carrying moral health and intelligence to the lonely cottage of the poor, as well as to the stately mansions of the rich. The Bible and the tract are seen in every family, and the Sunday-school in every village; but best of all, the Holy Spirit, like some heavenly dove, has brooded upon the waters of life, and the showers of divine grace are poured down in most copious effusions; and thousands, and tens of thousands, are bowing to the mild sceptre of Prince Emmanuel, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, under whose sway the sword shall be beaten to a ploughshare, and the spear to a pruning-hook. Oh, who would exchange this abundant harvest of the fruits of peace, for sprigs of the bloodstained, barren, and often poisonous laurel!

But it is time for us to come to the more immediate labours of the friends of peace.

Our intercourse with the London Peace Society has been uninterrupted and friendly. We have received their fourteenth annual report, from which we would make copious extracts, were it not that we fear to enlarge our report beyond the measure of your patience, and that the whole has been printed in the Harbinger of Peace, and, of course will be seen by most of those who hear or see this report. One new Peace Society has been organized in England, and some others, we believe, have increased in numbers. Robert Marsden, Esq. and Doctor Thomas Hancock, officers of the London Peace Society, have sent us letters, expressing their pleasure at being chosen honorary members of our society.

A letter from our highly respected friend, John Bevans, dated at London, on the 23d of February last, gives us the following pleasing information: "We have lately received," says Mr. Bevans, 66 a letter from the Count de Sellon, member of the sovereign council of Geneva, informing us that

he has established a Peace Society at Geneva; also, that he has proposed to the sovereign council, the abolition of the punishment of death. I have since received some pamphlets from the Count de Sellon, from which it appears that he was the person who offered the last prize for the Treatise on the Punishment of Death, which prize was assigned to Charles Lucas, in 1826. in 1826. Encouraged by the effects produced by the treatise of C. Lucas, he has offered the prize of a gold medal, worth 400 francs, for the best treatise on the best means to establish permanent and universal peace. From a printed discourse, addressed to the first meeting of the Peace Society of Geneva, it appears, he has procured some copies of the Herald of Peace, to the editor of which his letter was addressed. One of his tracts contains suggestions concerning a national congress, to invite all nations to abolish the punishment of death, and establish a permanent and universal tribunal, to which the differences between nations are to be referred, and its decisions to be final. These events give the prospect of the dawning of a brighter day, amid the gloom with which we are at present surroundedfor I tremble for the peace of Europe. The present aspect of events threatens an explosion, which may God in his goodness avert! but he is just as well as good; let us only do our duty, and we may safely, in his hands, leave the future."

The prize mentioned in the above extract was, we believe, offered through the Society of Christian Morals in France, of which our present chairman was one of the original founders, the first meeting of which was held at his house, and which has been very active in the cause of humanity, and its success is an encouragement to us, that exertions in favour of "peace on earth, and goodwill towards man," if persisted in, will ultimately be crowned with like success. We are happy to see so

great a sensation with respect to capital punishments. We cannot be lieve that men will be wide awake to the penalty which a few of the worst criminals are compelled to pay to the violated laws, and yet be blind to the death and suffering of myriads of those who, but for war, would have been good and great.

The subject of a congress of nations for the prevention of war, has likewise awakened considerable at tention in this country, though we are sorry to say, that the competition for the prize, in dissertations on this subject, has not equalled our expectations. On the first of January last, which was the extreme limit of the extended time in which dissertations on that subject, intended for the prize, could be received, two only had been presented. The author of one of these, unwilling to contend for the prize with only one competitor, withdrew his disputation from the competitor, and offered it for publication in the Harbinger, which was accepted, and it was accordingly published in the 9th and 10th Numbers united. The board has concluded to keep the subject open for a year longer, and increase the premium.

But other means, in the interim, have been used to forward the grand project of a congress of nations. Small papers, bearing the expression of a few sentiments, disapproving the custom of war, and requesting the Peace Societies to lay the plan of a court, or congress of nations, before the congress of the United States, in a petition or memorial, as soon as such a measure might be thought expedient, have been circulated, and many very respectable signatures procured. In Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, the following has been the result. The proposition has received the signature of one lieutenant-governor, one state-treasurer, one state-secretary, four judges, twenty-seven lawyers, four presidents, twelve professors, and six

tutors of universities and colleges, twenty-nine school-masters and principals of academies, fifty-seven clergymen, three generals, eighteen physicians, and five hundred and eighty-two merchants and others; beside three papers known to contain many respectable signatures, which have not yet been returned; and what has been done in Connecticut, which we think may be equal to all the rest, but the report of which has not yet come to hand. The circulation of these papers has been very limited, but, from what we have seen, we believe that nearly nine-tenths of our fellow-citizens would sign them, if properly presented and explained.

