induced the Committee to recommend the suspension of Mr. Stokes's provincial tour, that he might repair to London to assist in the arrangements for that important meeting. Many testimonies of the most gratifying kind have reached the Committee as to the great efficiency and success of the labours of their esteemed agent in the various parts of the country which he has visited during the past year.

The Secretary also has been engaged in this form of service as much as was compatible with the other duties which devolved upon him. He has attended meetings or delivered lectures at Wrexham, Colchester, Tonbridge, Bardfield, Newcastle-on-Tyne, North Shields, South Shields, Croydon, Liverpool, Mold, Nantwich, Maidenhead, Kendall, Carlisle, Cockermouth, Whitehaven, Uxbridge, Woolwich, Ipswich, Alton, besides other places in London and its neighbourhood. Mr. Stevens also has continued his indefatigable exertions in that special and most important department of the service to which he has so earnestly dedicated the powers of his mind and the feelings of his heart, having delivered some thirty-four lectures during the winter, at Literary and Scientific Institutions, Young Men's Mutual Improvement Societies, and Working Men's Institutes, in the neighbourhood of London, all of them historically illustrating the folly, wickedness, and waste of the war system.

Tracts have been distributed very copiously whenever meetings have been held, as well as at other times and places. Many grants of the Society's publications have also been made to ministers, missionaries, and institutions, as opportunity offered. Nearly one thousand copies of Dr. Noah Worcester's pamphlet, entitled, "A Solemn Review of the Custom of War," as well as some other smaller tracts, translated into the German language, were distributed in Germany, during and after the Frankfort Congress, which, it is hoped, like bread cast upon the waters, will be found after many days.

In the last annual report, reference was made to the motion which Mr. Cobden intended to bring forward in the House of Commons, last Session of Parliament, on the subject of international disarmament. With the most persevering efforts to do so, however, the honourable gentleman utterly failed to secure a vacant night for the purpose. But he has renewed his notice for the present year, and the Committee have been recently sending forth an appeal to the friends of Peace throughout the country to use their influence with their representatives to support the motion with their voice and vote. There would be singular propriety and gracefulness in bringing forward the question at this particular juncture, as it will afford our legislators an opportunity of giving a practical testimony on behalf of the nation, to the strangers gathered by our invitation within the precincts of our island-home, that we have no antiquated jealousies rankling in our hearts, but are prepared to lay aside our arms in token of our confidence in their friendship and good faith.

The Committee have not lost sight, during the year, of the frightful massacre of the Dyaks off the coast of Borneo, in 1849, to which full reference was made in the last Report. They have issued various documents, containing further information on the subject, which have been forwarded to Members of Parliament and others, and they have distributed about a hundred copies of an able pamphlet by Mr. Chamerovzow, entitled, Borneo Facts, versus Borneo Fallacies. They accompanied the Committee of the Aborigines Society to Lord Palmerston, to present a memorial to his Lordship, praying for inquiry into this deplorable transaction. And appointed a deputation from their own number to wait upon Lord John Russell for a similar purpose. All that they require is, that there should be a thorough, searching, impartial investigation; and surely, where the slaughter of 1500 unresisting human beings, without even the pretence of any legal formality, is concerned, less than this will not satisfy the demands of justice, or absolve the government and people of this country from indirect complicity in an act which, to say the least, wears at present a very dark and suspicious appearance.

The enlargement of the Society's premises, referred to in the last Report, has been completed, and is found to conduce greatly to convenience and comfort, especially during the urgent stress of business which occurs on extraordinary occasions, like those of the Peace Congresses, when, before the change was effected, it was found impossible to do the work without hiring other rooms for the purpose. The expense incurred by this addition to the building amounted to £392. 5s. 5d., of which £272. 4s. 6d. has been

specially contributed by the generosity of our friends, leaving, therefore, £120. still as a debt upon the building. The Commitee venture to hope, that a further effort will yet be made to liquidate this remaining liability.

The contemplated change in the Society's periodical, the Herald of Peace, has been effected. It has been enlarged to double its former size, and by the zealous exertions of a few friends, the circulation has been considerably increased. Judging by many spontaneous and gratifying testimonies that have reached the Committee since this alteration has taken place, they have reason to believe that their friends generally regard the periodical as greatly improved; and they would respectfully suggest to those interested in the diffusion of enlightened views on the subject of Peace, that they might, by introducing the Herald to the notice of their friends, or by presenting it gratuitously to Literary and Mechanics' Institutions, or in other ways helping its circulation, be rendering, at a small sacrifice to themselves, a very important service to the cause they have at heart.

