the Creator made provision for such an extra supply of men, that 50,000 Austrians and 40,000 Frenchmen may be killed in a day, and not destroy the ordained proportions and harmonies of male and female life? Has nature made any provision for our thus slaughtering only one sex? No wonder that women in those countries are turned out into the fields and workshops to do men's labor. Thousands are driven to unnatural toil, and tens of thousands to crime. "War is hell," said Napoleon I., and so say the laws of God. When will the human race learn that the only way to attain the highest prosperity and happiness is to keep inviolate the laws of nature? C. B.

A BATTLE SCENE.

I once met in Maine a soldier in our last war with England, and will give in part his account of the action in which he lost an arm:

"We were drawn up in a straight line of two ranks, on a vast common upon the northern border of which the British army was wholly visible, approaching in a line exactly parallel with ours. Inexpressible were my sufferings during the half hour we were silently waiting for the approach of the enemy within fighting distance. Cowardice, I suppose, this will be called; but it was not wholly a fear of death; for at the time violent pains began to dart through my bowels, and I well remember having a slight hope, and a strong desire, that I might die of a sudden attack of cholic before the action commenced. Guilt and horror mingled with the terror that appalled my soul. We had nothing to do but look upon the advancing army, and see them, step after step, diminish the narrow space that separated hundreds of us from eternity. The air appeared of a bluish nge, as when the sun is eclipsed; but whether it was the shadow of the back, approaching deed, or by imagination colored, I know not. Here some thousands of athletic, active young men were about to meet, for what? To kill each other, and mingle our blood with our greetings! Without any personal quarrel or acquaintance, we met for the first time to blow out each other's brains, because our rulers could not agree! Thoughts of English outrage and insolence, I tried to force into my mind, that they might arouse and lash my indignation into a fighting mood; but indignation would not nerve my arm to indiscriminate slaughter, nor vengeance fling my life upon the altar of national honor. I thought of the impressment of our seamen; but the men before me, who were at once Death's ministers and victims, were not the men who boarded our vessels, and, in taking their own countrymen, took some of ours. They never harmed me, nor my country. I thought of those who were at home, comfortably seated by their fire-sides, talking of the war, and its provocations; and I thought of the time when I did the same. But there is a vast difference between talking of battles, and engaging in them, more than in talking of death and dying. When I saw those noble, robust men approaching us, and knew that those brave sons of abused Erin were the marks to which I must aim, my flesh crawled, and a horrid chill passed over me. I had fired at geese and turkies; but they were not created in the image of God, to be his co-workers in this world, and his companions in the next. I felt that, if it were left to the soldiers in the two armies to settle the difficulty, we should do it without fighting.

In front of our line was a slight ridge of earth; and it was decided that we should reserve our fire until the enemy had arrived at that line; and O! that I could describe my feelings when they had advanced to within fifteen

or twenty rods of it. A few more steps, two or three seconds more, and many immortal spirits, now trembling upon the threshold of eternity, would by their fellow-men be hurled back to their Maker. Twenty paces more will bring us to God's tribunal! How valuable appeared the tenth part of a second-time enough for the departing soul to send one petition before it.

The advancing soldiers now brought their guns from their shoulders into a readier attitude for discharging. We did the same. In an instant, at the word now, the balls would be flying about our heads. The breath of life which God breathed into man, depended upon the breath of man for its stay! I wished the earth might open and swallow us; but he who created, would not destroy us. The horror increased as the action drew near, until the advancing army was within two or three steps of the fatal ridge, when my senses fled; but I was aroused in a second by the discharge of muskets about my ears, which almost stunned me. Perfectly bewildered, I held my undischarged musket before me, when a sergeant, with a horrid oath, asked me, "why in hell I didn't fire?' I then leveled and discharged my gun, and perhaps killed as good a man as myself, though I hope not. A grossly profane man, nearly in front of me, fell at the first fire. The ball entered his mouth, and came out at the back of his neck. He fell forward, and lay with his face turned to the left, and his arms extended out and upwards. The blood ran freely from his mouth, and a few bluish drops from the hole in his neck. I could hardly keep my eyes off from him.

