Many Christians have doubtless been astonished at the stupidity of some Africans, who worship a harmless kind of serpent, as a Deity. But is this really more wonderful than the homage which Christians have often paid to a military conqueror, who had devoted all his energies to the business of manslaughter? When this homage is paid on the principle of fear-as some pagans have worshipped the devil-the act may perhaps be less censurable. This kind of homage has doubtless often been paid to such serpents while living; but this is not all-after they have long been dead and buried, some of the most terrible scourges of our race have had monuments erected to perpetuate the memory of their savage exploits; and their names have been blazoned in history, poetry, and painting, as though they had been the greatest benefactors. rather than the ravagers of the world! Hence others have been induced to imitate their example, and to rival them in the work of mischief and desolation.

As Christians of this age understand “the art of uniting the efforts of many to effect one great purpose," let PEACE ON EARTH become their "purpose;"—and to effect this, let them unite their efforts to strip the military destroyer of his undeserved and fatal glory,-and to consign war, with all its fascinating glitter, to its proper place, as the most abominable of all the customs of ancient or modern barbarism.

NOTICE OF MR. GALLISON'S REVIEW OF PRIVATEERING. THE North American Review for July 1820 contained an article of thirty two pages on Privateering, from the pen of John Gallison Esq. then a member of the Massachusetts Peace Society, a member too, who had but few equals, either in respect to talents, integrity, or desire to promote the peace and welfare of mankind. While we deplore the loss which the society and the world have sustained by his early decease, we rejoice that he was spared so long, and that he was enabled to do so much in the cause of peace,

His able Address on the Fourth Anniversary of the Peace Society, and his Review of Privateering still remain,-and will long remain, as Monuments of his assiduity, intelligence, research, patriotism, philanthropy, and worth ;- Monuments indeed far more worthy of esteem than any of the Castles or Pyramids which pride and folly have erected to fighting and sanguinary valor.

The Article on Privateering is a learned and luminous inquiry, respecting the origin and progress of this odious practice, the laws relating to it at different periods, its injustice and barbarity in all the forms it has assumed, and the opinions of celebrated writers on the subject. The following passages, selected from various pages of the article, are a fair specimen of its style, spirit, and tendency.

"Had religion and the morality of the gospel been made the foundation of the rights and duties of states, in war as well as in peace, it is probable that many customs derived to us from ruder ages, perhaps even war itself, would long since have disappeared. But rights have been sought for in another source, and religion has been permitted to interpose her counsels, not her authority, to moderate the use of that power, which reason and nature have been thought to bestow. Is it not probable, that some usages yet remain, which habit and prejudice, and an imaginary interest alone, prevent our regarding with the same abhorrence, with which we should now look upon the reducing of captives and their posterity to perpetual and irredeemable slavery? Have we yet confined the license of war within those bounds, which the law of charity would assign to it? Do we not even receive, as principles of justice, some things which have no better support than the practice of earlier and less enlightened times, justified by an artificial reasoning, which, taking things as they are found, invents a plausible defence for whatever custom allows?

"We have made these remarks more especially with a view to the practice of privateering. It is matter of just astonishment, that a species of warfare so repugnant to all our better feelings, so estranged from all that is deemed noble and honourable among men, should so long have prevailed It is a practice, which can boast nothing of the chivalrous spirit, which we have been taught to admire in the warrior. It begins and ends in pure unmixed selfishness. It seeks neither fame nor power, but wealth; wealth, not the fruits of patient industry or honest skill, but wrested by the hand of violence or stolen by surprise and stratagem. It makes

every other consideration yield to a sordid avarice. In its greedi ness it hardly distinguishes between friend and foe, and is ever ready to pounce upon its prey, whether it be the property of an enemy, or that of a fellow citizen, which, by the rigid rules of war has become the subject of confiscation as prize. The means, which it employs, are not less cruel and disgraceful, than its purpose is unworthy. It can make its way through blood to the treasure it gloats upon, lure by false smiles to destruction, advance securely to its object under the guise of friendship, ensnare by treachery, deceive by perfidy, and secure its unrighteous gains by shameless perjury."

