There is in England itself, despite the hereditary prejudices of her people against a standing' army at home, a growing, ominous disposition to fasten this fatal incubus upon them. The lead rs and organs of the warspirit there plead its necessity from cases like the revolt in India. Lord. Ellenborough, apparently the incarnation of this spirit, lately said on a public occasion, “You have heard of the great reinforcements of troops sent out to India, and dare say you expect from the exertions of this force early and complete success. But remember, this is not a sudden temporary danger to be repelled by sudden temporary exertion. What at first was a mutiny, is become a revolution; and to restore civil authority is more difficult than to repress military resistance; more force required to occupy than it does to subdue. Be assured that the military institutions of this country, managed as they are now, are insufficient permanently to supply the number of men required to reconquer what we have lost, and to hold our Empire hereafter in security. It is only through a change in those institutions, which no Minister would willingly propose, or through a great practical improvement in the working of them, which your co-operation may supply, that the necessary force can be maintained." HOW TO GET LIBERTY. PEACEFUL REVOLUTION IN THE GOVERNMENT OF TUNIS. Peace hath her victories, Not less renowned than war.-MILTON. Force, in some form of bloody conflict, is the common reliance for securing popular rights. The champions of liberty seem to take it for granted, that there can be no other way; and on this presumption such men as Kossuth and Mazzini, true and noble patriots, have made their appeals to the sword, and staked the question of freedom or despotism on the uncertain issues of battle-a fearful stake, with scarce one chance in a hundred for the right, but with the certainty that the result in ninety-nine cases will only sink the people in deeper, more hopeless bondage. Such is the general rule. Our own revolution was a splendid exception, standing alone in all modern history, while most other attempts to win freedom by the sword, after wasting a vast amount of treasure and blood, have often left the mass of the people in a condition even worse than before. Let us thank God that the gospel teaches a better way, the peaceful way of moral Christian influence, to secure popular rights and good government. Of thisthe papers have recently reported a striking case. Through the influence of a Mr. Wood, British Agent and Consul-General at Tunis, aided by the representatives of other Christian governments, the Bey has been induced to incorporate in his government “radical reforms in favor of civil, religious and commercial liberty to citizens of every class." It was a peaceful revolution, the result not of any force or menace, but of fair arguments employed by the British and foreign agents. The formal result was reached in September last, when the Bey, in presence of the foreign residents, gave at his palace of the Bardo, a Constitution to his country, swearing to observe its provisions, and causing his priests ministers and people to do the same. The Constitution consists of eleven articles, which may be summed up as follows: 1. Security of life and property. 2. Equal taxation. 3. Equality before the law of all classes and denominations. 4. Religious liberty. 5. Limitation of the period of military service. 6. Admission of non-Mussulman assessors to the criminal tribunals. 7. Establishment of a mixed commercial tribunal. 8. Abolition of all immunities and privileges now enjoyed by Mussul mans. 9. Liberty of commerce, abolition of monopolies, and interdiction of the Government to trade. 10. Permission to foreigners to exercise all professions, trades, callings, and to introduce foreign enterprise, &c. 11. Right for foreigners to purchase and possess houses, landed property, &c." The importance of this reform can scarcely be too highly estimated. The commerce between Tunis and Europe, hitherto shackled by prohibitions and monopolies, will now be free; and that Regency, hardly known to us heretofore but as a nest of pirates, will probably be renowned for its important trade in grain, oil, wool, and other products of the country. Its fertile soil, its rich mineral treasures, and all its other resources, will be developed by competition with Europeans. Life and property will be secure against the arbitrary will of a tyrant; and, taxation being equal, industry will be promoted. The Christian and the Jew may now worship according to the tenets of their own religion. Here is an example that may be safely commended to universal imitation. It is clear, unalloyed gain; for, even if it fails, it can in no case work any mischief. Should the experiment fulfil its early promise, Mr. Wood will be immortalized as a benefactor, not only of that people, but of the christian world. A similar service, though less marked and decisive in its results, has Lord Redcliffe been for a long series of years performing for Turkey and the East; a service far more effective in the long run for the regeneration of the Ottoman Empire, than has been the Crimean War with all its sacrifice of a million lives, and its thousand millions of treasure. FREE-CHURCH MISSION IN INDIA.-Letters from Rev. D. Fraser and Rev. D. Duff explain the reasons for giving up the mission so recently commenced by Rev. Mr. Stevenson at Bannoorah, Bengal, namely, the dangerously disturbed state of the country and the hostility of the Indian mind at present to European instruction. SOME ITEMS OF OUR OWN WAR EXPENSES. Besides a variety of expenses included under various heads the last year, we find the following: .19,261,774 16 12,726,858 69 Service in charge of War Department.. 37,932,529 76 FORTIFICATIONS AND DEFENCES.-The letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting estimates of appropriations for the next fiscal year, contains items of interest which do not elsewhere appear in detail. The total proposed expenditure under the direction of the War Department for fortifications and other works of defence, is $1,931,000. The following amounts are to be expended in New York:Repairs of Fort Niagara, New York.... .$50,000 Repairs of Fort Ontario, New York.... .50,000 Fort Montgomery, at the outlet of Lake Champlain, New York....50,000 Fort at Willett's Point, opposite Fort Schuyler, New York.......100,000 100,000 ..20,000 Repairs of Fort Columbus and Castle William, N. Y. harbor, N. Y...6,000 Magazine at New York..... ..13,800 Marine Barracks, Brooklyn.. .66,000 Navy Yard, New York... . 