War and depredation are the ways and means of the chieftain. To cultivate the earth, and wait the regular produce of the seasons, is not the maxim of the German: you will more easily persuade him to attack the enemy, and provoke honorabie wounds in the field of battle. In a word, to earn by the sweat of your brow, what you may gain by the price of your blood, is, in the opinion of a German, a sluggish principle, unworthy of a soldier."

Murphy, the translator of Tacitus, in a note says" It appears from Cæsar's account, that they had another way of exercising their courage, when their nation was in a state of profound peace. They deemed it highly honorable to lay waste the country all around their frontier, conceiving that to extirminate their neighbours, and suffer none to settle near them, was a proof of valor. They had still another kind of employment; robbery had nothing infamous in it, when committed out of the territories of the state to which they belonged; they considered it as a practice of great use, tending to exercise their youth, and prevent sloth and idleness ! "

A few other particulars in the language of Tacitus will be concisely given.

"A German transacts ho business, public or private, without being completely armed."--" To adopt the quarrels as well as the friendships of your parents, is held to be an indispensable duty. In their resentments, however, they are not implacable. Atonement is made for homicide by a certain number of cattlea happy regulation, since it naturally curbs that spirit of revenge which is the natural result of liberty in the excess."

"In the character of a German there is nothing so remarkable as his passion for play-in their cool and sober moments, they have recourse to dice, as a serious and regular business; with the most desperate spirit committing their whole substance to chance; and when they have lost their all, putting their liberty and even their persons upon the last hazard of the die. The loser yields himself to slavery."

"Their funerals have neither pomp nor vain ambition. When the bodies of illustrious men are to be burned, they choose a particular kind of wood for the purpose ;-the arms of the deceased are committed to the flames, and sometimes his horse."

In speaking of a German nation called the Cattians, Tacitus says,

"From the age of manhood they encourage the growth o their hair and beard; nor will any one, till he has slain an enemy, divest himself of that excrescence, which by a solemn vow he has devoted to heroic virtue. Over the blood and spoils of the vanquished the face of the warrior is for the first time displayed.

The Cattian then exults; he has now answered the true end of his being, and has proved himself worthy of his parents and his country!"

It is supposed that Tacitus wrote his treatise on the Germans, in A. D. 98. Several centuries subsequent to this, the Saxon pirates, a tribe of Germans, made a conquest of England, destroyed a vast multitude of the natives, and became the principal inhabitants of the country. From the writings of Tacitus, therefore, we may probably obtain as correct a view of the character, the opinions, the manners and the customs of our ancestors so far back as A. D. 98, as can be obtained from any other source.

At that time our Saxon ancestors were pagans and savages; and, like other heathen nations, offered human sacrifices to their sanguinary deities. But this was not the worst trait in their character. Their love of war, their principles of war, and their practice of war made far greater havoc of human life than their religious creed, and did much more to multiply their own miseries and the miseries of all around them. Instead of cultivating the earth to obtain an honest subsistence, they made war their study, their glory, their principal employment, and obtained their subsistence by rapine and murder. Like their descendants of the present time, they regarded "the field of danger as the field of glory;" to this they devoted their faculties and their lives, and trained up their sons to follow their pernicious example. From such savage ancestors the present generations of Great Britain and of the United States derived their existence, their love of military glory, their readiness to engage in the work of human slaughter, and their custom of exulting in the destruction of their brethren!

In the time of Tacitus the opinions of our ancestors, in regard to robbery and homicide, were in no respect better than those of the bucaniers of the present age. To them "robbery had nothing infamous in it," and "to extirminate their neighbors" was deemed a "proof of valor." With similar views and principles their piratical descendants invaded and conquered Britain, and assumed the government of the country.

It must be gratifying to the philanthropist to remark the advances which have been made from that state of savage barbarity. War is not now the only honorable business of human life, either in England or the United States. The greater part of the men of this age are not ashamed to obtain the means of

subsistence by agriculture and other honest and useful occupations. All classes of women do not now accompany armies to excite their husbands, sons, or brothers to greater exertions in the work of death. The whole business of education at this day is not to prepare the young for a life of depredation and manslaughter. Robbery and murder are now regarded as "infamous"-except when perpetrated by order of men in power. In this case, however, they are deemed as glorious as they ever were by our piratical ancestors. The custom of offering human sacrifices to pagan deities has long since been abolished. The people of this age, in christian countries, offer human sacrifices only to the ambition, the avarice, and the revenge of their rulers, and to their own detestable passions. But christians even of the present age have in this way offered human sacrifices by hecatombs, by myriads, and by hundreds of thousands. Nor can it be reasonably imagined that human sacrifices offered on such altars are less barbarous or less offensive to the HOLY ONE than the ancient sacrifices to heathen gods.

