The impediments which exist to the introduction of a more complete system of international law, and of an authorized tribunal for appealing to public justice against any breach of such law, will, it is believed, be removed by the influence of correct public opinion, and to extend correct opinions is peculiarly a department which peace societies in different parts of the world may occupy, by developing those sentiments which contribute to enlighten the public mind on the great and important national question of peace and war, taking, as they should always do, the revealed will of God as set forth in the Holy Scriptures, the religion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for their standard. Whilst we rejoice in the facts which encourage the hope we have expressed, we do not entertain the expectation that very rapid progress will be made in this career. We know the difficulties are great. The varied constitutions of the different governments which exist, present the most formidable obstacles. These may be regarded as political difficulties; but such will yield when it is admitted to be expedient that they should give way to the general declaration of correct sentiments. The evils of war are very generally admitted, as well as the source from whence they arise, and it remains only for the Christian to shew that the Divine Founder of his religion has presented mankind with the only effectual remedy-to shew that the quiet, unostentatious maintenance of the truth, "brought to light by the Gospel," has power to surmount every difficulty, and to make wars to cease throughout the world.

One interesting fact we have the satisfaction to announce, communicated through the medium of The Herald of Peace, is the establishment of a National Peace Society in America, with which a considerable number of auxiliaries are already associated. The report of their last

VOL. VIII. NEW SERIES.

meeting has reached us, and thence we learn that its success is truly encouraging. It has employed a gentleman to travel in the cause for three months, who established ten new auxiliaries, and re-visited many of those which existed before; many ministers of the gospel had also joined their ranks.

We observe from their publications, that the object of establishing a National Council for the adjustment of international difficulties, is entertained in America. Another very encouraging fact has recently been announced in The Herald of Peace; the establishment of a Peace Society at Geneva, principally through the means of the Comte de Sellon, who, with much animation, presented the assembled advocates with an address, in which, among other matters, he has offered a prize for the best essay upon the means of procuring general and permanent peace. We cannot doubt but that such an offer will produce some able essays upon the subject, and that the arbiters of the prize will be led into a closer investigation of it in all its bearings; and should the successful work become an object worthy of the perusal and possession of senators and statesmen in different nations, a political benefit may be conferred on mankind by the competition for the Comte de Sellon's prize.

We are, however, more desirous to invite the attention of our friends to a closer consideration of this subject in connexion with the study of the Sacred Writings, under a conviction, that in them will be found an authority and an unction, which cannot be equalled by any essay, and that all the praise, all the honour, of achieving the pacification of the world will be due to the Prince of Peace, who came to establish a peaceable kingdom in the hearts of redeemed and renovated mankind.

This Auxiliary has distributed several hundreds of the Society's tracts,

X

M. M. De Sellon, member of the sovereign

council.

Boissier, professor, ditto.
Abauzit, pastor.

Wend, pastor.
Punchaud, doctor.

Moultou, meinber of the sovereign council.

Ramu, pastor.

4th rule, has appointed

M. M. De Sellon, president. Boissier, vice-president. Ramu, secretary. Moultou, treasurer.

An Address delivered to the Peace Society at Geneva, by the President, on the 12th of June, 1831, to which some Notes are subjoined.

[Translated from the French.] GENTLEMEN,-Permit me to take the opportunity which this meeting affords, to give you an account of what I have thought it my duty to do, to attain the object towards which we are all directing our course, since the establishment of the Peace Society of Geneva.

By reading periodical works, and indeed, in general, all works which state the progress of opinion, it is easy to discover that violent parties will reserve to themselves the resource of war to insure success to their projects. (1.) Taking this for granted, I have thought proper to address myself to the supreme authorities, and to the public, by presenting them with the regulations of our Society, with manuscript letters, and printed circulars, to explain its object. They had been preceded by a prospectus of the Assembly, which I believed it to be my duty to open in favour of a general and permanent peace. By these several means, Gentlemen, I hope, at least to encourage the offer of a considerable number of essays, to add new members to our Society, so as to bring forward the great question of the lawfulness of war, as I have

persons to whom I have sent the regulations which contain our rules. (3) If an apology is necessary for the respect which I have paid to crowned heads, I shall find it in a fragment that has been discovered of the great Frederick, king of Prussia, which I ask your permission to cite,-“Cruel ty and barbarity are often fatal to individuals, and they generally excite our horror; but princes whom Providence has removed far from the sufferings of the commonality, have so much the less abhorrence of them as they are themselves under no apprehension from them. This should impress on all those to whom the government of men is assigned, that they ought to inculcate a complete removal of the abuses of which an unlimited power is capable."

Since I have undertaken the defence of the principle of the inviolability of the life of man, I have carefully preserved the letters that have been addressed to me, and I have the honour to lay before you those from the Councils of the Sovereign powers, because they express their good intentions, and may be considered as so many stakes planted on the path leading to that permanent peace, which has been, for a long time since, the principal object of my desires, and which should singly occupy the attention of our Society.

The first among these letters is, Gentlemen, that from the Supreme Swiss Diet of 1828, which condescended to receive favourably, the homage which I paid them in a Memoir, printed in support of the inviolability of the life (4)

of man.

Next to the letter from the Diet, is that from the ambassador of his

majesty the Emperor of Austria,* in which he freely promises me to draw the attention of his court to the principles which are there developed.

