CHAPTER VII.

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE THAT THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF
NATIONS IS MORAL.

In the Bible we are told "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God;" that is, to obey His commandments. We are desired also to love our neighbours as ourselves, and to do unto them as we should wish that they should do unto us. Are these precepts practical in this world, or are they not? and what is implied in their being practical? Before they can become practical, it must be shown that they are in harmony with, and supported by, the order of nature; that is to say, that nature is so constituted and arranged, that all the real interests of individuals and nations are compatible with each other, and that it is not necessary to rob and impoverish one, whether individual or nation, in order to enrich another. Not only so, but that all injustice, oppression, and spoliation, being in opposition to the order of nature, must ultimately lead to evil and suffering to the perpetrator, or to those to whom he leaves the legacy of his spoils and his crimes. If such be the constitution of nature, then these precepts are practical. If, on the other hand, the order of Providence admits of individuals and nations profiting by injustice and oppression, and reaching and continuing to enjoy real prosperity and happiness through the systematic practice of crimes and violence, then are these precepts not practical in this world.

The history of all Christian nations shews that while they professed to believe in the divine authority of the Scriptures, they were in a great measure sceptics as to the Scriptural precepts being supported and enforced by the order of nature. In their conduct towards each other, they have too often set them at defiance; nay, each has striven to depress, spoil, and ruin its neighbour, as the most effectual means of raising itself to independence and prosperity. But not one of the nations has succeeded in attaining its ends by these means. The history of the treatment of Ireland by England affords an instructive lesson on this topic.

Six centuries ago, in the reign of Henry the Second, Eng

land conquered the sister isle, and ever since has continued to sway her destinies. From the first day of her conquest to very recent times, English statesmen have acted towards Ireland on principles diametrically opposed to the injunctions of the New Testament. They insulted the feelings of the Irish, placed shackles on their industry, excluded them from many of the most valuable rights of British subjects, placed the religion of the majority out of the pale of the constitution, prohibited its professors, under pain of banishment for the first offence, and of death for the second, to act as schoolmasters or tutors in the instruction of their own people; and when at last Ireland, in a moment of her strength, and of England's weakness, asserted her independence, and achieved a native legislature, English statesmen, in 1783, converted that legislature, by means of systematic corruption, into a new instrument of injustice and oppression. England pursued this course notoriously with the view of providing for her own safety, prosperity, and power. Has she succeeded? No. A calm survey of her history will shew that from the first day of her oppression to the present time, every injury inflicted on Ireland has recoiled on her own head; and that Ireland continued to be the source of her greatest weakness, anxiety, and suffering, until she amended her line of conduct. She has paid eight millions sterling to save from starvation the victims of the system which she had pursued, but she does not yet discern the end of the retribution which she has drawn upon her head.

During the whole period of this long crusade against the course of Providence and the precepts of Christianity, the rulers and people of England professed to believe in the Divine authority of the Scripture injunctions which they were trampling under foot. They had the Bible in their hands, they had catechisms, a liturgy, clergymen, and bishops; in short, all the means of learning their duty to God and to their fellowmen; but all did not suffice to lead them into the practice of benevolence and justice. What did they lack? They did not believe in the reality of a Divine government on earth; and if they even imagined such a thing, they did not perceive that it was moral. Their religious emotions were entwined with dogmas which represented this world as the wreck of a better system, and the heart of man as "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." They believed in a day of judgment and in future reward and punishment; but this belief did not affect their conduct so as to lead them to practise what they professed to believe. If they had believed in an actual moral government of the world, their conduct would have been as insane as that of men who should sow corn

in snow, and expect to reap a harvest from it in winter. Cromwell, and the religious men of his age, did not recognise the order of nature as supporting Christianity. On the contrary, they not only believed in a special supernatural providence, but when they were gratifying their own misguided passions, they complacently viewed themselves as the chosen instruments of God's vengeance for punishing His enemies. Statesmen who were not religious, either formed no deliberate opinion of any kind regarding the course of Providence on earth, or considered it as arbitrary or mysterious; not cognisable by man, and not available as a guide to human conduct. Indeed, the great majority of Christian statesmen and people, while they are disposed to acknowledge the existence of physical laws of nature, still show a practical disbelief in the government of the world by moral laws.

Another example of unbelief in the action of a moral providence in nature is afforded by the author of an able and eloquent pamphlet,-"The Case of Ireland stated, by Robert Holmes, Esq." After detailing the wrongs of Ireland, he speaks of the proposal to employ "moral force" as a means of her deliverance, in the following terms:-" Moral force is a power, by the mere operation of reason, to convince the understanding and satisfy the consciences of those on whom the effect is to be wrought, that there is some particular moral act, within their ability to perform, which ought to be performed, and which it is their duty to perform; and, also, by the operation of the same divine principle only, making those free moral agents do the very thing required. The intended effect must be produced, and must be moral-the efficient cause must be moral, purely moral, unmixed, unadulterated by any mean or sordid views; reason, heavenly reason, applied with eloquence divine; no threat, no intimidation, no cold iron, no 'vile guns,' no 'villanous saltpetre digged out of the bowels of the harmless earth,' nothing but the radiant illuminations of moral truth." Mr Holmes regards this as a mere evaporation plan," adopted as a safety-valve to Irish discontent. "It seemed," says he, "to be considered by the expediency men of the day as a first-rate contrivance;" but he regards it as pure "fudge," and seems to prefer "monster meetings," and displays of physical force, which may be used. in case of need, as better calculated to accomplish "repeal of the Union," and the redress of Ireland's wrongs.—But Ireland had frequently tried to right herself by means of "cold iron," "vile guns," and "villanous saltpetre," and with what success her present condition shews. It is obvious that Mr Holmes

