Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals nor forts:

The warrior's name would be a name abhorred;
And every nation that should lift again
Its hand against a brother, on its forehead
Would wear for evermore the curse of Cain!"

With the above unhappy, unnatural, disastrous state of affairs, men acquainted with the condition of our so-called "Happy family Happy family" have felt no surprise. With them the wonder has been that the quarrels have not brought on the Union crash sooner, and that every atom or fragment of its existence has not been long ago numbered with the things that were, illustrative of the scriptural sentiment, that "a house divided. against itself cannot stand." From the commencement of its existence, its fate has been sealed, and its knell rung, although in the articles of its original compact our Union representatives resolved that it should be "perpetual." But whilst man proposes, God disposes; and we now see amidst the hurricane sweep of his retributive providences what a fearful and terrible disposition He is making of our so-called "great, and wonderful, and glorious Union." The astounding fact also is revealed that the destruction of the "Old Union" was necessary to promote the interests of liberty, commerce, and Christianity. No truth is more clearly substantiated than this, that the old Union has been a nursery for the growth of slavery. Over one half of its domain its plantations

have been stocked with the choicest breeds of slaves, whilst the other half has always been turned into hunting ground for the fugitive, and the official hounds of the Union, with administrative collars round their necks, have never been harmless in their barks, nor innocent in their bites, nor indolent with their capacious mouths and ponderous jaws when they have got upon his track, and he would not capitulate as "lawful prey," except when he has been successful in placing himself under the protection of what our American people call the "Queen-craft of monarchy?" But we are now gravely informed that our Union has undergone a change, and that our menhunters, from President Lincoln down to the meanest official, have lost their tiger instinct, leap, and claws. And wonderful it is when it has only turned from the slave to shew their terrible claws and bare their teeth in savage blood-thirstiness to his master. This is a change that may serve as a bait to catch what the Honourable Edward Everett designates "easy consciences of weak-minded men and silly fools"ing representation of the class to which he belongs but it is a base trap, from which the common sense of the multitude will lead them to turn away and reject with contempt and disdain.

-a fit

If we look at the culminating glory of our wonderful union in connection with our last tariff, we shall see under what terrible restrictions the commerce of the world is placed. In this tariff, dated July, 1862, the cotton goods of Lancashire are subject to duties

ranging from 25 to 40 per cent.; woollen manufactures, 30; and worsted, 35. Sheffield cutlery is made to pay 35 per cent. duty, and English railway iron from £4 to £5 per ton. No Wilton carpet can pass the Northern customs without a tax of 45 cents per square yard. Birmingham buttons must pay 35, and Coventry ribbons 40 per cent.! Such is the Northern Morrell Tariff. And yet, forsooth, these are the men for whom you are to erect your triumphal arches, peal your merry bells, and create a world's jubilee !

And when we contemplate the association of our American Union with Christianity, we may well take up the language of Jehovah, where he appealed to the Jews, exclaiming, "Will a man rob God?" And couple with it the response which he gave to the question in its application to them. "Ye have robbed me, even this whole nation!" Thus has it been with our American people; and no man can demonstrate that they can present the free-will offering of their hearts, flaming with supreme love to God, on His altar, when they turn away from their fellow-men because they possess a different colour on their skin to themselves; or if when turning to them, it is to subordinate them to their use in their persons, services, and lives, as "chattels personal!" Our Union, therefore, in America, in the above respects had become a world nuisance; and its existence and continuance on the old basis were not compatible with the government of God. We are quite aware that structures of reasoning, chains of argument, and link added to link

in those chains, enamelled with the flowers and beauties of rhetoric, have been constructed and thrown out in its interest and favour, but no efforts of its admirers or friends can brace up its weakness or hide its deformities. President Lincoln, the Hon. William H. Seward, and others, backed by overwhelming masses in the North, have tried both by the pen of the ready writer, the tongue of the eloquent, and the sword of the warrior, but have miserably failed. And now that huge imposture, called the Union, stands fully revealed, this greatest sham of the ages now stands unmasked with all its horrors disclosed to the view of the world, whilst a voice comes thundering down the roll of ages-Take away the accursed thing."

In a letter addressed to the governors of the different States of the Union in 1783, General Washington said:"There are four things which I humbly conceive are essential to the well-being, I may even venture to say to the existence, of the United States as an independent power. First, an indissoluble union of the States under one federal head; second, a sacred regard to public justice; third, the adoption of a proper peace establishment; and, fourth, the prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the United States which will induce them to forget their local politics and prejudices." The above extraordinary letter of Washington discloses his deep anxiety for the fate of the "beloved Union," records the conviction that the law of com

pact which bound the slave and free States was not sufficient of itself to secure the perpetuity of the Union. Hence the necessity of the above extraordinary pre-requisities, which it was utterly impossible to call into being with such incongruous elements as composed the different classes of the Union. A knowledge of the compact, therefore, between the different States of the Union, is of paramount importance to those who feel an interest in America, and essentially necessary in order to obtain a proper understanding of the character and causes of those thrilling and appalling events which are now taking place in the New and filling the Old World with wonder, and, so far as they are comprehended, with intensest abhorrence and disgust! The compact designates the Union which it contemplated "The United States of America?" Its articles of agreement were to be its basis, although the Constitution of the United States and Declaration of Independence have never been called into requisition and acted upon from the day of their adoption as articles of the National Creed to the period when civil war broke out amongst us. The lofty principles inculcated in them, and the imperial heritage of blessing which they were designed to secure to all, without limitation as to sex, age, or colour, have neither been desired nor coveted by the overwhelming masses of people who have composed those States, except for the white man. Amongst other things, those articles which constitute the law of compact made provision for the sacredness and