Meantime he had been the instrument of bringing into the field another laborer, of devotedness equal to his own, and of physical strength unspeakably greater. His own infirmities forbad him all public activity; he could address his fellow men only from his closet and through the press. Mr. Ladd was a man of great bodily vigor, and habitual activity of life, as well as of ardent philanthropy of heart, and strong moral energy. He carried the cause into the pulpit and the lecture room. He travelled with it from town to town and from state to state. It thus reached many who could not have been affected by the press, and extended far and wide the knowledge and influence of the truth. He became the life and patron of the cause; he founded the American Peace Society which took place of the Massachusetts; living he spent upon it his time, his strength, and his money, and dying he bequeathed to it a great part of his estate, as well as the encouragement of his example. It falls to few enterprizes to possess two such devoted friends as Worcester and Ladd. The favorite project of Mr. Ladd, to which he gave such preeminence, and which he prosecuted with such ability and resolution, that it has become the main operation of the Peace Society, both here and in Europe-was the establishment of a Court of Arbitration, whereby public controversies among civilized nations, should be decided like private controversies among civilized individuals, without appeal to arms. In efforts for the promotion of this object, he not only preached and talked and wrote and printed, but it was chiefly through his agency and influence, that a large premium was offered for a dissertation on the subject, and that a large octavo volume was published, containing several of the best papers which had been called forth by the competition for the prize. The volume may possibly be too large; but it contains a great amount of interesting and valuable discussion. Its publication has already produced distinguished consequences; directly and indirectly it has been the means of extending indefinitely the principles and the influence of the Society. It has found its way to the cabinets of ministers and to the chambers of princes; it has gained access to the tables of all the potentates and chief magistrates of America and Europe; and while it has not, that we are aware, been rejected by any, it has been received by some with expressions of strong approbation and decided concurrence. It cannot be altogether without effect, that the minds of those, VOL. XXXIII. 3D s. VOL. XV. NO. III. 38 to whom belongs the practical decision in the last resort, have been addressed by so powerful representations, and have manifested a willingness to listen. While America has thus steadily moved onward, Europe has not been slow to do her share. A "Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace" was formed in London, in June, 1816, only six months after that in Boston, and is still laboring zealously and effectually. Its principal operations have been by the press. The " Herald of Peace" has been conducted with great spirit, and has the merit, not always belonging to such journals, of increasing in value as it grows older. A number of admirable Tracts has been published and circulated, distinguished especially by copious and powerful illustrations from history. And recently there has been brought out, by the offer of a premium of one hundred pounds, a fine Essay on War and Peace, with a special argument in favor of a Congress of Nations.* On the Continent of Europe, a beginning has been made at Geneva. That remarkable little city at the foot of the Alps famous through centuries for its intellectual culture and its eminent men has been first to sound this cry of reform, and advocate the great cause of human rights. The Count de Sellon founded a Peace Society many years ago, and devoted himself, much in the way and the spirit of our own countryman, Ladd, to extend and establish its philanthropic principles. And now, from recent accounts, it appears, that the well-known Society for Christian Morals," in Paris, has taken up the cause with all the enthusiasm that characterizes the French people; and with a promise of perseverance which the past history of that society warrants us in believing will not be forfeited.† * This Essay has been handsomely printed under the following title: "Peace, Permanent and Universal: its Practicability, Value, and Consistency with Divine Revelation. A Prize Essay, by H. T. J. Macnamara." It is dedicated to Viscount Palmerston. The subject is distributed as follows: Part I. War, under all circumstances, inconsistent with the precepts and the spirit of Christianity. Part II. The Duties of Magistrates and Peace Officers in cases of tumults, insurrections, and invasions, &c. Part III. The best means of settling all disputes between nations, without recourse to arms. The Essay is written with clearness and vigor; its statements on all the most important points are strong and satisfactory, and it well merits a place among the many good treatises which the cause has called forth. We refer our readers to the late numbers of the London Herald of Peace, and the Boston Advocate of Peace, for spirited notices of the America, England, Switzerland, France,; when the philanthropy of four such nations, situated as these are, and having such relations to the world, is awakened to make common cause in such an enterprise as this, there is truly ground for hope. The beacons lighted on four such hill-tops cannot fail to cover Christendom with a universal illumination, whose searching blaze shall expose the enormities of blood and crime, which have lain concealed in the dark places of the halfcivilized world. When fairly exposed, they will not long be suffered to exist. Society is now so far advanced, that men only need to be enlightened, and they will act. Let those four peoples faithfully watch and trim the lights they have set up in the world, and, in the new day which they kindle, men will turn to a new work and raise up in society a new life. What may not rationally be hoped from the urgent coöperation of four such central powers? Let them send forth their agents let them prompt the exhortations of the pulpitlet them enlist the activity of the press and what effect may not be wrought on opinion before the century closes? The slave-trade, - slavery, intemperance, giant-tyrants, ruling with