us citizens; and our relationship as children of one Almighty Father, and alike objects of the same Saviour's love, is much more obligatory upon us, than as inhabitants of one common country. If we would help and bless our country, it must be by seeking to bring down the divine blessing upon it; and we know not how successful our united and persevering prayers, offered in the name of Jesus, would be, to avert those terrible calamities that are now impending over it.

"The foundation of our well known testimony against all war, rests upon the plain and undeniable injunctions and precepts of our Saviour, as well as the entire spirit of the gospel. It was the saying of them of old time, thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy:' but the injunction of Christ to his followers is, 'love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven,' presenting the divine example for our imitation, 'for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.' And again, our approach to our heavenly Father for the pardon of our sins, is on the condition that we forgive. Our plea in that simple, yet most sublime prayer, is this, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and this is accepted by Him who is the hearer and answerer of prayer, 'for,' He says, 'if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses;' and the nature of this forgiveness must be such as we desire for ourselves when presented before the eternal Judge. How then can any one, thus reading Scripture, meditate the destruction of his fellow man?

"Our Religious Society has always maintained, on the principles of the Gospel, a faithful testimony against all war, either by being concerned in any warlike preparations, in any manner openly or privately aiding its promotion, or seeking or receiving any profit or advantage under it; and the faithfulness of our heavenly Father in protecting those who put their trust in Him, may be instructively seen in the history of Friends during the rebellion in Ireland, in our own country during the revolutionary war, and in that of William Penn's government of Pennsylvania, as well as in many other instances in which we are taught by example as well as precept, that it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.' Therefore we exhort you all, dear friends, as you love your country, as you love your children, and desire their present and future happiness, as you value the pure and holy precepts of the Gospel we profess, guard most watchfully against every temptation in any manner or degree, to foster or encourage the spirit of war and strife. Let us demean ourselves in a Christian and peaceable manner, manifesting that we are the followers of the Prince of Peace.'

The New England Yearly Meeting, has, also, issued so fine an argument on the subject, that we cannot refrain from copying it :

"The present condition of our beloved country and the temptation and trials to which we are exposed, have weighed heavily upon us. We have ever been a loyal people. We have always acknowledged our allegiance to the authorities placed over us. We have ever been engaged to sustain civil government, not only by yielding to its authority on all points not involving conscientious scruples, but by exerting such moral power as we might possess to bring others into obedience to it; and at this day, when a section of our land has risen up against it, and by violent means seeking to subvert and overthrow it, while our sympathies may properly be enlisted for the rulers of our land, now involved in deep responsibility and

sore trial, and our prayers rightfully raised to the Lord that they may be endued with that wisdom which is profitable to direct, yet we are not to forget that it is not for us to mingle in the deadly strife, or to promote in others the spirit which tends to unsheath the sword, and to bring them into conflict with their fellow-men.

It may not be necessary for us to enter at large into a specification of the grounds upon which our religious society has always felt bound solemnly to bear its testimony against war in all its forms, and to the peaceable nature of the Christian religion; and yet some of the teachings of our Saviour and his apostles, showing that this testimony has its root in the Gospel, may perhaps be profitably revived, and may tend to strengthen and encourage some who desire to be followers of the Prince of Peace, in continuing steadfast and immovable in their faith and in their works. "Have peace one with another." "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." "Walk with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love." "See that none render evil for evil to any man." "God hath called us to peace." "Follow after love, patience, meekness.” "Be gentle, showing all meekness unto all men." Live in peace." "Lay aside all malice." "Put off anger, wrath, malice." "Let all bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice." Avenge not yourselves." "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink." "Recompense to no man evil for evil." "Overcome evil with good." "Ye have heard that it hath been saith, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you; for if ye love them only which love you, what reward haye ye ?"

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These are the precepts of Christianity, and they breathe the spirit of love and peace. These are the teachings of the Gospel by which we profess to be governed; and they are obligatory upon all Christians in every emergency, and under every circumstance of their lives. While we may

not be required, in times of excitement like the present, to press our views upon unwilling ears; while it may rather be our place to let our light shine by example, and, if need be, by suffering; while we may feel that in quietness and in prayer, we may most effectually subserve the cause of our blessed Redeemer; let us be engaged to give full evidence by meekness and gentleness, by humility and purity, that we are actuated and controlled by a measure of that spirit which breathes peace on earth, good will toward men; and while we pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, let us manifest, in all our words and deeds, that we are engaged to hasten the coming of that day when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and the declarations of the evangelical prophet be fulfilled: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." "Violence shall be no more heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders." Let us remember, for our encouragement and comfort, the benediction pronounced by our Saviour."Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God."