The Committee have to mourn the loss, during the last year, of one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, in the person of the renowned and venerated Dr. John Pye Smith. This eminent man's attachment to the cause of Peace was deep and cordial, and continued unabated to the last hour of his life. The committee met on hearing of his death, and passed the following resolutions :

"That this Committee having learnt, with deep sorrow, the death of the Rev. John Pye Smith, for several years one of the Vice-Presidents of the Peace Society, deem it their duty to record their high sense of his eminent talents, worth and usefulness, and especially their grateful recollection of the valuable services he has rendered to the cause of permanent and universal Peace. Exhibiting in his own life and character a beautiful illustration of the meekness and gentleness of Christ, he did not scruple to lend the weight of his honoured name and his wide-spread influence, as a Christian, a scholar, and a minister, to an enterprise so much in harmony with the conceptions he had formed, and which he sought so consistently to exemplify, of the essential spirit and practical tendencies of the gospel.

"That the Committee the more highly and gratefully estimate this cordial adhesion to their cause of one who was so eminent an ornament of the Church of Christ, from the fact of its comparative rareness and singularity; the great majority of the ministers of religion having hitherto, unhappily, kept aloof from all active sympathy and co-operation in the movement which has for its object the speedy establishment of permanent international Peace. Among the many admirable qualities by which our departed friend was distinguished, not the least conspicuous and honourable was the high christian courage which prompted him openly and unhesitatingly to espouse any cause whose general principles and aims commended themselves to his judgment, without waiting till it had acquired the seal of popularity and success; and thus did he show himself willing to share the obloquy cast upon the friends of Peace by the prejudiced and unthinking, in order to preserve his own consistency as the servant of him who, in his whole life, spirit, and teaching, was so pre-eminently the Prince of Peace.

"That the Committee, while mourning the loss of so valuable a friend of the Society, would respectfully express an earnest hope that the example of one so illustrious and venerable will lead many of his brethren in the ministry to examine more fully the claims which the cause of Peace has on their attention and sympathy, as intimately associated with the triumph of justice, the progress of humanity, and especially the honour and success of the gospel.

"That the Committee direct these resolutions, accompanied by the expression of their respectful and affectionate condolence to be conveyed to the family of Dr. Smith."

The Committee rejoice to be able to announce that since the decease of Dr. Smith, the_office of Vice-President to the Society has been accepted by Dr. John Harris, formerly of Cheshunt, and now Principal of the New College, London.

The miserable war that is now raging in South Africa has awakened in the minds of your Committee the most painful and poignant regret, and the more so as it is impossible to disguise the fact, that it is the natural and inevitable offspring of a cruel and unrighteous policy practised on our part towards the aboriginal tribes. The bare and notorious fact, that with a population of scarcely 200,000 Europeans, we have added to our possessions in

hat country, by successive encroachments and robbery of the natives, a territory of 232,000 square miles, an area which is far more than twice the extent of the whole United Kingdom, is a clear and damning proof that the system we have been pursuing there, is sufficient to account, without doubt or mystery, for these deplorable and ever-recurring conflicts, into which we have exasperated the Kaffirs, by an intolerable sense of oppression and wrong. From 1811 to 1851, during the long period of forty years, our transactions with them have been a series of wrongs, inflicted by the powerful upon the weak and defenceless; ever converting the restlessness and insubordination which our own injustice had occasioned into pretexts for further aggression on their rights and property, we have done, and are doing, our utmost to destroy utterly those whom we were bound, by every sentiment of honour and religion, to befriend and save. In vain by our missions do we attempt to convert to our faith those whose lands we have taken by robbery and violence: in vain we recommend to them a gospel whose whole spirit and precepts we have deliberately outraged in our public conduct ;-where the creed and character are in such fearful contrast, even Kaffirs have sense enough to refuse a creed that comes recommended to them without a character. This is a subject to which we would earnestly invite the immediate and constant attention of the British churches, and would press upon them, with all possible seriousness, the importance of a combined and determined effort to remove from the religion with which they are entrusted the disgrace brought upon it by the employment of the sword. If they would see that religion prosper among the heathen,-if they would secure for it the universal acceptance of mankind,—if, in one word, they would have it honoured and believed, and loved by those to whom, at a large outlay of their resources, they send it in different parts of the earth,-they must detach it from all the associations of the soldier, and proclaim to the whole world, that with injustice, robbery, and bloodshed, the faith of the gospel can have no sympathy in any part of the earth.

