Garibaldi stooped down, and, taking the dead body in his arms, he kissed it, while the tears flowed plentifully down his cheeks, as he said, 'No, no, no, I shall not forget, then turning to me said, Liberty is not worth such sacrifices as these. I do everything in my power; but I cannot do all that is in my heart."" INCREASE OF OUR MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT. The friends of freedom have always been jealous of standing armies; but we fear they may be tempted, under the pressure of our present dangers, to make such additions to our military force as future ages will deeply deplore. The following extracts indicate what is now passing in the public mind on this subject: : "A despatch from Washington says that it is the settled policy of the Republican party to establish an army and a navy of sufficient force to meet such emergencies as now exist. We know not what may be the policy of the Republican party on this point, but the disgraceful events of the last three months have demonstrated that the regular forces of the government ought to be largely increased, if our government is to be anything beyond a mere government in name. Those events show that there are men in the United States who can be restrained from lawless deeds only by the display of a powerful military or naval force. There ought to be added ten thousand men to the army, at the very least; and the pay of the men should be increased, so that they might be bound to the nation by the strongest ties of interest. The army should be a class apart, and should have no sympathy with this or that section or party. Measures ought to be taken to get rid of all the disaffected men in both services, so that they might be purified and reconstructed, at the same time that they should be enlarged. Sectionalism has now become so strong that it would not do to employ the militia of one class of States to enforce the plainest laws in other States. President Washington could employ Virginians and Marylanders to enforce a law of the Union in Pennsylvania, but any such proceeding now would be sure to light up the flames of civil war over the whole South. Were a militia force sent from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to act in Virginia, no matter how proper soever its action might be, the Southern States would all rush to arms to effect its extermination. The Border States, in this respect, are as bad as the Cotton States. The only occasion on which a Northern force would be allowed to enter the South, would be when a slave insurrection on a large scale should occur. From this state of things it follows, that the military force of the nation should be composed of regular troops only, who would know nothing of any state or section, but be as ready to put its bayonets into rebellious Southrons as into rebellious Yankees. The navy should be correspondingly increased with the army. The pay of officers should be increased, as well as that of the men; promotion should be made more rapid, and pensions should be conferred on soldiers and seamen who should have served a long time with credit. We have starved both services: but we are now beginning to discover that they are useful; and what is useful deserves to be well paid."-Boston Traveller, Feb. 11, 1861. We devoutly hope that such ideas will never prevail in any party among us; for the day when they do, will date the sure, ultimate downfall of our free government. It was the sword that stabbed the liberties of Greece and Rome; and, if used in the same way here, it will in time prove equally fatal to ourselves. We know the plea, as old as despotism. We shall be told that the laws must be enforced, the authority of government maintained, and that this will require a large, permanent increase of our military forces. But the theory of our government puts it in the keeping of the people, and the only valid, or plausible argument for an active militia, is its alleged necessity on emergencies in enforcing the laws, and putting down mobs, insurrection and rebellion. If the people cannot be entrusted with this service, they are not fit for self-government, and must in time pass under some form of despotism, as a refuge from the evils of democracy. If we must have a standing army to execute our laws, the sooner we exchange our present form of government for a monarchy or oligarchy, the better; and, if we increase our military establishment in the way proposed, it can hardly fail to become in time an engine of oppression, and a fruitful source of corruption and danger. HOW THE EARLY CHRISTIANS REGARDED WAR. The New Testament history affords but little information respecting the influence of Christianity in the army. Mention is made of several pious centurions, but nothing is said of their future conduct. If they continued faithful Christians, they doubtless quitted the army, for they could not remain in it, without complying with some of its idolatrous practices, as well as renouncing the peace principles of the gospel. That the immediate successors of the apostles believed war to be unlawful, we have ample testimony both from their friends and enemies. Celsus, who lived at the end of the second century, in