SENTIMENTS AVOWED BY PRESIDENT ADAMS.

In a late Message of the President to the House of Representatives, assigning reasons for sending Ministers to the Congress of Panama, we have the following passages :

"It may be that in the lapse of many centuries, no other opportunity so favorable will be presented to the government of the United States, to subserve the benevolent purposes of Divine Providence, to dispense the promised blessings of the Redeemer of mankind, to promote the prevalence in future ages of peace on earth and good will to man, as will now be placed in their power by participating in the deliberations of this Congress."

Having mentioned the objects, which may be discussed at Panama, the treaty formerly made with Prussia for the abolition of privateering, and the importance of the principles of that treaty, the President further observes,—

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"If it be true, that the noblest treaty of peace ever mentioned in history is that, by which the Carthaginians were bound to abolish the practice of sacrificing their own children, because it was stipulated in favor of human nature, I cannot exaggerate to myself the unfading glory with which these United States will go forth in the memory of future ages, if by their friendly counsel, by their moral influence, by the power of argument and persuasion alone, they can prevail on the American nations at Panama, to stipulate by general agreement among themselves, and so far as any of them may be concerned, the perpetual abolition of private war upon the ocean."

Such sentiments become the ruler of a Christian people, and will be gratifying to the enlightened friends of justice and humanity in every quarter of the world. The Carthaginians, ignorant of the true God, sacrificed their children, as acceptable offerings to an imaginary deity. By privateering and maritime depredation, the Christian nations have sacrificed their children to Avarice, Ambition, or Revenge. Gelon acquired great celebrity by abolishing the Carthaginian sacrifices. But should our President succeed in his efforts to abolish privateering, or "private war on the ocean," he will be entitled to greater praise than Gelon; for the practice of Christians, in sacrificing their children, is a greater evil than that which Gelon caused to be abolished. It violates the spirit and precepts of their own religion, the plainest dictates of moral justice,-authorizes the indulgence of the worst passions, and is in fact more injurious than unlicensed piracy. I say more injurious, because just such crimes and mischiefs, as are censured in bucaniers are perpetrated by privateersmen, with the applause of governments and nations! Indeed, privateering is the government school of piracy, in which rapine and murder are licensed and taught.

The avowal of such sentiments and wishes on the part of the President, may lead the rulers of other nations to reflect; and proper reflection will hasten the desired result. When Christian rulers shall have advanced so far in the sciences of philanthropy, justice, and religion, as to perceive, that the chief of a band of pirates, and the chief of a nation, stand on equal ground, as to a right to authorize maritime depredation, they will soon see, that the whole system of war, as usually practised, is but a system of injustice, robbery, and homicide, and that hatred and love are not more opposed to each other, than the spirit of war and the spirit of the Gospel.

LETTERS TO A CLERGYMAN, BY CAPTAIN thrush.

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MANY of our readers have seen the "Letter to the King, by Thomas Thrush, on resigning his office as a Captain in the British Navy." The editor of the Friend of Peace gratefully acknowledges, that he has received from Captain Thrush his pamphlet, entitled "Observations on the Causes and Evils of War; its Unlawfulness; and the Means and Certainty of its Extinction, in a Series of Letters addressed to a Friend." On examining the pamphlet it appears, that the "Friend" was a clergyman of the Established Church, who had written to Captain Thrush, and had also given his consent that the Captain should answer through the medium of the press." The letters are six in number. "I. Introductory; II. On the alleged causes of war; III. On the real causes of war; IV. On the physical evils of war; V. and VI. On the moral evils of war." These Letters display the amiable spirit and intelligence which characterized the "Letter to the King." As the author did not complete his design in these Letters, encouragement was given of another pamphlet. It is intended in future Numbers to give more extracts from the Letters than we have room for in this. We shall, however, give a specimen of the spirit and style of the work from the "Introductory Letter," and we hope it will be read with attention by the ministers of the Gospel in our country.

"One great end and view of Christ's being sent into the world appears to have been, to establish the reign of universal peace and righteousness, not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.'

"The noble work which our Lord began, it is the duty of all Christians, as his servants, but more especially of Christian ministers, as his ambassadors, to labor to accomplish. Forgetting those things which are behind,' the past ages of gross darkness, they are to reach forth to those things which are before,' the establishment of the reign of Christ. Considering you and all Christian ministers as husbandmen in the vineyard of peace, I

cannot offer you a more benevolent or apostolic wish, than that the Lord of the vineyard may enable you to render him the fruits,' If, my dear Sir, we ask, what fruits of peace on earth' have the ministers of either the Greek, the Roman, or the Protestant churches to show to the Lord at his coming; the answer is, NONE; and that in all these churches men called Christians have every where been slaughtering each other with a barbarity not exceeded by Mohammedans or Pagans; and the ministers of Christ have not only offered up prayers for the destruction of their brethren, but on the altars of the Prince of peace have following the practice of pagan Rome, hallowed the banners of war. Christians, instead of ceasing to learn war, with a refinement exceeding that of pagans, erect colleges to instruct youth in the art and science of human destruction upon mathematical and scientific principles; and Christian parents, at least many of them, instead of imbuing the minds of their children with pacific principles, are anxious to place them in those seminaries, as the high road to wealth and honor. They appear to forget that a reward of a more excellent nature is reserved for those who labor for peace."

