OBJECTIONS TO STIPULATED ARBITRATION.

THE intercourse of mankind will always be liable to misunderstandings; and, for the peaceful adjustment of these, their common sense has from time immemorial provided some form of reference to umpires. When they could not agree among themselves, they selected others to decide for them. This principle, underlying all our courts of justice, we would extend to nations, first by having them expressly agree in their treaties, that they will submit to umpires, mutually chosen, all difficulties which they can not satisfactorily adjust between themselves, and finally by establishing a Congress of Nations to regulate their intercourse and settle their disputes without resort to arms. The latter, it may require ages to carry into full effect; but the practice of stipulated arbitration may, with comparatively little delay of effort, be adopted with safety and success.

This substitute for the sword has already begun to gain the ear of statesmen in both hemispheres. So long ago as 1849, Richard Cobden, in response to more than 200,000 petitioners, moved in the House of Commons a resolution in favor of this measure, and obtained for it no less than eighty votes-the largest number ever given by that body at the outset for any new measure of like importance. In our own country we have been still more successful. Some half dozen of our State Legislatures, during their session in 1852-3, all before whom the subject was properly brought, passed resolutions, with entire unanimity in every case except one, decidedly in favor of stipulated arbitration as a sub stitute for war. It has also met with like favor from our nationa rulers. In 1851, the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations unanimously recommended the resolve, "that it would be proper and desirable for the government of these United Stated, whenever practicable, to secure, in its treaties with other nations, a provision for referring to the decision of umpires all future misunderstandings that cannot be satisfactorily adjusted by amicable negotiation." In 1853, Judge Underwood, of Kentucky, made, on behalf of the same committee, an able and elaborate report strongly in favor of the same measure. President Fillmore, and his Secretary of State, Edward Everett, declared their own readiness, after a careful examination of the subject, to insert such a provision in the treaty then pending between us and Great Britain; and that treaty, when completed by their successors in

office, contained an express stipulation for the adjustment, by arbitration in the last resort, of all such misunderstandings under the treaty as could not be satisfactorily arranged between the parties themselves, and thus fell short of our wishes only in not extending this provision to all disputes of every kind that may ever arise. We had just before entered into a treaty with England for adjusting in the same way a large number of minor disputes; and the same principle has been incorporated in our two last treaties with Mexico. The great Peace Congress of Paris (1856) that closed the Crimean war, endorsed, in the name of all Europe, the same principle, and some of its governments are beginning to carry it into effect.

Thus is this great reform already started; and what we now need is to carry it forward until it shall become the permanent policy of all Christendom. This will of course take a long time; but it can be done; and we, for many reasons, are the nation, above all others, to lead the van of such a movement. The way is surely preparing for it; and even now public opinion, if not ripe enough to demand it, is quite ready to sanction and sustain it. We could, if we should attempt it in earnest, get England and France into the measure ere long; and if these three leading powers should by such a simple and easy precaution forclose the chief dangers of war between themselves, their example, so rich in benign results, would soon be followed by minor states, and thus bring at length all civilized nations into a league of perpetual peace.

1. To such a measure, we see not what valid objection can be made. Do you deem it 'inconsistent with national dignity?' It certainly is honorable for individuals and minor communities to settle their disputes by reference to umpires; and why should it not be equally so for nations?

2. Perhaps you think 'governments will not thus pledge themselves in advance.' A plea quite untenable, because every treaty binds them in advance; and if we discard such pledges, we must abjure all treaties; but if they may pledge themselves on any point, they may equally well on this. Indeed, such a pledge in advance is the very thing needed to prevent a sudden rush to arms under the blind impulses of passion.

3. Do you deem arbitration uncertain in its results?' It cannot be half as uncertain as the sword; nor is there likely ever to occur any national dispute which it would not be far more safe to submit to arbitration than to to the hazards of war.

4. Do you fear that the parties would violate their engagement?' True, they might; but no such fears deter us from other treaties; and why should they from this? A multitude of the most powerful motives would conspire to keep them faithful to a stipulation so preeminently important. Public opinion, already the virtual ruler of all civilized nations, and fast increasing in its power, would stand sentinel and security for the due observance of such a treaty. "There is," said Webster, "something greater on earth than arbitrary or despotic power. The lightning has its power, and the whirlwind has its power, and the earthquake has its power; but there is something among men more capable of shaking despotic thrones than lightning, whirlwind or earthquake; and that is the excited and aroused indignation of the whole civilized world."

5. Do you apprehend that 'we, being republicans, while other nations are nearly all monarchists, should have no fair or equal chance of justice?' Questions touching the peculiar forms of government in different countries, the sole hinge of this objection, never have been, nor ever will be, submitted to arbitration by any people, but only such disputes as men under any and every form of government may be equally qualified to decide aright. Nor is there any need of selecting rulers as umpires, instead of such men as a Mansfield or a Marshall, a Peel or a Webster; men in whose qualifications for the service the whole world would confide. Each party would unite, of course, in choosing the umpire; and this alone would be ample security for the rights of both.

NEGLECT OF PEACE-HOW STRANGE!

How strange, how awful, that to such a trade as war, mankind has, in all ages, lifted up its admiration! Poetry lends its fascinations, and philosophy its inventions. Eloquence, in forum and field, has wrought up the war spirit to fanaticism and phrenzy. Even the pulpit, whose legitimate and glorious theme is "PEACE ON EARTH," has not withheld its solemn sanctions. The tender sex, with strange infatuation, have admired the tinselled trappings of him whose trade is to make widows and orphans. Their hands have been withdrawn from the distaff, to embroider warrior's ensigns. The young mother has arrayed her proud boy with cap and feather, toyed him with drum and sword, and trained him, unconsciously, to love and admire the profession of a man-killer.

