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years reached three-fourths of their amount during complete and arm the whole circle of our projectthe latter period of slavery. ed fortifications.

We have not at hand an account of the exports to the same colonies from Great Britain, but we know that they show a large increase as compared with the time of bondage, and thereby evidence to how much greater an extent the necessities and comforts of life are enjoyed by the mass of the people than formerly. We are pleased to learn, from the American Almanac, that the people of the United States also export largely to the British West India colonies and British Guiana, which received from them in 1848 no less in value than $4,939,650, whilst the slave Island of Cuba, with a larger population and greatly superior fertility to the average of the British possessions, did not purchase more than $6,432,380.

From 1816 to 1834, eighteen years of peace, our national expenses amounted to $464,000,000 of which nearly $400,000,000, about six sevenths of the whole, went for war purposes! Besides all this, Judge Jay reckons "the yearly aggregate expense of our militia not much, if any, short of fifty millions." The annual expenses of England for war-purposes, including interest on her war-debt, average more than $220,000,000; and Richard Cobden, after careful and extensive inquiries, came, in 1848, to the conclusion, that the support of her war-system is costing Europe in a time of peace, one thousand million dollars a year, besides the interest on her war-debts, which amount to ten thousand millions!

From

Look at the actual cost of some wars. If the results of British emancipation be satis- 1688 to 1815, a period of 127 years, England factory to the extent we have shown it to be, in spent 65 in war, three more than in peace. The a commercial point of view, in its infancy, what war of 1688 increased her expenditures, in nine may not be expected in its maturity, with a rap-years, $180,000,000. The war of the Spanish idly increasing population, and that population advancing not slowly, as we have reason to believe from the past, in intelligence morality, and religion?

CLAIMS OF PEACE THAT ARE COMMON TO ALL. The cause of

peace has many claims not peculiar to Christians, but common to all friends of humanity; and we would give a passing glance at a few of these, as essential to an adequate conception of what it demands, more especially from the followers of Christ.

Look, then, at THE WASTE OF PROPERTY BY WAR. It is the chief impoverisher of the world. By its uncertainties and sudden changes, its general derangement and stagnation of business, its withdrawal of labourers from productive employment, and its formation of lazy and improvident habits, it cuts the very sinews of a nation's prosperity, and prevents, to an extent almost incredible, the accumulation of wealth among the mass of the people. When our population was only fifteen or sixteen millions, our annual production was estimated at $1,400,000,000; and if we suppose war to diminish this amount barely onefifth, the loss would be no less than $280,000,000 a year. At such a rate how incalculably vast would be the loss from this cause alone to the whole world with its 1,000,000,000 inhabitants! But consider how much the war system costs even in peace. The amount of money wasted on fortifications and ships, on arms and ammunition, on monuments and other military demonstrations, it is quite impossible to calculate. France alone, with a territory not so large as some single states of our confederacy, has more than 120 fortified places; and a single one of her war monuments cost $2,000,000. Millions of dollars worth have we ourselves expended on a single fort, and a hundred millions more would hardly suffice to

succession cost in eleven years, more than $300,000,000; the Spanish war of 1739, in nine years, $270,000,000; the seven years war of 1756, $560,000,000; the American war of 1775, $680,000,000, in eight years; the French revoutionary war of nine years from 1793 to 1802, $2,320,000,000. During the war against Bonapart from 1803 to 1815, England raised by taxes $3,855,000,000, and by loans $1,940,000,000; in all, $5,795,000,000, or an average of $1,323,082 every day! For 20 years, from 1797, she spent for war purposes alone more than one million dollars a day! During the ninety days, before and after the battle of Waterloo, she is supposed to have spent an average of about five millions a day! During seven wars, lasting in all sixty-five years, she borrowed $4,170,000,000 and raised by taxes $5,949,000,000; $10,119,000,000 in all. The wars of all Europe from 1793 to 1815, twenty-two years, cost some $15,000,000,000, and probably wasted full twice as much more in other ways, thus making a grand total of more than forty thousand millions of dollars!

There is no end to calculations like these. All the contributions of modern benevolence are scarce a drop in the bucket in comparison with what is continually wasted for war-purposes. We stared at the first suggestion of a railway across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific; but a single year's cost of the war system to Christendom would build that road, and two more round the globe.

The clearest, if not the strongest claims of peace upon the Christian, result from the peculiarly peaceful character of his religion. It has no characteristic more strongly marked than this. Peace is its very motto; the birth-song of its Founder was peace; all his instructions breathe peace; and his whole life, from Bethlehem to Calvary, was one continuous example of peace.

