in 1782, the results of that war could have been effected by arbitration.

That war was a torch which set on fire all Europe for more than half a century. It was followed, immediately, by the horrors of the French Revolution. Then came the Napoleonic wars, followed later by the Franco-Prussian war-a direct result of Napoleonic wars.

Mr. White said of the war of the Rebellion, that had this country taken the advice of its greatest statesman-Henry Clay it would been saved this war.

Henry Clay advised that the nation buy the freedom of the slaves. There were two classes who opposed this scheme :the Garrisonian Abolitionists, who claimed that it was wrong to buy a human soul; and another class who objected to the expense, that it would cost $25,000,000. And what did it cost? It cost more than $2,500,000,000, in addition to a million lives.

Now we have to record another sad war. Last year we waged a war of philanthropy, so called, to save the Cubans. Did it save them?

We professed we did not want Cuba. My friends, efforts are now at work to annex Cuba to the United States and, I fear, without the consent of her people. We already have Porto Rico and Hawaii, and are waging a war of slaughter in the Philippines. It is claimed that this is not a war of conquest; they say it is a war for the sake of humanity!

I think we should call our soldiers home from the Philippines and let the natives establish their own government. I think McKinley did the best he could, early in the war, but I can no longer defend his course. As he could begin the war on the Philippines without the action of Congress, he can surely recall the troops himself.

Now let us turn to the history of England's wars.

The present Queen of England was crowned in 1837. She has been reigning sixty-two years, and during these sixtytwo years England has had thirty-seven wars. Think of it! Thirty-seven wars under a peaceful Queen!

Thirty-six of these thirty-seven wars were in Asia or

Africa; only one, the Crimean war-in Europe, and none on English soil at home. The other thirty-six were all wars relative to their colonies. See what a foreign colonial policy may bring upon us!

All these facts do look discouraging; but let us look back over several thousand years. In the prehistoric periods-before the time of Abraham, people worshipped material objects. It was the polytheistic period. For many thousands of years these early peoples seem, to us, to have made little progress. "The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small." Before the year 1800 there were only two or three important cases of arbitration in the history of mankind. Now, during the last half of this century, and altogether there have been two hundred and fifty or three hundred cases in this nineteenth century.

The world is progressing. Bloch, a noted sclavic writer on economics, wrote a work of six volumes, entitled: "Future Wars, Impossible." This work was read by Nicholas II, and it made a deep impression on him. The conference at the Hague would not be assembled now, but for Bloch's book. This book shows that with our modern weapons, a general war of three years duration would kill 40,000,000 men; more than twice as many able-bodied men as we have in the United States.

Nicholas II read this book and then issued his rescript, with which you are all familiar.

Representatives from nearly all the nations of the earth have assembled, and we see how seriously they discuss the great principles of Universal Peace, and their practical application to human society of to-day.

Let us now turn to the religious aspect of the question. Why is it that teachings so plain as those of Jesus are so little regarded? "Love thy neighbor as thyself." "If thy brother smite thee on one cheek turn to him the other also." Real religion has been largely swallowed up in the discussion of theology. Now that the sects are tending to unite on practical ethics we are getting nearer the truth. If we can substitute

religion for theology; as I believe the world is preparing to do, more attention will be paid to the principles which Jesus taught. Let me call your attention to the leaflet, recently published by my friend, George Dana Boardman, entitled: "The Disarmament of Nations." It is a beautiful thing, full of optimism.

Don't be afraid, friends, of being called optimists. If we look for the bright side we will be much more apt to find it As a teacher of fifty-eight years' experience I know, that to train a child to be honest one must manifest confidence in his honesty. The surest way to teach him to become dishonest is to seem suspicious of him. If you want to bring about good conditions, always look for them, and believe in them, and remember that "every cloud has a silver lining."