In making a comparative estimate of our pagan ancestors and their descendants of the present time, we should have respect to the greater advantages enjoyed by the latter. When Tacitus wrote, our ancestors were ignorant of the gospel. It was so with their posterity who invaded and conquered England. But for many centuries their descendants have been favoured with the Savior's precepts of love, forbearance, forgiveness, and peace,-and with his prohibitions of hatred, revenge, and every passion whence wars and fightings originate. They have had also before them the example of him "who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them," who never rendered evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but even in the hour of death spent his time in praying for his insulting foes. When these things shall have been duly considered it may appear, that the Christians of this age have more occasion to be astonished at their own blindness than at that of their Saxon ancestors.

A SENTIMEnt of george IV.

"Ir religious principles were allowed to be urged by individual officers as a plea for disobedience of orders, the discipline of the army would sustain an injury which might be dangerous to the state."

This observation is quoted by Captain Thrush in his "Letter to the King," as having been made by his Majesty, in an official communication, in which he confirmed the sentence of a "court martial held on a foreign station on two officers for disobedience to orders." The Captain does not tell us what the "orders," were which were disobeyed, nor what was the sentence of the court martial; but he says to the king-" Of the justice of your Majesty's remark, or the equity of the sentence, no one conversant with military discipline can entertain a doubt." It is therefore probable that the two officers were removed from the military service. If they urged their "religious principles," as a reason for disobeying military "orders" their removal from office might be very proper, whether they were sincere in this plea or not. But if they disobeyed the "orders" of their superiors from a sincere belief that the orders were repugnant to the commands of God, they could with no propriety be subjected to any thing of the nature of punishment.

It does not very clearly appear what was the intention of the king's remark. If he meant only that men of "religious principles" should be regarded as unfit for military services or to hold offices in the army or navy, he might be perfectly correct. But if he meant, that men are bound to obey such military orders as they believe to be inconsistent with the requirements of God,-or that men who thus disobey may justly be punished; the sentiment is not only incorrect, but treasonable in relation to God,-for it is exalting a fellow mortal above the Lord of heaven and earth.

Suppose the king himself to have issued a humane proclamation throughout his dominions, saying-It is the pleasure of the king that henceforth no soldier or seaman shall, in any case, be subjected to the cruel and infamous punishment of whipping, and that all the military and naval officers should govern themselves accordingly."

Suppose again that subsequent to this expression of the royal will, a rash or inhuman colonel should order a drummer to inflict 500 severe stripes on the naked back of a soldier; and the drummer should decline, saying, "I cannot do it in disobedience to the known will of our sovereign." The conduct of the drummer is then reported to the king, who happens to be at hard,-What will his majesty say of the faithful. drummer? The case is too plain to admit of a doubt; the drummer will be commended, and the colonel censured..

On the same principle the commands of a general or even a king must be deemed subordinate to the will of Jehovah ; and no one should do any thing in obedience to such a command which he knows or verily believes would be disobedience to the will of the Most High. Hence, if "the discipline of the army" will not permit the rights of conscience, or the exercise of religious principles, that discipline should be abolished or reformed, even if the abolition of the army should be the consequence.

The first commandment of God is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy understanding;" and the second is. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." No command of an earthly sovereign-no military "orders" whatever, can render it the duty of any human being to act contrary to these commands of his Maker, or to do that which his own,conscience tells him these commands prohibit. Hence, that king or that commander, who would compel a subject to violate his duty to God in respect to these commands, acts the part of a tyrant towards his fellow creature, and is liable to an indictment for high treason in the court of heaven. Nay, a system of discipline, in an army or a navy, which discards the rights of conscience, or "religious principles," or would make them subordinate to military orders, is a system of tyranny in regard to man, and a system of rebellion in relation to God.

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INTERVIEW-CHARLES II. AND WILLIAM PENN.

WHEN William Penn was about to sail from England for Pennsylvania, he went to take his leave of the king, and the following conversation occurred.

"Well, friend William," said Charles, "I have sold you a noble province in North America; but still I suppose you have no thoughts of going thither yourself."

"Yes I have," replied William," and I am just come to bid thee farewell."

"What! venture yourself among the savages of North America! Why, man, what security have you that you will not be in their war-kettle in two hours after setting foot on their shores ?"

"The best security in the world," replied Penn.

"I doubt that, friend William; I have no idea of any se