The Bible is a great statute-book of peace; our Father in heaven is the God of peace; our Redeemer there is the Prince of peace; and his followers here are all denominated the children of peace, and bound by their profession to become co-workers with him in the cause of universal peace.

Mark the utter contrariety of war to christianity. No two things can be more irreconcilable. One is a law of love; the other a law of hatred and vengeance. One blesses; the other curses. One saves; the other destroys. One seeks to make men happy; the whole aim of the other is to inflict as much misery as possible. One elevates mankind; the other debases and well-nigh brutalizes them. One purifies; the other corrupts and demoralizes. The gospel, if spread in full power over all the earth, would render it a paradise; war, if universally prevalent over the same earth, would turn it into a place of tor

ment.

Take now a few precepts of the gospel. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Is it possible for a man to do this, and still be a soldier? Paul assures us that "love worketh no ill to his neighbor," but war absolutely compels the soldier, as his main business, to do his neighbor all the ill he can. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." This single precept, honestly obeyed, would stop every battle, disband every army, and put an end to the whole war-system forever. Bring it home to yourself. Would you like to have a gang of lawless men burn your dwelling over your head, butcher your whole family, and then send a bullet or a bayonet through your own heart? Yet this alone is war. So the entire gospel. "Avenge not yourselves; love your enemies; do good unto all men; lay aside all malice; see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but overcome evil with good; and whoso smiteth thee on one cheek, turn to him the other also." Precepts like these are no more compatible with war than light is with darkness.

THE FROG AND TOAD FAMILIES.

The Batrachians, notwithstanding some unreasonable prejudices against them, form a most interesting order of the Reptile class. In them we have an animal which at one period of its life is a fish-an animal whose organs of respiration are formed solely for breathing water, whose circulation precisely resembles that of a fish, whose digestive organs are exclusively adapted for the assimilation of vegetable substances; and anon by a gradual and almost imperceptible change, it has become a true air-breathing creature, endowed with limbs fitted for crawling or leaping on the land, and with a most voracious appetite for flesh.

In the spring-time these changes are daily going on in every ditch or shallow pool beneath our eyes; and yet in how small a degree can we explain or comprehend a metamorphosis which so intensely excites our admiration. We see indeed the little tadpole, urging his way through the water with a wriggling and fish-like motion; and we watch him as he loses his long tail by absorption, while his limbs as gradually protrude from his sides. We know that all this while a far more wonderful alteration is taking place in his internal structure; and we see him leave what was his native element, and become a denizen of ours. In some instances, as in the newts, we find that the fishy tail is only absorbed in a very slight degree, and the development of the limbs is proportionally feeble; hence we know that these creatures are intended to spend a greater portion of their time in the water, and to visit the land but seldom. Here, however, our knowledge stops, and we must in all humility acknowledge the inability of the human intellect to follow the inscrutable ways of Him who doeth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number.'

6

The frog is the prettiest and pleasantest of his order. Notwithstanding his cold blood, he is very capable of attachment; and will, when he has once lost his fear of man, become one of his Surely, then, such a religion must, if rightly quaintest and most familiar companions, and hop applied, put an end to war; and is it not the clear, and frolic in his presence with as much glee and unquestionable duty of Christians so to apply its as much awkwardness as if his human companpacific principles as actually to insure this re-ion were merely one of his fellow-frogs. Dr. W. sult wherever Christianity prevails? Thus we all reason in regard to other parts of the gospel. Why do you strive to make men penitent believers in Christ? Because the gospel commands all men to repent and believe; but, if bound to enforce its requisitions of repentance and faith, why not in the same manner its requisitions of peace? All these are alike taught in the New Testament; and are we at liberty to select at pleasure one part of the gospel and neglect the rest?-Advocate of Peace.

An angry expression or an unkind action will hardly be repeated, if met by kindness and complacency.

Roots had one which domesticated itself in his kitchen. Every evening, when the servants went to supper, froggy would peep out of his hole, as if to reconnoitre, and presently he would hop out, and bask on the warm, bright hearthstone, until the hour at which the family retired to bed. What makes this circumstance still more singular, is the fact, that a mutual friendship sprang up between the frog and an old cat, who shared the fireside with him, and appeared most solicitous to avoid disturbing her little friend.