Is it not humiliating that a minister of the Gospel should have need to be told, by a man who has spent his days in naval service, that war is inconsistent with the spirit and precepts of the Christian religion?

A JEW'S PROOF THAT JESUS WAS NOT THE MESSIAH.

IN September 1820, at Falmouth in England, a popular preacher was about to deliver a sermon "to promote the views of the Society for the Conversion of the Jews." Prior to the meeting the following paper was affixed to the door of the church, where the meeting was to be held :-

"Our Messiah, when he comes, will establish a system of mercy, and peace, and kindness upon earth; while among you, Christians, nothing but disputes, animosities, and cruelties mark your passage through the world. Possibly your religion sanctions these things; ours does not; for, with us, the goodness and beneficence, alone, of the Mosaic laws, constitute their grand authority, and proclaim aloud their emanation from a good and beneficent God. We want no better, we expect no better, until Messiah shall indeed come. Then, if the prophets of our sacred volume speak true, the conduct of man towards his fellows will be the reverse of what it is now. 'Every man shall then sit under his own vine and under his figtree. Nation shall no longer lift up his sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more: but the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the wolf

and the lamb feed together, and a little child shall lead them!" Has this happy period, this golden era of public peace and private love, ever yet been witnessed? Speak candidly, Christians! has it once been seen through the lapse of 1800 years? Your brother in the dust. ZECHER LACHORCAN."

"Tizri 5823."

This remarkable paper was copied by Captain Thrush, into one of his Letters to a Clergyman. He says it is supposed to have been written by a Jew, resident in Falmouth."

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Of all the arguments to prove that Jesus was not the predicted Messiah, perhaps there never was one more forcible than that which is now before us. That wars should cease and peace prevail under the reign of the Messiah, were events as clearly predicted, as his birth and ministry; but more than 1800 years have elapsed since the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, and yet the happy days of "peace on earth" have not been witnessed! Nay, during a considerable portion of that period, the nations of Christendom have been the most warlike of all the people on earth; and they have not been surpassed by either Mahometans, Pagans, or Savages, in learning war, and in their love of military glory. Now what answer can be given to the argument of the Jew, which will not imply that people in general, who have called themselves Christians, have been either apostates from the religion of Jesus Christ, or ignorant of its spirit and precepts?

The Jews who have not believed in Jesus, and have lived in expectation of a Messiah to come, have accounted for the long delay of his appearing, on the ground of their own transgressions, or the sins of their forefathers; and surely Christians bave no better ground than this, on which to account for the delay of the promised event, when "the nations shall learn war no more." During a great part of the 1800 years since the birth of Jesus, the Jews have been persecuted by Christians for their rejection of him as the Messiah. Yet this very conduct, and the wars of Christians with each other, and their wars with Pagans and Mahometans, have been a practical denial of the "Lord that bought them," or of the benign spirit of his religion, and perhaps more criminal in the sight of Heaven, than the unbelief of the Jews. Indeed such conduct on the part of Christians has had a direct tendency to confirm the Jews in their unbelief, and to prejudice the minds of Heathens and Mahometans against the Christian religion. The errors which justify war are fundamental; for they discard the spirit of the Christian system. Strip Christianity of its distinguishing features, meekness, forbearance, love, and peace, and what have we remaining worthy of peculiar admiration or esteem? The Gospel indeed opens a way of pardon and salvation by Jesus Christ; but it promises these blessings to the

pure in heart, the meek, the merciful, and the peace-maker. It does not, like Paganism and Mahometanism, encourage the cultivation and indulgence of the passions of hatred and strife, by promises of future glory and blessedness. Yet if the Jews, the Mahometans, and the Heathens, were to form their opinions of Christianity from the practice of Christian nations, the frequency of their wars, their expensive preparations for destroying one another, and the unbounded applauses which they give to military men; they would naturally suppose, that the Messiah was a renowned military chieftain, that the object of his mission was to perfect mankind in the science of human slaughter, and that the spirit of violence is the spirit of his religion! But when these unbelieving nations are told, that the Christian Messiah "came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them," that he was "meek and lowly of heart," forbearing and forgiving, and that he required all his disciples to be of the same spirit-not even rendering evil for evil; what opinion must they form of Christian nations? Must they not regard them as the most deluded or the most bypocritical of all the human race?

Deaths and Desertions

REMARKABLE FACTS.

"From a return lately presented to the House of Representatives, it appears that the number of deaths in the army of the United States for the last three years, ending the 30th of September last, was

The number of desertions for the same time

611.

2541."

Total 3152.

From this account it is very evident that American freemen, when subjected to military slavery, are apt to be discontented with their condition. Happy it will be for the world when this species of slavery shall have been abolished. If half our army die or desert in three years, the expense of recruiting must be great.

The Burmese War. The newspapers represent that of 4000 European troops employed in this war, 1700 died in hospitals:— that the destruction of human life in the course of the war has been enormous; and that Mr. Hume has said in Parliament, "All this was for the little island of Charpourie, which produced not a farthing of revenue--and for the plunder of an individual belonging to one of the British boats, by a native whom the government of Arracan were as anxious to hang as the British were!"

Reflecting on the course pursued by Britain in India, reminded me of what has been said by one of our countrymen of the Ro