The Committee look forward with the deepest interest to the Congress, which is proposed to be held in London during the ensuing summer, and the time of which has now been definitively fixed for the 22nd of July, and the following days. From the extensive correspondence which they have been carrying on with the friends of Peace in France, Belgium, Germany and America, they have reason to believe, that in point of numbers and influence this demonstration will far exceed all those that have preceded it. It is of the utmost importance that our foreign friends should see England well represented on that occasion, that they may carry away with them the impression, which cannot fail to tell with great power in every country in Europe, that the Peace party in this free land embodies a large proportion of the intelligence, moral worth, and religious feeling of its population. The Committee, therefore, cannot too strenuously urge upon their friends the sacred obligation which lies upon them, to leave no effort unspared to make this great international assembly worthy of the time and place where it is proposed to be held.

The Committee cannot refrain from expressing their strong confidence in the happy results to the peace of the world to be derived from the great Industrial Exhibition, which is now attracting all nations to this Metropolis. They regard it in its character, objects, and tendencies, as being emphatically an auxiliary Peace Society, furnishing, as it does, one of the most impressive illustrations the world ever saw of the sentiment, which we may slightly alter from the words of the illustrious Milton, that "Peace hath her victories far more renowned than War." Who indeed can enter the door of that fairy fabric, which sparng up amongst us in its grand and graceful proportions almost as suddenly "as by the wave of an enchanter's wand," and contemplate the countless triumphs of science, industry, and art, brought from all regions to aggrandize its wealth of wonders, without feeling how much nobler are such conquests as these, by which human intelligence and skill have subdued the stubbornness of matter, and moulded the sturdiest elements of nature into infinite forms of utility and grace, to support, succour, and adorn life, than the so-called "glorious victories' of war, purchased by prodigal waste of life and property, and productive of only tears and wrath and agony. Nor can your Committee doubt that the gathering of the nations to contemplate these pacific trophies will produce upon the minds of all a soothing and salutary effect. The observation of the fruit of each other's skill, labour, and taste, will engender mutual and manly respect. Mean and malignant jealousies will give place to an ennobling and honourable emulation,

Free intercourse will dispel those low suspicions and animosities which have been the offspring of ignorance and prejudice, and men who will recognize in each other the same high qualities of mind and character, and feel allied to each other by the same large and generous sympathies, will grow ashamed of the infatuation by which they have suffered themselves to be hurried into hatred and strife, which have produced advantage to none, but have entailed upon all a long heritage of suffering and sin. With all this, your Committee, however, feel that a higher and holier sentiment than any connected with the mere material interests of men is necessary to cement and consecrate the relations of the peoples. They would, therefore, fain sanctify science, commerce, and art, by the hallowed influences of Christianity, and teach men to feel that they are one by loftier ties than those of material interests, by being the children of a common Father, and saved by a common Redeemer.

In anticipation of the multitudes from all lands that are likely to visit London in connection with the Exhibition, the Committee felt themselves bound not to suffer such an opportunity to pass by without making some suitable effort to turn it to account, with a view to the diffusion of the principles of Peace among the nations of the earth. They have, therefore, been diligently engaged for the last two months, in preparing a large number and variety of publications and tracts, discussing the question in its various aspects-religious, moral, social, and political, in the French, German, and Italian languages, for free and copious distribution among the foreign visitors. As, however, it was a work involving far more expenditure than the ordinary income of the Society would bear, they determined to appeal to their friends for special aid, in favour of this object. Nor has their appeal been made in vain. The response has been generous and cordial, and the fund for that purpose amounts to more than £450.

Some of the publications are now ready, and others are in the press and will be issued in a few days. The extent, however, to which they shall be circulated must even now depend, in a measure, upon the further contributions received for that purpose. The Committee have great faith in this project, and entertain sanguine hopes that by the favour of the God of Peace it may be the means of sowing broadcast the seed of sound principle among the nations, which may be productive hereafter of a most blessed and abundant harvest.

In conclusion, the Committee would renew the expression of their firm and unwavering confidence in the truth and ultimate triumph of the great Christian principles on which this movement is based. This, they feel with increasing force of conviction, is the strength of their cause. Other influences favourable to that cause may be valuable as auxiliaries, but may not and must not be trusted as the ultimate principle on which to rest. All these may fail. Considerations of political expediency may change. The sense of human justice may be converted by oppression into bitterness and resentment. The dictates of humanity may prove too feeble to resist the impulses of interest and passion. But the revealed will of Christ remains firm as the rock; clear in its serene radiance as the light of the polar star. And as this offers the firmest ground for duty, so it affords the noblest warranty for success. It may be allowable for those who have no faith in this "sure word of prophecy," to treat with scepticism or scorn the bright visions of universal peace, which it so glowingly depicts. But for us, who regard it as the utterance of infinite and infallible wisdom, we must not falter in our convictions that these scenes, "surpassing fable and yet true," will be yet accomplished in the destinies of humanity, and that they are even now, under the guidance of the Supreme will, working to a speedy accomplishment. Not always shall the earth be laden with violence and oppression. Not always shall sounds of discord and enmity, the roar of cannon and the tramp of armies, of fear and wrath, of wailing and agony, ascend in their confessed and terrible murmur to the ear of Heaven. They will die away by degrees into a silence as profound as the calm after a storm. Even now, the ear rightly attuned by faith can anticipate that time, as described by the poet, when