The frog has a curious way of showing his emotions, whether of fear, pleasure, or pain; namely, by means of his chameleon-like power of

changing-not, indeed his hue, but its intensity: becoming pale with terror, or displaying his spots and markings in all their brightness and distinctness when he is well and happy. He never appears so handsome as when, in a cool and dewy autumn evening, he hops forth for his evening walk. Then he may be seen in the damp grass, occasionally darting forth his long and folded tongue, and seizing some hapless insect, which he instantaneously devours, though in an offhand way, as if he did it accidently while thinking of something else. Then perhaps he will sit for some moments, apparently in a most philosophic state of thought, which is interrupted by his suddenly executing three or four frantic and ecstatic leaps, ending probably in a headlong plunge into some neighbouring ditch, where he exhibits swimming powers which might excite the envy of a Leander.

Nor, if we seek him in the early spring, shall we be disappointed of our anticipated interest. We know that he lurks in the marshy pool; but ere it has dawned on our sight, we hear a dull, though not unpleasant, croaking sound. At first the noise seems so ubiquitous, that we scarcely know on which side to seek the croaker; presently, however, a louder, a more defiant croak becomes our guide, and cautiously advancing, we descry about two hundred staring eyes, and half that number of tuneful mouths, in our immediate vicinity. But we, too, are discovered by these watchful eyes; and by a simultaneous movement the marsh seems deserted, and we are almost tempted to believe that our eyes and ears have been "fancy led;" yet we pause until we can assure ourselves of the fact, and presently we discover, first one pair of the staring orbs, and then another, just peeping and dipping down again; then an inquiring croak is heard, but still we remain immoveable; this gives confidence, and the croak is answered. In a short time all the heads once more emerge, and all the throats are once more strained for croaking. And thus the chorus continues, until by moving-nay, almost by breathing aloud-we again reduce it to

silence.

Professor Bell well describes this croaking as being, "when heard in the calm of a still, mild evening, far more pleasant and soothing than many a more fashionable and dearly-bought musical entertainment "-words written in a spirit very different from that which made the feudal lords of France employ their vassals in beating the castle moats, when the evening drew nigh, in order to terrify the frogs, so that they might not disturb their evening repose. This custom continued in some districts, it is said, up to the period of the first Revolution.

The frog has been much distinguished in literature; as examples of which we may adduce the celebrated Frogs of Aristophanes, and the various fables of Esop and others, in which he sustains the part of the principal character. Then

Homer himself, having sung the wars of Achilles and Agamemnon, thought it not beneath his dignity to record in verse those of the Frogs and Mice.

The old stories-scarcely yet extinct-of showers of diminutive frogs, originated, as is well known, in the myriads of young ones sometimes seen, whose metamorphosis has just been suddenly completed by the genial moisture.

A correspondent of the "Zoologist" gives a very interesting account of some frogs which gathered around his window, crawling up the sun-blind, and peeping into the room, each in his turn. Fancying, however, that they were merely attracted by the light, he took no notice of their movements; but on the following morning he discovered that all their anxiety was caused by the accidental imprisonment of one of their companions between the window and the blind. Many instances are given of the frog in trees, blocks of stone, &c.; but the evidence is not so conclusive in these cases as in those relating to toads; yet it is well ascertained that, in addition to the power of respiring through the lungs, the frog-like the toad-obtains air or aërated water, through the pores of its skin, so that atmospheric moisture will keep it alive for a considerable time, even when all access of air to the lungs is prevented.

tree-frogs, none of which are British; but we We do not mean to describe the Hylæ, or construction of their webbed feet, which are furcannot resist a passing glance at the exquisite nished with cushions, forming suckers, by means of which they firmly adhere to the under side of the smoothest leaf-just as the fly walks, head downwards, on our ceilings.

The common frog, notwithstanding an existing opinion to the contrary, is as much eaten in France and Germany, as is the true edible frog. The taste for frogs does not appear to have been general, until a late period, as the author of Devis sur la Vigne,'writing in the year 1550, describes his amusement at seeing them brought to table; and Palissy, thirty years after, says that in his time few were found who were willing to cat tortoises or frogs.' The ancients, however, ate them, and, moreover, valued them in an extraordinary manner, as specifics in a list of diseases much too long to be inserted here.

The toad is a hapless animal, which has been most ungenerously treated by man; for, not contented with deriding its ugliness, he has associated it with all the vile things, and condemned it, for its want of beauty and grace, to become the emblem of evil; and he has, furthermore, endowed it with a poison so intense, that Aêlian declares that it can, basilisk-like, slay by the very power of its eyes. It is a serious misfortune,' says Buffon, to resemble detestible objects;' and carrying out the spirit of his own observation, he has loaded the poor toad with

every epithet which disgust and misapprehension could dictate.

