has been that He would hear and maintain our cause. We cannot but notice the unanimity of the English people upon the subject of the present war, as strongly indicative of the justness, and glory of our cause: no other nation possesses the same freedom of thought and action, as the people of England; no other state. presents such aspects of different opinions upon all minor points; and by no other commonwealth are the principles, and doings of Legislators discussed, censured, approved as by the subjects of Queen Victoria. We are divided in our views upon education, into schools wide as the poles asunder; we are broken up into factions upon political creeds; and as to religious forms and belief, we are just now in a ferment which no human power or wisdom can assuage or subdue; but upon this enterprize of defending the weak, and humbling the oppressor, we are one; all strife is hushed-we have entombed our mutual animosities, the flame of patriotism has fused all sentiments into one mass, and impelled the British people into one course. Royalty had no sooner declared war, than every class of the community echoed the sentiment. The announcement was received like the blast of the horn of some ancient chieftain by his trusty followers, ready at the accustomed signal, to do, to conquer, or to die; the nobility, with all the prestige of their name, and the chivalry of their ancestry, stepped forth in the enterprize; the middle classes have lent their sympathy, and opened their treasures, to supply the expenses of war; and the humbler orders have, with all the bravery of heart and strength of arm, joined the ranks of our battalions. In every aspect of the movement, we have remembered "the city," the character of our commonwealth; and the English people, heart, and hand, and head, have stepped forth in our own mission against aggression.

This great, grand, unanimous impulse, which has aroused the nation as one man, has been no blind, no headlong, impetuous feeling. There have been times in the history of a people, when a species of fanaticism has possessed, and inflamed every mind, when superstition has aroused every class, and impelled the community in one direction-the glory of arms has in too many instances dazzled with its glare, and been the potent spell to awaken to daring and to bravery. Time was when the spoils of conquest were the spring of action,-rest and luxury the goal of an ignorant and infatuated soldiery; but none of these influences have gathered the hosts of Britain in the present enterprize. No fanatic zealot has been commissioned to preach a crusade, and promise heaven to those who might fall upon the field of battle. The love of arms is not now prominent in the breast of any Englishman-the spirit of chivalry has given way before the advance of the arts of peace. Our soldiers have no prospect of pillage-their hands are unstained by the plunder of the conquered. No, higher feelings, loftier motives, actuate and nerve the breasts of our forces: there is the absence of all that has disgraced the past, and the presence of those great principles which are the mainspring of England's progress, and the secret of her stability and glory. The war in its origin, its movement, and its prospects, bears upon it the character of the English mind; it is in harmony with the spirit of the age, and in keeping with the forward position of the Saxon race. We have had respect to the city, the constitution which heaven has chosen, and will sustain our character in all the eventualities and issues of the war.

Whatever features may distinguish our national character, they have been brought out in the present enterprize. When the honour of our statesmen was

assailed, and the European nations thought for a moment that Britain had acceded to the designs of Russia, and would share with her the spoils of an inglorious conquest; the integrity of our legislators came out untarnished; and every enlightened people became still more enamoured of our national rectitude. How patient! how slow to commence hostilities, even against the treacherous and vaunting foes! All that negociation could do to settle the question, and spare the life-blood of many a gallant heart, was done, but in vain; all that private entreaty, the memory of our former friendship, the pictured woes of a terrible war were unavailing: and in no part of the entire history of these events do we more admire the conduct of the English senate and people, than in that calm and majestic forbearance towards the northern autocrat, prior to the commencement of hostilities; during the period commerce moved on as usual; no national animosity was allowed, the entire conduct of Britain was like the genial influence of spring; and might have melted down the frozen determination of the Czar, as the mild advances of the vernal sun chase away the horrors of his northern winter. If we have preserved the moral character of our nation since the struggle has commenced, we know too well that the ancient name of our arms has been more than sustained. We might have feared that the honors of past victories had induced too much confidence in a name, or that the peace of forty years might have made us negligent of the arts of war; or that with the funeral of our Wellington we had entombed the genius of British generalship; but the results of the past months have shewn that quietude has not rusted the spirit of our soldiery, that the security of our own territories has not weakened the nerves of our armies, and though the hero of the Peninsula, the conquorer of Napoleon has gone, there are

heads above the sod which can direct a campaign, hearts still impulsive with patriotism, and hands which can win our nation honors as rich and as unfading as the past.

There is one feature in the conduct of our armies which particularly commends itself to the mind of a Christian; and which shines out conspicuously in contrast to the cruelty of our enemies; that melting pity, that tender solicitude for the wounded and the dying, both friends and foes. That terrible courage of the British heart which kindles into flame in the midst of contest: and impels our warriors in fiery masses of living valor upon their adversaries, can melt into pity at the wreck and ruin it has wrought, and the lion-hearted soldier becomes the lamb-like attendant upon the helpless and the dying; but how true is this with our national character; that heroism which no difficulties can subdue, no danger appal, is hushed within the breast, and the warrior stoops to lift the subdued and bleeding from the dust, or solemnly to entomb the shattered bodies of his foes. Throughout the events of the present war in the rush of battle, or amid the desolation of the field terribly won, the heart of the the Englishman has ever been exhibited, and the honors of the father-land have been most jealously sustained. In our present enterprize we move forward in our mission imbued with the spirit of our ancient character-the presiding and guiding genius of our steps. The struggles through which we ourselves have passed, teach us to sympathize with those people and nations now tried with similar dangers; the great principles which sustained us during the ordeal, gave us freedom, and made us great, we can feelingly and freely commend to others. The mission of England is now distinctly seen to be associated with the emancipation and advancement of every nation under heaven. The exiled patriots of the Continent hang

their harps upon the willows by our streams, and hymn their lamentations in our freedom, and in the accents of our language the wail of the slave reaches our land, excites our feelings; and the pity we afford is the dawn, the day-star of his liberty. The imprisoned for the sake of conscience, those in bonds for Christ turn their gaze towards England, their cry enters into our ears, and the voice of our remonstrance like the trumpet blast of Israel's Jubilee unbolts their prison-doors, snaps their fetters and bids them walk forth in freedom. And nations struggling to regain their liberty know to what people to look, what help to seek, whose wisdom can direct, and what wing can afford them shelter and protection. England has become the terror of evil doers, and the praise of them that do well. We have dwelt the longer upon our national character in order to show that the same aspects have been exhibited, and the same results achieved, in those wars in which England has engaged; there has been the same spirit, the same feeling after freedom, the same struggle for liberty, the same intelligent contest with oppression, for the truth and the right. Our sovereigns have proclaimed battle for the wronged, our senators have brought their wisdom to clear up the perplexities of clashing interests, and pointed out the just and the right; the great masses of our people have curtailed their luxury, and even pined in necessity for the benefit of other nations; our warriors have shed their blood in a cause not only just but merciful, and breathed away their spirits for the weal of other people.

We can distinctly trace the salutary effects of the past war, and point out the impression the English character has produced upon every nation in Europe. Who that is at all conversant with past events, but must see the grand results of our great contest and grand achievement: the