgus, some of the more minute features of this civil code have been held in universal admi ration. The influence of education upon the national character, and its importance to the state, did not escape the penetrating sight of this truly wise man. He felt the necessity of cleansing the fountain-head, in order that the streams might be rendered pure, or (to borrow a metaphor from the sacred Scriptures) first to make the tree good, that its fruit might be good also. Such were the designs of those laws which rendered the children the property of the state, which provided for their public education, by means of which patriotism, magnanimi ty, and subordination, were instilled into their minds from the tenderest infancy.

Nor should those bold and decided measures be forgotten by which Lycur gus proposed to exclude from the commonwealth every incentive to luxury and avarice. Avarice is a passion which so contracts and debases the character, both public and private, that it is with the greatest reason, and by the highest authority, called the root of all evil. However hazardous the step, Lycurgus

felt it to be so essential to the stabi lity of his infant commonwealth to suppress this passion, that he devised the most effectual means of counteracting it, by diminishing the motives of such wealth, and by inspiring a contempt for pomo and splendour. He at length succeeded to his utmost wishes; and thus far more effectually guarded Laconia than if it had been surrounded by the most impregnable fortresses.

If an estimate of the excellence of a constitution be deduced from its permanent effects, that of Lycurgus has no common claims. It stood upwards of 500 years, during which period intestine commotions were scarcely known, nor did hostile armies dare to invade them. If any foe presumed to attack them, they were either completely subdued, or, covered with shame, retreated. Sparta stood alone when all the other states of Greece either bowed to the shrine of wealth, or to the sceptre of despotic power, and defended with her blood the expiring liberties of Greece. Nor was she weakened by intestine commotions, or subjugated to a foreign yoke, till the spi rit and force of these wise laws enacted by Lycurgus were lost; and her rigid simplicity was exchanged for the inebria ting luxuries of foreign courts."

OBSERVATOR.

For the Monthly Magazine. ABSTRACT of a JOURNAL kept in MARY, LAND, in the yeurs 1805 and 1806.

IT

T needs, I think, no great depth of prophecy to foretel the result of the present contest with France. By the preponderance of her power, she will over-run the continent with her arms, as England does the ocean with her ships: France will have an empire terræ firme; England will have an empice oceani incertiet infructuosi. France will have dominion over men-England over the great Leviathan. France will shut up the continent against the commerce of Eng land-and England will be the victim of false speculations, of bankruptcy, and of ruin. England will then wish she had kept herself in the bounds of moderation, and had pursued the arts of peace. She would have become more truly great in

individual happiness, and in national prosperity and glory, than she has rendered herself terrible by arins:and I, a wretched exile from the land of my nativity, should have been spared my wanderings, and the heart-rending exclamation of, "Oh, my country!"

But

I pass on from this digression on Eng lish commerce to that of America. As the people in Europe present the spec tacle of preceding their old governments, in enlightened ideas, and in plans of amelioration, so in America the government has held this precedence of the people since her revolution. It has been the opinion of the wisest men of the different administrations, that America should have ploughed her land before she ploughed the ocean. They have thought, that agriculture was a pursuit more manifestly necessary, more congenial to her wants, more consonant to her republican institutions, and more favourable to her political independence, her morality, prosperity, and happiness, than the pursuits of commerce. America has been peopled with advensurers from all quarters of the globe, whose object has not been so much the enjoyment of liberty and a moderate competence, as the amassing of wealth; and they have pursued commerce as the most rapid means of acquiring it. The Northern States, and a long line of coast to the southward, extending two or three hundred miles to the west, are completely commercial. The troubles of the Euro pean continent have given to America the carrying trade from the colonies to the mother countries; in addition to which, she has obtained the greatest portion of that in Europe, which was formerly shared by the English, the Dutch, and the Hanseatic Towns. From the same causes she has embarked very extensively in the East India trade, by which she supplies her own and the continental market. Baltimore, which ten years ago had but one ship in that trade, has now seventeen large ships of from five to eight hundred tons burthen; and the other sea-ports have encreased their tonnage in a similar proportion.

This trade, it is true, drains the country of her precious metals; to supply which, she has substituted a large and extensive paper currency, issued by numerous banks, which are, however, legally incorporated by the different state governments, and their capitals ascertained and published. Many of the substantial planters, to the distance of two

or three hundred miles from the sea coast, have been induced to embark in mercantile speculations with the mer chants of the sea-ports. They have had nothing to do, but to deposit the titledeeds of their estates in the different banks, and have received paper currency, or cash, in proportion to their value, without incurring any legal expense of mortgage, deeds, &c. Many of the rich capitalists of Europe, finding their com mercial operations impeded by the war, have transferred their capitals to America, and have either formed new establishments, or joined old ones, in order to prosecute their object under the supposed protection of the neutral flag. Such are the powerful causes of the origin, the amazing and rapid encrcase, and the prosperity of American commerce. lts effects may be traced in splendid establishments, numerous carriages, elegant equipages, magnificent buildings, and in all the conveniences, luxuries, dissipations, debaucheries, and diseases, of human life!

But one of the most deleterious effects upon the American character of such a prosperous commerce, derived from the source of European calamity, is not only an heathenish indifference to war, but a criminal desire for its continuance, so long as America steers her bark in peace and safety. In short, the apathy of the Dutch, with the villainy of the African merchant, may be recognised in the American dealer. Two instances, amongst numerous others of this unblushing depravity, I will mention. I call it unblushing, because at the time that all commerce in goods contraband of war, was interdicted by the American government, between America and the rebels of St. Domingo, at the intercession and on the reinonstrance of the French ambassador, I heard a merchant of Baltimore say publicly, that he was in the habit of supplying the rebels with powder and ball, which he enclosed in casks, lined two or three inches thick with butter, and which were entered at the custom-house as butter, of course called so in the ship's papers, and passed as such to the place of their destination. Another instance was that of a number of Philadelphia merchants, celebrating the birth-day of Dessalines; and actually making a present of the crown which was to encircle the brow of that inhuman and savage monster.

It might naturally enough be expected that France and England would seek to involve