his attack on the Christian religion, makes it a charge against its professors, that they refused to bear arms for the emperor. Gibbon also says, "The humble Christians were sent into the world as sheep among wolves; and since they were not permitted to employ force even in the defence of their religion, they would be still more criminal if they were tempted to shed the blood of their fellow-creatures in disputing the vain privileges or the sordid possessions of this transitory life. They held the principle of passive obedience, and in the space of three centuries their conduct had always been conformable to their principles." The case of Marcellus shows what was the practice of those who became converts to the Christian religion, while serving in the Roman army. He was a centurion, and threw down his military belt at the head of the legion, declaring that he could no longer serve in the army, for he had become a Christian. For this testimony to the peace principles of the gospel, he suffered martyrdom. In those days the Christian church and the peace-atany-price party were identical. There have been those in all ages since, who have received the peace principles of the New Testament in their simplicity, and who have believed thatˇabstinence from war is essential to the character of a Christian. And such having been the effects of religion in the ranks in the best days of the church, it will doubtless have the same influence when the church shall come out of the wilderness. HOPE OF CONTINUED PEACE IN EUROPE.-There has long been a settled expectation of general war on the Continent in the opening of spring. We have been slow to share these fears; and we are glad to find in an able and very elaborate article from the pen of a French Deputy, M. Granier De Cassagnac, "that peace is infinitely more probable than war." We quote a part of his argument for this belief: "Russia," he says, "is emancipating her peasants, constructing railways, re-organizing her administration, and renewing her naval stores. England, overwhelmed by the expenses of India, disquieted by the perturbation which the events of the United States have already caused in her finance and commerce, and which may at any moment occur in her cotton manufactures, has in no respect any interest direct or great enough to accept lightly conflicts and adventures; and already important sections of the majority in Parliament make economy the condition of according their support to the ministry. Austria, occupied with internal ameliorations, and borne down with the expenses occasioned by the abandonment of feudal institutions, and still more by an excessively large army, sighs for the repose which is necessary for the success of her reforms and for the reduction of her military expenditure. France, whose finances are in a much better state, and much more solidly estabished, has only just opened her markets to the raw and manufactured productions of England, and will shortly do so to those of Belgium. In presence of that flood of foreign productions, French commerce, in order to maintain itself and prosper, has an imperative need of capital and of markets-two things which war takes away." MILITARY EFFECT OF SECESSION.-We see all over our land the influence of secession in rousing a war-spirit, and stimulating preparations for an appeal to arms. It is a state of things full of both political and moral dangers. The South has seemed for many months a sort of general camp, and the North is at length putting its militia in readiness for special emergencies. The manufacture of fire-arms and implements of war is pushed forward, day and night, often with two sets of hands. Strange that such a people should at such a period be wasting its time and resources in such preparations for mutual mischief and slaughter. ENGLISH LIBERALITY TO THE CAUSE OF PEACE. In our last Advocate we quoted from a circular issued by the London Peace Society, last Nov. soliciting subscriptions for a more reliable and more adequate income in prosecuting their work. In the Herald of Peace for Feb., 1861, we find that these subscriptions, nearly all of them permanent, already amount to more than nine thousand dollars. Such is the reliable basis on which our English co-workers are putting our cause there, and thus enabling its managers safely to plan a wider and more effective prosecution of their work. When shall we see the like among ourselves ? The cause of Peace originated here with such men as Worcester and Channing. Shall we not find their mantle resting on their successors in the present-generation ? Courts Martial.. l'oetry, Charles Mackay... Freedom not by Force. 238 Northern Citizens at the South...... 251 252 England's Civil Wars, Algernon Sidney 239 The Present Crisis in our Country.......... 252 240 Weapons of War...... 240 Effects of War Unnatural.. What is still left of our Country, Dr. French in Algiers.......... ... 241 Love and War.. 254 255 255 Peaceful Revolution.................... 245 Address of the London Peace Society.. 256 Taxes.... 258 ...... 2.59 See last page of cover. 260 BOSTON: AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY. CONGREGATIONAL LIBRARY BUILDING, CHAUNCEY STREET |