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COST OF PREPARATIONS FOR WAR:

STUPENDOUS FOLLY-WHERE WILL IT END?

It appears that the people of England have to pay this year the enormous sum of £76,400,000 for government and defence. We state this on the highest authority in the country, Mr. Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. These are his words, uttered in the House of Commons, Aguust 17th: "The total charge voted, in one form or another was £70,000,000, estimated on the 10th of February. £3,300,000 was the additional amount that had been voted in supply for China. £2,000,000 was the sum voted on account of fortifications, and £1,000,000 was the sum voted to replace the exchequer bonds falling due in November. These items, added together, give a total of £76,400,000. Though there never was a time when our expenditure was so large, except in a time of Europoan war, yet the public feeling seemed rather to be in favor of still further expenditure." In 1835, our total expenditure was £45,669,309, showing an increase of nearly £31,000,000 in twenty-five years! In 1853, the expenditure was £52,183,000, showing an increase of more than £3,000,000 in seven years. These £76,000,000 even exceed the average expenditure of the three years of the Russian war.

What is the source of this extravagance? Ever since the war of 1854, there has been a reckless squandering of the public money in every department of the national service; for with that war, as is generally the case in all times of war, there came in a habit of prodigality into which those who have access to the exchequer very easily glide, when the popular vigilance is hoodwinked by some great excitement. After all, however, the main item in the above collossal expenditure is the military. This has more than doubled itself in seven years; and what is more, unless the public voice makes itself heard, we have the prospect before us of having another immense addition to our burdens without delay.

Our readers are aware that one principal cause of the present high rate of our military estimates, is the alleged necessity of what is called “reconstructing the navy." But now that the thing is done, and at a prodigious expense, we are told there is every probability that the whole of this new navy will turn out to be absolutely valueless as a means of defence, and that we must begin to "re-construct" it again at a far more enormous cost than before, by casing all our vessels in iron. "The question at issue," says the Times," is not only the re-construction' of the British navy in so very short a date after the last renewal, but its re-construction upon principles of still greater cost than before. Steam proved half ruinous to us; but iron would be worse. The expense of a man-of-war in Nelson's time was about £1000 a-gun; it is now about £2000, and at the rate of outlay actually sanctioned in our four iron-cased frigates, it would be £4000. We have but just superseded our sailing navy; if we are now to supersede our wooden navy, and at twice the recent charge, what will be the aspect of our estimates for some years to come?"

Here is a pretty prospect for the industrious and toiling millions of the country! And remark this, we have not the smallest security but that, when we have substituted iron-cased frigates for all our ships of war, some new invention may be discovered, which shall utterly supersede their use, and render it necessary to begin the whole business over again. Where is it all to end? Will the resourses of the country, enormous as they are, bear this endless and exhausting drain? Will the patience of John Bull never give way?

It is difficult to maintain anything like moderation of thought or language

in the presence of such insanity as this. Here we have the two foremost nations of all the world employing some of the highest gifts which God has given them-for what purpose? Why, to run a race of ingenuity in devising and constructing infernal machines against each other, which swallow up a large proportion of the costly produce of their skill, industry, and labor in all other directions. We venture to suggest, whether it would not be better for the people of these two countries to inquire if there is not some other totally different principle, on which they may contrive to co-exist on this globe which God has given them as a common inheritance; whether it is not possible for them, by cultivating feelings of good neighborhood, by promoting commercial and social relations with each other, by resolutely turning a deaf ear to those who would persuade them that they are natural enemies, to dispense with the system of rivalry in arms, which can only end in the common ruin of both.-British Paper.

Such is the folly of the Old World, against which we have so long and loudly exclaimed; and now, such is the war-mania, we are ourselves outstripping its extravagance at a bound, and throwing all its war prodigality into the shade. It took England more than two centuries to reach half our present scale of appropriations for war-purposes. At one leap we plunge into England's maelstrom of war-expenses; for we are told by the man at the head of our national finances, that we are now spending one million and a quarter a day, and the rebels of course nearly as much more. A nation of little more than thirty millions wasting for war purposes at home well nigh as much for the time as all Europe! We may well ask, where is all this to end? Is now the time to stop working for Peace?

