'Years passed on, and saw them thriving in worldly substance beyond their neighbours, yet beloved by all. From them the lawyer and the constable obtained no fees. The sheriff stammered and apologised when he took their hard-earned goods in payment for the war-tax. They mildly replied: "Tis a bad trade, friend. Examine it in the light of conscience, and see if it be not so.” But while they refused to pay such fees and taxes, they were liberal to a proverb in their contributions for all useful and benevolent purposes. At the end of ten years, the public lands which they had chosen for their farms were advertised for sale by auction. According to custom, those who had settled and cultivated the soil were considered to have a right to bid it in at the government price, which at that time was one dollar twenty-five cents per acre. But the fever of land speculation chanced then to run unusually high. Adventurers from all parts of the country were flocking to the auction, and capitalists in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston were sending agents to buy up western lands. No one supposed that custom or equity would be regarded. The first day's sale shewed that speculation ran to the verge of insanity. Land was eagerly bought in at seventeen, twenty-five, and forty dollars

an acre.

'The Christian colony had small hopes of retaining their farms. As first settlers, they had chosen the best lands; and persevering industry had brought them into the highest cultivation. Its market value was much greater than the acres already sold at exorbitant prices. In view of these facts, they had prepared their minds for another remove into the wilderness, perhaps to be again ejected by a similar process. But on the morning that their lot was offered for sale, they observed with grateful surprise that their neighbours were everywhere busy among the crowd begging and expostulating -"Don't bid on these lands! These men have been working hard on them for ten years. During all that time they never did harm to man or brute. They are always ready to do good for evil. They are a blessing to any neighbourhood. It would be a sin and a shame to bid on their lands. Let them go at the government price.' The sale came on; the cultivators of the soil offered one dollar twenty-five cents, intending to bid higher if necessary. But among all that crowd of selfish, reckless speculators, not one bid over them. Without one opposing voice, the fair acres returned to them! I do not remember a more remarkable instance of evil overcome with good. The wisest political economy lies folded up in the maxims of Christ.

'With delighted reverence,' says Mrs Child, 'I listened to this unlettered backwoodsman as he explained his philosophy of universal love. "What would you do,” said I, “if an idle, thieving vagabond came among you, resolved to stay, but determined not to work?" "We would give him food when hungry, shelter him when cold, and

always treat him as a brother." "Would not this process attract such characters? How would you avoid being overrun with them?" "Such characters would either reform, or not remain with us. We would never speak an angry word, or refuse to minister to their necessities; but we would invariably regard them with the deepest Aadness, as we would a guilty but beloved son. This is harder for the human soul to bear than whips or prisons. They could not stand it: I am sure they could not. It would either melt them, or drive them away. In nine cases out of ten, I believe it would melt them." I felt rebuked for my want of faith, and consequent shallowness of insight. That hard-handed labourer brought greater riches to my soul than an eastern merchant laden with pearls.'.

To this day, when a civilised people go into a savage country to form settlements in it, they do not in general take much care to conciliate the natives. Either they take the land from them by force, or they do not bargain for it in such a way as to satisfy the original people; and thus the hostility of these rude beings is secured at the very first. Where a satisfactory arrangement has not been made at first, the settlers are almost sure to fall sooner or later into disputes with the natives. These they seek to determine by the law of force; and thus wars arise, which are sure to retard their progress, and occasion them great misery. An invariable course of justice and kindness, and a total abstinence from warlike practices, would have a very different effect, as was proved in the noble instance of William Penn and his followers when they founded the state of Pennsylvania.

Penn, who was one of the society of Friends or Quakers, went to America in the reign of Charles II., determined to deal with the Indians as he would with any of his own people. To quote Mr Montgomery's volume: 'He bought their land, and paid them; he made a treaty with them, and observed it; and he always treated them as men. As a specimen of the manner in which he met the Indians, the following instance is very striking. There were some fertile and excellent lands which, in 1698, Penn ascertained were excluded from his first purchase; and as he was very desirous of obtaining them, he made the proposal to the Indians that he would buy those lands if they were willing. They returned for answer that they had no desire to sell the spot where their fathers were deposited; but, 'to please their father Onas,' as they named Penn, they said that he should have some of the lands. This being decided, they concluded the bargain, that Penn might have as much land as a young man could travel round in one day, 'beginning at the great river Cosquanco (now Kensington), and ending at the great river Kallapingo (now Bristol);' and as an equivalent, they were to receive a certain amount of English goods. Though this plan of measuring the land was of their own selection, yet they were greatly dissatisfied with it after it had been tried; for the young

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Englishman chosen to walk off the tract of land, walked so fast and far as to greatly astonish and mortify them. The governor observed this dissatisfaction, and asked the cause. "The walker cheated us," said the Indians. Ah, how can that be?" said Penn. “Did you not choose yourselves to have the land measured in this way?" "True," replied the Indians; "but white brother make a big walk.” 'Some of Penn's commissioners waxing warm, said the bargain was a fair one, and insisted that the Indians ought to abide by it; and if not, should be compelled to it. Compelled!" exclaimed Penn; "how can you compel them without bloodshed? Don't you see this looks to murder?" Then turning with a benignant smile to the Indians, he said: "Well, brothers, if you have given us too much land for the goods first agreed on, how much more will satisfy you?"

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'This proposal gratified them; and they mentioned the quantity of cloth and the number of fish-hooks with which they would be satisfied. These were cheerfully given; and the Indians, shaking hands with Penn, went away smiling. After they were gone, the governor, looking round on his friends, exclaimed: "Oh, how sweet and cheap a thing is charity! Some of you spoke just now of compelling these poor creatures to stick to their bargain; that is, in plain English, to fight and kill them, and all about a little piece of land."

