, and can put down what is wrong without violence. Should the
wrong still return, we should have a right to say with the Apostle,
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof;" for meanwhile we should
"not have done evil that good may come." That "good" may come! nay,
that evil may be perpetuated; for what good, superior to the
alternatives denounced, is achieved by this eternal round of war and its
causes? Let us do good in a good and kind manner, and trust to the
co-operation of Providence for the result. It seems the only real way of
attaining to the very best of which our earth is capable; and at the
very worst, necessity, like the waters, will find its level, and the
equity of things be justified.

I firmly believe, that war, or the sending thousands of our
fellow-creatures to cut one another to bits, often for what they have no
concern in, nor understand, will one day be reckoned far more absurd
than if people were to settle an argument over the dinner-table with
their knives,--a logic indeed, which was once fashionable in some places
during the "good old times." The world has seen the absurdity of that
practice: why should it not come to years of discretion, with respect to
violence on a larger scale? The other day, our own country and the
United States agreed to refer a point in dispute to the arbitration of
the king of Holland; a compliment (if we are to believe the newspapers)
of which his majesty was justly proud. He struck a medal on the strength
of it, which history will show as a set-off against his less creditable
attempts to force his opinions upon the Belgians. Why should not every
national dispute be referred, in like manner, to a third party? There is
reason to suppose, that the judgment would stand a good chance of being
impartial; and it would benefit the character of the judge, and dispose
him to receive judgments of the same kind; till at length the custom
would prevail, like any other custom; and men be astonished at the
customs that preceded it. In private life, none but school-boys and the
vulgar settle disputes by blows; even duelling is losing its dignity.

Two nations, or most likely two governments, have a dispute; they reason
the point backwards and forwards; they cannot determine it; perhaps they
do not wish to determine; so, like two carmen in the street, they fight
it out; first, however, dressing themselves up to look fine, and pluming
themselves on their absurdity; just as if the two