"Down the dark future, through long generations,

These echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease,
And like a bell, with solemn sweet vibrations,

We hear once more the voice of Christ say "Peace."

Peace and no longer from its brazen portals
The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies;
But, beautiful as songs of the immortals,
The holy melodies of love arise."

May 20, 1851.

JOHN JONES, EDWARD PErry.

THE HERALD OF PEACE,

LONDON, JUNE 1ST, 1851.

RELIGION AND MILITARY LAW.

Ir is very curious to observe how some enormous moral anomaly may exist in the heart of an enlightened Christian community, without the smallest perception on their part of the evil, until an unusually startling application of the principle it involves is accidentally made against some interest in which they feel specially concerned. Even then their wonder and indignation are roused, not so much against the principle, as essentially involving the application, but against the honest, if somewhat audacious consistency of the individual who brings it practically to bear upon the actual circumstances of life. If we take, for instance, the question of military law, no man who impartially examines it can doubt that its fixed and fundamental principle is, that obedience-implicit, absolute, unreasoning obedience to the superior in command, is to over-ride all other considerations whatever; all dictates of individual reason, all impulses of humanity, all sense of obligation to God and man. If any imagine that we are overstating the case, let them listen to the grave and deliberate language of perhaps the highest living authority (with one exception) that could be adduced on any military question. Sir Charles Napier, in a work which he published some years ago, entitled, "Remarks on Military Law and the Punishment of Flogging," gives the following very explicit interpretation of the principle to which which we have above adverted. Having spoken of the duties of a citizen, as divided "into his duty to God, his duty to obey the laws of the land, and a regard to his personal morals," he goes on thus: "But the soldier has nothing to do with these three duties; that is to say, he has nothing to do with them in his character of a soldier. It is true that as a man he is a being responsible to his Creator, both for his religion and morals; but as a soldier, obedience is the Law and the Prophets. His religion, law, and morals are in the orderly book. If that says 'spare,' he spares; if that says ' destroy,' he destroys! I do not speak of a Russian slave in military habit. I speak of British soldiers. THE CONSCIENCE OF A GOOD

SOLDIER IS IN THE KEEPING OF HIS GENERAL, WHO HAS THE WHOLE RESPONSIBILITY BEFORE GOD AND MAN, FOR WHAT THE SOLDIERS DO IN OBEDIENCE TO HIS ORDERS. There cannot be the smallest doubt that this is a perfectly fair and accurate

The real balance, therefore,

exposition of the law of a soldier's life. Let any one conceive the reverse of this. Let him conceive a soldier making his own private judgment, or conscience, or opinion of the Divine law, his rule of conduct, and acting upon it, and he will immediately see that an army could not exist for a day. In the same sense the Duke of Wellington said, and said most truly, that a man who has any nice sense of religion, has no business in the army." Now, in applying these remarks, we ask the attention of our readers to the following extracts from probably the ablest and most powerful speech delivered during the recent May Meetings; that of the Rev. J. J. Freeman, at the anniversary of the London Missionary Society. The passage refers to the treatment of the Kaffirs, and the whole of it is well worthy of attention, as a most admirable and eloquent exposure of the injustice practised upon them. But we have put into italics the words that specially relate to the subject of which we are treating.

