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unfeeling; and then Duroc never weeps!" His tyrant passions were completely at variance with true magnanimity. Moral greatness is of a nature too simple, modest, holy, and heavenly, to make itself for one hour the theme, the gaze, and the wonder of a dazzled, deluded, infatuated world! His doctrine was that

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Friendship is but a name." "As to me," said he, "it is all one; I well know that I have no true friends. While I remain what I am, I can make as many of thein as I like, in appearance."* He spoke the truth, as the experiment bore witness. Such was the man of blood, at whose name nations trembled; the man who fought and won nearly fifty pitched battles :

"Nor till his fall could mortals guess

Ambition's less than littleness!

Nor think that God's fair world had been
The footstool of a thing so mean!
Oh! ne'er may tyrant leave behind
A brighter name to lure mankind !"

But in the midst of indignation, let me not be unjust. I have no wish, and, in addressing you, Sir, it were vain to attempt to conceal the fact, honourable to the warrior, that at times he had his misgivings. A feeling of compunction has been known to wring from him the confession that human havoc was an act of doubtful merit. "Is it worth while," he would say, "to desolate the world for so slight a memorial ?”* On the day after a battle, as he rode over the field, and beheld the horrid havoc which surrounded him, reason and humanity would for a moment gain the ascendency; and he would say to his attendants, "What is war? A trade of barbarians!" This extraordinary man was, in fact, aware that his own immortality would turn less upon his warlike than upon his peaceful achievements. He knew that the military star was but a meteor, and that in all past ages like

Bourienne, vol. ii. r. 28.

† Ibid, vol. ii. r. 208.

a meteor it had risen, and, like a meteor, had fallen. You will recollect his expression, "I have framed and carried into effect a code of laws that will bear my name to the most distant posterity. My code alone, from its simplicity, has been more beneficial to France than the whole mass of laws which preceded it." Thus he frankly disclosed his full conviction that the glory of the useful lawgiver was more durable than that of the most brilliant conqueror. The great American statesman, Webster, puts this point well, in the following words: " Of the ten thousand battles which have been fought; of all the fields fertilized with carnage; of the banners which have been bathed in blood; of the warriors who had hoped that they had risen from the field of conquest to a glory as bright and durable as the stars, how few that continue long to interest mankind!" This witness is true. The moral benefits which Napoleon conferred, directly and indirectly, upon France and other countries-for, apart from his military misdeeds, you will agree with me that such benefits were numerous, various, and great-will be remembered for centuries to come, and rehearsed to his honour, when all his bloodstained glories have vanished like a vision of the night.

But, Sir, if such be the superiority of the legislatorial to the military character, how shall we estimate that of the missionary? His case must be dealt with absolutely; comparison with either of them would be almost preposterous; he stands alone in his glory. In what ever light the missionary character may be viewed, it is one of shining, unmixed, and ever-during excellency. It is fast becoming the great and leading character of our times. It has already quite eclipsed every other, and its glories are yet but rising. What, then, will be its meridian splendour? The promotion of civilization must henceforth be the great business of all nations, and in that business the missionary must be the prime agent. All things are ready. Maritime discovery is

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nearly complete inland research is also far advanced. The printing press is brought to a state of great perfection; the science of mechanics has advanced with giant strides; and the extension of steam power, from railways, rivers, coasting, to universal navigation, has triumphed over space both on land and water. Literature, in all its branches, has been enriched by the genius of ten thousand generous and gifted minds. Education, too, has largely shared in the general progress. The word of God is translated into all the leading languages of our world. All this, Sir, is done.

What then remains?. The application of the mighty whole to the real improvement of mankind. Who is to open up the way for the operative, the schoolmaster, the merchant, and the philosopher? He who has always opened it, and who alone can both open and keep it open, the Christian missionary. Through his means the knowledge of the Lord shall, in due season, cover the earth. All nations will assuredly receive it. This, and this alone, will be the source of true, complete, and lasting civilization.

It cannot be doubted that a man of your characteristic habits, has been led to inquire into the most efficient methods of promoting civilization. I rejoice, indeed, to find that you are fully committed to an opinion upon this subject, by the address of the "Society for the extinction of the Slave Trade, and for the civilization of Africa," which, by a sort of hereditary claim, has the honour to enrol you among its members. In that address, it is emphatically asserted that the only cure for the grievous maladies of Africa, is "the introduction of Christianity;" in other words, to send to it a sufficient supply of Christian missionaries, for that is the plain English of the expression. Christianity can only be diffused by those in whom it resides as its living temples. If such, Sir, be the fact, can any thing further be required to show the paramount im

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portance of the missionary character? He is, he has ever been, the great and the only true civilizer of mankind. On him alone the hope of all heathen lands, at this moment, entirely depends. He alone can bring them deliverance. It must be very pleasing to the friends of the heathen, to know that you have really begun to give the subject your serious attention. Every thing connected with human society and the affairs of nations, however important in itself, is really insignificant as compared with the work of missions. temporal is only second to their eternal importance. The question of universal civilization is mainly a question of missions. May I cherish the belief that you have read the principal portion of the missionary publications issued within the last twenty years, and, above all, the "Missionary Enterprises" in the South Seas, by the Rev. John Williams? That work I respectfully offer to you as at once the proof and illustration of all my assertions on this point. The present Bishop of Chester, an authority, you will grant, of the first order in such matters,-after perusing that work, declared that he knew not whether he would not willingly put away at least half the folios which he possessed, rather than part with one volume which had recently been published by the Missionary Williams." Such a statement, from such a man, surely bespeaks a corresponding degree of merit in the work. The causes which have produced such effects in Polynesia, are causes to whose power no limits can be set. The power which wrought such wonders is equal to the working of any thing. We have only to multiply the same sort of agency, in order to adorn and bless all countries with similar results.

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Let me most earnestly entreat you, Sir, if you have not yet had leisure to read Williams, to give him a careful perusal. It is of the first importance to this first of earthly causes, that you, and all legislators and men of letters, should seriously entertain this question.

It is in your own power, singly, most materially to forward it. It is supremely to be desired that the Edinburgh Review should heartily espouse this great cause. It has never yet put forth its giant strength on any theme that equally deserved the utmost stretch of its highest power. The question of missions is, moreover, a standing subject. Not a new work of any importance, on missions, ought to pass without notice in the pages of that journal. And, independently of such works, were it to put forth an annual article upon all the missionary Reports, it would render an invaluable service to the general cause of civilization and of universal humanity. The Annual Reports of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the London, the Baptist, the Wesleyan, and Moravian Missionary Societies, would supply abundant materials for discussions and dissertations, which, for œcumenical importance, practical utility, philanthropic interest, and moral grandeur, have never been equalled in its most brilliant, profound, and enlightened lucubrations.

It is to be hoped that the infamous articles* on Methodism and Missions will not prove a bar in the way of such a course. Because the original conductor of the journal erred in admitting such miserable slanders, are his successors, in all coming time, bound to exclude missionary literature, or else to vilify its authors, that they may maintain consistency in error? Surely, this is not the way to atone for the wrongs perpetrated upon the cause of humanity, and for the injuries inflicted upon the characters of honourable men! Frankly to confess mistakes, and promptly to repair them, is among the finest traits of noble natures. The path of justice, moreover, is always the path of wisdom, as well as of prudence. Whatever tends to promote the glory of God and the good of mankind, can never be im

* Vol. xi. p. 341; xii. p. 153; xiv. p. 83.

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