'For this kind conduct, manifested in all his actions to the Indians, he was nobly rewarded. The untamed savage of the forest became the warm friend of the white stranger. Towards Penn and his followers they buried the war-hatchet, and ever evinced the strongest respect for them. And when the colony of Pennsylvania was pressed for provisions, and none could be obtained from other settlements-which scarcity arose from the increasing number of inhabitants not having time to raise the necessary food-the Indians cheerfully came forward and assisted the colony by the fruits of their labours in hunting.'

It

When the French took possession of what is now the colony of Algeria, it was by force of arms. The war which they carried on for this purpose was attended by frightful evils on both sides. The villages of the natives were destroyed, thousands of the French troops perished, and a vast sum of money was expended annually, with but a doubtful prospect of ultimate benefit to France. is a most fatal plan thus to go into the country of a half-barbarous people with arms in our hands. It will be found that the true means of conciliating such a people is to appeal to the gentler feelings, of which the merest savages have their share, as well as the most civilised nations. It is very common, when such a doctrine is advanced, for persons to say: 'Oh, that is all well-meaning enthusiasm it has not experience in its favour experience proves quite the contrary.' But this is far from being true; for, while we

have numberless cases to prove the obstruction which force creates for itself, we have also some which shew that gentle means have a contrary tendency. There are only fewer illustrations of the power of gentleness than of the slow efficacy of the law of force, because gentleness has been so seldom tried. But in those instances where it has been tried, and fully carried out, it has usually succeeded brilliantly. Few, we believe, are aware that the very commencement of the British empire in India was laid, not in an example of the law of force, but of that of gentleness. The Company had struggled for forty years for liberty to make a permanent settlement and build a factory, but in vain. At length this was obtained from the native princes by Dr Boughton, a physician, in gratitude for the successful exertion of his medical skill amongst them. They could resist everything but the appeal of humanity. We have seen the British power since then spread over nearly the whole of Hindustan ; and history would probably make it appear as chiefly the result of certain battles, followed by treaties. But while these means have certainly been attended by certain definite effects, there has also been a less visible, though powerful agency at work, in as far as the English have proved mild and just superiors, and exemplified before the eyes of the natives the maxims of humanity. A bright illustration of the power of humane deeds over a people in a situation analogous to that of the Hindus, was presented some time ago in the consequences attending the establishment of an ophthalmic hospital at Canton, in 1835, by Mr Parker, an American missionary. The principle on which this hospital was founded is kindness-to heal the afflicted without expense to them. At first, only the lower orders came for relief; but gradually, as the fame of the institution spread abroad, men of the upper ranks came also. In the first two years, upwards of two thousand persons were treated, many of whom experienced benefit. The effect of this in doing away with the prejudices of the Chinese was most remarkable; our national name acquired a respect which the victories of terror could never have produced. One man of rank, to whom sight was restored, could scarcely be withheld from worshipping the kind-hearted missionary. When England possesses such ample means of this kind for conciliating the nations with whom our commerce brings us into connection, is it not a pity that they are not more used?

LOVE IS POWER-IN SITUATIONS OF COMMAND.

The greater power of love than of fear in maintaining command is beginning to be acknowledged. In former times, command was kept up in the army and navy almost wholly by the terror of severe punishment. The lash, the black-hole, and other barbarous and degrading inflictions, were the main trust of the officers for maintaining discipline. In the whole conduct of the officers to the private

men there was no trace of kindly feeling. The cane was liberally used in drilling; and it was thought indispensably necessary, in speaking to a soldier, to swear at him. The effect of this treatment was to degrade the men, and make them the more frequently liable to punishment. In fact, the treatment and its consequences acted and reacted upon each other, until, in many unfortunate cases, a regiment or a ship would become nearly useless to the service.

These facts are strongly stated in a book, written by one well acquainted with military affairs-Mr Henry Marshall.* He quotes from the work of an old officer, published in 1761, the following just sentiments: 'Abuse deadens the heart; kindness wins the affections. Threatenings infuse into the obdurate bosom a callous indifference; whilst calm admonition sucks the sting from the most hardened mind. Severity creates hatred-mercy, love. I have known private and parental admonitions by commanding officers wean the most desperate dispositions, on which severity had exercised its greatest power, without reforming: each blow of retribution stole from the heart the few remaining sparks of manhood, and the debased individual at last fell like a brute into the grave. Kindness will ever be found the best antidote to crime-severity its most active source.

The same old officer tells us an anecdote which forcibly illustrates the superior power of gentle methods. It refers to a man of bad habits, upon whom punishment had been found to have no effect. 'The commander observing that, notwithstanding all his vices, he possessed some valuable qualifications, resolved to try another mode than whipping. It was not long before he had an opportunity of putting his scheme into execution; for the next fault, instead of being punished, to the fellow's great surprise he appointed him sergeant! This opened his eyes; he applied himself diligently to his duty, and became as remarkably sober and good as he had been the contrary before.'

It is not surprising to hear Mr Marshall stating, as an observation made by many excellent officers, 'that those regiments in which flogging has been least practised have been the best behaved. A low degree of discipline not unfrequently exists with a high degree of flogging-a circumstance which shews that the fear of the lash is precarious, little to be trusted, and will not stand the test of temptation.' 'Real improvement,' says Mr Marshall, 'consists in the formation of better and purer principles, and a realisation of them in the life and conduct-a result which cannot be obtained without self-respect, and without a prospect of some portion of happiness coming along with it. It is difficult, therefore, to perceive the wisdom of confining men long in a "black-hole -a place where soldiers are rarely, if ever, reformed, where the health of persons of a nervous temperament may be destroyed, the spirits prostrated, the intellect

Military Miscellany; comprehending a History of Recruiting in the Army, Military Punishments, &c. By Henry Marshall, F.R.S.E. London: John Murray. 1846,