p. iiiMany matters are in various ways more or less earnestly debated in these our busy days—on the platform, in the press, in Parliament, on the battlefield. All of them are of more or less serious significance to the combatants, and those whom they represent. But, in the nature of things, none of them, in vital consequence to men and nations, can approach the issue debated herein, if by any possibility it be decided in the affirmative. The debate is put into the form of a trial, with more or less of parable running through it, that the reader may be enticed, and that the bearings of the matter may be thoroughly exhibited. The reader is invited to ponder the issue, and make himself a party to the trial on that side on which he may feel his sober judgment to be enlisted.
THE AUTHOR.