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less scythe of the conscription. The car of Napoleon rolled indeed in triumph over conquered Europe:

"O'er shields, and helms, and helméd heads he rode
Of thrones and mighty dynasties prostrate;"

but the bleaching bones of his subjects strewed the pathway from the frozen clods of the north to the burning sands of Syria.

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We are safe from foreign invasion. What the most powerful state in Europe could not do in 1775, when our numbers fell short of three millions, is not likely to be attempted again, now that they have reached eight times that number, and are increasing with a rapidity which it makes the head giddy to calculate. No, sir, the wars which we have to dread wars, if any such, to chastise our sins, are lying in wait for us in the storehouse of Providence (a catastrophe which Heaven avert) — will be wars of aggression, or wars in which our foes will be those of our own political household. A higher than human wisdom has taught us, that every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and if ever this more than kingdom of ours, this imperial family of states, spread out between the two great oceans of the globe,

"Bridging the way, Europe with Asia joined,"

to gather as it were into her bosom the riches of both hemispheres and either sea, I say, sir, if this mighty family of states, in the Providence of God and by the madness of men, shall ever be divided against itself, it will be brought to desolation. Along this curiously indented frontier of neighboring states, fitted, dovetailed into each other, like the fingers of hands approaching in friendship, the line of demarcation will soon be run with blood and fire. Our mighty rivers, that bear the world's commerce east and west from the Atlantic coast to the interior, or which, sparkling down the continent from north to south, as if the great circles of the globe were chased in living silver along its surface, these stupendous rivers, which spring from arctic snows and pour into the

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sea beneath the tropics, will become like the rivers of the Old World, the Rhine and the Danube, the Euphrates and the Indus, the boundaries of alien and hostile races, whose eternal border wars have fixed upon their necks the eternal yoke of military despotism. This it was which, in the morning of the world, brought the beaming forehead of Asia-queen of nations, cradle of mankind to the dust. This it was that struck down the short-lived civilization of Greece and Rome, and overwhelmed it with a millennium, not of grace, but of barbarism. And if I read aright the signs of the times, it is this which is even now shaking the social system of continental Europe to its foundation. Is it not plain as day, if Germany on the one hand, and Italy on the other, had been united in well-compacted, constitutional confederacies, resting on an historical basis, cemented by a common national feeling, and possessing tribunals for the amicable adjustment of public controversies, instead of referring them to the bloody and abominable umpirage of war, that Hungary, and Lombardy, and Rome, and Sicily, instead of being trampled under the iron hoof of foreign and despotic power, might at this moment have been enjoying all the blessings of freedom and peace? And if we, blessed by the wisdom of our forefathers with such a safeguard against anarchy and wars, should rashly cast it away, what words of condemnation will adequately describe our folly?

The laws of human nature, like those of the physical universe, are the same in both hemispheres. Like causes will produce like effects. Our fathers, in the days that tried men's souls, grasped at a union of the colonies as the ark of their safety. They formed a union in the act of declaring their independence. They formed a union before they attempted a constitution. This was

"A hoop of gold to bind their brothers in,
That the united vessel of their blood,

Mingled with venom of suggestion,

As force per force the age will pour it in,
Should never leak though it do work as strong
As aconitum."

But I forbear, sir, to enlarge upon this all-important theme; and I offer you as a toast, in taking my seat,

THE NINETEENTH OF APRIL, 1775, AND THE PRINCIPLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM WHICH OUR FATHERS SEALED WITH THEIR BLOOD: MAY THEY BE PEACEFULLY DIFFUSED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, TILL EVERY HUMAN BEING SHALL PARTAKE THE BLESSING.

THE BIBLE."

MR PRESIDENT:

I HAVE cheerfully complied with the request that I would address the present meeting, although nothing would seem to be more superfluous in this community, than to recommend the distribution of the Bible. To say any thing new on the subject is hopeless; to repeat what has been better said before, unprofitable. It may be, however, that our reverence of the Bible is very much a traditionary sentiment; that we think it is a book which ought to be read and circulated, because our fathers thought so before us. It may be that our impressions on this subject are not those deep and distinct impressions which men form in reference to the important business affairs of life; and which we certainly ought to strive to form on this subject, if it be, as I firmly believe, vitally connected with the well-being of society, even in a temporal point of view; although this, of course, is the lowest ground on which we would wish to recommend the operations of the Bible Society to public favor.

For these reasons, sir, it may be useful from time to time to turn our thoughts to this subject; to ask ourselves why it is important that the Bible should be circulated, that it should be placed in the hands of every one that can read, and that all should be taught to read, if for no other reason, that they may be able to read the Bible; for such I take to be the principle of the Massachusetts Bible Society.

* A Speech made at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Bible Society in Boston, on the 27th of May, 1850, Simon Greenleaf, Esq., president of the society, in the chair.

It might be, perhaps, sufficient answer to this inquiry, to say that the Bible contains the records of our religion. Whatever reasons there are for our attachment to it, are so many reasons for circulating the Bible. If we wish Christianity to be extended; if we would give the widest possible jurisdiction to its law; if we would confer the blessing of its hopes and promises on the largest possible number; if we would infuse its elevating and purifying spirit more and more widely in the world, we must think it wise and proper, nay, natural and necessary, to diffuse these, its authentic records, as extensively as possible.

It may, however, be objected (for, if I mistake not, it has been) that this is unnecessary, and if unnecessary, even inexpedient, for the proposed end. It may be said that the diffusion of religious knowledge had better be left to the studies and ministrations of the clergy; that the maintenance of religion had better repose on the public offices and ordinances of the church; that it is not necessary nor desirable to make it a subject of indiscriminate popular inquiry and coöperation. Some such view of the subject is, I believe, entertained by the Roman Catholic church, though I say this with diffidence and under correction; for I have learned to place scarce any reliance on the judgments which the different communions. of Christians form of each other, however entire their good faith and honesty of purpose. But however this may be, no such objection to the circulation of the Scriptures is suggested by the principles which lie at the basis of our common Protestantism.

Nothing could be farther from my thoughts than to undervalue the importance of a learned and faithful clergy, or of the stated administration of the offices and ordinances of religion. But who will deny that, for their most effectual influence on the world, it is necessary that they should have a religiously instructed and a religiously disposed community to act upon? And I confess I know not whence this instruction and predisposition are to be hoped for, if not from the distribution of the Bible. I do not say that the possession of a copy of the Scriptures by a family will insure its being

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