THOUGHTS ON THE EUROPEAN WAR SYSTEM

The People in Europe are much to be praised,

That in fighting they choose to be passing their days;

If their wars were abolished, there's room to suppose

Our Printers would growl, for the want of New-News.

May our tidings of warfare be ever from thence,

Nor that page be supplied at Columbia's expence!

No kings shall rise here, at the nod of a court,

Ambition, or Pride, with men's lives for to sport.

In such a display of the taste of the times —

The murder of millions — their quarrels and crimes,

A horrible system of ruin we scan,

A history, truly descriptive of man:

A Being, that Nature designed to be blest —

With abundance around him — yet rarely at rest,

A Being, that lives but a moment in years,

Yet wasting his life in contention and wars;

A Being, sent hither all good to bestow,

Yet filling the world with oppression and woe!

But, consider, ye sages, ( and pray be resigned )

What ills would attend a reform of mankind —

Were wars at an end, and no nation made thinner,

My neighbour, the gun-smith, would go without dinner;

The Printers, themselves, for employment would fail,

And soldiers, by thousands, be starving in jail.