REMARKABLES.

Delusions of Napoleon." I never committed a crime in all my political career.

At my

last breath I can assertit."

Voice from St. Helena. "What rewards have I not a right to expect who have run a career so extraordinary without committing a single crime! I can appear before the tribunal of God, I can await his judgment without fear." Reported by Count Las Casas.

The two Bullies.-" Yet who would credit it? Alexander and myself were in the condition of two bullies;-without wishing to fight were endeavoring to intimidate each other. I would most willingly have maintained peace. I was surrounded and overwhelmed with unfavorable circumstances; and all that I have since learned convinces me that Alexander was still less eager for war than myself." Las Casas.

This was said by Napoleon, respecting the Russian campaign. How immense then was the mischief occasioned by a bullying policy! And was there no crime in thus sacrificing the lives or the happiness of millions, while there was no just cause of war? What pirate might not with as much propriety affirm as Napoleon did, that he "never committed a crime in all his career."

Character of War by Napoleon.-"What is war? A trade of barbarians the only art of which consists in being the strongest at a given point."-Count Segur says this was the language of Napoleon before the battle of Borodino.

Delusions of Tamerlane.-"I am not a man of blood: and God is my witness, that in all my wars I have never been the aggressor, and that my enemies have always been the authors of their own calamity." Gibbon.

Such was the language of one of the most terrible scourges of our race that Heaven ever permitted to live.

NOTICES.

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THE

FRIEND OF PEACE.

Vol. IV.....No. VIII.

REVIEW OF THE BRAZILLIAN WAR MANIFESTO.

On" the 10th of Dec. 1825-Fourth year of the Independence and the Empire," the sovereign of Brazil published a "Decree or Declaration of War," which contained the following extraordinary language:

"The government of the Upper Provinces of Rio de la Plata, having committed acts of hostility against this Empire, without provocation or previous Declaration of War, rejecting thus the forms established by civilized nations,-it is required by the dignity of the Brazillian people, and the rank which belongs to us among powers, that I, having heard my Council of State, should declare, as I now do, war against the said Provinces and their government, directing that by sea and land all possible hostilities be waged upon them, authorizing such armaments as my subjects may please to use against that nation-declaring that all captures, prizes of whatever nature, shall accrue entirely to the captors, without any deduction in favor of the public treasury."

Declarations of war are always barbarous; but, as there are degrees in barbarity, one manifesto may be more barbarous than another. The Emperor of Brazil, though a professed Christian, has, in the nineteenth century, published a War Decree, which never has been and never can be surpassed, by a Mahometan or a Pagan; for it authorizes and requires the Brazillians to wage war on their neighbors by "all possible hostilities!" The laws of God are ever discarded in Declarations of War; but the Emperor of Brazil has also discarded the laws of men or of nations. The Brazillians have now a license not only to wage war according to the usages of belligerent powers, but to become bucaniers, highwaymen, Vol. IV. No. 8.

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poisoners, or private assassins, as shall be most agreeable to their inclinations. The pretext for such a manifesto is, that "the government" of the neighboring provinces had "rejected the forms established by civilized nations," by "acts of hostility against the empire-without provocation or previous Declaration of War." But no reliance can be placed on the allegations in a War Manifesto. As rulers, in making war, set aside the laws of righteousness, they feel at liberty to employ in their Manifestoes the grossest misrepresentations, the foulest calumnies, and the most flagrant falsehoods.

We may now appeal to the consciences of enlightened men, and ask-Does the decree of the Emperor render it right for the Brazillians to wage war with "all possible hostilities ?" Can his mandate supersede the authority of Jehovah? Suppose that 50,000 of the Brazillians should go over to the enemy, under the pretext of disaffection to the Emperor; that some of these should enlist into the regiments of the Buenos Ayreans-others on board of armed vessels, and the remainder disperse themselves in the cities or populous towns, but all for the purpose of employing poison, fire, and the dirk, to destroy the people who may confide in them :-Suppose also that by such means they should kill all the leading men of Buenos Ayres-vast multitudes of soldiers and seamen, burn all the principal towns, and conquer the country. What would you say of a decree which licensed all these atrocities? You would doubtless pronounce it unjustifiable and barbarous. But why so? Because, you will say, it is contrary to the laws of war in modern times.

