h! far more!
Curdles the blood when Christian brothers strive,
And prostitute to wordy war the lips
Commissioned to dispense 'good will to man;'
And soothe the world with spoken kindness, soft,
And full of melody as song of birds.
O, sad betrayal of the highest trust!
Heralds of peace--to blow the trump of strife:
Envoys of charity--to sow the tares
Of hatred in a soil prepared for love.

Is this a time for soldiers of the cross
To point their weapons, each at other's breast,
When the great Enemy, the common Foe,
Though baffled, unsubdued, lays ever wait
For some unguarded pass, to cheat the walls
Not all his dread artillery could breach?
How is each lunge, and ward, of tart reproof,
And bitter repartee--painful to friends--
By th' Adversary hailed with general yell
Of triumph, or derision! O, my friends!
Believe me, lines of loving charity
Dishearten enemies, encourage friends,
And woo enlistment to your ranks, more sure
Than the best weapon of the readiest wit,
Whose point is venomed with the gall of scorn.

How wiser then, forbearing bitterness
At points of polity, or shades of faith
That different show to different-seeing eyes,
To shun perplexing doctrines which th' Allwise
Has willed obscure, and imitate HIS life;
HIS, the meek Founder of our faith, who sowed
HIS earthly way with blessings as with seed:
Bearing, forbearing, ever rendering good;
The Counsellor, the Comforter, the Friend:
How ope soe'er HIS word to various sense,
HIS _life_ is plain; and all that life was love:
Be this our guide, we cannot widely stray.

_March, 1844._

THE ENGLISH STATE TRIALS.

DURING THE POPISH PLOT.

The recent Irish State Trials seem to have been conducted on the part of
the government with something of the same violence and partiality that
dishonor the ancient records of Great Britain's criminal jurisprudence.
The exclusion of Roman Catholics from the jury was an arbitrary and
unwarrantable act; unjust in itself, disrespectful to the larger portion
of the Irish people, and calculated to destroy the moral effect of the
verdict, by producing the impression on the public mind that the prisoners
did not have a fair trial. We would not be understood as complaining of
the verdict. We do not see how, with a strict adherence to the law and to
the evidence, the jury could well have decided otherwise. It is the
eagerness to convict the pris