wars between France and England, was twenty four; and that two hundred and sixty years of the seven hundred were employed by these nations, in hostility and mutual destruction that from 1161, to 1471, a term of three hundred and ten years, one hundred and eighty six were spent in war; that from 1363 they were at war one hundred and one years in one hundred and three, having a peace only of two years duration. In the national character either of the ancient Romans, or of the modern French and English, ferocity cannot be considered, as characteristic. If other nations, therefore, have not, for as great a proportion of the time, endured the burdens, and felt the calamities of war, it must be attributed to fortuitous causes, and not to moral principle.

It will readily occur to you, that, even if the evils of war were moderate in their kind, they would still compose a vast aggregate, considering their great extent, and the frequency of their occurence. We are next to show, that the evils of war are not moderate in their kind.

It is, by no means, my intention, on this occasion, to attempt a finished picture. I shall only sketch a few of its hard and prominent features: and these will be exhibited, not in the glowing colors, which imagination might furnish, but in the simple attire of authentic history.

In every war, it has been thought, that as many perish by fatigue, casualty, and disease, as are slain in battle; and those, who are slain in one battle, may, or may not be a small part of all, that fall in arms, during the existence of a war. In the battle, fought at Issus, between Darius and Alexander, the former is stated to have lost one hundred and ten thousand. In the first battle, which the Romans fought with the Cimbri and Teutones, nations of Germany, the latter slew of their invaders, eighty thousand. In the second battle, the fortune of war was changed, and the Germans lost one hundred and forty thousand slain. When Attale entered

* Oi 40,000, who were in the city of Avaricum, scarce 300 survived. Caes.

Bel. Gal. vii. 28.

Gaul, at the head of a vast army of Huns, in one battle with Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, he lost, says the historian, at least, one hundred and sixty thousand men. The loss, sustained by the French, in the battle of Crecy, was somewhat more than thirty thousand. In the battle of Angora, in 1402, between Bajazet and Tamerlane, the whole number of slain is stated, by the Abbe Millot, to have been three hundred and forty thousand. In the action at Malplaquet, the Duke of Marlborough, though victorious, is said to have left twenty thousand men dead on the field.* The loss, sustained by the enemy, was probably greater. Of the number killed in the dreadful battle of Borodino, fresh in the minds of all present, accounts essentially vary. The mean number is fifty thousand.

But, ceasing to confine our attention to a single battle, we may extend it to the whole Russian campaign. Of the four hundred thous and warriors, who had crossed the Niemen, scarcely twenty thousand men returned. Of the Italian troops, commanded by the Viceroy, not more than eight hundred survived.

The savage features of war are very distinctly seen, when we contemplate the besieging of towns and strongly fortified places. While the siege is maintained, there are no intervals, as to the excitement and terror. There is perpetually a fearful anticipation of the final result. To inerease this evil, and to render it the more insupportable, the body may be worn down with fatigue, and perhaps exhausted by famine. So extreme is sometimes the hunger of the bcsieged, that human flesh, nay, the flesh of friends and children has been consumed for food. At the siege of Paris, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, human bones were pulverized, and used for bread. In view of what the besieged endure, and what they anticipate, it will hardly create surprise, that some, reduced to desperation by their sufferings

Le Sage mentions the number, as 300,000. See Atlas Historique, &c.

* One hundred thousand massacred at the seige of Philopolis, Gibbon. i. 399. Persians lost 30,000 at the siege of Amida, Gib. iii. 209.

and their prospects, have, by voluntary death, anticipated both the course of nature, and the violence of their invaders. Accordingly, after the destruction of Jerusalem, certain Jews, who took refuge in the castle of Masada, being closely besieged by the Romans, at the persuasion of their leader, first murdered their wives and children; then they slew one another, till but one remained, who, having set fire to the castle, stabbed himself. Something similar to this occurred in Spain, during the second Punic war. The inhabitants of Saguntum, that they might not fall into the hands of the Carthaginian army, burnt themselves, with their houses and all their effects. When Tragan was engaged in his second war with the Dacians, in one of their cities, besieged by the Romans, the men, despairing of its longer defence, having slain their wives and children, secretly withdrew to a large cavern in the mountains. There, unable to sustain or defend themselves, they procured a large quantity of poison; dissolved it in a caldron; when a few individuals were appointed to deal out the fatal potion to the crowds, who rushed eagerly round this fountain of death.

Should you ask, why the inhabitants of a besieged town should be rendered desperate by the prospect of speedy capture, I beg leave to refer you to facts of no distant date, to accounts of no uncertain authority. When the gates of Moscow had been forced in the late war, so horrid were the outrages, committed on the persons of all, whom they discovered, " that fathers, desperate to save their children from pollution, would set fire to their place of refuge, and find a surer asylum in its flames.". "Nothing," says Labaume, a French officer, present on the occasion," could equal the anguish, which absorbed every feeling heart, and which increased in the dead of night, by the cries of the miserable victims, who were savagely murdered, and by the screams of defenceless females, who vainly fled for protection to their weeping mothers.

In view of that immense variety of sufferings, which results from war, imagination, fatigued and distracted, acknowledges the inadequacy of her powers. Your con

ceptions may, however, be, in some measure, aided by reflecting on the alarming apprehensions, which, but a few years since, were entertained for this town, for your own families, and your own persons. Had invasion, which was not improbable, actually occurred; had it issued in capture and temporary subjugation, which was, doubtless, far within the limits of possibility, in your families and dwelling places, now the abodes of domestic tranquillity, scenes of wanton waste and desolation might have been exhibited, acts of barbarity and gross licentiousness might have been perpetrated. But if war, in our own country has never appeared in its full array of horrors, it must not be forgotten, that thousands, to whom it has thus appeared, have felt, not less than we, attachment to life, fears of violent death, love to their families and altars, sensibility to the sufferings, or dishonor, of their parents, their wives, and their children.

In contemplation of the facts, which have now been mentioned, every person, possessing feelings, either of religion or humanity, is led to inquire, whether the future is to resemble the past; whether the earth is doomed to continue, through all ages, the theatre of national wars; whether, as the human mind is cultivated, and as science and the arts are carried to greater perfection, both will be employed in devising new instruments and methods for destroying the hopes, disturbing the enjoyments, consuming the habitations, and wasting the lives of men. In other words, "Shall the sword devour forever?"

To answer this question will now be attempted. I take it for granted, that all, to whom I am speaking, believe the christian religion; and believe further, that Almighty God does not want the power to execute his promises and determinations. On these promises it is no difficult matter to establish a conclusion, highly favorable to the best feelings and hopes of mankind.

I. The empire of Christ, by which I mean the diffusion

"All

and effects of the christian religion, shall be universal. kings shall bow down before him: yea, all nations shall serve him. He shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth:-The stone, cut out of the mountain without hands, (as seen in Nebuchadnezzar's vision,) itself became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."

This kingdom shall be, not only universal, but perpetual. "The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, (saith the prophet Daniel,) which shall never be destroyed.—The kingdoms of this world, (said the great voices in heaven,) shall become the kingdoms of our God, and he shall reign forever and ever.-I have made a covenant with my chosen; I have sworn unto David my servant; his seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.",

"In

Considering the character of him, who is placed at the head of this empire, namely, the Prince of Peace, its mild and pacific nature was to have been presumed. But testimony, as to this point, is explicit and satisfactory, his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb: the leopard shall lie down with the kid: and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plough shares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

My hearers, I ask you to entertain no visionary expectations, no dreams of a distempered fancy. But I take the