I believe there is no alternative between doing justice to the native tribes, on the one hand, or exterminating them on the other. And, sir, would it not be a glorious thing for this country to find out the means, and adopt them, by which our colonies might advance, and that without destroying the coloured races. It may be a task to find out such means, and a severe test to apply them. But is there no wisdom, nor talent, nor humanity, nor Christianity, nor all combined, in our country that can solve this problem? Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven, to bring down the superhuman wisdom required? who shall descend to Hades, to bring up wisdom from the generations past? But what saith it? It is nigh thee-in thy mouth and in thy heart-the Word we preach,-" Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also so unto them." There lies the whole secret. Apply that, and these races are preserved and Christianity is honoured. Sir, if that practical Christianity were the rule of our colonial governors and governments, we should not have so many things to complain of as we have. We should not have so much to protest against in the measures of His Excellency Sir Harry Smith, Governor of the Cape, one of the bravest of soldiers, but, perhaps, as I presume to think, not the wisest of governors. There was a grand review of troops on the Parade shortly before I left the Cape-a scene, I confess, that has no charms for me; but I know the facts of the case. Sir Harry, addressing the soldiers, exciting them all to fidelity and subordination, in his own rough, military voice, said,-" Soldiers! your first duty is to your officers; and your second, to your God!" (Great sensation.) A sentiment reversing the order of the inspired command, "Fear God and honour the King;" and a sentiment which, I think I may say, does not find a response in the bosom of our illustrious Sovereign, or of her illustrious Consort, who, in the splendid Exhibition of the Works of Industry and Peace that now adorns our metropolis, have taken care to recognise God, first and most of all, as the giver of every good and perfect gift. Sir, I say it deliberately, I am not greatly surprised that a governor who could utter that capital blunder should set at defiance treaties-treaties made and ratified between native races and the Imperial Government—that he should hold up

a treaty in a public meeting with the chiefs, as I hold up this paper, and treat it as I treat this-tear it to atoms-scatter it to the winds, and exclaim, "There go the treaties!" I ask, sir, can that be the way to secure the confidence and respect of these tribes and their chiefs? Is that the way to impress them with an idea of our honour and our respect for treaties ? And then, sir, what shall be said of forcing men by intimidation to sign away large sections of their country, as his Excellency did do, in the case of the Griquas,-when with solemn oaths he told their chief and principal men, that "unless they signed the said treaty by five o'clock that afternoon, he would hang them up to the beam in the room where they were then standing?"-and then signed it, under intimidation, but they solemnly protested against it. These are among the things that make inquiry-inquiry on the spot-so indispensable. These aggrieved parties ought to be heard--and must be heard. The governor, on one occasion, demanded a large space of land from the then occupiers, and insisted that they should make it over to him by treaty. They remonstrated, and urged that they had no power or right to give it up. "Well," he rejoined, and swearing by all that was most sacred, "unless you sign that treaty by five o'clock this afternoon, I will hang every man of you to that tree." Mr. Freeman, when in Africa, conversed with these men; every one of them. He asked, "Did you believe that he would do it; that a British governor should dare to do such a deed?" And their reply was that they did expect it. They felt the deed injustice; but they knew he had the power. And thus under that intimidation, they signed the treaty while protesting against it. He had preserved all the details of these transactions, with the names of the men, and was, therefore, quite ready to answer any questions which honourable gentlemen might think proper to ask him in Committee. And not only so; but Sir Henry would listen to no sort of reason from the chiefs, nor keep faith with them: their treaties he rent in pieces, and scattered to the winds of heaven, as he did the papers which he then held in his hand. Was it to be supposed that the Colonial Government could obtain the confidence of the people, when they were so unjustly used? These wars were terribly destructive to the progress of Christian missions. At Philip Town and the Cape settlements, the Hottentot Christians had promised £300 towards the expenses of the mission; but war having broken out, they had not come forward with the money. It was stated that some of the members of the Churches had joined the rebel party; and Sir Harry Smith had very sarcastically alluded to them as "set of psalm-singing rebels." In reference to this, it had been well remarked, by one of the Cape journals, that if the best and most religious men had gone over to the heathen party against the Governor-the conclusion was too strong to be resisted-that they must previously have undergone most severe sufferings to tempt them to such a step. If men, capable of reflection, and trained up better than the rest, had felt it to be their duty to forsake the ranks of the English, and join an inferior party, they must have been the subjects of a deep and overwhelming conviction that a great wrong had been done them. There were, however, many innocent families, and they were in danger of being swept away. was a very serious thing to carry martial law into a colony. Courts-martial had not to listen to tales of injustice and wrong, but to pass sentence upon any who were proved to have been in arms against the colony. Many of the settlements were now at the mercy of the Governor-at the mercy of a man who taught his soldiers to place the officers first and God second. There was not much reason to hope either for mercy, equity, or benevolence, under such a state of things. The time was at hand when the Christian people of England must lend a helping hand to some of the innocent sufferers of Africa, and at the same time proclaim throughout the length and breadth of the land that there must be a full and complete investigation of the whole subject.

