of dollars would have been expended on the youth, and nothing left to provide for the reformation of convicts.

To this it may be replied,-that probably the expense and waste of property by the war, was enough more than the hundred millions of dollars, to make the most ample provision for convicts, and for those who still live by pil lage, piracy, and robbery. But if not enough, you may add to the overplus of the hundred millions in the late war, what has since been expended in preparing for another. Then you will probably have a sum sufficient to give every convict such a pension that he can afford to give up his trade, and retire from business. And it may be submitted to the reader's reflection, whether it would not be as rational, as christian, and as well for the country, to expend the publick revenue in hiring thieves, robbers and pirates to renounce their employments, as in preparing others to follow their dreadful examples.

Had the property and the time which have been wasted in Christendom within a century, for the support of sanguinary customs and schools of depravity, been wisely appropriated for meliorating the condition, and improving the character of the human family, the world at this period might have been a paradise, compared with its present situation. But, while the rulers of Christendom have pretended to favour the interests of virtue and religion, they have expended the treasures and the blood of their subjects in supporting schools and customs, which tended to defeat the very design of Christianity, and to render abortive every effort for the reformation of mankind. Considering the immense sums which have been expended for schools of depravity, and how popular the savage exploits of war have been; instead of having any reason to wonder that there are so many thieves and robbers, pirates and murderers, we have reason to be thankful that the number is not greater by ten to one.

Shall then the rulers of Christian nations be any longer encouraged in supporting a custom which tends to fill their respective countries with crimes and malefactors, and which makes such a wanton and immense sacrifice of property, happiness and life? Shall not all who wish to be regarded as Christians, or as men of virtue and humanity, cordially unite, to encourage rulers, to abolish the "school of vice," and to make a fair experiment of the power, the tendency, and the value of Christian education?

It not only may be expected, but, in fact, it is expected, that the habits and characters of men will be, in a great degree, influenced and formed by their education, their pursuits, and their mode of obtaining a subsistence. Accordingly, we do not expect to see the mild, benign, and for-bearing virtues of the gospel, in those who have been educated in hostile camps, or in ships of war; nor do we expect to see the ferocious, revengeful and blood-thirsty ambition of the warriour, in those who have been educated as Quakers or Moravians. There may be exceptions, in both cases, but they are exceptions to a general rule-and so uncommon, that they excite wonder when they occur. Let a pacifick education become popular, thorough and universal, and the nations will learn war no more. When the fountain is dried up, the streams will cease to flow; when governments shall have done authorizing rapine and murder by their own laws and examples, crimes will be less frequent, and convicts less numerous.*

* Since this article was prepared for the press, I have seen, in a newspaper, an account of a discussion in a Legislature, in which one of the parties imputed the increase of crimes and convicts to the existence of Penitentiaries or state prisons. The publick will now judge, which of the modes of accounting for these evils is the most rational.

CAUSES OF WAR, BY ERASMUS.

"Ir is a truth to be lamented, rather than denied, that if any one examines the matter carefully and faithfully, he will find almost all the wars of Christians to have originated either in folly

or in wickedness.

"First in folly; as for instance, young men, born to rule, totally unacquainted with themselves and the world about them, have been inflamed, with the love of martial glory, by the bad examples of their forefathers, and the silly stories of heroes, as they are called, in which foolish writers have trumpeted the fame of foolish princes. Our Iliad, or history of war, like Homer's Iliad, contains, as Horace says, nothing but a history of the wrath of silly kings, and of people as silly as they.

"Next, as I said, our wars arise from wickedness. There are kings who go to war for no other reason, than that they may with greater ease establish despotick authority over their own subjects at home. For in a time of peace, the power of parliaments, the dignity of magistrates, the vigour of the laws, are great impediments to a prince who wishes to exercise arbitrary power? But when once a war is undertaken, the chief management devolves to a few, who call themselves ministers of executive government; and who, for the general safety, assume the privilege of conducting every thing according to their own humour, demanding unlimited confidence from the people, and the profoundest secrecy. These persons, in such a conjuncture, who are the prince's favourites, are all exalted to places of honour and profit; and those whom the prince dislikes are turned off and neglected, as forming a dangerous opposition.

"Now is the time for raising as much money as their hearts can wish. In short, now is the time when they feel, that they are monarchs not in name only, but in very deed and truth, monarchs with a vengeance. In the mean time, the leaders play into one another's hands, till they have eaten up the people, root and branch."

Such views of the causes of war, were written by Erasmus, about three hundred years ago. Had he lived from that day to this, he would probably have seen no reason for altering his opinion. Is it not then desirable, that people, in general, should be better informed on this subject; that they should understand the nature of these moral volcanoes, and the true causes of their frequent eruptions, that the proper remedies may be applied.

Let writers cease to trumpet the praises of "foolish princes" and wicked men, who have sacrificed the blood and happiness of their fellow beings on the altars of their ungodly ambition; or, rather, let the characters and conduct of such inhuman monsters, be exhibited in its true light, then few will be disposed to follow their destructive examples.

But as long as writers shall be so "foolish" as to ap plaud men for mischief, and the people love to have it so; as long as they can glory in the sanguinary deeds of their ancestors, and rehearse, with delight, the worse than "silly stories of heroes," as the most abandoned murderers are often called! so long we may expect that the earth will be filled with violence and war, and that Christian nations will have "blood to drink," as a recompense for their folly in praising the destroyers of mankind.

APPLICATION OF MR. WILLIAM PITT'S ANSWER TO THE PROPOSITION FOR A GRADUAL ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.

In the course of the debates in the British House of Commons, on the motion for abolishing the slave-trade, a proposition was made for a "gradual abolition." In sup

port of this proposition, various arguments were advanced by gentlemen who admitted the trade to be a moral evil.

"Mr. Pitt rejoiced that the debate had taken a turn which contracted the question into narrow limits. The matter then in dispute was merely as to the time at which the abolition should take place."

He reasoned thus :—

"Why ought it to be abolished at all? Because it is an incurable injustice-a moral evil. How much stronger, then, is the argument for immediate, than gradual, abolition! If, on the ground of a moral evil, it is to be abolished at last, why ought it not now? Why is injustice to be suffered to remain for a single hour?"

"I will now notice the objection, that other nations would not give up the slave-trade if we were to renounce it. If the trade is stained but by a thousandth part of the criminality charged upon it, the House ought immediately to vote its abolition. This miscrable argument, if persevered in, would be an eternal bar to the annihilation of the evil. How is it ever to be eradicated, if every nation is thus prudentially to wait till the concur rence of all the world shall be obtained?

"How much more justly will other nations say, Great-Britain, free as she is, just and honourable as she is, not only has not abolished, but has refused to abolish the slave-trade. She has investigated it well. Her Senate has deliberated upon it. It is plain, then, that she sees no evil in it. With this argument we should furnish the other nations of Europe, if we were again to refuse to put an end to this cruel traffick.

"Already we have suffered one year to pass away; and now, when the question is renewed, not only has this wretched argument been revived, but a proposition is made for the gradual abolition of the trade. I know, indeed, the difficulty of reforming long established abuses; but, in the present case, by proposing some other period than the present, by prescribing some condition, by waiting for some contingency, perhaps, till we have