101 
the capital of a friendly power , and a predatory 
attack upon a neighbouring island. It matters not 
to us, (while the same principle operates in both cases) 
and if the human race is to be destroyed, whether it 
be effected in a wholesale way by the sweeping can¬ 
non, or individually by the insidious Assagaye—by 
well-disciplined armies opposed rank to rank, and 
coolly determined to make all the waste they can of 
the blood of their fellow-creatures—or by an indis¬ 
criminate multitude fighting without order or disci¬ 
pline, and murdering all who come within reach: 
war is war, and the pretexts that are urged in favour 
of it, will have no weight with us, while the principles 
in which it originates, are in opposition to those that 
ought to constitute the basis of national justice; and 
in passing our finger over the map of the world, we 
shall continue to inscribe Aceldama on every field 
without discrimination, that is polluted with the 
blood of the slain. We long for the period when 
the nations “ shall learn war no more”—when the 
inhabitants of the wwld “ shall beat their swords into 
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks 
and every step that indicates an approach to such a 
result, will be hailed by us with more delight, than 
the largest extention of national glory, acquired at 
the expense of thousands of lives. 