BRITISH COMMERCE:

OR WHAT PEACE DOES IN A SINGLE DEPARTMENT.

The annual statement, says an English journal, of our foreign and colonial trade and of navigation, shows that in the year 1859, the American continent, with Cuba and the West Indies, took £40,000,000 of our produce and manufactures; and India, Singapore, and Ceylon, with Australia and China, took £37,000,000 more. To these great countries we disposed of nearly £30,000,000 of our cotton goods and yarn out of the whole £48,000,000 exported. The United States took £4,600,000 of our cotton goods, £4,476,000 of our woollens, £2,160,000 of linens, and £1,568,000 of apparel and haberdashery. India, including Singapore, took £14,290,000 of cotton goods and yarn; China, only £3,190,000, and £700,000 of woollens; Australia, £1,870,000 of apparel and haberdashery, £790,000 of cottons, and £765,000 of woollens. For our iron we found our principal market in the United States (£3,000,000,) and also for our tin (plates) and our hardwares (above £1,000,000 of each ;) for our leather and saddlery in Australia (£1,000,000;) for our agricultural implements in Australia and in Russia; for beer in India (£777,378,) and Australia (£669,359); for butter in Australia (£342,914;) for earthenware in the Unitad States (£600,000). The exports of our produce to Australia, £4,000,000 in 1852, were £11,000,000 in 1859, and those of India have doubled since 1855; to the United States they were not £13,000,000 in 1849, but were above £22,000,006 in 1859; to China, £1,537,000 in 1859. To New Zealand we sent

£632.907 worth of our produce in 1859. not far from double what we sent only three years before.

Our exports to the whole world made no progress in the year 1859. In most European countries the demand for our produce was slack. France took less upon the whole than in the previous year, though her demand for some articles increased. She took no less than 1,391,000 tons of coal, and £493,083 worth of copper. There was a considerable increase, however, in our trade with Sweden, Norway and Denmark; and Russia took more of our produce by nearly £1,000,000, raising her demand for machinery to £1,000,000, and for iron to£1,200,000. Our entire imports for 1859 (£179,182,355) were not far from £15,000,000 above those of the previous year, and our exports (our own produce £130,411,529, foreign and colonial produce £25,281,446-in all £155,692,975,) were £16,000,000 above those of the previous year; and it must be borne in mind that the returns of the value of our imports include freight, the exports do not. In conducting this trade, 26,520 visits were paid to our ports by British vessels, and 22,351 by foreign.

The totals require such figures to express them as were never until now employed to set forth a year's trade of a nation. The world beyond the seas, civilized and uncivilized, sent to our shores, on an average every day, merchandise of the value of nearly £500,000. ($2,000,000) and to bring it to us nearly 1,000 ships came into our ports every week. Our exports of produce and manufactures of the United Kingdom in the short space of eight years, 1852-59, have exceeded in value the capital of the national debt, (nearly $4,000,000,000) In ten years they have doubled-in 1849, they were £64,000,000; in 1859 they were £130,000,000. The enormous progress of some of our colonies and possessions of late years, has more than restored the proportions sent to foreign countries, and to British possessions, to what they were twenty years ago-two-thirds and one-third. In 1840, foreign countries took £34.000,000, and British possessions, £17000,000; while in 1859, foreign countries took £84,000,000 and British possessions, £46,000,000, an increase from 41 millions to 130 millions, more than three-fold. The exports of our produce in 1859 amounted to about £4 108. per individual inhabitant of the kingdom; twenty years ago they were not £2, and ten years ago they were not £3.

Such are some of the acknowledged fruits of Peace. What is war likely to do for us and the world? We find politicians, moralists, and even Christian ministers, trying hard to show its benefits and blessings. In contrast with these of Peace, what are they, and where seen in our case? Nearly a million of able-bodied men called from the pursuits of a beneficent industry to the work of mutual slaughter and devastation, and twice as many more thrown out of lucrative employments; some two millions of dol lars spent on both sides every day in this death-struggle among those who ought to have been moving on together in the steady and signal prosperity of past years; commerce, manufactures, and every kind of business suspended, destroyed or crippled; vessels rotting at our wharves, merchants failing, and factories stopping. At this rate, what and where shall we be ten or twenty years hence? Yet how many do we find gravely deploring the evils of Peace, and sagely calculating on the benefits to be expected from War! Strange self-stultification; and where is it all to end?