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    invading those prerogatives , which , from infancy , we have been accustomed to respect . It is presuniptuous , we are informed , in the private Christian , to form an opinion of the justice

    and policy of any war in which the government of his country may engage . It is presumptuous even to reprobate war in general , or to use efforts for the diffusion of pacific principles . He who thus exerts his influence in the circle of his own

    connexions is guilty , it appears , of an overt act , or , if 1 may be allowed the epithet , a prospective act of insubordination ; because the principles so disseminated may hereafter lead , in particular instances , to a disapprobation of the measures of government ,

    with reference to some foreign war . But this is surely a refinement of loyalty which the most consummate politicians have never yet thought it necessary to inculcate ; namely , that every good subject must not only obey the laws , and pay the requisite

    contributions towards the exigencies of the state , but cordially approve of every public measure ; or , which Avould , perhaps , be equally laudable , he must never presume to form , much less to express an opinion on matters so much above his comprehension .

    Whether the comprehension of subjects in general be really so limited as X . Y . Z . appears to imagine , this is not the proper place to inquire . Admitting the correctness of his opinion , it is certainly alarming to

    observe the general want of humility in all classes of the community . Granting , however , that a good subject ought , on all occasions , to esteem the wars of his country just and necessary wars , what should be the sentiments

    of the good subjects of a hostile state , with reference to their side of the argument and the contest ? A hostile state , however unprincipled in its opposition to the views of our own government , may undoubtedly have some good subjects , and we may be

    permitted to speculate for a moment on their duty , as well as to understand our own . If the subjects of our political antagonist reason on our own principle , will the conclusion in both cases be equally correct ? Or supposing them to have recourse to the loyal expedient of not thinking at all

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    about the matter , and to follow the standard of their sovereign from a principle of blind allegiance , are these the men whom , a humane and Christian , people are to regard as public

    criminals , and whose slaughter is to be justified on the same principle which consigns notorious offenders against the laws of civil society , to the pain and ignominy of a public execution ?

    On this part of the subject I am anxious to guard against a misconstruction of ray meaning , I beg leave to state , that my remarks are general ; that they have no particular reference to the wars of the present reign ; that I intend no allusion to any set of

    pub-He men , or any public measures . I am far from commending , or even apologizing for the vehemence of popular clamour , or the intemperan . ee of party politics . But it is a fact , that we live in a country where the measures of administration are freely

    canvassed ; and it is equally certain , that a judicious and enlightened government will necessarily be influenced in its proceedings by the general voice of the people , without any at * tempt on the part of that people to overawe its measures , much less to

    oppose a forcible resistance to its law * fill authority . Why should we then regard with jealousy the efforts of those who are seeking- to improve the tone of public sentiment , and to regulate it by the standard of unerring truth ? If the subjects of a free state

    will form a judgment , and express their opinions on public affairs , ( and who will undertake to prevent it ?) it certainly is not the part of sound policy , lo withhold from them any means of information , or to intercept an influence which could be exerted

    only in favour of humanity and justice . But it is asserted , moreover , that the precepts of Christianity are not applicable to states and political

    bodies . Are states arid political bodies to be regarded , theft , as super-human either iu whole or in part , or by what means are they raised superior to the authority of a Divine Lawgiver ? I must confess my inability to attain the sublimity of your Correspondent's conceptions , or , in other words , to unravel the confusion of his ideas on

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    An Apology for the Peace Society * 509

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1818, page 509, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2479/page/37/