"There is no doubt that great antiquity may be pleaded for the practice of plundering. For several ages after the irruption of the Northern barbarians, war and plunder might almost be considered as individual rights. Every petty baron enjoyed the privilege of taking up arms, and every vassal was free to seek his for tune in predatory incursions upon the enemy, whether by land or sea. The infidel powers, which bordered the Mediterranean, covered that sea with small piratical vessels; and the Christian states, whose commerce suffered from their depredations, partly in selfdefence and partly in the hope of gain, fitted out small cruisers or armed their merchant ships. It was most common for many persons to unite for this purpose in a sort of partnership. No public commission was required Against infidels it was the right and duty of every Christian to wage incessant hostility, and to do them all possible injury. At the same time, the inhabitants of the North sent their fleets to make descents upon the coasts and enrich themselves with the wealth and luxuries of the South. They were most often conducted by private adventurers, whose bravery or skill caused them to be selected as chieftains. Piracy was a common trade, and the word was far from carrying with it the ideas of criminality and disgrace, which we now attach to it."-"The truth is, that in an age when the obligations of humanity were neither acknowledged nor understood, and every person might make such use of his strength or his cunning, as seemed to him best, so as he did not invade the property of those to whom he was bound by the tie of a common allegiance; and when the sanction of the prince was not necessary to enable private persons to attack and plunder the enemy, there could be no distinction between authorized and unauthorized depredations on the ocean. The Gauls,' says Cleirac, regarded all strangers as enemies, and not only robbed them of their goods, but put them cruelly to death, offering them, as bloody sacrifices, to their false gods.' And Boucher: In the height of the feudal anarchy, that is to say, in the ninth century, every person might act the part both of judge and executioner, without any incompatibilty in the two conditions and without disgrace. At that period mariners were a set of robbers.'

which it has approached nearer to what is suited to a rational nature, but still it is founded in violence, and only one of the few remains of the right of the strongest.

"In all that we have hitherto said, we have gone upon the supposition, that there is a just cause of war. But in every war one party or the other must be ghting in support of an unjust cause. Terrible indeed is the guilt of the subject, who, with no other end than private gain, attacks, kills, and robs the enemy, if in doing this he is at the same time abetting injustice and fraud. Grotius holds to complete restitution every general and soldier, who in an unjust war has assisted in the work of destruction. Lib. iii. cap. 10, 3, &c. Who, then, in any war, can feel so assured, that his country is in no respect chargeable with injustice or rashness, as to be willing, for the sake of plunder, to incur the hazard of so great a guilt What government can be excused in encouraging its subjects to put their integrity to so perilous a trial And if there is guilt in fighting for a cause, which we know to be unjust, is there not also guilt in plundering in one, which we are not sure is just ?

"We had something to say of the effects of privateering upon the morals of the community, and more especially of seamen; of the taste, which it gives for violence and bloodshed; of its breaking down the barriers, by which property is defended; of its tendency to annihilate the distinction of mine and thine. But these consequences are too obvious, and have been proved by too recent experience, to need that we should labour to enforce them. They spring up in our path; they meet our eyes, wherever we go; the land and the sea send forth their reports of murders and piracies and daring robberies, as if the outcasts of society had become emulous of glory, and resolved to hide the disgrace in the magni

tude and boldness of their crimes."

Here two questions may be proposed :—1. Was it not by the multitude," the magnitude and boldness of their crimes," that princes succeeded in making the world believe, that glory, and not disgrace, should be attached to the homicides and robberies of public war? 2. If pirates and robbers should be multiplied, and should increase the number, the magnitude, and boldness of their crimes, so as to equal the atrocities of national contests, will they not become as justifiable and glorious?

The review of Privateering closes with the following paragraph.

"It may be expected, that we should say something of the prac ticability of the measure proposed. We must, however, content ourselves with remarking, that there cannot be reason to despair

of what all commercial nations must feel it to be their interest by mutual stipulations to effect. The United States, as a great commercial people, disposed by habit and interest to peace, have every inducement, however great may be their local advantages for carrying on a predatory war-fare, to enter into such an arrangement Great Britain can expect no benefit from the continuance of the practice of privateering. Holland, France, and Spain, have too much interest in the revival of their fallen commerce not to acquiesce cheerfully in a proposal, which takes away one of its greatest vexations Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, are friends to the freedom of commerce, and it is a remarkable and encouraging fact that Russia made no use of privateers in the Archipelago, in her war with Turkey, 1767-1774

"We are disposed to think well enough of mankind, to believe there is something in this practice too harsh and illiberal to be much longer borne, in the present improved state of knowledge and manners. We trust, the time is coming, when the greater part of the civilized world will feel the truth of these words of Clarendon: Indeed, it must be a very savage appetite, that engages men to take so much pains, and to run so many and great hazards only to be cruel to those, whom they are able to oppress.' Thus Mr. Gallison," being dead, yet speaketh."

THE TRIAL OF QUEEN CAROLINE.

THE trial of the Queen is one of the extraordinary events of the last year. The agitation it caused in Britain, the unaccountable interest it excited in this country, and its tendency to corrupt the morals of society, demand exertions to turn the deplorable occurrence to some good account, and to deduce from it some useful lessons. But in what we have to say, we shall forbear to express any opinion relating to the guilt or innocence of the Queen, or of those concerned in the prosecution.

What relation, it will be asked, has the trial of the British Queen to the objects of the Friend of Peace? The following observations, it is hoped, will furnish a satisfactory answer to the question.

First. The trial of the Queen affords evidence of an improved and improving state of society. In former ages such a trial would have been superseded by private murder.