After firing five or six times, I began to partake of the excitement around me; and at this stage of the action, the left wing of our line, in which I was stationed, was attacked and turned by the enemy. Great confusion followed, and every man fought by himself. I was attacked by a stout, active man, who made a thrust at me with his bayonet, which I succeeded in warding off with mine, and for a short time there was a sharp clashing of bayonets. I had played at that business before; but when one knows that his antagonist is really aiming to plunge the gleaming bayonet into his body, it is quite a different affair. The sweat fell like rain from my face. I found that my man was going to be too much for me, and, following my Yankee instinct, I flung down my gun, and seized his by the muzzle. A regular scuffle followed. He jerked, pushed, called me a dd fool, and tried to wring the gun out of my hands. I knew if I lost my hold, I lost my life; and once I was as near it as possible, and retain it. He attempted to twist the gun out of my hands by twirling it -end over end, and brought my right hand over my head, and bent my body to the left; and there for an instant I held fast, by laying out every particle of my strength, until I only saved myself by giving him a kick. He then forced me violently backwards, until my heels tripped against a dead body, when I fell on my back, and he on top of me, with a force that made sparks fly from my eyes. We continued the scuffle on our knees, until our men succeeded in turning and driving back the enemy; when, as they ran past us, one of their officers struck at me, and nearly severed my left arm. But our men were close upon them, and one of them plunged his bayonet into my antagonist's side, before he could despatch me. Would that he were alive, and here, that he might join me in cursing the war, which, more than thirty years ago, mingled his noble form with earth's vile dust. I shall never forget the horrid contortions of his features, as the bayonet entered just below his ribs.

What a spectacle did that common present after the battle! How different in appearance from what it was three hours before! Then it was dotted with grazing kine, and the tinkling of their bells alone broke the

silence; now it is strewn with dead and dying men, and the air filled with their groans. A dark, sulphur-charged cloud has passed over it, human blood stands in puddles, and human forms lie cold and stiff. Christian men, divided by imaginary lines, have here met and mingled their blood, both fighting for their country and the right! Has the fire of Christian love, and the power of Christian truth, been glowing and smiting for 1800 years, and are swords no nearer being ploughshares now than when first swayed?

MORAL VALUE OF COURAGE.

At the storming of Morne Fortunee, in the West Indies, Lieut. W. was the first to ascend the breach, and plant the British colors on the captured redoubt. His behaviour excited general admiration, and he was recommended for immediate promotion. The next morning, however, he waited on his commanding officer, and requested leave to return to Ireland, his native country, and to resign his commission in favor of a younger brother. The colonel, surprised at this extraordinary request, asked him what was his motive for making such a singular proposal. The young man frankly told him, that when the troops were moving forward for the attack, and the enemy's fire had opened upon them, he felt a strong inclination to fall out; and he believed that nothing but the rapidity of the advance, and the shouts of the men, prevented him from disgracing himself. In a short time, however, his brain was on fire; he knew not where he was; and he found himself on the summit of the breach with the colors in his hand, but knew not how. He felt that the profession of arms was not his vocation; and, fearing that at some future time he might not have sufficient courage to overcome his fear, he was desirous to leave the service with honor while it was still in his power.

It seems the universal testimony of soldiers, that whatever may be their fears previous to an engagement, they are all dissipated as soon as the fight commences. Every man then becomes a hero. The beating of the drums, the shouting of the men, the roaring of the cannon, and especially the sight of blood, drown the reasoning faculties, and induce in some a stolid indifference to danger, and in others an irrepressible animal bravery, similar to that attributed in Scripture to the horse: "The horse rusheth into the battle; he goeth on to meet the armed men; he mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth his back from the sword. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha;' and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captain and the shouting."

A Highland soldier, who served in the Peninsular war, in referring to his first battle, says, "The thought of death never crossed my mind. After the firing commenced, a still sensation stole over my whole frame, a firm, determined torpor, bordering on insensibility." The annals of our late wars in the Crimea and India afford numerous illustrations of the bravery alluded to above. An officer, writing to his friends at home after one of the sanguinary battles in the Crimea, says, "I never in my life experienced such a sublime sensation as in the moment of the charge. Some fellows talk of it as demoniac. I cannot depict my feelings when I returned. All my uniform, my hands, my very face, were bespattered with blood. It was that of the enemy! Grand idea! But my feelings-they were full of that exaltation which it is impossible to describe."

Another specimen: "When the Light Brigade was preparing for action at the battle of Balaklava, a butcher, who had just been slaughtering cattle, and whose arms and face were besmeared with blood, made his ap

pearance in the field. He mounted a powerful charger, and rode up to his troop. The prospect of a bloody fray was too strong to be resisted. He seized two sabres, and having selected the sharpest, took out a short pipe, lighted it, and placed it in his mouth, and rode with the six hundred' into the valley of the shadow of death. The man was seen amongst the Russian batteries, sabreing the gunners right and left, slaying with his own hand at least six of the enemy, cutting his way in the retreat through the swarms of Russian cavalry. He rode back, still smoking his pipe as coolly as if nothing had happened, without having received a single scratch."

