man, or an Austrian to say, who remembers the Europe of the last
seventy years,--the condition of Italy, until 1859,--of Poland, since
1793,--of France, of French Algiers,--of British Ireland, and British
India. But, granting the truth, rightly read, of the historical
aphorism, that "the people always conquer," it is to be noted, that,
in the Southern States, the tenure of land, and the local laws, with
slavery, give the social system not a democratic, but an aristocratic
complexion; and those States have shown every year a more hostile and
aggressive temper, until the instinct of self-preservation forced us
into the war. And the aim of the war on our part is indicated by the
aim of the President's Proclamation, namely, to break up the false
combination of Southern society, to destroy the piratic feature in it
which makes it our enemy only as it is the enemy of the human race, and
so allow its reconstruction on a just and healthful basis. Then new
affinities will act, the old repulsions will cease, and, the cause
of war being removed, Nature and trade may be trusted to establish a
lasting peace.

We think we cannot overstate the wisdom and benefit of this act of the
Government. The malignant cry of the Secession press within the Free
States, and the recent action of the Confederate Congress, are decisive
as to its efficiency and correctness of aim. Not less so is the silent
joy which has greeted it in all generous hearts, and the new hope it has
breathed into the world.

It was well to delay the steamers at the wharves, until this edict could
be put on board. It will be an insurance to the ship as it goes plunging
through the sea with glad tidings to all people. Happy are the young who
find the pestilence cleansed out of the earth, leaving open to them
an honest career. Happy the old, who see Nature purified before they
depart. Do not let the dying die: hold them back to this world, until
you have charged their ear and heart with this message to other
spiritual societies, announcing the melioration of our planet.

"Incertainties now crown themselves assured,
And Peace proclaims olives of endless age."

Meantime that ill-fated, much-injured race which the Proclamation
respects will lose somewhat of the dejection sculptured for ages in
their bronzed countenance, uttered in the wailing of their plaintive
music,--a race naturally benevolent, joyous, docile, industrious, and
whose very miseries sprang from their grea