24,000 The following shows the amounts that will be required for similar purposes at other stations: Portsmouth, N. H.. Boston... New York.... $52,215 203, 500 Philadelphia. Washington.. Norfolk.. Pensacola.. Mare Island. Total........... .353,536 ..98,714 131,100 .332,158 .363,315 ..317;971 .$1,952,509 For the services of the ordinance department, $1,554,113 is proposed, including $300,000 for armament of fortifications, chiefly for the purchase of heavy artillery and projectiles for sea coast defence; $400,000 for the national armories, to be used in the manufacture of the newly modelled fire arms, and $296,979 for arsenals. COMPARATIVE COST OF THE GOSPEL AND OF WAR.-The clergy of this country are supposed to cost $12,000,000 a year, while our army and navy, with their accompanying expenses, cost about thrice as much. MISCELLANEOUS. A REMINISCENCE OF SEBASTOPOL. We walked, said a letter from the master of a Scotch merchant vessel, through the camps of the allies nearly the whole way. It was fatiguing, as the road was over a succession of hills and across deep valleys, and every place telling the work which had been going on- plenty of graves, and large masses of shot and broken shells, broken muskets, military caps, and all sorts of military equipments. We passed through part of the valley of the Inkermann, and then came into what is called the Valley of Death. It is a deep road, with high cliffs on each side, and is commanded by the Redan forts. In the valley the shot and shell and musket-bullets were actually as thick as the stones in some places. The carnage there must have been dreadful. We arrived at the Redan about 11 o'clock, and in the fort the sight that met us, beggars all description. In the first place, the guns-and very large they were were all mostly broken or damaged. The musket bullets and Minnie balls were innumerable. There were soldiers' clothes, books, letters, boots and some of them with the wearer's leg still in them!-lots of the slain only half buried, some with the head partly above ground, and some with the face fully exposed. All was still, however, with the exception of immense quantities of rats. I left the place in grea disgust, as every now and then, when a faint breeze of wind would come across, the smell was very strong. HOWARD. In one of his benevolent journeys, he writes from Moscow, that "no less than 70,000 recruits for the army and navy have died in the Russian hospitals during a single year." He was an accurate man, incapable of saying anything but the truth, and therefore this horrible fact cannot but heighten our detestation both of war and of despotism. It has, however, been scarce spoken of in Europe; while other hateful crimes, though affecting only individuals, have justly become the perpetual objects of pity and indignation. pre RICHARD SHARP.- Great conquerors are curses on mankind while they live, and when they die, they leave no relics, like the skins of their decessors I had almost said, their ancestors- the wolves and bears. All our praiseworthy toil and expense in building infirmaries and asylums cannot save a hundredth part of the lives, nor alleviate a hundredth part of the afflictions brought upon the human race by one unnecessary "Next to the calamity of losing a battle, is that of gaining a victory," is reported to have been said by our great commander, while walking up and down a room, in great emotion, on the evening of the bloody day of Waterloo. war. I A WARRIOR'S COMPARISON OF HOME WITH MILITARY GLORY.-Nineteen long letters, exclaimed Sir Charles Napier, from Lord Ellenborough! He has made me Governor of Scinde with additional pay, and has ordered the captured guns to be cast into a triumphal column with our names. wish he would let me go back to my wife and girls; it would be more to me than pay, glory, and honors. Eight months now away from them! This is glory! is it? Yes! Nine princes have surrendered their swords to me on the field of battle, and their kingdoms have been conquered by me, and attached to my own country. Well, all the glory that can be desired is mine; but I care so little for it, that the moment I can, I shall be resigned to live quietly with my wife and girls. Do honor or riches repay me for absence from them? Otherwise, this sort of life is life to me; is agreeable, as it may enable me to do good to these poor people. Oh! if I can do any good thing to serve them where so much blood has been shed in accursed war, I shall be happy. May I never see another fired! Horrid, horrid war! FOREIGN COADJUTORS--The labors of our co-workers in England have been, ever since the outburst of the East India rebellion, directed mainly to that subject in its various aspects and bearings. In the Herald of Peace it is discussed at large with such an abundance of facts and testimonies, as it would seem impossible to gainsay or resist. That able organ of our cause, by its honest and fearless exposures, is laying not only England, but the Christian world, under great obligations. The whole question of British rule in India seems pretty sure, as soon as fear for its permanancy has passed away, to undergo a thorough discussion that may lead to as great a change at home as in India itself. The London Peace Society has four or five lecturers in its service, " actively engaged in addressing large audiences in various parts of the country, who have received their statements and arguments with the utmost favor and respect." AGENTS.Our Lecturing Agents, notwithstanding the hard times, keep at work, and with some degree of success. One, under date of December 3d, says, "I have just returned from a tour in the north-east of Michigan, where I have delivered in twenty days twenty discourses, and attended three Quarterly Meetings, where I had excellent opportunities to present the subject of Peace to large and attentive audiences. My tour was very pleasant. At my last appointment, the effect was very happy, seeming to bring into brotherly love those who had been much at variance." CONTRIBUTORS.-We are thankful for the kind responses we have lately received from a portion of our friends; but we shall need a still larger degree of liberality from others to meet our necessities, and enable us to carry on our operations. We hope those who purpose helping us, will do so at their earliest convenience, as the times are peculiarly hard on a cause like ours. |