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most difficult of all difficult conquests to charm such monsters into men! And what do they get by their tyranny, their rapine, and their extravagance? Read the letter of Phalaris, one of the worst tyrants, that Sicily, the nurse of tyrants, ever groaned under. "After no small pains to obtain a knowledge of mankind, I am of opinion, that the Lybian deserts, or the wild dens of Numidia, are infinitely preferable to an habitation among men. And I account it more safe to sleep among lions, and to crawl with the reptiles of the earth, than to live with them '."

And yet what a noble and dignified employment it would be to live in the exercise of a power, and à will, to administer to the comforts of an honourable people! To drop manna in their fields; to awaken a sense of charity and felicity, by uniting profound policy to genius; and thereby shedding the sunshine of glory over a useful life. Happy,-pre-eminently happy,-shall we account ourselves, when there shall arise up among the nations a prince, formed in the schools of Plato and Fenelon; who shall say to his family, his friends, his subjects, and the world, "Hitherto you have felt little of the comforts of

England: it was practised in the reign of Elizabeth §, and the law allowing its efficacy is still unrepealed. Our legislators, therefore, still countenance the plea of its first adoption ; —viz. that Heaven will at all times protect the righteous, and give victory to him to whom victory is due. And that, too, in direct opposition to the Christian acknowledgment, that the race is not always to the swift, nor the victory to the strong.

1 Phal. Epist. xxxiv.

$ 1631-1638. Comment. B. iii. ch. 22.-Dante allows its efficacy.— De Monarchia, p. 51.

life! Your years have been full of trouble; your youth was wasted in suffering; your manhood in contentions; but your age shall be spent in repose. The worst passions of the human heart have been too long in conspiracy against the nobler ones: you shall now have not only respite, but tranquillity. Feed your flocks and prune your vines: the corn you sow, no one but yourselves shall reap: give yourselves up, therefore, to the milder and far more manly occupations of life; since I am a king, that idolize true glory; and, therefore, love peace better than war."

XV.

In the relative estimate of ability mere warriors are mere emmets. In an army of twenty thousand, not less than two thousand would make good generals; if they had the opportunity. But, as to statesmen! There is not one born in five centuries. "The world is undone," says Sir William Temple, " by looking at things at a distance." The virtues of statesmen are courage, disinterestedness, humanity, justice, magnanimity, and a love of their country. Warriors! Let them die, and let them be forgotten. Holding up the head of Medusa, as it were, before the gaze of prostrate nations, they are unknown in the great volume of wisdom. Nature recognizes them, as she does the serpent and the alligator. They are discords in this world of harmony; and, converting a land of prosperity into a land of tears, they are deformities in this universe of beauty. We will shed no tear in honour of their memories; nor will we plant one rose, jessamine, or ivy, over their monuments.

History, as it is usually written, is, after all that can be said in its favour, a most disgusting tale for human patience! A mere recital of the origin of wars; their calamities; their progress; their boyish beginnings, and boyish terminations. When a Persian minister was advising his monarch not to wage war for the sake of a province, which would never be of any service to him, the king replied, "It certainly is of no use; but it is an ornament!" And when Nadir Shah, who was of low origin, claimed for his son a princess of the house of Delhi, he was required to give his pedigree for seven generations. Nadir said to his ambassador, "Tell them that my son is the son of Nadir Shah; the son of the Sword; the grandson of the sword; the great-grandson of the sword; and thus continue, till you have claimed a descent not only of seven generations, but seventy." As to modern wars! They are as pitiful in their origin as all the rest.

XVI.

Fascinating as Horace assuredly is, he has, nevertheless, some sentiments superlatively ridiculous. To this order belongs the following passage.

66

Res gerere, et captos, ostendere civibus hostes,

Attingit solium Jovis, et cælestia tentat.

Epist. xvii. 1.34.

Lord Kaims, for the most part so wise and so intelligent, has a reflection nearly as wild and as mischievous as this. Perpetual war is bad," says his lordship; "because it converts men into beasts of prey. Perpetual peace is worse, because it converts them into beasts of burden." What a monstrous position is this! A position

to which his lordship seems to have been seduced merely for the sake of forming a sonorous climax. No! Bad as it is to be a beast of burden, it is better, far better, to be a beast of burden, than a beast of prey. At least such a beast of prey as man is, when he becomes such. But perpetual peace has no such crime to answer for. In Europe, perpetual peace has never yet been tried: where it has, as among the Loo-choos, the result has been not less fortunate to the inhabitants, than it is beautiful to the imaginations of those, who never have enjoyed it. But the time seems to be approaching, though in a spiral line, in which admiration for warlike enterprise will melt into vapour, like the bubble, which excited it. The world may yet constitute one great vineyard1: and war

1 Even the interior of Africa may yet give laws to future generations. Who could have anticipated such a state paper as the following, even so lately as twenty years ago?

Literal Translation of a letter, sent from Almamy Ahdullah, Prince of Fouta Jallon, and the subordinate chiefs of that nation, to the governor of Sierra Leone.

To God alone belongs adoration and thanks. To his name be praise given through all the earth.

It is necessary that God alone be worshipped, and no distinction of men be thought of.

To all the blessed-This writing comes from the faithful Almamy Abdullah, Mori Ali, and the persons of note, good men of Teembo and Fouta, who love peace.

Abdullah offers the inhabitants of Sierra Leone his wishes for their happiness and peace.

Mohamadoo Ibrahima, of Nonbo, and the faithful of the more interior districts, wish peace and joy to the chieftain of Sierra Leone. Peace to all his good subjects!

The chiefs of Fouta being in health, wish health to all in the name of the most merciful God.-The thing of consequence and weight, which hath moved the faithful to thee and thine, shall be shown.

riors may meditate with awe and repentance, when they reflect that Alva, after murdering many thousands, received his only sustenance, at the close of life, from the breast of a woman!

XVII.

In the estimate of the happiness, which attends others, we are too apt to judge of its effects by the standard of our own feelings; and to consider that man happy or miserable, who dissents, or complies, with our tastes, our manners, and our opinions. Admirably was it observed

The Mandingo country is torn by a civil war, occasioned by the angry disputes of two young men. Why do the chiefs of the lands on the salt water allow it? Do not the advantages of that country belong to the Europeans as well as the Mandingoes? Why not force its inhabitants to be at peace, and not suffer two youths to desolate a fine country? Where will its inhabitants find shelter? Do they think Fouta, or Fouta's provinces, shall receive them? They shall not.

Therefore, in the name of God, his apostle, and Jesus Christ, we entreat you to make peace between them.

War desolates, brings hunger and distress, and in other respects is a great evil. Know ye who live in peace, that war is called waste and hunger.

Let, therefore, your good and learned men, in your name, proceed to bring this dispute to an end; let peace by your means flourish among the true believers. Attend, we pray thee, to our desire. If you wish that the good things of Fouta and the interior should not be wanting for your pleasure and subsistence, make peace: how will you get the same if the Mandingo country is allowed to become a wilderness? We have heard of the old Mandingo war; no nation was so powerful in ending that dispute as the Europeans.

Ye, also, the chiefs on the salt waters (among whom we would not forget Dalla Mahamadoo) the above is sent you.

Forget not that Kencorie, of Port Logo, troubled that country; but at last, in vengeance, God visited him with a violent death.

We wish you all peace, health, and everlasting felicity.

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