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INVASION BY THE DUTCH.

that the city should give £140,000 by way of composition, to save them from being plundered. In September, 1645, Bristol was again taken by Fairfax, commanding the Parliamentary forces. In Prince Rupert's Narrative of the Condition of the City and Garrison of Bristol when he came thither, he states that he ordered all the inhabitants "to victual themselves for six

months. And upon a strict survey there were two thousand five hundred families then remaining in the city, whereof one thousand five hundred, through indigence and want, could not provide for themselves."

When the Dutch fleet, in the reign of Charles II., sailed up the Thames, attacked Sheerness, burned several ships, and advanced as far as Upnor Castle, they were there cannonaded so fiercely by the prince, who had fortified the castle, that they were compelled to retreat. An enemy's fleet has never since ventured to show itself in the Thames.

When the Duke of Monmouth raised the standard of revolt in Somersetshire, in 1685, many of our undisciplined sturdy peasants

MONMOUTH'S REBELLION.

CULLODEN. 91

fought for him bravely, and forfeited their lives at Sedgemoor and in the bloody assizes. A century has elapsed since the battle of Culloden, which extinguished the hopes of the Stuarts, and never since has hostile or rebellious army assembled in this island, which from the Orkneys to the Land's End is firmly united in peace, loyalty, and harmony, under one Sovereign and one Parliament.

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MARTIAL SUPERIORITY OF CHRISTENDOM

CHAPTER III.

"Beauteous order reigns!

Manly submission, unimposing toil,

Trade without guile, civility that marks
From the foul herd of brutal slaves, thy sons,
And fearless peace. Or should affronting war
To slow but dreadful vengeance rouse the just,
Unfailing fields of freemen I behold!

That know, with their own proper arm, to guard
Their own blest isle against a leaguing world."

THOMPSON'S Liberty.

"Ill weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough."

SHAKSPEARE.

The greater part of the world is still in heathen ignorance and superstition, imperfectly civilized or barbarous. The highest intelligence, the best social institutions, the most advanced and flourishing state of industry, commerce, and the arts exist, where there is also Christianity in its purest form. The Christian is the highest style of nations. Superiority in the military art gives

A BULWARK OF CIVILIZATION.

93

to those nations which can best promote the religious, moral, and social improvement of mankind, dominion, and security from the inroads of barbarism. Surely that power and superiority which have been wisely and mercifully committed to them, ought not to be lightly abandoned. Suppose that Arabs, Tartars, Affghans, Belochees, Sikhs, knew that we would not or could not defend ourselves. British equity and civilization would be succeeded by the ancient reign of heathen dynasties, with their superstition and abominable idolatries; their fraud, falsehood, injustice, corruption, and cruelty. If Christians were to renounce war, heathens and Mahommedans would revolt, massacre, and triumph. The world would soon change masters.

Those conquests over heathens and barbarians which have made the Anglo-Saxon race the possessors of so large a portion of the old and of the new world, have not always been lawful; but undoubtedly they have been overruled for the welfare of mankind. Already have they changed both the material and the moral aspect of vast continents, and led to the occupation and

94

WAR EXCITES TO HEROIC

culture of immense solitudes, for which a few savage hunters formerly contended with the beasts of the forest.

Whatever evils may have attended the original conquests, they are not to be compensated now by resigning those regions again to barbarism, but by extending there the blessings of the highest and best civilization.

While irreligion and vice abound, there will be crimes, conspiracies, rebellions, and wars. The terrible scourge of war, often inevitable, like famine and pestilence, will not be averted by our weakness and want of preparation to encounter it.

With the young, the ardent, and the brave, the perils and excitement of war counterbalance its evils. A common danger extinguishes feuds, as a sharp frost destroys noxious weeds, and voracious grubs, and insects. Family and social ties are strengthened, and men's minds are braced and wound up to perform heroic and generous actions, in the energetic struggle for life and its dearest possessions.

British soldiers and sailors never desert the national flag which floats over their ship, and is