It

Here it will be seen that Sir Harry Smith is represented as saying to his men :-"Soldiers! your first duty is to your officers; and your second, to your God;" a sentiment which, we are told by the reporter, produced, as it well might, "much sensation" in the meeting. And yet Sir Harry Smith was only giving plain utterance to the very spirit and essence of military law. Of the three or four thousand Christian men and women who shuddered with indignation at the bold utterance of the above maxim, how many of them perceived that the man who spoke it was not to blame, that he was only farily expounding the law supported by the whole authority of the British constitution, and upheld by the sanction of nearly the entire Christian community throughout this realm, under which he and his men alike were acting? Does any one doubt it? If so, let them imagine a private soldier, as he is led against the Kaffirs, stepping out of the ranks, and saying to Sir Harry Smith, "Sir, I don't approve of this war; I do, in my conscience, believe we are inflicting injustice and wrong on these people, and that for me to kill any of them would be murder before God, and I must obey God rather than man, and therefore won't fight." Would such a plea be admitted

before a court-martial? Would English law protect this man's conscience, in reversing Sir Harry Smith's maxim, and regarding his duty to God first, and that to his officers second? Would the majority of those who felt "great sensation" at Mr. Freeman's recital encourage and justify a conduct which would inevitably and utterly disorganize any army whatever, and render its efficient continuance impossible? If not, let our friends reflect a little upon a system which involves of necessity a principle so atrocious, that the mere open avowal of it, by an honest and courageous man, sounds to them almost like blasphemy.

PUBLIC MEETING.

THE public meeting was held on Tuesday evening, in Finsbury Chapel, which was well filled on the occasion. The chair was taken at half-past six, by Charles Hindley, Esq., M.P.

;

THE CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, stated that the society, which had now existed for about thirty-five years, had for its object the dissemination of the principles of universal peace. The foundation on which the society rested was the sinfulness of war. Let this principle ever be borne in mind; and let men cast away those cobweb arguments of expediency with which they were assailed. It was said that their views were utopian and impracticable. Looking at the past history of the world they might indeed appear so; but not if we looked at the Bible, and put faith in its declarations, and in its promises of a coming time when peace should prevail all over the earth. It was said also, that before that time human nature must be changed. That change it was the design of the gospel to effect, and it did effect it in every regenerate heart. In a tour he took last year, as he was going into the desert from Cairo, and was likely to meet only with wild Arabs, his dragoman asked him what guns and pistols he wished to purchase for the occasion. "Pistols and guns!" he answered "what shall I do with them " "I never knew any one," said the man, 66 go into the desert without arms to defend himself." He said he should be sorry to have their lives depending on the use of arms; their protection depended on a higher source. "But you do not know the risk," said the man. He replied, "We will encounter the risk; I will not purchase arms; if the Arabs come, they must do what they please, and what God permits." They then went into the desert, and met the Arabs; but he could say with thankfulness, that they never had a threat, nor an insult, and not even an uncivil word. If any one should say, therefore, that it was impossible to go through such countries without arms, he could deny the assertion from his own experience. It was the same with nations; if they were attacked, let them look up to the great God of heaven, and rest assured under his protection. The Peace Society desired to infuse into the whole community the conviction that it was wrong to go to war. Its agencies could not of course be kept up without funds; and he did not know how money could be more profitably expended than in its support. People now complained of Government maintaining such large standing armies; they wondered, when Mr. Cobden or Mr. Hume brought forward a proposition to diminish the warlike forces of the country, at the fewness of the men who voted for it. Why was the number so small? Let the hustings answer the question -and declare that the people of England had not yet made up their minds that war was sinful, and that the prosperity of the country depended not upon the sword and cannon, but on the protection of the "God of battles." Let this be made a hustings question, and they would find more than thirty-five, or more than a hundred following Mr. Cobden and Mr. Hume. If England had been imbued with the principles of Peace, members of Parliament would not last year have voted £100,000 for "head money" for the destruction of human life. He could not but be gratified when he considered the year in which they were now met. It was impossible, at any time or place, to forget the Great Exhibition. He was sure that the friends of the Peace Society would rejoice in that demonstration of the amity and good-will at present existing among the nations of the earth. At a dinner of one of the City companies at which he (the Chairman) was present, a gallant admiral, responding to the toast of "the Army and Navy," stated that Louis Phillippe had told him, on his arrival in England, that he had at one time been desired to land 50,000 Frenchmen upon the shores of England. The company doubtless quailed at the very prospect of such an invasion. Another speaker, however, in the course of the evening, directed attention to the fact, that this year we were welcoming, not 50,000, but 250,000 Frenchmen to our shores, and that without fear. He trusted that one of the good effects of the Exhibition would be the promotion of the good feeling existing in the world; that all nations might see that the happiness of society and the welfare of man consisted, not in the encouragement

of discord and war, but in the cultivation of the arts of peace.

The Rev. H. RICHARD, the Secretary, then laid before the meeting a statement of the chief points contained in the report, which had been read at the business meeting in the morning.

