made by the prophet Jeremiah to the Jews, "Ye have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour, behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine."

Who does not see that if the "Old Union" had continued in America, the divine throne and government of God must have been subverted. If we believe in the moral government of God, we must admit that He will be supreme in the exercise of His authority over nations and men; and that whatever nations amongst men oppose his government, He will make it supreme over their wicked governments, as well as His laws and word over the wicked laws and corrupt creeds and blasphemous doctrines taught by

men.

We owe it to his goodness and continued forbearance that as a nation and people we have not long since been swept away beneath the overrunning flood of His wrath for our accumulated transgressions and sins. We cannot wonder, therefore, that our brother's blood should cry from the ground for vengeance on the oppressors of our fellowmen. Neither do we feel surprised that, when men will plan and scheme to frustrate the purposes of Jehovah, although He may permit it for a season, yet He will ultimately accomplish the overthrow of their schemes and wicked. devices, by their own wickedness, and bring the punishment on themselves, however formidable the league, or vast their conspiracy.

We cannot therefore pity our Federal administrators in their wicked blundering policy, or bid them 'God speed,' in seeking to restore a Union which has been based on a covenant with death and an agreement with hell in its law of compact, and associated with the foulest conspiracy against human rights, and on the grandest scale the world ever knew.

In vain do our orators, poets, and philosophers point to our prosperity, and with the magic wands of their enchanting eloquence make men feel their mighty spell as they cause new palaces, cities, and states to flit before their vision. It is here where has been the great mistake. They have interpreted our boundless prosperity as a sign of God's approbation instead of his forbearance; and, therefore, like Jeshurun of old, they have waxed fat, and kicked against the Almighty-and He has brought down His avenging arm on themselves in return. Thus our prosperity has proved a snare, and accelerated our ruin as a nation and people. These retributive scenes have come on us in America at a time when the nations were lulled to sleep on the lap of a false repose concerning the prospects of peace; whilst philanthropists and revivalists were taking up the trumpet of fame to proclaim the blessing of peace, and to announce the dawn of a political, as well as a spiritual, millennium amongst men.

In an able article recently published in the Liverpool Mercury, the editors remark:

"A few years only have elapsed since the idea of the

Exhibition of all Nations was promulgated, which was to be the golden chain to unite the kindreds of the earth in brotherhood, peace, and love. The palace was built, beautiful in its proportions, fairy-like in its construction. From the frigid to the torrid zone the products of the earth were poured into it, and the many-tongued and diverse-coloured races of men met beneath its glittering roof, apparently forgetful of their jealousies, and happy as a prosperous and united family could be. Oh, thought some, the halcyon days of the world have dawned-the panacea for national woe has been discovered. Henceforth the only emulation will surely be that of becoming the best as well as the greatest, and of developing the resources of every country and clime. The cloudless sun of prosperity has reached its meridian brightness, and far away in human imaginings lie stretched the elysian fields wherein the nations of the world are to roam in amity and friendship. Bright and happy thoughts, yet, alas, illusive and vain; for ere the last remnant of the world's place of assembly had been removed, the thunders of the Crimean guns dissolved the spell, scattered the illusion, and proved the insufficiency of such day-dreams to arrest the spirit of aggression, and check the tyranny and power of

man.

"Despite the failure, the experiment has been again tried, but with no better success, for at this moment the vast continent of America is torn by a civil strife which scarcely finds its parallel in the history of the

world. Without entering into the merits of the question involved in this struggle, we speak but the feelings of humanity when we say the heart sickens at the remembrance of the sacrifice of human life by which the war has been characterised. It is estimated that upwards of 800,000 human beings, comprising the bravest, the noblest, and the best of America's sons, have been immolated to the god of war. The most fertile land beneath high Heaven reeks with human blood; broken hearts are counted by hundreds of thousands, and the frightful catalogue of widows and orphans affords terrible proof of the devastations of the sword. Nor is this all. The resources of what might have been the richest country in the world have been drained, and a national debt of £200,000,000 has been contracted, which, like an incubus, will spread its influence over the land, disturbing its quietude, arresting its progress, and paralysing its powers."

In our deep emergency as a people, both Northerns and Southerns have courted the favour of England; and to influence the government and public opinion, one party has reminded you that your destinies as a people were suspended on a thread, and that thread a very tender one, namely cotton-and the other that they were bound up by a blade, and that blade a very slender one, namely, a blade of wheat. When referring to the former, Mr. Mann, an eminent citizen of Georgia, said,—“ With the failure of cotton, England fails. Stop her supply of southern slave grown

cotton, and her factories stop, her commerce stops, the healthful normal circulation of her life blood stops." Again, he says,-"In one year from the stoppage of England's supply of southern slave grown cotton, the Chartists would be in all her streets and fields; revolution would be rampant throughout the island, -and nothing that is, would exist. Why, sirs, British lords hold their lands, British bishops their revenues, and Victoria her sceptre, by the grace of cotton as surely as by the grace of God."

In the above sentiments Senator Wigfall united, saying, "If we stop the supply of cotton for one week, England would be starving. Queen Victoria's crown would not stand on her head one week if the supply of cotton was stopped; nor would her head stand on her shoulders."

Vice-President Stephens also said, "There will be revolution in Europe; there will be starvation there. Our cotton is the element that will do it." When referring to the latter, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, in a sermon on Thanksgiving day, Nov. 28, 1861, reported in the New York Tribune, said,Providence in giving us plenty, and ordaining scarcity abroad, had taken the crown from king cotton, and put it on the head of corn. The speaker had gone through the corn fields, and had heard the corn rustling, and he thought it was the wind blowing through the corn; but it was God speaking to him, and interpreting to him in a language he now understood, but then did not. And every blade lift