According to accounts given of the Turcos, who were employed by the French in the late Italian war, they seem to be the perfection of good soldiers. "Fighting to them is a pastime; human life a plaything. Wherever they tread, they leave the footsteps of death in their track. The Turco is frequently an orphan, reared by chance in one of the African cities, and not unlike the idle gamins of Paris. On seeing a regiment of Turcos some day, he enlists, and makes a good soldier. Before the enemy he becomes a model of bravery. They care no more for their own lives than for the lives of others. If instinct, instead of reason, were not the motive power of their acts, they might be aptly denominated the most ferocious, bloodthirsty, cut-throat ruffians heaven's fair sunlight ever shone upon."—From R. W. in Her. of Peace.

STANDING ARMAMENTS IN EUROPE.

At the present time Continental Europe seems to be in complete subjection to military tyranny. Not only are those free institutions overthrown which enabled the people to check the assumption of power, and by creating a European public opinion gave to small States some influence over affairs, but the material interests of mankind are everywhere sacrificed to the grandeur of potentates, and their jealousy of each other. Without any cause of discord, at a time when railways and the course of trade are every day bringing the Continental nations together, when the desire of every people is for quiet and freedom to pursue the acquisition of wealth, the great empires of Europe are engaged in adding to armaments which are already without a parallel in history. Not only are the respective populations burdened to provide conscripts by land and sea, to build fortifications, to construct dockyards, ships and machinery, and to complete the preparations for ever-menacing campaigns, but the perpetual disquiet caused by the apprehension of war blights enterprise, and prevents the growth of international confidence. The nations of Europe see a large portion of their earnings spent yearly in keeping up armaments, the only use of which is to hinder those earnings from being far greater than they are. It is the old fable of the eagle slain by an arrow winged with its own feather. The loss occasioned by these immense armies is twofold — they are raised ostensibly to give security to the State, and they create the distrust which they are intended to allay.

France is, of course, the most striking example of this political evil. Here we have a nation plunged deeper into debt every year, in order-so its rulers would say-to be secure against a European combination. No government existing in Paris during the last forty years has professed any desire for European conquest, nor has there been a mile of territory added to the French limits at the expense of a neighbor. The same amicable policy has been upheld by other States. No power in Europe has in

terfered with, or insulted, or thwarted France; overy change of government has been accepted; every advance indicative of friendship has been courteously received. And yet France keeps up 600,000 men and a first-rate fleet for the purposes of defence! The results of such a policy are obvious. The world will not believe that the French people make these sacrifices merely to insure an independence which nobody threatens. When, year after year, fleets and armies are constant objects of solicitude, when the levy of conscripts never fails, and the dockyards ring continually with the construction of new engines of war, then Austria, Prussia, England, and the whole of Central and Western Europe, are forced to be on their guard also. Thus millions of men are under arms on a Continent where the most cynical politician would not dare to say he expected war.—London Times, 1857.

REDUCTION OF ARMAMENTS.-When asked what plan I would propose for reducing the military establishments of Europe, I cannot say that have any plan, or that I believe that any one else has; but we may gradually induce such a state of feeling and opinion as would, almost unobservedly, lead to that reduction. Men, I know, are seldom satisfied with these undefined and distant hopes. The human mind delights in specifics, and is apt to believe that for every evil there is a specific remedy. If something hitherto unknown were found out, there would, they are apt to think, be no more wars. But there is no specific, I fear, to be found out for persuading potentates to disband armies; and there is always the pretext, and often the good excuse, for a potentate, that he cannot disband any portion of his army while a neighboring potentate maintains his full force.

Now, who is to begin the good work? Happy indeed would it be for mankind if the work were of a nature that could be left to obscure students to settle. All that they can do is to point out the nature and extent of the evil, and to dwell upon it without exaggerating it; to illustrate, from the rich resources of history, the magnitude of the evil; to prophesy disaster from it, when they can honestly do so, and to show that its consequences are such as in the long run to promote the destruction, rather than the stability, of empires. If they can sow any of this good seed, they must leave it to fructify in the minds of other men of their own time, and in the minds of other men of future generations. For this is not an evil that will be cured in a day.

LIBERTY AND STANDING ARMIES.

It is time for our statesmen to treat the question of increasing our army as one above the ordinary range of party politics, and to re-affirm on this subject the sentiments of our ancestors. They deprecated such armies as the chief foes of liberty. Taught in the stern school of experience, and by the no less impressive lessons of national tradition, they hesitated even to trust the work of the Revolution to any forces of this character. Almost any other resort was to be preferred to this.

And if they had good reasons for such fears, the example of Washington, returning from military command when the strife was won, the symbol of an army melting away when the occasions of liberty no longer required its existence, was then in the future, and so unlike the examples