Mr. ELIHU BURRITT, on rising to move the first resolution, was greeted with loud and long-continued applause. The resolution was as follows:

"That this meeting would acknowledge with gratitude the distinguished success which attended the Peace Congress held at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, in August last, by which a powerful stimulus was given to pacific principles on the continent; and it looks forward to the holding of the next European Congress in this metropolis, with a strong and earnest hope that, through the active exertions of the friends of this great enterprise, it may prove the most effective demonstration yet made on behalf of the cause of universal peace."

On a cold, inclement evening, in the month of November, 1815, a handful of earnest Christian men came together in a little upper room, to discuss the morality of that system of violence which had just reaped its last harvest of human slaughter on the field of Waterloo, whilst the earth, as it were, was still enveloped with the smoke, and rocking with the thunder of that terrible battle; they met together, with tremulous faith, upon the means and the possibility of banishing war for ever from the society of nations. The result of that little meeting, and of others of a similar kind, was the simultaneous organization of a Peace Society in Great Britain, and another in the United States, without any knowledge of each other's existence. Simultaneously they commenced the silent sowing of the seedprinciples of peace, by the water-course of public opinion. Silently these truths took root in the public mind, and germinated in deep and mature convictions in reference to the sin and folly and waste of war. For twenty

five years they prosecuted this educational process, and then came the first World's Peace Convention in London, in 1843. There were present a large number of deputations from Great Britain and the United States, and two or three from the continent. The idea of permanent and universal peace seemed to be expanded; and at the conclusion of their deliberations they ventured to invite the public into Exeter Hall to hear the new doctrines. The people came by hundreds and thousands, and two or three members of the British Parliament addressed them in favour of peace. This was an advanced stage of progress. Then succeeded five years of educational activities; sowing broad-cast the principles of peace and human brotherhood on both sides of the Atlantic. Then another great harvest-day came. For the first time the cause of peace unfurled its hanner on the continent, and that when the emblems of antagonistic nationalities were floating on the breeze in defiance. Many deemed it hazardous to make the venture, and counselled the friends of peace to wait a little longer till affairs were more settled. But what if the children of this world should do the same in their day and generation? if the hireling soldiers should wait for soft skies and balmy breezes to prove their prowess and courage? No! if " peace has her victories no less than war," she has her courage, too, no less than her sanguinary antagonist; and, animated with that courage, the men of peace unfurled their banner in September, 1848, in Brussels. That was an expedition more noble than that of Jason for the golden fleece. I verily believe (Mr. Burritt continued) that never since the Spirit of God first moved upon the surface of the waters did they bear upon their bosom a more precious expedition than that of the steamer" Giraffe," which conducted 150 missionaries from Britain to attend the Peace Congress at Brussels. The world would have it that it was a "Congress," although all its members tried over and over again to call it a "Convention." That Congress was virtually organized in the palace of the Prime Minister of Belgium-a man high in office and in the estimation of the Government; who took a leading part in the administration. On the right of the president sat a member of the British Parliament, and on the left a member of the National Assembly of France. For two days the principles of peace were discussed in a beautiful spirit; all the resolutions were clear, unequivocal, and strong; and who that was present could fail to be impressed with the conviction that the cause had advanced by an intense ratio of progress since the previous convention? What wonder that the friends of peace were inspired with new hopes and activities, and that it was decided on the spot that another Congress should be held the very next year at Paris, or some other continental metropolis. But what was to come in the interval between the two congresses? Why, twenty years of sowing were to be compressed into the space of six months. Such a movement as the world never saw was set on foot in England. In six months, 150 public meetings were held in different parts of the kingdom; and 1,000 petitions were presented to Parliament in favour of arbitration, signed by 20,000 individuals. And at the conclusion, came the momentous debate in the House of Commons on Mr. Cobden's motion; and that when continental Europe was rocking with revolutionary motion; and eighty members of Parliament voted with that prime minister of common sense-and these members represented the largest constituencies in the country. There were many, however, who went into the lobby with him who could remember when peace petitions were received in that House with derisive laughter. What came next? Before the result of Mr. Cobden's motion was known deputies were being appointed for the great Peace Congress at Paris; and on the 22nd of August, 1839, that magnificent demonstration inaugurated a mighty event in the French metropolis. Two steamers, freighted to the full with the heart and hand of British philanthropy, conveyed across the Channel such a host as never before landed upon a foreign shore. Seven hundred strong, they entered the martial capital of France, to lift up the bright banner of peace and brotherhood. They walked straight over all the restrictions that hedged about the nation -the custom-house, the passport, the police, all suspended their inquisitions,