In our labours, we have received decided marks of approbation from all the great ecclesiastical bodies of the congregational order in New England, and from some other denominations, but the convention of congregational ministers in Massachusetts, has passed a specific resolve, approving the exertions in favour of a congress of nations in particular.

Since our last anniversary, three new Peace Societies have been organized, viz. one in Lowell, Massachusetts; one at Concord, the capital of New Hampshire; and one at Hanover, in the same State, the seat of Dartmouth college. The ladies of one religious society in Lowell, have made their minister a life member. The Peace Society of Concord promises to be efficient; but to the Peace Society of Dartmouth college and its vicinity, we look with peculiar interest. The president, and all the officers of that ancient and celebrated college, are officers or members of the Peace Society, and most of the students are members, and appear to take a deep interest in the good and great cause; and, radiating from this point, we may expect, that they will reflect light and knowledge through our country, and far abroad, when they shall be called to be missionaries

of the cross, in the benighted regions of paganism. The institutions of Andover, Waterville, and Bangor, have not been inactive, but it would swell our report too much to notice every particular. An individual of our society, has given two hundred dollars to Waterville college, on condition that a prize Essay on Peace and War, with a premium to the amount of the interest of the money, be adjudged and read, on or near the commencement day of each year. This offer has been thankfully received by the faculty, and a similar offer has been made to Dartmouth College, which will, doubtless, be accepted at the next meeting of the board of overseers and trustees of that seminary. Four or five new members will be added to the list of our life members.

During the past year, some of our auxiliaries have been much engaged in the cause. Sixty-six members have been added to the Massachusetts Peace Society. The Hartford, Connecticut, Peace Society has been very active. It has sent to clergymen, residing in the state of Connecticut, 409 copies of the Solemn Review, and one each, of the same, to the president and vice-president of the United States, and all the officers of state, except that of war, and to all the senators and representatives in congress, to all the judges of the United States' courts, and district courts, to all the governors of the States, to twelve presidents of colleges, and to ten bishops.-Total number of copies 809, and they have put in circulation 400 copies of Mr. Mead's Address.

The Rev. Noah Worcester, D.D., the venerable founder of the Massachusetts Peace Society, has, very liberally, given 500 numbers of his Friend of Peace to that society, and a few gentlemen in Boston have subscribed about one hundred dollars, to purchase the remaining numbers, and present them to the American Peace Society; many of which have been

already distributed, and the remainder wait your orders.

The usual numbers of the Harbinger of Peace, viz. about 18,500, have been printed and mostly circulated, beside 8,500 extra copies of the third number, making, in all, about 27,000. A proposition has been laid before the board, to remove the location of our periodical to Boston, which is the earnest desire of some of the friends of peace in that city, and to publish it in a larger form, with a new title, which proposition the board have under consideration.

The

The Massachusetts Peace Society have published their last address, by Bradford Sumner, Esq.; Exeter Peace Society theirs, by Oliver W. B. Peabody, Esq.; Hartford, Connecticut, Peace Society theirs, by the Rev. Mr. Mead. The Windham, Connecticut, Peace Society have published the sermon of the Rev. Ezra B. Kellog, of the episcopal church, which was preached before them at the anniversary in February, 1830. Barnstable Peace Society have published the address delivered at their last anniversary, by the Rev. Ezra S. Goodwin. The Minot Peace Society, in connexion with the Minot Tract Society, have printed and circulated 1500 of a tract entitled, Reflections on War, by a Layman. A sermon, by the Rev. I. May, on congenial subjects, has also been published. All these have been in the pamphlet form, and probably there are many others of which we have not yet heard, for there is not yet that union of action, among the friends of peace, that there ought to be. There has also just come to hand, a pamphlet of 112 pages, entitled A Brief Illustration of War and Peace, published at Albany, by Philanthropos, a person to us unknown. We have not yet had time to read it, but from a slight perusal of some passages, it appears to be well written.

Beside pamphlets, there have been published in newspapers, during the

past year, an unusual number of essays on peace and war, too numerous to particularize, among which we cannot refrain from noticing a series in the Boston Centinel, by Philanthropist, and another in the Christian Mirror, just commenced, as it is supposed, by the eloquent author of Sermons on War.

In addition to the former, Sundayschool books, favourable to the cause of peace, viz. Charles Ashton, Esq., The Sword, or Christmas Presents; one new one, entitled, Howard and Napoleon Contrasted, has been published, and another entitled, The Adventures of a French Sergeant, has been put to press, and a third, entitled, Christ and Mahomet, by a highly-talented baptist clergyman, is in progress. These exertions to give the tender plants, which are rising in society, a right direction, we consider to be highly auspicious to our cause. The essays of Philanthropos have been very ably and very favourably reviewed in the Christian Spectator, and a general view is given of the cause of peace. We mention this circumstance because our religious reviews have thought it prudent to keep at a respectful distance from the subject of peace and war; and we hope this example, in one of the first religious publications of the age, will have an effect upon the others.

