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cannot but derive encouragement from considering with whom I am associated. Let us not despair. It is a blessed cause; and success, ere long, will crown our exertions. Never, never will we desist, till we have wip ed away this scandal from the Christian name; till we have released ourselves from the load of guilt under which we at present labor; and till we have extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, which our pos terity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will scarcely believe had been suffered to exist so long, a disgrace and a dishonor to our country."

In opposition it was said:" They who attempt the abolition of the trade, are led away by a mistaken humanity. The slave-trade is absolutely necessary, if we mean to carry on our West-India commerce. It also has the merit of keeping up a number of seamen in readiness for the state. The abolition would lessen the commerce of the country, and increase the national debt and the number of taxes. It would annihilate a trade whose exports amounts to eight hundred thousand pounds annually, and which employs 160 vessels, and more than 5,000 men,”

Another in opposition said :-" The slave trade is certainly not an amiable trade, neither is that of a butcher; but it is a very necessary one. There is great reason to doubt the propriety of the present motion. I have twen ty reasons for disapproving it. The first is, that the thing is impossible. I have no need to give the rest. I would not gratify my humanity at the expense of the interests of my country; and I think we should not too curiously inquire into the unpleasant circumstances which attend it."

Mr. James Martin replied, that "The doctrines he had heard that evening ought to have been reserved for times the most flagrantly profligate and abandoned. He never

expected then to learn, that the everlasting laws of righteousness were to give way to imaginary political and commercial expediency, and that thousands of our fellow-creatures were to be reduced to wretchedness, that individuals might enjoy opulence, or government a reyenue."

In opposition, one gentleman said, "It appeared to him to have been the intention of Providence from the very beginning, that one set of men should be slaves to an

other. This truth was as old as it was universal. It was recognized in every history, under every government, and in every religion."

Mr. William Smith observed, "Whatever may have been advanced, every body must feel, that the slavetrade cannot exist an hour, if that excellent maxim, 'to do to others as we would that others should do to us," had its proper influence on the conduct of men. Nor was Mr. → more happy in his argument from the antiquity of slavery. Because a practice has existed, does it necessarily follow that it is just? By this argument, every crime may be defended. from the time of Cain." Mr. Courtenay observed, that, "It had been said by Mr. that the pulpit had been used as an instrument of attack on the slave-trade. He was happy that it was so well employed; and he hoped the bishops would rise up in the House of Lords, with the virtuous indignation which became them, to abolish a traffic so contrary to humanity, justice, and religion."

Mr. William Pitt remarked, "From the first hour of my having had the honor to sit in Parliament, down to the present, among all the questions, whether political or personal, in which it has been my fortune to take a share, there has never been one in which my heart was so deeply interested as in the present; both on account of the serious principles it involves, and the consequences connected with it.

"The present is not a mere question of feeling. The argument which ought, in my opinion, to determine the committee, is, that the slave trade is unjust. It is, therefore, such a trade ss it is impossible for me to support, unless it can be first proved, that there are no laws of morality binding on nations; and that it is not the duty of a Legislature to restrain its subjects from invading the happiness of other countries, and from violating the fundamental principles of justice."

Mr. Fox observed, Never did I hear of charges so black and horrible, as those contained in the evidence on the table. But what is our motive in the case before us, to continue a trade which is a wholesale sacrifice of a whole order and race of our fellow-creatures? O, most monstrous wickedness! O, unparalleled barbarity! And what is more aggravating, this most complicated scene

of robbery and murder. which mankind has ever witnessed, has been honored by the name of trade.”*

Mr. Fox rehearsed some of the facts which had been stated by the witnesses, and then said, "I am glad that these tales affect the House. Will they then sanction enormities, the bare recital of which makes them shudder? Let them remember that humanity does not consist in a squeamish ear. It does not consist in shrinking and starting at such tales as these; but in a disposition of heart to remedy the evils they unfold."

At the close of his speech, he said, "I will now conclude, by declaring that the whole country, indeed the whole civilized world must rejoice, that such a bill as the present has been moved for, not merely as a matter of humanity, but as an act of justice; for I will pot bumanity out of the question. Can it be called humanity, to forbear from committing murder? Exactly upon this ground does the present motion stand; being strictly a question of national justice."