The

and opened their doors to let the strangers pass. The people came forth by multitudes, and welcomed them with acclamations of friendship. The restrictions passed upon public meetings and the press, were virtually suspended for the men of peace. And what a spectacle they presented! brotherhood of nations was represented on the platform; all languages, races, and religions, and all the divisions that had separated the great communities of men, were blended in the spirit of fraternal concord. In the centre sat the President of the Congress, Victor Hugo, one of the most brilliant orators and poets of France; on his right was a most eloquent representative of the Roman Catholic Church, and on his left a Protestant pastor and statesman-representing the union of the most antagonistic of creeds. On the right also stood Richard Cobden, and on the left our honoured Chairman, as vice-presidents. For three days the hall resounded with the echoes of eloquence, which pleaded with irresistible power for the peace and union of the peoples; heart spoke to heart in voiceless language of a common sympathy; glowing sentiments of human brotherhood were thus comprehended with all the fervour of their inspiration, when the words in which they were expressed conveyed no meaning at all to half the assembly. The French seemed to understand the English, and the English the French. The crowds of the population who thronged the doors and streets leading to the hall, seemed to drink in the spirit of the great cause, and to be affected by its silent sympathy. Richard Cobden spoke his old words of common sense to the world, and three other members of the British Parliament uttered theirs with force and feeling. Victor Hugo spoke a word for France, and he was followed by three other members of the National Assembly. The resolutions were carried with unanimity full of enthusiasm. What next? The Congress was adjourned to meet at Frankfort-on-theMaine next year. If it did not vote itself en permanance, it voted itself the annual Peace Parliament. The great demonstration of 1850 was in every way worthy of its antecedent in Paris; and to say this was to say much. It was the third of a series of Peace Congresses: it was something to be the third link in the chain of consecutive events. There was no telling, even now, what a large place the world has made in its heart for the expectation of a peace congress every year. If any person, then, is disposed to ask, either sincerely or satirically, What was the Frankfort Congress?-we would reply, that it was the third in the series of annual Peace Parliaments of the people of all nations. What did it do? Why it secured for its future— it provided for its continuance-it voted another Peace Congress next year in this metropolis. Already great states and towns, on both sides of the Atlantic, have sent delegates appointed at large public meetings. In a few years, perhaps, great nations will do the same, and send their counsellors and their most profound statesmen. Now to conclude. Do we turn to the prospective side of these events, and ask, What next? with hearts humble, hopeful, grateful, at the tokens of Divine favour which the Prince of Peace has bestowed. Do we turn towards the nearest frontier of the future, and ask, What next? The future! Methinks the future is seen in sublime apocalypse in yonder Crystal Palace. Sir, that mighty translucent fabric is not merely a mirror in which the past may see its face, and glory in the creatures of its offspring; no, it is a speculum, magnificent and vast, set in the threshold of a new year, through which the congregated nations may contemplate the brilliant and blessed realities of that future predicted by the holy prophets in the earlier ages of the world. Our eyes see those realities no longer as the indistinct and telescopic visions of faith; "the substance of things hoped for" by a hundred generations is arrayed in that Crystal Palace-the city of universal brotherhood-in manifestations which delight and elevate the perceptions of every sense. What next? When the grand Congress of Nations now assembled within that wonderful structure shall have terminated its peaceful sessions; while its thousands and tens of thousands of every land shall return to their homes to transfuse the populations of the world with the spirit of this august example of fraternal fellowship. What next? Is there any person in this assembly who can divine-to whom the inspiration of God has imparted the gift to read the ordering of this future to which we have come? Isaiah, thou prophet of the highest Pisgah of divine revelation, all are silent, and we will listen only to thee: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more."

G. W. ALEXANDER, Esq., in seconding the resolution, said he looked forward with much pleasure to the holding of another convention, and to the results that he thought must necessarily flow from it. It was most lamentable that nations professing Christianity should have been for so many years the theatre of warfare. England was now paying the dreadful penalty of the conflicts in which she had taken an active part. He hoped the time would come when the prime minister would not only say that war was abominable and unnecessary, but that it was unwise to maintain an immense standing army in the time of peace.

Rev. J. J. STEINITZ then spoke in German to the following effect :

My German brothers and friends, you who have gathered together in this spot, with your worthy friends and brothers of other nations, to proclaim once more the idea of universal peace, I greet you with all my heart in this foreign but still hospitable home-like country! The time, the day, the momentous hour seems at last to approach, when problems whose intricate and mysterious nature puzzled the wise men of all ages, are about to be solved in a practical form. The ideas of peace and liberty appear now among the nations in the shape of incontrovertible facts. Liberty, which is the fountain