Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace.

THE Sixteenth Annual Meeting of this Society was held on Tuesday, the 22nd of May, in the Friends' Meeting House, White Hart Court, Gracechurch-street.

Robert Marsden, Esq. having been called to the chair, opened the business by remarking, that he believed he should best consult the convenience of the meeting, as well as the interests of the Society, if he at once requested the Secretary, the Rev. Thomas Wood, to read the Report.

An Abstract of the Report having been read,

The Rev. Ingram Cobbin, A. M., moved the first resolution, for the adoption and printing of the Report. The Rev. gentleman remarked, that the present period had been called the march of mind. Be it so: but it was much to be regretted, that the Peace Society, which ought to be in the advance, was in the rear of this march; and, it was a painful fact, that even in this Christian country, and at this period of the world, we were obliged to have Societies, not only for the propagation of religion, but for the advancement of humanity itself. "Oh!

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tell it not in Gath," said the Rev. speaker; "the Anti-Slavery Society still exists amongst us, for there are still slaves in our colonies to be emancipated; and even in the United States of America, where liberty is so much boasted of, there are upwards of two millions of slaves. And then we have a Society for the emancipation of thousands of little white slaves at home,

whom iron-hearted avarice has fettered and confined to almost perpetual toil. And then it is necessary to notice even the poor brutes, and to form Societies for their protection, because some of the noblest and most intelligent of God's lower creation have been, and still are, so barbarously treated, by men calling themselves Christians, that they would be spurned for their conduct by the savage Turk or the wild Arab. But to return to the Peace Society. It does, indeed, appear singular, that an evil so destructive as war, should still find advocates in any Christian country: - war, which has justly been denounced as including every thing that is base and execrable in moral conduct, every thing that is subversive of the principle of benevolence,-every thing that is destructive of human enjoyment, every thing that rouses the passions into diabolical fury, every thing that adds to the sum of human wretchedness, every thing that is cruel, oppressive, and

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unjust, and every thing that is dreadful and appalling to mankind! Need I enumerate the calamities of war? This would occupy hours, not to say days. It would be to detail the histories of whole nations and whole ages; it would be to count up the items which constitute the mighty sum of eighteen thousand millions of the human race, who are believed to have perished by war, from the commencement of the world. Eighteen times as many as now inhabit the face of the globe,-eighteen worlds like this, have perished by the horrors of war; every tenth of mankind has been sacrificed to this cruel Moloch. Is it not then time that Christians should take a proper view of war; that they should view it with abhorrence, and reject it with disgust? But while war has peopled the graves with human bodies, it has left behind it some of the greatest calamities. Those who survive its ravages are not less sufferers than those who fall under them. What do they behold around them but depopulated plains, ruined manufactories, villas and villages, towns and cities, rased to the groundburnt by a general conflagration? As I was coming here, I saw the conflagration spreading from Barclay's brewhouse to the surrounding neighbourhood, and I considered it as only a faint emblem of the dreadful havoc of war. Look at the multitudes of orphans, whose parents have been murdered; look to the battle field, and see the numbers of mangled bodies that yet remain in existence; look at the ravaged cities, and see the abused mothers, and daughters, and sisters, who weep over their desolation. I could enumerate much more of these calamities, but they would be too much for our feelings; the bare contemplation of those at which I have just glanced, induces us each to exclaim, in the language of the prophet, Oh! that mine head were waters, and mine eyes fountains of tears, that I might weep day and night, for the

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calamities thus brought upon mankind. Is this an imaginary picture? No. Poland, unhappy Poland, presents such a scene at this moment. There all the miseries I have faintly depicted have been inflicted upon her unhappy children. And for all these barbarities, titles are bestowed, degrees conferred, and statues erected. The men who commit them are to be encircled with laurels, and enshrined in glory!" The Rev. gentleman then adverted to the erroneous and pernicious sentiments entertained relative to war and warfare. He recollected, he said, that a grenadier who had committed some offence was addressed by the late General Meadows in this language: ." Do you not know, sir, that a grenadier is one of the greatest characters in this world?" and then, pausing, he added, with an oath worthy the sentiment, " and one of the greatest, also, in the next?" Such were the ideas of glory and immortality that prevailed in Christendom. It was necessary to break the fetters which still bound the minds of even Christians themselves; in proof of which he related an anecdote of the late Mr. Ryland, of Northampton. This worthy minister was a man of most extensive benevolence, and even impoverished himself to assist others. He was also a man of ardent feelings, and spoke warmly on most subjects. The father of the late celebrated Robert Hall took his son to him, to place him at school, just in the hottest period of the American war; and the subject of conversation between these two gentlemen was, the cruelty and injustice of that war. At length Mr. Ryland, growing exceedingly warm on the subject, exclaimed, in his own. eccentric and forcible manner, "Why, Mr. Hall, if I were General Washington, I would call all my brother officers together; and, having procured a large punch-bowl, I would place them around it, and I would be the first to bare my arm; and each man baring his arm, should let off his blood into