That of his Royal Highness the Duke of Orleans, (who has since ascended the throne of France) in which he assures me of his accordance with my views; of which he has given a striking proof in his official answer to the Chamber of Deputies, when it demanded of him the abolition of the punishment of death for political crimes.

That in which the cabinet of this Sovereign does me the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the Regulations of the Peace Society.

That from M. Casimer Perrier, president of the Council of Ministers, saying that the organs of all parties, and of every country, call it, the bond of peace; a title more flattering, in my view, than all those that have been lavished upon the most illustrious conquerors.

Those from their high Mightinesses, the Kings of Holland and of Bavaria, full of goodness and philanthropy; and, lastly, that from the King of Prussia, of which it will suffice to say, that it is that of a true Christian.†

In doing justice to his majesty the King of Prussia, I cannot abstain from lamenting that there are so many persons who assume the excellent title of Christian, yet continue the advocates of war, and give cause to think by their conduct that they have not meditated upon the sublime discourse of our Saviour Jesus Christ on the Mount, which assigns to the Gospel the part that it is to act upon the earth, and which promises to effect the triumph of moral, over physical

power. (7)

*M. Le Baron de Binder.

+ Since the meeting in June, I have received a letter from Prince Christian Frederic of Denmark, who cordially assures me of the reception of the report of the Peace Society, in terms full of goodness and benevolence.

Convinced as I am that a great majority, at least, of the present, and of the rising generation, partakes of my sentiments and opinions upon the inviolability of the life of man; I shall always claim in their favour, the facility of giving them a legislative sanction in a country where political rights are exercised. In all my writings, but more particularly in my Historical Fragments, page 190, I have declared my opinion, that a general association against war will be formed in the 19th century. Behold the cause of my having learned with much pleasure the existence of the London Peace Society, which society has promoted the establishment of several societies of the same nature both in England and America. In a Journal entitled, The Herald of Peace, that society has expressed the great satisfaction it has felt upon learning nearly at the same time the establishment of a Peace Society at Guatemala, upon the shore of the South Sea, and of ours upon that of the Lake of Geneva. To reflections, full of benevolence, are subjoined, 1st, The Address which I had, Gentlemen, the honour to deliver the 1st of December, 1830, the day when our society was established. 2nd, That of the Prospectus of the Assembly, which I have opened in favour of peace, and you, Gentlemen, are called upon to award the prize it has offered for an essay. Lastly, the London Peace Society has been pleased to send me several works both in French and English, the authors of which triumphantly prove that war is as incompatible with civilization as with Christianity. One of them proceeds from the pen of a female, who thought, without doubt, that she could not devote her talents to a better object than that of endeavouring to draw away from the horrors of war, men formed, not to destroy, but mutually to help each other.

I have seen with a lively satisfaction for some time past, that the plan

*

conceived by Henry IV. King of France, for the general and permanent pacification of Europe, is cited sometimes with approbation, sometimes with disapprobation of the plan which is given in the 30th Book of Sully's Memoirs. This man, who was at the same time an eminent minister and an eminent citizen, and the best friend of his king in adversity as well as in prosperity; this Sully, who after having opposed the project of his master as utopian, finally admired it, and caused several sovereigns of Europe to adopt it; for we gain much in favour of humanity to produce conviction of the reasonableness of a plan which frivolous or ambitious men would fain persuade us was only a reverie.

It is with a pleasing sensation that I also daily hear mention of a general European disarmament, which I have continually enforced in the writings that I have published for several years past, the execution of which would be facilitated by the organization of a militia similar to that in our own country, Switzerland, of militias proper to maintain a perpetual neutrality, which would become the corner-stone of public and international right for all civilized nations when it is completed through a sense of its reasonableness.

Gentlemen, you had desired your committee to choose a censor of the press, or responsible editor, to conduct or superintend the publications which should be as a speaking-trumpet, or telegraph, to our society, for the propagation of its principles. Two of your commissioners, M. Boissier, professor, and M. Ramu, pastor, have succeeded in engaging M. Cherbaliez, minister, to accept these functions for the space of one [year.] The character and the well-known

*See also p. 114, of my Historical Fragments, where I have quoted from that Book of Sully.

+ See the history of the great Elizabeth.

talent of this respectable ecclesiastic are to me certain guarantees of your approbation of the choice of your committee.

M. Ramu, pastor, and M. Moultou, will give you an account, if it be considered necessary, of the affairs of the Peace Society.* I will engage them to propose to you some regulation for the diplomas of the effective, honorary members, or correspondents, who will all labour to obtain the result mentioned in the first Article of the rules of the Peace Society.

Now, permit me, Gentlemen, to entreat you to consent to decide on the best means to be followed for proceeding to a judgment upon the treatises which have competed for the prize which I have offered, and which you have consented to adjudge.

You have the Prospectus before you, Gentlemen, but I desire you to observe that I have never pretended to limit the competitors by giving a very general description of the elements of pacification which this changeful epoch presents, to which we give our assistance, and of which the Peace Society will endeavour to avail itself, that it may some day trace out the plan of a solid and durable edifice.

Permit me, Gentlemen, to make one observation, that it will be very satisfactory for some of the Swiss to promote universal peace by propagating opinions which are favourable to it. Do not you think as I do, that this will be at once the most noble, the most Christian way of characterizing a country which has always been the asylum of the unfortunate? (9.)

N. B. At this sitting, the Peace Society appointed a commission of five members to examine the Treatises that have competed for the prize offered by the president.

* As secretary and treasurer of this Society.