Scarcely has a voice been lifted up to spread the principles of peace.

Every other principle of Christianity has had its apostles. Howard reformed prisoners. Sharp, and Clarkson, and Wilberforce arrested the slave trade. Carey carried the gospel to India. Every form of vice has its antagonists, and every class of sufferers find philanthropists. But who stands forth to urge the law of love? Who attacks the monster WAR? We have not waited for the millennium to abolish intemperance, or Sabbath breaking; but we do wait for it to abolish war. It is certain that the millennium cannot come till war expires.

Shall it so remain? Shall this gorgon of pride, corruption, destructiveness, misery and murder, be still admired and fed, while it is turning men's hearts to stone, and the garden of the Lord into the desolation of death? Let every heart say no. Let Christians shine before men as sons of peace, not less than as sons of justice and truth. If wars and rumors of wars continue, let the church stand aloof. It is time she was purged of this stain. Her brotherhood embraces all nations. Earthly rulers may tell us we have enemies; but our heavenly King commands us to return them good for evil; if they hunger, to feed them; if they thirst, to give them drink.

Rise then, Christians, to noble resolution and vigorous endeavors! Retire from military trainings, and spurn the thought of being hired by the month to rob and kill. Refuse to study the tactics, or practice the handicraft of death; and with "a hope that maketh not ashamed," proclaim the principles of universal peace, as part and parcel of eternal truth.

A portion of our missionary spirit should be expended in this department. Shall we pour out our money and our prayers, when we hear of a widow burnt on her husband's funeral pile, or deluded wretches crushed beneath the wheels of Juggernaut, but do nothing to dethrone this Moloch to whom hundreds of millions of Christians have been sacrificed? Among the fifty millions of the Presidency of Bengal, the average number of suttees (widows burned) were for twenty years not less than 500, or in the proportion of one death in a year for such a population as Philadelphia What is this to war? Every day of some compaigns has cost more lives H. M.

SIEGE OF MAGDEBURG,

The resistance by the besieged was long and obstinate; but at length two gates were forced open by the besiegers, and Tilly, marching a part of his infantry into the town, immediately occupied the principal streets, and with pointed cannon drove the citizens into their dwellings, there to await their destiny. Nor were they held long in suspense; a word from Tilly decided the fate of Magdeburg. Even a more humane general would have attempted in vain to restrain such soldiers; but Tilly never once made the attempt. The silence of their general left the soldiers masters of the citizens; and they broke, without restraint, into the houses to gratify every brutal appetite. The prayers of innocence excited some compassion in the hearts of the Germans, but none in the rude breasts of Pappenheim's Walloons. Scarcely had the massacre com

menced, when the other gates were thrown open, and the cavalry, with the fearful hordes of Croats, poured in upon the devoted town.

Now began a scene of massacre and outrage which history has no language, poetry no pencil, to portray. Neither the innocence of childhood, nor the helplessness of old age, neither youth nor sex, neither rank nor beauty, could disarm the fury of the conquerers. Wives were dishonored in the very arms of their husbands, daughters at the feet of their parents, and the defenceless sex exposed to the double loss of virtue and life. No condition, however obscure, or however sacred, could afford protection against the cruelty or rapacity of the enemy. Fifty-three women were found in a single church with their heads cut off! The Croats amused themselves with throwing children into the flames, and Pappenheim's Walloons with stabbing infants at their mother's breasts! Some officers of the League, horror-struck at scenes so dreadful, ventured to remind Tilly, that he had it in his power to stop the carnage. "Re'urn in an hour," was his answer, "and I will see what is to be done; the soldier must have some recompense for his dangers and toils!”

No orders came from the general to check these horrors, which continued without abatement till the smoke and flames at last stopped the course of the plunderers. To increase the confusion, and break the resistance of the inhabitants, the invaders had, in the commencement of the assault, fired the town in several places; and a tempest now arose, and spread the flames with frightful rapidity, till the blaze became universal, and forced the victors to pause awhile in their work of rapine and carnage. The confusion was deepened by the clouds of smoke, the clash of swords, the heaps of dead bodies strewing the ground, the crash of falling ruins, and the streams of blood which ran along the streets. The atmosphere glowed; and the intolerable heat finally compelled even the murderers to take refuge in their camp. In less than twelve hours, this strong, populous and flourishing city, one of the finest in all Germany, was a heap of ashes, with the exception of only two churches, and a few houses.

Scarcely had the flames abated, when the soldiers returned to satiate anew their rage for plunder amid the ruins and ashes of the town. Multitudes were suffocated by the smoke; but many found rich booty in the cellars where the citizens had concealed their most valuable effects. At length Tilly himself appeared in the town after the streets had been cleared of ashes and corpses. Horrible and revolting to humanity was the scene that presented itself! The few survivors crawling from under the dead; little children wandering about, with heart-rending cries, in quest of their parents now no more; and infants still sucking the dead bodies of their mothers! More than five thousand bodies were thrown into the Elbe just to clear the streets; a far greater number had been consumed by the flames; the entire amount of the slaughter was estimated at thirty thousand; and in gratitude to the God of peace for such horrid success in the butchery of his children, for this triumph of Christian over Christian in blood, and fire, and rapine, and brutal lust, a solemn mass was performed, and Te Deum sung amid the discharge of artillery!!

PAUL RABAUT.

SAFETY OF PEACE PRINCIPLES IN PERSECUTION.

The dragonnades which preceded and followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, involved the Protestants in frightful peril, and witnessed many signal deliverances. Those of the Huguenots who took the sword, mostly perished by the sword; whilst very many of those who, when they suffered, threatened not, but committed themselves to Him that judgeth righteously, escaped.