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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
oKthe&&& ^* - lApdHf fee s « € e ^ e | b p hk ofcjeci ^ Wp * lal « JfiMf -wly j ^ vcSle * f < the Cboktian charapteri' - ~ - P . 22 . In Jp * tte * Ht $ 9 irv Thrush treats « On ttie Ite&l Causes of War /* -wMeh $ re ^ M-publ 1 c fl eltisi ^ i with re ^ ani to national ln > ata * r ; malevolent passions ¦
of rulers ; ' standing' armies , which create a military profession ; education in Heathen rather than GhriMian principles \ the sanction giveil to the vearlike ^ character by eminent authors and popular divines ; the high estimation in which women of all ranks hold
the military ; soine of the generally received doctrines <> f religion , particularly those of Calvio ; political religious establishments ; and wars themselves , which are prolific , and produce one another " with a
certainty as underrating * as that of seed sown producing a crop . " We have here some very just remarks upon the moral , tendency of the amiable Fenelon ' s Telernaahus and some
severe , but not acrimonious , strictures upon a passage of Mrs . H . More ' s Practical Piety , in which this distinguished and estimable writer speaks of public thanksgivings for national blessings .
A too fruitful theme is discussed in Letter IV ., " On the Physical Evils of War . " The author first adverts to the cost of war , using here the argumentum ad hominem , his friend to whom the Letters are addressed , being apolitical economist of the school of Mr . Mai thus ; and next gives a heartsickening detail of the atrocities
committed and the miseries endured in the campaigns of Russia and Spain , during the late war . He thinks that no one can survey this picture of " the abomination of desolation / ' without a loat hing of the evil which he describes .
Letter V . is " On the Moral Evils ° * War , " which Mr . Thrush considers ™ be mainly those that " spring from toe breach or neglect of the sacred ordinance of marriage . '' Hi a views on ^ subject are somewhat new ar >| entitled to deep attention . He ^< s upon British females to convv } i tlm matter , and "to decide nether war , as an enemy to conrr i Uty and affection , does not i' ^ ice evils similar to those which Ibe from polygamy or savage life . "
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Who tm tfe % & # pmem ^ s * hri , ttot children W fi * &fr & £ & ; brought"iip trader de ^ ad ^ cf in 6 ^ rs , will partake of the mother ' s cfeamc ter" ?
The subject is continued in Letter VI ., in which Mr . Thrush dwells particularly upon the evils arising- from the Impressment of Seamen . Tbese are many and great , and their eworinity , in this gentleman ' s opinion , will put an end to the practice .
< c Is it to be imagined that a cmtom , infinitely more galling and degrading than feudalism , will endure for ages after the feudal system has disappeared , and that it will stand the shock of civil and religious knowledge , which is rapidly spreading among all classes of mankind ?
Impressment was suited to the barbarous times in -which it originated , —times , when the commanders of ships were about as ignorant as their crews now are . Is it to be expected , that , when knowledge breaks the fetters imposed by ignorance , seamen will fight for laws or
legislators that afford them no protection in return ? The present system is one of imminent danger , and no lover of his country can look back to our naval history in 1797 , without entertaining a conviction , that the safety of a nation depending upon an armed force , supplied
by impressment , rests upon a quick-sand In that year , the force which has , foi ages , been considered as the foundation of our national safety and honour , was nearly , and at a very critical period , proving the cause of our downfall . This ought never to be lost sight of by the
advocates of impressment ; and I trust I am not inconsistent in considering its existence as a very great political , as well as moral evil . It has already caused seamen to expatriate themselves by thousands , and even to fight against
the country that gave them birth . It renders them desperate and ferocious ; and , as outcasts , deprived of hope and protection from any laws , they become fitted for piracy , or the worst of crimes . "—Pp . 72 , 73 .
He meets ( p . 7 $ ) the objection of his friend , " How it happens that the moral and religious character of our nation has so greatly improved during the l ^ st century , a Iar # e part of which
we have been engaged in war , if a state of warfare is so very destructive of religion and morality ?* ' As far us the statement is true , he explains it by the unexampled increase of knuw-
Untitled Article
B ^ M ^^^ fwA ^ on tW t&itaiftfirfkgss of Ww . Wi
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1826, page 553, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2552/page/45/
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