them its inevitable attendant, servile wars. Those of Eunus and Spartacus desolated Italy and Sicily, and presented the singular spectacle of great and successful battles, fought by the oppressed against their oppressors. The Consuls were defeated, and Rome was in imminent peril. A million of lives are said to have been lost in these contests. Thus warlike conquests, with slavery and ill-gotten wealth, by their internal effect, destroyed the manly energy and virtue of the Romans-their habits of industry, their liberty, and their morals.

At the Christian era, about two thousand rich proprietors owned all Italy, and extensive possessions in the Provinces; and the Plebeians were a miserable populace, fed and amused by gladiatorial shows, at the expense of State. The corruption and depravity of all orders were complete. During his Dictatorship, Julius Cæsar wisely issu ed an ordinance, commanding one third of the labor of Italy to be done by freemen, but the swords of the conspirators Brutus, Cassius, and their fellow assassins, defeated this last effort to restore the industry and prosperity of Italy. So great was the corruption and debasement of the Romans, that they passed easily and naturally under the yoke of the Cæsars and their imperial successors. From this period, the Roman empire, and the Byzantine, which sprung from it, exhibited

- all the wickedness, cruelty, and degradation of the dying commonwealth-thus illustrating the truth, that the vices of nations are necessarily transmitted by example and education to posterity, even to remote generations. In the fifth century of our era, Alaric, with an army of Goths, and forty thousand Roman slaves, entered and sacked Rome, plundering, pillaging, and enslaving the people. He followed the Roman precedents at Carthage, Syracuse, Numantia, and Corinth, but more humanely, and with a touch of mercy.

Afterwards, Genseric, with his Vandals, having taken Carthage, rebuilt by Augustus as a Roman colony, came to Rome and sacked her, carrying back to Carthage the Roman queen and enslaved Romans, with a rich booty, part of the world's plunder, to which the African city had of old contributed. Attila, the Hun, also scourged Italy with his Scythian hosts. These three avengers of insulted humanity, and the slaves of Alaric's army, visited upon the Italians the evils of slavery and war, and treated Rome as she had done conquered nations. The Roman empire of the west perished by the sword in the fifth century, having been already consumed by the vices flowing from war and servitude. The Byzantine empire prolonged a sickly and corrupt existence until the fifteenth century, when Constantinople surrendered

to the armed hosts of the Crescent-and the Turks sword in hand, seized upon this decayed State, which had always exhibited the vices of the imperial city of Rome.

Thus Turkish slavery was established over Greece and Macedonia, while Italy became a prey to the barbarians, and felt in her turn, brute force, servitude, and wrong. Italy has been trodden down by foreign armies, from the time of Alaric and Genseric, until Napoleon swept over it with the victorious armies of France. He carried away her wealth, her Pope, and her works of Italian and Grecian art. The iron heel of Austria now tramples on Italy. For centuries Italy has been ground into the dust by papal and royal despotism.

Greece was made to taste the slavery she had forced on others. She was invaded, and ravaged by Gothic, Venetian, and other hostile armies. When she fell, at last, under Ottoman dynasty, a black eunuch of the harem became the despotic governor of the classic city of Minerva-and a blighting slavery was fastened upon the Greeks, from which they have lately escaped. They are not yet free, having a royal master imposed upon them by the Holy Alliance.

In this review of antiquity, so far as facts are well authenticated, we find that war, violence, and

injustice, have, by the laws of our being, and by an inevitable necessity, swept ancient nations with the besom of destruction.

We come now to an investigation of modern history, and here we find the same causes producing the same effects. The Christian religion, aided by the Printing Press, has partially taught the duty of preserving peace, and unfolds to us the truth, that peace, justice, and benevolence are the only sure basis of national prosperity. So far as pure christian knowledge has extended, it has carried healing on its wings and heavenly hope.

We shall very briefly illustrate the waste of life, wealth, and happiness, among modern nations by wars, and their destruction of the morality and security of nations.

History informs us, that Europe during the dark ages, was given over to the iron rule of force, which Cicero declares an argument adapted to brutes and not to men. During this dark period, arbitrary power in church and state, bore down freedom of thought and action. The popes, kings, and barons, claimed to own the lives, liberties, properties, thoughts, and souls of men. Mental and corporeal vassalage seemed complete, as the successive popes assumed to be the grand almoners of heaven's bounty to fallen man, and as the kings and barons held feudal service due to them

from the people, who in return received a precarious protection from their leige lords.

The feudal system was a rude principle of order in the midst of confusion-and the church hierarchy, though imperfectly imbued with the doctrines of Christ, and but partially influenced by them, presented the first example of a government reposing itself upon the mind and moral sense of man. The feudal system and the church were suited to ameliorate this rude condition, and their influence during the middle ages produced order in some degree, and partially moderated the violence of the times. The hierarchy soon became the superior power, the ruler of the Christian states of Europe-by its aristocratic organization-its possession of the municipal authority of the cities of the fallen Roman empire-its great wealth-its monopoly of ancient learning, and the moral influence of Christianity.

Forgetful of the peaceful doctrines of the gospel, the popes preached the crusades-threw aside the olive branch of the Prince of Peace, and poured the kings and armed hosts of Europe upon the East. What a demonstration of the moral power. of the papacy?

This great abuse of Christianity was visited by disaster and defeat-cost a million of livesexhausted the wealth of Europe, and devastated the East.