the bowl. Having done this, we would each man dip the point of his sword into the blood, and swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever, never again to sheath our swords so long as an English soldier remained on the American shore. This is what I would do, brother Hall, if I were General Washington."" Only think of my condition," said the late Mr. Hall to the friend to whom he related this conversation-" only think of my condition ; -a poor little boy, just come out of my mother's chimney corner, and taken from home to hear this bloody-minded conversation. I assure you I was quite alarmed. I trembled at the idea of being left with so bloody-minded a master, and I fully expected, when my father left me, I should be bled too; and that every time I offended him, I should undergo the operation of the lancet: I did indeed, sir." This showed the influence and prevalence of those war principles which so widely predominated. It showed that, at least at that time, the country was not sufficiently embued with that spirit which the Peace Society was not only adapted to promote, but which it would assuredly promote. O, yes; he hoped we should, ere long, see better days;days, when the star would no longer adorn the bosom of the warrior, when the laurel would no longer grace his brow, when the helmet would fall from his head, and the sword drop from his hand. Dr. Southey had said, that this Society had not yet obtained sufficient notoriety to fall into disrepute. Well, if it be so, "Who hath despised the day of small things?" When the Anti-Slavery Society first started into existence, slavery was considered as a kind of common-place occurrence, but now it began to stink in the nostrils of every honest man, and the chains were seen to be falling from off the limbs of the negro he heard the distant voice of emancipation. When first schools for all were established, the scheme was

decried as Utopian, but now all have schools. When first Sunday Schools began, they met with little attention; but now there was scarcely a town or a village destitute of its Sunday School. He therefore hoped, that there would not long be a town or a village that had not its Peace Society. He rejoiced to see their principles making progress as they were, and he was sure that a whole life would be deemed well spent, did it but bring the dawn of perpetual peace upon our own country,-to say nothing of the world at large. The Society, however, should aim at great things. He was sorry to see it assembled year after year in that place. He knew no reason why it should not assemble in the largest room in Exeter Hall; and he was sure that the larger was the number of its auditors the larger would be the number of its converts. Their object was universal; not the peace of a district, but of the world. The Rev. gentleman suggested, for the consideration of the Society, whether they might not, with propriety, make an effort to suppress the barbarous and wicked practice of duelling: might it not be prevented by an establishment of a court of honour, to which all gentlemen, in case of necessity, might appeal? Such as refused this appeal ought to be deprived of their franchise as citizens, and of their honour as courtiers. It also struck him, that while there was always a minister of war among the the servants of the crown, there should also be a minister of peace. A minister of this description, in every country, would be a man of the greatest importance; and if he were a man of prudence, of wisdom, and of piety, he might be the means of rushing in between the contending parties, and preventing the effusion of blood. Such a man ought to wear the honours now worn by warriors; they should be torn from the peace-breaker, and be given to the peace-maker, In conclusion, the Rev. gentleman

expressed the gratification he felt on finding, from the Report, that the Society had enlisted Christian ministers in its cause, and urged, especially upon the ministers of religion, the prosecution and promotion of its interests.

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Mr. N. E. Sloper, one of the Secretaries of "The British and Foreign Temperance Society," in seconding the Resolution, said, that after the fatigue implied in seven hours' attendance that morning at the anniversary of that Society, the meeting would have a sufficient guarantee that he should not occupy much of their time. Tired as he was, he might well have been excused, but he was there to discharge a solemn duty. "Two years ago," said Mr. S., on seconding a motion made by the Rev. Mr. Mann, whose disembodied spirit has since soared to the presence of his God, and to whose memory so affecting an allusion was made in your Report, I stated, that though I was not then prepared to go all lengths with my late respected friend, as to even defensive war being in all cases indefensible; yet, if ever I saw reason to alter my opinion, I would appear in this place and fearlessly state it. I am here to redeem that pledge, and to abide by all the consequences. I have been announced as one of the Secretaries of the British and Foreign Temperance Society,' and this reminds me, that in that capacity I have a pleasing duty to discharge, in mentioning thus publicly my sense of obligation to the Society of Friends, by so many of whom I have the pleasure of seeing myself surrounded this evening. They have left me and the Society much its debtors, by the prompt and efficient manner in which they have rallied round the Tempe rance cause. Oh, Sir! little did I think, when last year, from this place, I ventured, with the kind permission of the Chairman, to travel a little out of the record, and to entreat those present not to leave town till they had given a written pledge that they

would abstain from the use of ardent spirits, that the grains of mustard-seed, which were then sowing in two or three directions, would so soon spring up and become a great tree, so that the birds of the air might come and lodge in the branches thereof. Little did I think that before I should have the pleasure of meeting you again, a • British and Foreign Temperance Society' would be formed, and that I should have the honour (however unworthy) of being one of its Secretaries. I will only add, Patrons of liberty to the oppressed negro from the galling chain of slavery !—Patrons of liberty-yes, I will say,-to the freeman, from the no less galling yoke of intemperance!-Patrons of permanent and universal Peace, arise in all your moral might, and these accursed vices of slavery—and of intemperance —and of war,—ashamed of their own moral deformity, shall hide their heads in hell, their native place. With vast pleasure I second the Resolution."

The Rev. J. Blackburn moved the next resolution

That the increased aversion to war discovered by continental nations, co-ope rating with a disposition to preserve peace under difficult circumstances, and more particularly by England and France, calls for humble gratitude to that almighty and gracious Being, who has promised to speak peace to the heathen, and to make wars to cease unto the ends of the earth. The Rev. gentleman said, he really felt ashamed to think that this Society should have been in existence for more than sixteen years, during the greater part of which time he had resided in the metropolis, as a minister of the Gospel of peace, and yet should never before have attended one of its annual meetings. Still, however, his feelings had ever been in sympathy with it. He had read some of its publications with pleasure and edification, and he never omitted an opportunity of urging upon his hearers the principles which they inculcated. It was the more important that those who professed to be the ministers of the Prince of peace