May I not subjoin, "exactly upon this ground" stands the motion for the abolition of war?

Now who will say that the arguments in favor of war, are better than those which were formerly adopted in favor of the slave-trade? Or who can pretend that the barbarous commerce in slaves involved half so much of crime, of "murder," and of misery, as the custom of war, which is still popular? And who can deny that the argu ments for the abolition of the slave-trade, will apply with sevenfold energy for the abolition of war?

Let Mr. Wilberforce and his surviving coadjutors, have their eyes as completely opened in respect to the injustice, the inhumanity and the horrors of war, as they have been to the evils of the slave-trade, and they will repeat their resolution :-"NEVER, NEVER WILL WE DESIST TILL WE HAVE WIPED AWAY THIS SCANDAL FROM THE CHRISTIAN NAME; TILL WE HAVE RELEASED OURSELVES FROM THE LOAD OF GUILT, UNDER WHICH WE AT PRESENT LABOR.

* Had this gentleman ever read or heard, or thought of var? And of its being "honored by the name of”- -PROESSION?

LETTER OF EIRENIKOS TO PHILO PACIFI

SIR,

CUS.

1 AM one of the many, whom your publications, on the antichristian character of war, have aroused to reflection. Like, him, who "saw men as trees walking,' when his eyes were suddenly opened to the light, I, at first, had but an indistinct view of the interesting subject, and was equally astonished and delighted by the confused perception of the truths presented to my mind: astonished that these truths had so long escaped my attention, and delighted by the cheering results, which they seemed to promise. With all the eagerness, and, I trust, with some part of the simplicity, conspicuous in the child, when beginning to notice surrounding objects, I set myself to examine the novel doctrine. The more I examined, the more clear and indubitable it appeared. "My understanding and my heart accorded with it, at first blush" and when I resorted to the gospel of Christ for information, I found no other doctrine more repeatedly expressed, more powerfully enforced, or more engagingly exemplified. I could hardly realize, that, from a child, I had been accustomed to read the New Testa ment, from beginning to end, and yet had never noted a sentiment which now met me in every page. Nor was I less surprised to discover in my subsequent researches, that the same sentiment, if not explicitly sated, was almost invariably implied in the sermons and other theolo gical works, with which I had long been acquainted. I was particularly gratified with a lucid exhibition of the import and style of our Savior's instruction, relative to the spirit whence wars and fightings come, in Dr. Paley's" Evidences of Christianity;" which, though I had often seen it before, struck me with all the force of a new discovery. I take the liberty to transcribe it for your perusal.

The

"There are two opposite descriptions of character, under which mankind may generally be classed. one possesses vigor, firmness, resolution; is daring and active, quick in its sensibilities, jealous of its fame; ea

Pages 206, 7, 8, 9, Boston edition, 1795.

ger in its attachments, inflexible in its purpose, violent in its resentments.

"The other, meek, yielding, complying, forgiving; not prompt to act, but willing to suffer, silent and gentle under rudeness and insult, suing for reconciliation where others would demand satisfaction; giving way to the pushes of impudence, conceding and indulgent to the prejudices, the wrong-headedness, the intractability of those with whom it has to deal.

"The former of these characters is, and ever has been, the favorite of the world. It is the character of great men. There is a dignity in it which universally commands respect.

"The latter is poor spirited, tame, and abject. Yet so it hath happened, that with the founder of Christianity, this latter is the subject of his commendation, his precepts, his example: and that the former is so, in no part of its composition. This, and nothing else, is the character designed in the following remarkable passages: Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also; and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain; love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.' This certainly is not common-place morality. It is very original. It shows, at least (and it is for this purpose we produce it) that no two things can be more different than the heroic and the Christian character.

"Now the author, to whom I refer,* has not only remarked this difference more strongly than any preceding writer, but has proved, in contradiction to first impressions, to popular opinion, to the encomiums of orators and poets, and even to the suffrages of historians and moralists, that the latter character possesses the most of true worth, both as being most difficult either to be acquired or sustained, and as contributing most to the happiness and tranquillity of social life. The state of his rgument is as follows:

* Soame Jennings.