wide despotism have been put under the bann of opinion, and their power has been shaken by the indignant sentiment of the world; a sentiment called forth, animated, directed, by a Christian zeal, which acted through the press, the pulpit, and the earnest address to assemblies of listening men. War has no more power than they to withstand the assaults of Divine truth and human love. Assail it in the same way, with the same spirit, and with equal perseverance, it can no more stand, than the impregnable Bastile could stand before the determined siege of the excited multitudes of Paris. The great instruments of attack, as we have said, are three : -living agents to address the listening ear, the press, and the pulpit. Much less has thus far been done by the agency of the first than is desirable and wise. A larger number of men of powerful speech must be employed to move among the masses, and awaken the general mind. They might find their way where a book never goes, and get access to ears that never hear a preacher. We may not hope from their labors such results as mission of M. Rigaud to Paris, the animated meeting of the Society for Christian Morals, and the eagerness with which it was resolved to secure, by offer of a large premium, a powerful dissertation on the great topic. They will find the whole well worth their attention, and full of encouragement. were witnessed in former days, when the address to the ear was almost the only method by which men could be reached, and when hearers were less distracted by appeals on a variety of subjects; when Peter the Hermit waked the enthusiasm of Europe, or even in the later days of Whitefield and Wesley, who worked out their great plans by the voice. Yet even now, we have daily demonstration of the power of speech and the necessity of employing it, whenever anything of moment is to be done in behalf of extensive interests. What would be the fortune of the great movements in politics, or the great enterprises in philanthropy, without the systematic, persevering use of this agency this summoning together the people to be informed, excited, wrought upon, and made to take part in the operations proposed? It is thus, that the mass is moved and carried forward. The inconsideration and apathy, which have done so much to baffle the purposes of the friends of peace, are in no way so likely to be removed, as by the fiery assaults of the eloquent speaker. Thousands will be attracted and won by an orator, who would see the shower of books and tracts pass over them, without so much as asking what it meant, even though it grew to a storm like the deluge. Pains ought to be taken to enlist men of powerful utterance, and send them through the world, to lecture, to harangue, to argue, expostulate, exhort; -eloquent men, who can compel men to hear. When the four central depositories of this spirit shall have filled their several countries with such men, having compelled men to listen, they are sure of their end; for, if men will but listen, they will know the truth, and truth will make them free. This mission of speakers and lecturers is a very different thing from the action of the pulpit. The pulpit is limited to the setting forth of the religious argument, and appealing to men as Christians. Much wider ground may be occupied by the other agents, who may use a variety of materials which must be excluded from the range of the Sabbath ministry. Yet there is an opportunity and an authority belonging to the sacred desk, which it would be suicidal not to employ to the utmost extent. It is the moral and religious abomination of war, its opposition to Christianity, its deadly hostility to all the glorious purposes which Christ came to effect, it is these, which make war the master curse of the world. That Institution, then, which was placed in the world for the very purpose of defending and promoting the designs of Christ, is im peratively bound to seek the destruction of this its most powerful foe. That pulpit, which never discharges the anathema of God against this proud opponent of Heaven, is false to its trust, and fails of its legitimate influence. But that, which speaks faithfully and in season, rears up a congregation of men, which will neither fight, nor tolerate fighting. The American Peace Society has discovered the wisdom and duty of seizing on this instrument. It has engaged some hundreds of ministers to preach an annual sermon on this subject, and is seeking to multiply the number until every American pulpit shall once a year at least resound with the loud battle-cry of peace. When this shall be done, who does not see that the communities of the next generation will have been trained under influences so devotedly opposed to war, that no more soldiers could be enlisted from among them than pirates? And when all the preachers of the Christian world shall be engaged in this duty, it is plain that war between nations, all whose separate congregations have thus become virtually Peace Societies, would be impossible. How long would it take to effect this, if it were seriously undertaken? Perhaps no project is better worth pursuing. "Opinion is Queen of the world;" change the opinion of the world, and war ceases, of course. The Christian pulpit might change the opinion of so large a part of the world in fifty years, that an army could not be enlisted, and war would cease for want of soldiers to fight. We may be told that in this we talk extravagantly. It may be; but we are disposed to ask, on the other hand, whether the influence of the pulpit is not greatly underrated. Is it considered to what an extent it possesses, and must inevitably exercise, the power of forming the opinions of the vast multitudes who sit under its instructions during childhood and youth? The majority would unavoidably imbibe their tone of thought and sentiment on this subject, from the venerated voice of the pastor under whom they are educated. And with a - truth so obvious as this with means of effecting a grand result so simple, so powerful, so near at hand-with this ability to bestow the most inestimable boon on the world-how can we witness, without impatience, the almost universal apathy and silence of the pulpit; how observe, without shame, that this tremendous assemblage of crimes and sufferings has been, for eighteen centuries, opposing itself to Christianity and happiness, while the public messengers of the Prince of Peace have but |