It is the remark of a man no less distinguished than Sir James Mackintosh, that "an army with the sentiments and habits which it is the system of modern Europe to inspire, is not only hostile to freedom, but incompatible with it.” *

VII. An enlightened humanity is to be regarded as one of the elements, and, we may add, one of the marked and prominent elements, of high CIVILIZATION. It will avail but little that the arts and literature are cultivated, and that civil institutions are erected on just and liberal principles, if the heart is at the same time to be infected with strife and cruelty. Can that be regarded as truly a civilized state, where men disregard the ties of nature, resist the appeals of suffering, and learn to sneer at scenes and situations over which unbiased nature would weep? But war always, sooner or later, leads to this; it tends, beyond all question, to restrict and to crush the operation of all the kindly sensibilities. It is said of Frederic the Great, that, during the war which he made against the queen of Hungary, he one night gave orders that every light in his camp should be extinguished by eight o'clock. Walking out at that time, in order to see for himself if all were dark, he noticed a light in the tent of a Captain Zeitern. He entered the tent, just as that officer was folding up a letter. "Zeitern knew him,

and instantly fell on his knees to entreat his mercy. The king asked him to whom he had been writing. He answered that it was a letter to his wife, in order to finish which he had retained the candle a few moments. Frederic coolly ordered him to rise, and write one line more, which he would dictate. This line was to inform his wife, without any explanation, that, by such an hour the next day, he should be executed. The letter was then sealed, and Frederic himself took

* Vindicia Gallicæ, 2d London edition, p. 286.

charge of having it conveyed; and the next day the captain was shot." *

Is this civilization, or rather utter and unmitigated barbarism? It will be said, perhaps, that war has its necessities. We grant it. But the question here is, not whether there are necessities in war, but what are the results of those necessities. Do these necessities tend to promote or to depress civilization? to render men humane and benevolent, or hard-hearted and cruel in the highest degree?

Look again at the conduct of one with whom this same Frederic was impiously associated in the dismemberment of Poland, the empress Catherine of Russia. "The cruelties, the massacres, executed by the Russian commanders, under the express orders of their ruthless and blood-stained sovereign, the female Tiberius of modern times, make humanity shudder. Not content with the torrents of blood shed by her own semi-barbarous armies, she also incited the Zaporavians, a tribe of the most atrocious banditti, who dwelt among the cataracts of the Borysthenes, to massacre the Poles in the Ukraine. These wretches, who lived by blood and rapine, were too happy, with the prospect of impunity, to execute the wishes of the empress. The Ukraine was entirely laid waste, and the inhabitants put to death by means of the most inhuman and revolting tortures. The lowest calculation of the number of human beings who lost their lives in this indiscriminate massacre, is 50,000; the highest, 200,000." +

If a person wishes to know whether war is, or is not, destructive of those feelings of humanity and benevolence which constitute so prominent an element

* Ladd's Essays on Peace and War, No. 15. Foster's Essay on Decision of Character, Letter V.

Dover's Frederic, Book V., who refers here for his authority to Ruhliere's Anarchie de la Pologne.

of civilization, let him read the history of the wars occasioned by the efforts of the Netherlands to secure their independence. Such was the complete demoralization attendant upon this war, that the Spaniards, in often-repeated instances, threw their Dutch prisoners overboard, who were so unfortunate as to fall into their hands at sea. This greatly exasperated the Dutch; so much so that the States General gave orders to Hautain, one of their naval commanders, to retaliate in the same cruel manner. It was not long before this officer took some Spanish soldiers, whom he found on board of certain English and German vessels; and, in obedience to his orders, five companies of them were tied together in pairs, and at a given signal were thrown alive into the ocean.

*

It is needless to multiply instances further, or to add any thing more on this general topic. As war, in its very nature, involves that hostility and violence which are characteristic of barbarism, so it effectually tends to make men barbarians; it tends to eradicate all the kindly and generous sensibilities; it throws men back in the scale of civilization, and reduces them to a condition of recklessness, stupidity, and cruelty, characteristic of the lowest and vilest brute animals. Nor are we sure that this language is strong enough. It is here, in this melancholy view of men's conduct, that we find ourselves not disposed to object to one of the aphoristic sayings of Coleridge,"If a man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downwards to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. The most savage of men are not beasts; they are worse, a great deal worse."

* Roman's Annals of the Troubles in the Netherlands, Vol. 11. p. 54.

77

CHAPTER SIXTH.

INFLUENCE OF WAR UPON MISSIONS.

IT is not one of the least evils of war, numerous and aggravated as they are, that it is a great obstacle in the way of the successful prosecution of the missionary enterprise. The missionary comes to the heathen with that simplicity and purity of views appropriate to his character, and announces a new and better religion, full of benignity, love, and peace. It is undoubtedly a great announcement, calculated to startle and arouse the attention of the most ignorant and prejudiced. But, unfortunately for the missionary, the heathen whom he addresses are already too well acquainted with the character of those professedly Christian nations from whom he comes The missionary announces to them, as one great element of the gospel, that it induces men to renounce strife and contention, to love each other, and to treat all mankind as their brethren. But they at once exhibit their incredulity; they state to him that the people from whom he comes, and who have heard the disclosures of the gospel from their childhood, are continually in conflict; they themselves have heard the roar of their cannon; they have seen the flash of their swords; nay, more, their own families have been assaulted; their own houses have been rifled; their own beloved children have been torn away, and carried into captivity, by men who called themselves Christians. This is not a mere picture of the imagination. Many are the missionaries, beyond all question, who can testify, with hearts rent and bleeding at the misconduct of their own countrymen, that it is

even so. Mr. Medhurst, an English missionary at Batavia, once presented a tract to a Malay. The Malay, on receiving it, said to the missionary, "Are you coming to teach me this new religion? Look at your own countrymen; they live worse than we do." It is said that the emperor of China gave, as a reason for refusing the admittance of the Christian religion into his empire, that, "wherever Christians go, they whiten the soil with human bones." A Turk, at Jerusalem, once said to Wolff, the missionary, "Why do you come to us?" The missionary replied, “To bring you peace." "Peace!" replied the Turk, leading him to a window, and pointing to Mount Calvary; "there! upon the very spot where your Lord poured out his blood, the Mohammedan is obliged to interfere to prevent Christians from shedding the blood of each other!"*

We are at this moment endeavoring to give the gospel, and all the blessedness of the gospel, to the remnants of the savage tribes within our own limits. But what is the language, which, beyond all question, multitudes of these poor Indians utter, in their hearts at least, in answer to the most persuasive invitations? "You bring us the gospel of love and peace; but how can we accept it, or have any confidence in its value, when it has so little effect upon your own countrymen? They have been among us, and we know what they are. They have cheated us out of our lands; they have violated the most solemn treaties, guarantying to us the little that was left; they have brought fire and sword; they have burnt our wigwams; they have killed our wives and our little ones; we are desolate; how can we receive your gospel?"

We are, at this very moment, sending missionaries to Syria and Palestine; but, upon that very spot,