We have handled many toads, and we know that they are not poisonous; ugly, we will grant them to be, but beautifully adapted to their office in creation; and, moreover, personally useful to man in keeping in check the insect legions which, even in this climate, would, if unmolested, speedily become a positive evil. If gardeners knew their own interest, they would by every means in their power encourage a reptile which devours their slugs, worms, and wood-lice, and saves many a tender plant from destruction. We have seen them kept in green houses or frames with the greatest advantage.

This reptile is, as is well known, very easily tamed; and Pennant's history of Mr. Arscott's affectionate toad must be too familiar to our readers, to be here repeated. We once knew a toad which came every evening after sunset, throughout a summer, to saunter leisurely up and down our veranda, though he not unfrequently found it already occupied by the children, whose presence, however, did not appear to annoy him in the least. He was somewhat of a sentimentalist; and when the silver light of the moon fell, like an angel's path, on the sea, he seemed more intent on the picture before him than on procuring his evening's meal; however, when lights were brought into the drawing-room, the moon and the sea were alike forgotten, and he turned to gaze on the brighter and nearer light. Before rain he was unusually active and gay, and bustled about in a remarkable manner.-Chambers' Journal.

[An interesting fact, connected with the natural history and edible properties of the frog, is the extension of physical science, which has arisen from its use. Mago informs us that "in 1790 a Bolognese lady was attacked with a slight cold, for which her physician prescribed the use of frog broth." Galvani, her husband, was professor of anatomy at Bologna. At the time just mentioned it happened that several frogs, or parts of frogs, divested of their skins, and prepared for making the broth prescribed for the wife, lay on the table in the laboratory of the professor, near which stood an electric machine. An assistant being employed in some electrical experiments, occasionally took sparks from the conductor, when it was observed that the limbs of the dead frogs were convulsed with movements resembling vital action. The attention of the professor was called to the subject, who being more an anatomist than electrician, instead of recognizing in these movements merely a high degree of electroscopic sensibility in the nerves of the frog, thought he had discovered a new principle in the animal economy, and engaged with ardour in a course of experiments on the effects of electricity on the animal system.

In the course of his researches, he had occasion to separate the lower limbs with a part of the body, from the rest of the animal, so as to lay bare the lumbar nerves. Having the members of several frogs thus dissected, he passed copper hooks above the junction of the thighs, for the convenithrough part of the dorsal column, which remained ence of hanging them up, till required for his experiments. Happening to suspend several of them on an iron balcony in front of his laboratory, he was astonished to find the limbs thrown into strong convulsions. In this case there was no electrical machine present. In the convulsions of the frog, suspended by a copper wire on an iron hook, Galvani saw a new fact, and soon discovered that the circumstance on which it depended, was the simul

taneous contact of the metals with the nerves and muscles of the animal.

This was the origin of the branch of physical science which has received the appellation of galvanism; but which is now well known to be a mode of developing the electric action. It is upon the electric current put into action by the contact of different metals, that the electrical telegraph depends.-ED.]

For Friends Eeview.
A HUMBLE PETITION.
Guide me, guard me, ever lead me,
And with food convenient feed me;
Draw me, cause me to attend
Thine every teaching, Heavenly Friend.

With a power all thine own,
Bow me low before thy throne;
There thou lt strengthen, aid and bless,
Through every form of deep distress.
Make me gentle, meek and mild,
Make me truthful as a child;
Give me power and inward might
To wrestle till the dawn of light.

Gird me, with an earnest faith,
A firm belief in that which saith,
"Who-so endureth to the end,"
The Lord of life is still his friend.
For varied blessings, manifold,
More than human tongue e'er told,
Give me,
Lord, a thankful heart,
Help me to sustain my part.

Not only in the world's broad field,
To wily foe may I ne'er yield,―
In crowded path, in miry lane,
Unwearied, neither halt or maim,
Press on may I, while life is given,
My home, my hope, my trust in Heaven.

ELEANOR.

SUMMARY OF NEWS.

of riot. Just as the Carolina was getting under EUROPEAN.—The American steamship Pacific ar- weigh, information was received, from a source rived at New York on the evening of the 21st inst.deemed reliable, that Sacramento had been set on fire by the squatters and was totally destroyed. bringing Liverpool dates to the 11th inst.

ENGLAND. The offer to convey the mails to the Cape of Good Hope, in screw propeller vessels, for $30,000 per annum, has been accepted by the British Lords of the Treasury.

It is rumoured that a circular will shortly be is sued by the Colonial Secretary, to the several Colonial Governments, to the effect that, in future, each colony must support its own military establishment, or the authorities at home will deem it necessary to withdraw their protective force.

