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    and is now almost annihilated : you know these things only too well . Nor need I remind you , gentlemen , of the present exorbitant price—I do not say of luxuries- —but of necessaries— -of bread ! of which the numerous

    families which have been reduced , in spite of all that prudence or industry could do to prevent , from easy , if not affluent circumstances , to beggary ! Of the long , long lists of bankrupts which appear in every week ' s Gazette } of the thousands of artizans and manufacturers

    who are urilling to work , desirous of workings but who , through the failure in trade , are either without employment altogether , or can only obtain half work , and that at reduced wages ; and of the thousands more who are compelled to accept , and even solicit , the boon of charity ; while an equal

    number , reluctant to submit to this humiliation , are literally pining and perishing from want ! I say , Gentlemen , it is not necessary to remind you of these facts because it is impossible that you should forget them—they exist among ourselves —you see them every week , every day , and some , if not all , do more than see them— you feel them . But ,

    Gentlemen I ask , what is the cause of these calamities ? And I ask , not because it is difficult to trace them to their true origin : that we all know . It is the ¦ war—the portentous war in which we

    have unhappily been so long engaged , that has brought upon us this long catalogue of ills , and thousands more not mentioned : nor can any thing afford us effectual and permanent relief but peace SPKEDY PEACE !

    " That the restoration of peace will completely , and at once , remove all the calamities under which we groan , 1 do not assert : but there can be no doubt , I think , that it will completely remove the principal of them and considerably diminish the rest Let peace be restored , and I anticipate as the immediate consequerce , the revival of commerce , the REDUCTION OF PROVISIONS , AND

    PLENTY OF EMPLOYMENT FOR THE INDUSTRIOUS POOR : and possessing these primary and cardinal blessings , the remaining ill effects of war will be cheerfully borne . With the potent energies which this nation still possesses , her remaining weahh , her natural and political advantages , the intelligence , industry , enterprise , and public spirit of her gong , I cm * have

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    no doubt but that , on the return of peace , she will instantly rise from her present depression , and soon attain her former elevation . But if on the contrary , peace is denied us , and the present system of warfare be continued , what have we to look for , Gentlemen—the continuance of our present burdens , the augmentation of these burdens ! I am

    unwilling , Gentlemen , to excite unnecessary fears in the mind of any one ? but I cannot forbear saying , that if the present war system be continued much longer , I forebode a catastrophe too painful to be expressed ! Are we not imperiously called upon to put a stop to the horrors of war as soon as possible ? And is- not neutrality or supineness a disposition which , in a case of such immense

    magnitude and importance , we cannot justif y , and dare not indulge ? € ' It seemed proper , Gentlemen , to notice some of the natural effects of war , because they furnish a strong reason in favour of peace ; but let it not be imagined that these are the only , or the worst , effects of war . Extended and

    protracted warfare is productive of another class of evils , perfectly different in their nature , and which , though not so much thought ofy perhaps , as the former , are still more to be deprecated , since they are more directly opposed to our national safety and happiness—I refer

    to the moral , oj rather immoral , tendency of war . Not only all those who put on the military habit , and consider war as their profession , ( and the number of these at present is not small ) but thou- " sands besides who have nothing directly to do with the War , are in a moral

    respect materiall y affected by it . It is obvious then , Gentlemen , that a system of war , conducted on an extended scale , and protracted thiough a long succession of years , must very materially affect the moral character of the nation 3 and it requires no argument or reasoning at all Iq prove that its tendency in this view

    must be extremtly pernicious , originating , as it does , from the worst passions in human nature—ambition , avarice , and love of power 1 its only tendency on society must be to diminish the sum of public virtue , and increase and propagate

    vice . In many and various ways the immoral tendency of the war is but to © apparent ; it exalts expediency into tha place of equity , and leads men to prefejf that which is convenient or advantageou s to that which i * just . Patriotism , « r

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    66 Peace . —Proceedings at Leicester .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1813, page 66, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2424/page/66/