and national restraints. To render effectual a pacific institution, like that we now seek to establish, it is not only necessary to effect its introduction, but also to secure its perpetuity. Illiberal international regulations always create a feeling of hostility, which, when matured, results in bloodshed. One of the most celebrated of modern English statesmen* has remarked, that most of the wars which, within the last two centuries, have drained England of her best blood, and brought her to the very verge of national bankruptcy, have resulted from her exclusive laws with regard to commerce. Even in those cases where by common consent one nation has a right to restrain the privileges of others, its exercise creates an unfriendly feeling, whose final result has not unfrequently been an obstinate and exasperated war. Let, then, the doors of international commerce be opened widely as possible; let the citizens of all countries be permitted to mingle in freedom and friendship; let them, as nearly as practicable, be treated upon a footing of perfect equality; let the laws of each nation be regarded merely as the common guardians of justice to all within their jurisdiction, not as patents of monopoly, securing advantages to their own immediate citizens, to the exclusion of all the rest of mankind; and then shall national and hereditary animosities cease to exist. Then shall all the inhabitants of the earth regard themselves as one common people; the sword shall be turned into the ploughshare, and there shall be wars no more. * Mr. Huskisson. The course originally contemplated in this Essay is now completed. We have taken a view of some of the institutions among mankind, both past and present, which were most relevant to the object before us. We have labored to show their connection therewith, to extract from the whole the elements of a system required by the most evident interests of humanity, and to point out the means by which its introduction was to be effected. We believe it to be practicable; we believe that some institution of this nature will, at no distant day, find an introduction among nations; and the holy feeling of exultation kindles at the very idea. We stand between the future and the past; the one all radiant with Elysian smiles, the other all odious with savage deformity. On the one side, we behold the Genius of Peace with her attendants, liberty and justice, wielding her sceptre over the arts and sciences, securing by her patronage the prosperity of nations, the welfare of individuals, and crowning the earth with blessings. On the other side, sits the Demon of War upon his throne of death, goring his jaws with slaughter, and draining his goblet of the tears of human wretchedness, while a fiendlike exultation is lighted up by the glare of a hundred conflagrations. Monster! thy days are numbered! Thou shalt not for ever devour the choicest of the gifts of Heaven. The flesh of human victims, offered by kindred hands, shall not hereafter be piled upon thy altars, in a vain effort to glut thy insatiable voracity, or appease thy relentless rage. Thine eyes shall not always be greeted with the sight of havoc and wretchedness, nor thine ears saluted with the welcome cries of expiring innocence, as, houseless and starving, it flies from thy terrific approach! Death shall hereafter work alone and single-handed, unaided by his most terrible auxiliary. The world shall repose in quiet. Far down the vista of futurity the tribes of human kind are seen mingling in fraternal harmony, wondering and shuddering as they read of former brutality, and exulting at their own more fortunate lot. They turn their grateful eyes upon us. Their countenances are not suffused with tears, nor streaked with kindred blood. We hear their voices; they are not swelling with tones of general wailing and despair. We look at their smiling fields, undevastated by the. hand of rapine; they are waving with yellow harvests, or loaded with golden fruits; and their sunny pastures are filled with quiet herds, which have never known the wanton ravage of war. We turn to the peaceful homes where our infancy has been cradled; they stand undespoiled by the hand of the destroyer. The scenes where we indulged our childish sports have never been profaned by hostile feet; and the tall groves, where we performed our feats of schoolboy dexterity, have never been desecrated to obtain the implements of human destruction. Then our thoughts extend and embrace the land of our birth, the institutions and laws we so much venerate, and something whispers us they shall endure for ever; that all time shall witness their increasing perfection; that all nations shall copy from its example, and derive interminable benefits from its influence; for war, the destroyer of every valuable institution, the great and sole cause of all national ruin, is soon to be seen no more for ever. And we say to ourselves, if we can assist in producing such an event, it will more than repay the unwearied efforts of a lifetime. Let all be animated by the same spirit, and the object which thus excites our enthusiasm will be no dream of the imagination! |