We have appointed no travelling agent this year; and all that has been done, in that way, has been without charge to the society, except the remainder of the Rev. Mr. Mead's appointment, which had not expired at the last anniversary, and was necessarily continued until his return home, during which time, we have reason to believe, he was not unuseful to a cause in which he had been so ardently engaged, and continues to be eminently useful.

There remains one more solemn and painful duty to be performed. Death has again admonished us that our time of usefulness is short.

Doctor Nathaniel A. Haven, a worthy member of our board of directors, conspicuous for his philanthropy, benevolence, and wisdom, has paid the debt of nature, and left us to deplore his loss, and follow his example. "The memory of the just is blessed."

There are some other topics which we should like to touch upon, but are admonished by the already protracted length of our report, to desist.

On the whole it appears, that more has been done in the cause of peace, in this country this year, than in any former year. There has been a greater mass of matter thrown into circulation, by the friends of peacea greater action of mind upon mind, and of opinion upon opinion. But there has been, we think, too great a disposition, in the societies which have voted, to become auxiliary to the national society, to act independently of it. This may suit their convenience, but we doubt whether it is best for the cause, for union is strength.

The unusual extent of our matterof-fact, favourable to the cause of peace, for which we ought to be devoutly grateful, precludes the opportunity for portunity for many reflections on them. We can say, that the cause of peace is steadily advancing, and the tide is rising, notwithstanding the waves on the surface; and the tumults which are expected in some parts of Christendom. We trust and hope there will be but a transitory indisposition, such as often takes place with invalids, before they can be pronounced decidedly convalescent, or their health perfectly restored. Our trust in God's word remains undiminished. We believe He will do as He has said; and though we may be, by those whose consciences want a screen from the reproach of apathy and neglect of duty, stigmatized as enthusiasts, we take it as a compliment, and a good omen; for what great and good cause has ever succeeded without having reproach cast on it by the unthinking multitude?

Report of the Swansea and Neath

Auxiliary Peace Society.

At a general meeting of the Swansea and Neath Auxiliary Peace Society, held at the Town-hall Swansea, the 3d day of May, 1831; JOHN PARRY WILKINS, in the chair; The following resolutions were unanimously agreed to:

Moved by the Rev. R. Roff, and seconded by John Budd,

1. That the Report now read be published and circulated as the committee shall direct.

Moved by the Rev. David Rhys Stephen, and seconded by Elijah Waring,

2. That this meeting considers the object of the Peace Society, viz. the

Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace, entitled to the approbation of Christians in general.

Moved by the Rev. James Durrant, and seconded by the Rev. Edward Anwyl,

3. That this meeting views with unmingled delight the cheering indications now presenting themselves, that the pacific principles of our Holy Religion are making certain, though unostentatious and unobtrusive, progress among mankind.

Moved by Joseph T. Price, and seconded by the Rev. Andrew Campbell, from Dublin,

4. That the Swansea and Neath Auxiliary Peace Society, acknowledging with regret the inactivity that has of late enervated its efforts, feels now called to renewed and more vigorous exertion in this good cause, and earnestly and affectionately invites the co-operation of the Christian public, Moved by William Bevan, and seconded by the Rev. J. W. Massie, 5. That the following gentlemen be a committee for the ensuing year: Mr. Edward Anwyll, Mr. Watkin Morgan, Mr. Henry Bath, Mr. W. Paddison, Mr. Henry Bath, jun. Mr. Joseph Pratten, Mr. James Buckley, Mr. Robert Roff, Mr. Daniel Davis, Mr. Isaac Redwood,

IN meeting the subscribers and friends to this Society and to its object, your committee feels thankful, that, notwithstanding the discordant elements which operate in different parts of the world, the cause of Peace makes gentle, unobtrusive, but certain progress; and its friends are encouraged to come forward fearlessly and faithfully, holding up the Christian Standard as opposed to all War, and as that which alone possesses efficacious influence in the permanent preservation of peace.

While various national circumstances may and do contribute to deter states from resorting to sanguinary conflicts for the decision of their differences, the Christian is conscious that such circumstances as are merely political are not to be relied upon for the undeviating maintenance of peace: he knows that the love of God, shed abroad in his heart, contributing first to the subjugation of his own strong natural will, and those passions which "war in his members," is the only principle on which reliance can be placed as a solid foundation for the peace of nations; and this conviction makes him earnest in encouraging just and equitable arrangements for the decision of differences without making an appeal to force. And are there not evident symptoms which countenance the belief, that it will be found practical and expedient for the inhabitants, or for governments, of civilized nations to recognize a more complete system, of international law, than the imperfect portion which is at present recognized?