The mining operations are yielding a good revenue. Little doubt exists that more gold will be taken out this season than during any previous one. Business generally on the Pacific coast is slowly improving. San Francisco has, in a great measure, recovered from the late disastrous conflagration, and its streets present their wonted activity.

Great suffering is apprehended among the rear trains of overland emigrants, and movements for their succor are in progress.

In Oregon, business was in a prosperous condiFRANCE. A number of papers written in cipher, tion at the latest dates-7th month, 25th. Gold and said to detail certain plans of the French re- has been found on Rogue's river. A treaty of fugees, have been seized in Paris. Several war-peace with the Indians has been negotiated by Gov. rants of arrest have been issued in consequence.

DENMARK AND THE DUCHIES.-Accounts from Schleswig announce that martial law has been pro claimed in Hussum against all persons concealing arms or holding communication with the Danish

camp.

The Danish and Holstein armies are obliged to remain inactive, the late rains having inundated the country to such a degree as to render military operations impracticable.

Lane.

CONGRESS.-In the Senate, on the 18th inst. J. P. Chase asked leave to introduce a bill prohibiting slavery in the Territories of the United States. This motion being opposed by Henry Clay and General Cass, was finally withdrawn by the mover.

On the 19th, the bill to create the office of Surveyor General of Oregon, and making donations of land to actual settles thereon, was read a third time and passed.

The Appropriation Bill being under consideration, an amendment appropriating $10,000 to defray the expenses of the agent of the Sublime Porte was offered and adopted.

GERMANY.-Intelligence from Vienna announces that the Austrian Cabinet rejects the Prussian proposal of a free conference of all the governments in which to settle the municipal relations of the German States. The limited or restricted Germanic Diet, (that is, the form of representation of the vaAppropriations for the erection of a Custom rious States, in which the votes are restricted to a House at San Francisco, to contain room for a Post lower proportionate number than in the Plenum,) Office, U. S. Courts and other public offices, and for met at Frankfort on the 2d inst., under the presi-House at Bangor, Maine, were also passed by the a Marine Hospital in California, and for a Custom dency of Austria; Prussia and her allies having refused to take any part in the proceedings, and will not recognize the Diet in any way whatever.— France and England have declared that they cannot recognize any political body as the central organ of Germany, in which Prussia is not represented. On the other hand, Austria and her allies have sig-was amended and passed. nified their determination to make their resolutions and acts respected, even by force of arms.

EGYPT.-The latest news from Alexandria is to the 31st of the 8th month. Cholera continued to prevail throughout the country. At Alexandria there were about fifty deaths daily; at Cairo double that number, and throughout the Delta it existed in various degrees of severity

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CALIFORNIA. The steamship Philadelphia arrived at New York on the 20th inst. from Chagres, bringing two weeks later intelligence from California. The mails from California, brought down by the Carolina, had not arrived at Chagres when the P. left. Acapulco, it is stated is now as healthy as usual. The U. S. steam propeller Chesapeake, arrived at San Francisco on the 7th of the 8th month, after a passage of one year and five days from New York. The propeller Sea Gull arrived at San Francisco on the 9th ult. having been 180 days on the passage.

Senate.

On the 20th, the bill to establish post roads in the United States was passed after numerous amendments. The bill to extend the laws and the judiciary system of the United States to California

In the House, the bill to pay the instalment of three millions and a quarter of dollars to Mexico, according to treaty, was passed on the 18th inst.

The Turkish Commissioner was presented to the President on the 21st inst., the Cabinet and a large audience being present.

The bill for abolishing the Slave Trade in the District of Columbia has been signed by the Presi

dent.

Junius Smith, whose efforts to cultivate tea in South Carolina are well known, states his conviction from the results of his experiments, that the tea plant will grow and flourish in this country in every latitude from Florida to Maine.

One hundred and sixty-five immigrants from Norway recently passed through Quebec on their way to Wisconsin. They were all agriculturists, were well provided, and appeared to be a thrifty, well-doing people. Many of their countrymen are now settled near Milwaukie.

Alexander Lukaes, who was a member of the A severe conflict between the landholders and the Hungarian Congress during the Revolution, and squatters, took place at Sacramento, on the 14th Commissioner of the Government under Kossuth, is ult. during which the Mayor and several citizens in New York, on his way to the West, where he were killed in their effort to maintain the laws.-goes for the purpose of selecting a site, and purCouriers had been despatched to San Jose, and the chasing land for a colony of three thousand Hungagovernor would probably repair at once to the scene rian exiles.

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