124 
you the following extracts, not having hi- 
therto noticed this last plan for abolishing 
war hinted at by any of your corre- 
spondents, } 
- Mr. Thone, ina sermon from James 
iv. 1, 2, 3, * From whence ‘come wars 
and fightings amongst you,” &c. preached 
in the parish-church of Gowan, on the 
public Fast 1779, after describing the 
misery of countries become the theatre 
of war, in terms sufficiently pathetic to 
produce in the most unfeeling mind a 
dislike and aversion to the horrors thereby 
produced, proceeds thus, page 140, * Let 
me add, that it is very seldom that a 
prince or a kingdom gains any thing at all 
either money or territory, even by a suc- 
eessful war. They lust and have not, 
they kill and desire to have, and cannot 
obtain. On either side, let the war be 
ever so keenly entered into, let, the prin- 
cipal subjects be all a-stir, and grasping 
at the executive power from the sove- 
¥eign’s hands; let them levy many regi- 
meiits at an enormous expeuce ; letit be 
supposed that the war hath cost the lives 
of millions of brave men, and millions 
also of treasure; and that, in the dreary 
‘course of many tedious campaigns, many 
of the enemies being killed, and their 
treasure aiso exhausted, the war on one 
‘side is so far crowned with successes 
Let it be further supposed, that each of 
the parties hath conquered from its op- 
‘posite some. town, or some barren island, 
or equally barren territory ; yet, in the 
‘conclusion, it commonly happens that 
all things are agreed to be restored and 
settled on the same footing they were 
when the war began, ‘Look at the trea- 
ties of peace that have heen made in Eu- 
rope for above one hundred years past, 
and you will find that this, or something 
‘nearly. like this, is a preliminary article 
in the treaty. The high belligerent or 
contracting parties agree, that whatever 
‘any of them has conquered from the 
other, in the course of the war, shall be 
faithfully restored, and that every thing 
hall remain for ever in that same state 
in which it was when the war broke out. 
Ridiculous !*Why then did the war break 
out at all? What is now become of the 
elevated hopes, the loud boasting, and 
the proud expectations, of thorough suc- 
eess? Lhe mountain was in travail, was 
in hard labour, was vttering mighty 
groans, and not so much as one con- 
temptible reptile is produced. Why then, 
after so many instances of successless war, 
why venture to repeat tlie dangerous trial. 
This view of war. is so evidently ridicu- 
Extracts from Thone’s Fast Sermon 
[March 4, 
lous, that, many years ago, I have heard 
some able and enlightened people mainy 
tian, that the time would soon come when 
the princes of Europe, and their minis- 
ters, however weak and ignorant they 
may be supposed to be, (and weak and 
ignorant, it is said, many of them are, to 
an amazing deyree,) will so clearly per- 
ceive their interest, that they will finish 
all their differences by arbitration, or some 
other quiet means, without any longer 
entering into war; a state of things 
which I fear is rather to be wished than 
hoped for, Hitherto it would seem that 
the rulers of kingdoms do often kindle 
up the flames of war without knowing 
why, without having any special reason 
todo so. A long and bloody war was 
not long ago between Great Britain and 
France, and, upon a retrospective view 
of it, politicians and historians are, it 
scems, at aloss to tell what was the cause 
olit. Aukward children, when they meet 
in the street, or in the field, they perhaps 
for a Jittle look angrily at one another, 
then one of them reaches his neighbour 
a blow, which is soun returned—each of 
the two is joined by his friends—the cla~ 
mour rises on the green—hats fly off—~ 
the hair is pulled—faces are scratched— 
heads perhaps are broken—and coats and 
shirts are torn;—ina while they grow weary 
of givingand receiving blows, and leaving 
off the fray, they agree to live in peace. 
Kings and ministers of state are just big- 
grown children ; they are like the children 
I speak of, with this particular and un- 
happy difference, that, instead of fighting 
out the needless quarrels they have raised, 
betaking themselves to places of shelter, 
they hound out their innocent subjects 
to battle, and involve the nation they 
misgovern in bloodshed and expence, 
and, perhaps, by levies and by heavy 
taxes, first weaken it, and then gradually 
reduce it to absolute poverty, to utter 
ruin and.contempt.” 
He also adds, page 142, ‘* Whensoevee 
a war, even alawtul war, hath commenced, 
there are many unjust and cruel things 
done, done trom immemorial practice, 
some of which,perhaps. cannot be avoided. 
Tn war, it is usual to consider the. prince 
and hissubjectsas making only one person, 
and of course to conclude, that whatever 
injury the prince hath done, the subjects 
‘may be jusuy punished for it; and from 
this fiction the injured fall upon the sub- 
jects of the injurious prince by sea and 
fand, and either kill them, or strip them 
of all they have. Thisis at present, and 
hath. long been, for augut I know, the 
universad 