DAVID FERRIS, repeating the words of the resolution referred from the last yearly meeting, then spoke substantially as follows: When, one year ago I offered this resolution I thought it was such a simple re-assertion of the plainest teaching of Jesus, so closely conformable to the sermon on the Mount, that all who upheld practical Christianity could endorse it. But I was mistaken. Longwood was not ready for it last year. Our country had undertaken, by force of arms, to relieve the starving Cubans from Spanish rule. The peace principle, it was admitted, was beautiful, a heavenly ideal, yet few saw how it was practicable under existing conditions.

Alas, the Christian ideal seems farther away now than then! What a tangled web of atrocious cruelty we have woven! What a dark page of history we have written in blood, since then! Are we, here, guiltless of this needless bloodshed, this waste of precious life? Did it help the starving Cubans? Or did not the war, on the contrary, shut off the relief that was going to them and they starve the faster therefor?

I wish the good heart of the American people may now feel pity for the starving Filipinos and the thousands of victims to our wrong doing and oppression there, and also for our own young countrymen sent to lay down their lives in this revolting crusade against the liberties of a weak people on the opposite side of the globe.

A friend remarked to me lately that our country, had gotten into a tangle over in the Philippines and we must help her out of it. We agree about that but differ in opinion as to the manner of extricating her. Our political leaders and some of our statesmen think the remedy lies in a larger army— in the sacrifice of yet more of our young men to the deadly influences there.

I think the Christian way is far the easier way, the cheaper way, the more effectual way, requiring no farther sacrifice of life or treasure. Let our government say to the Filipinos: "We have made a mistake in requiring unconditional submission of you. Try your own plan of government and we will endeavor by diplomatic negotiations to prevent outside interference."

Nations, like individuals, are subject to the Divine Law, which is above all human enactments. "Break off thy sins by righteousness, and thy iniquities by showing mercy to the poor," was the message of David to Nebuchadnezzar which we as a nation should heed.

What if, by pursuing our present disastrous policy, we do crush these poor people into submission, robbing them of their inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. can we crush out of their hearts the sense of injustice and wrong? Can we smother the bitter feelings of hatred and revenge engendered by our cruelty and treachery, and will not they again and again, as opportunity offers, renew the struggle for their dearest, holiest rights?

And if we madly pursue this course how can we get from under that sense of guilt and remorse which God has placed in the soul to call his erring children back from the paths of sin and transgression?

In vain are the sophistrics used to lull the voice of conscience! How has our starry emblem of liberty been converted; in the eyes of the Filipinos, into an emblem of subjugation and oppression!

But why not offer them such terms as we offered the Cubans? "Have your independence and we will help you by

international agreement to maintain it." This would indeed conquer them and make them truly our friends. We may, then safely disband our army and cease sacrificing our young men to Moloch, reduce our national expenses and no longer pile upon our own workers the burden of increased taxation,

If I have been severe in my remarks it is because I so earnestly feel that we should recede from our position in this dreadful war of oppression. I hope this meeting will pass a resolution that will express unequivocally our disapproval of the course our government is now pursuing in this matter. The meeting adjourned till ten o'clock next morning. SEVENTH-DAY,-Morning Session.

The meeting opened with singing by the choir of the Spring Garden Unitarian Church, of Philadelphia.

HENRY S. KENT read the following memorials:

RUTH DUGDALE.

The story of the Longwood movement will not be fully told without mention of this good woman who, for more than ten years was well-known, revered and much beloved in this community, where she with her husband and family established their home in the Spring of 1851.

The anti-slavery crusade was then fairly inaugurated, and the feeling for, as well as against open opposition to "The Peculiar Institution" of the South was, yearly, growing more intense. Coming from Southern Ohio-from the border of the slave-land-the Dugdale family, with strong humanitarian tendencies, were pronounced abolitionists.

Here, they found a body of Friends who while feeling it to be their imperative duty to range themselves openly on the side of the oppressed, were yet forbidden by the powers then ruling in their own Society, to exercise this duty therein, and consequently a disaffected body just then in the birth throes of reconstruction for Freedom's sake. With these Friends they naturally allied themselves, entering heartily into the work; each party an inspiration to the other, the result of this united effort being, the founding of this association of