by ballot, &c., apparently uncon- scious that they are pressed to the earth by ivar and mili- tary preparation. Let them rid themselves of these plagues, a;nd their taxes for the support of the Government, including all the appropriations for the maintenance of royalty in all its splendor, would be so trivial as to be scarcely perceptible. Does this statement excite the smile of increduUty ? We appeal to facts.
The average expenditure of the British Government for the six years ending with 1836, in- cluding interest on the National-Debt, "was £45,676,357 Now of this immense sum, there was paid for the civil expenses of the Government, only 4,387,214 Leaving, for military preparation and interest on the war-debt £41,289,143 Here we have disclosed the secret agent of those mighty upheavings which are causing the political world to reel to and fro hke a drunken man. Men are wasting their hves and energies in toil, yet eat not the fruit of their labor, for it is wrested from them and offered on the altar of Moloch. Yet they perceive not the' hand that robs them ; and vainly attribute their poverty to defective political institutions. Hence, revolution follows revolution in rapid succession, like the waves of a troubled sea, but no relief is found. Agriculture is interrupted, commerce droops, industry is paralyzed, and soldiers and taxes are multiplied. Mexico, our own country, and France, bear witness that monarchs and nobles are not the exclusive devotees of war. Under all forms of Government have the wealth, the morals and the happiness of the people been sacrificed with their- own consent, to their own insane admiration of glory, and their own foolish idea of the necessity of military preparation.
Let, then, the friends of human progress and of public peace, of happiness, and virtue, the patriot and the Christ- ian, all unite in one loud and unceasing demand for trea- ties of arbitration. In this blessed reform any nation may take the lead ; would that our own had seized the oppor- tunity offered- by the recent negotiation ! Let Congress by a joint resolution, express its desire that an arbitration clause shall be inserted in