*I am no advocate of the doctrine of non-resistance. Organs of Combativeness and

does not comprehend the lessons contained in his own pamphlet, and is an unbeliever in the moral government of the world. He does not see that the advocates of justice to Ireland are backed not only by the "moral" but by the “physical force" of God's providence, in virtue of which they are able to demonstrate to England, that every sordid act which she has committed against Ireland has redounded in evil to herself, and that the Divine Government is so thoroughly moral, so skilfully combined, and so unbendingly enforced, that the wisdom of all her statesmen, and the counsels of all her bishops, have not sufficed to turn aside the stream of suffering which she has drawn, and will continue to draw, upon herself, from every fountain of injustice which she has opened, or may hereafter open, in Ireland. What are the disappointments to avarice, the humiliations of baffled bigotry, the incessant consciousness of insecurity and weakness, and the lavish waste of treasure, which England so long experienced from her injustice to Ireland, but the sanctions of Nature's moral laws, and the punishments which give reality and efficacy to the doctrine of "moral force ?" One gigantic wrong to Ireland remains unredressed-the seizure of the property of her Roman Catholic Church, and the application of it to maintain a Protestant ecclesiastical establishment disowned by the great majority of the people. If not relinquished, this enormity will lead to the downfall of the Church of England itself. The transfer is grossly immoral, because the Church of England's creed is sacred only to the individuals whose religious emotions have been trained to reverence it, and the faith of the Roman Catholic is equally sacred in his estimation. (See page 20.) The conveyance of the property from the one Church to the other, therefore, was an act of pure oppression, perpetrated by the strong against the weak; and when the moral and religious emotions of the British people are emancipated from their present errors, they will discover the magnitude of this injustice, and ask if the faith of that Church can be pure which permitted its votaries to commit, and for so many centuries to maintain, such a spoliation, accompanied by

Destructiveness exist in man, and they have legitimate spheres of activity, one of which appears to be to repel, by physical force, aggression which we cannot overcome by moral means. Armed resistance is one of the natural checks to injustice; but it is attended by a great disadvantage. The contests of force are governed by the laws of force. The most numerous, best appointed, best disciplined, and most ably commanded army, will gain the victory, irrespective of the moral merits of the cause for which it fights. High moral motives animating it will, no doubt, add to its discipline, its patience, and its devotion, and thus indirectly contribute to success; but they will not, in any other respect, supply the place of the ordinary sinews of war. Nature, however, has other modes of arresting injustice; and violence should never be resorted to until all better means have been tried without success.

all the demoralising influences on both Catholics and Protestants which have flowed from its polluted fountains? When this question shall be answered, a new Reformation will not be far distant.

Mr Cobden and his coadjutors carried repeal of the corn-laws by the use of moral force alone; but they understood its nature and sanctions: that is to say, they demonstrated to the religious public that free trade is implied in the Scripture precepts before quoted-to the moral public, that free trade is prescribed by the dictates of the sentiment of justice inherent in the human mind-to the merchant, manufacturer, and husbandman, not only that free trade is compatible with, and calculated to promote, their worldly interests, but that these cannot be permanently and systematically advanced by any other means. In short, they shewed that every attempt of every class to benefit itself by unjust monopolies and restrictions had not merely failed, but actually obstructed the attainment, through other and moral means, of the very objects which the monopolies were introduced to promote.

Unless all this be actually true, free trade cannot maintain itself even now when it is established; and it was the moral conviction that these views are true, that first inspired Mr Cobden with full confidence in the success of his agitation. Already we have evidence in the results, that the principles of free trade are supported by the order of nature.

The advocates of "moral force," therefore, who see a moral government of the world established and enforced by God, wield not only "reason, heavenly reason," as an instrument for attaining justice, but "threats" and "intimidation;"-not the threats of "cold iron" and "vile guns," which may be employed in support of oppression and wrong as successfully as in vindication of right, but "threats" of evil from a Power which no human sagacity can baffle, and no might withstand. Yet if the threats be real, and if the inflictions be as certain as fate, what a strange condition of mind must Christian men be in, when they imagine moral force to be a mere evaporation plan," altogether unsupported when not backed by "vile guns and villanous saltpetre !" Before, however, they can wield moral force with effect, they must be converted to a belief in the real, actual, and efficient government of the world by God's secular providence; they must understand the scheme, and search for the evidence of this government, and teach it to their countrymen. The creeds and confessions of churches must be revised and new-modelled into accordance with the order of Nature, and the Christian precepts must be allowed the benefit of Nature's support to give efficacy to their injunctions.