But are the laws of war more worthy of regard than the laws of Heaven? If a sovereign may license homicide and rapine, regardless of the laws of God, shall be be restrained or limited by the laws of men? Had custom sanctioned the use of poison in war, as it has the use of gunpowder,.it would have been equally just and laudable; and among "all possible hostilities" there are perhaps very few which are more detestable or more contrary to the laws of justice and benevolence, than those which are most common and most popular. To invade a country with a large army, and distress or destroy the innocent with the guilty, is a far greater evil than it would be to employ assassins to take off merely the guilty rulers and the principal generals, by poison or the concealed dirk. Yet the latter would be deemed infamous, while the greater evil is justified and applauded as an honorable mode of warfare!

It has not been sufficiently considered that by what are deemed just and honorable modes of warfare, the calamities of war fall chiefly on the innocent. If the barbarous Manifesto of the Brazillian monarch should be the means of leading Christians to reflect suitably on the deeds which are licensed by all declarations of war, the result may be happy for the world. To effect this object may have been one reason why the Emperor has been suffered to issue such an inhuman decree.

It is, however, possible, that God has another object in view, in permitting the extraordinary Manifesto,-that is, to bring about the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in Brazil. The slave trade has been encouraged in that empire to the present time, and the number of slaves is now very great. Should the people of Buenos Ayres rouse the slaves of Brazil, to assert their rights during the war, with the promise of emancipation, the overthrow of the empire and the abolition of slavery may be coeval events. The overthrow of the Brazillian empire by such means would doubtless involve the most horrible calamities. But should it occur, the event may prove a useful lesson to other slave holding countries; and it may possibly be the means of awakening our countrymen to the perils of the slave holding policy. But it is feared that nothing short of calamities nearer home will ever have that effect.

The Emperor has suggested one idea which should not escape notice. He says, his Declaration of War was "required by the dignity of the Brazillian people!" What then must have been the rank of the Brazillians in the scale of moral excellence, if their " dignity" required that they should become licensed pirates, freebooters, and murderers,-and authorized to practise "all possible hostilities," with the assurance that "all prizes of whatever nature, by sea and land, should accrue entirely to the captors?" A people, whose "dignity" may require such a license, cannot rank higher than the bucaniers of the seventeenth century. But it is probable that the Emperor was under the influence of the common delusion, as to what the "dignity" of a people requires. In cases of injury or insult, duellists and warmaking rulers imagine, that it is beneath their dignity to act on the pacific principles of the gospel, or to show a forbearing spirit towards offenders. They, therefore, adopt the course of revenge and murder placing themselves on a level with those who, in their opinion, deserve death.

The allegations of the Emperor are against the "government" of the Provinces on which he has declared war,-and it is possible that the officers of this government are bad men, or, at least, that they have done wrong; but it is not possible that they have done any thing worse than he has authorized. Therefore, instead of supporting his "dignity" as a christian Emperor, he has proved that there is no man in Buenos Ayres, or any other part of the world, who is capable of baser conduct than he is disposed to license by wholesale.

Such is the delusion of the war maker-such his manner of supporting his "dignity" and the "dignity" of his people! Instead of showing by a wise and benevolent example, that he possesses better principles and a better disposition, than those who have injured him, he proclaims to them and to the world, that he is capable of the most flagrant acts of injustice, and the blackest crimes that were ever perpetrated by the most abandoned felons; that to revenge some real or pretended wrong of the rulers of another nation, he can encourage and even require his own subjects to act the part of bucaniers, highway men, and destroyers, towards thousands and hundreds of thousands of innocent people, who had never done him the slightest wrong, but who happened to belong to a nation whose rulers had offended him.

It is, however, possible, that this outrageous Manifesto may have been the fruit of military delusion, and not of malignity; and that the Emperor verily thought he was doing God service, in thus licensing the Brazillians to destroy their brethren. For when a man has been educated in the belief that war is consistent with christian benevolence, it is impossible to say what enormities he may not perpetrate without violating his conscience. The conduct of this monarch, therefore, may have been the result of a delusion, which is common to all war making rulers.

THE ART OF PREVENTING SLAVE INSURRECTIONS-ILLUSTRATED IN FOUR NEGRO CONSULTATIONS.

Meeting III-HENRY, ALFRED, and CESAR.

HENRY. As the particular object of the present meeting is, to hear and consider what Alfred has further to object to the proposed war, I move that he proceed without reserve, and without delay.