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DEVOTED TO POLITICKS AND BELLES LETTRES.

VOL. I.

POLITICAL.

FOR THE BOSTON SPECTATOR.

It seems the great characters at the head of affairs are beginning to inquire, on what terms "refractory New-England" will consent to a peace. If a similar compliment had been paid to this refractory part of the Union two years ago, we should not have had war. We should have been in circumstances as prosperous, happy, and honourable, as our rulers have actually rendered us miserable and disgraced. But we were not consulted then, or rather our voice, our prayers, and remonstrances were treated with contempt and insult; and now, in mockery of our distress and weakness, we are asked, to what conditions we should be reconciled, for the sake of peace.

We trust, it is not, and never was the character of New-England to be unreasonable in any thing. We will venture to say, that if our inveterate enemy, President James Madison, has it in his power to treat with us, he will find us as magnanimous, as he has been tyrannical. We will presume to suggest on what terms New-England will welcome peaceterms, which Mr. Madison himself will acknowledge the least we ought to expect, and of course, he and his party may depend on the deep and permanent execration of every Yankee, and our children's children, unless they are secured.

In the first place, notwithstanding the pledg ed honour of the President, we are willing he should abandon every claim which he offered as pretences for going to war. This surely is liberal-We hold him to none of his new doctrines to none of his engagements. Let all his pretexts go-they never were of any consequence to us, nor to any part of the Unionthey were as trifling, as they were insincere. We pardon him the hypocrisy of affecting motives, from which he never acted, and the insult of imagining we could be blinded and deceived by such shallow artifices. We should not have thanked him, had he acquired all he proposed to by the war, and we shall not grumble at his total failure.

BOSTON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1814

better our condition. We ask but indemnity for the millions he has squeezed from us by taxes to enrich his minions;-for six years' loss of a flourishing commerce ;-for the many million dollars of our property, which by his Proclamation of June 1812 he gave into the hands of the English ;-for the incalculable increase of expense, to every class of citizens, in all our domestick disbursements, resulting from the privations and embarrassments of his

war.

It is not our province to treat with the British-we have not made war upon them. We consider them but as the instruments, by which Mr. Madison has aimed to impoverish, degrade, and distress us. To him we look for reparation for the wrongs he has inflicted. He must settle as he can, with those, whom he has employed to ruin us; but, as he would avoid the maledictions of a virtuous people, and whatever of vengeance they can exert, we repeat it, he must give us a peace which will recompense us for the war.

SPAIN.

THE strong measures of Ferdinand VII. on his restoration to the throne of Spain have produced some publick expressions of disappointment in England, and have occasioned considerable speculation on this side of the Atlantick, as to their probable result. We have never made any pretensions, nor felt any, to the gift of prophesy. In any prospective views, that we have ever submitted to the publick, we have only presumed to reason in particular cases, from general principles. With respect to Spain, our fears are, that all is not well in that country, and that it is doomed to further trials and sufferings. The grounds of our impression, we are persuaded, will be considered by many, no other than political superstition; and if so, like other bigots, we must be allowed to indulge sentiments, which we cannot easily

overcome.

Our fears, concerning Spain, arise from the belief, that national happiness grows out of the rectitude of the publick mind-that it cannot be given to a people, by any particular event; But we look to Mr. Madison to leave this but results from the prevalence of correct country, on the conclusion of peace, in the en- views and dispositions. If the history of the joyinent of all the rights and privileges we pos- world had not already established the truth of sessed, when he plunged us into war-rights this doctrine, the fate of Europe for the last and privileges, which were wholly undisputed, twenty years has furnished abundant proof. It and which we had every prospect of enjoying is believed, that every discriminating and enunmolested, for ages, had he suffered us to re-lightened mind will be satisfied, that the suffermain in friendship with Great-Britain. Weings of the several nations have singularly corwere as contented, as our country was prosperous we entreated the government to make no new demand for us-and we shall be satisfied to be placed where we were. But this, this only, "refractory New-England" expects; and if Mr. Madison fail in this, he may be assured this section of the Union will regard him, as our foe as a traitor, who by his war shall have robbed us of blessings, which he, unsolicited by us, promised to increase.

If the President would justify himself to the New-Englanders, he must secure, by the conditions of his peace, an equivalent for the sacrifices, to which he has doomed us by his war. On this score, we are likewise willing to release him from all his proffered obligations to

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responded in their extent, with that degree of virtue with which each has appeared to be sessed. But has not Spain seemed to be an exception? It is true, she has suffered much; but what a spirit has she displayed? While Bonaparte was the terrour of the world, have we not all beheld with indignation the lethargick, inefficient character of the Spaniards, in their defence, if they can be said to have made any, against their tyrant and invader? Have not their deliverers, the English, been frequently half starved by their wilful improvidencebeen obliged to fight their battles unsupported

and sometimes exposed by their treachery? Except the single instance of the defence of Zaragossa, conducted by the gallant Palafox,

NO. XXXII.

where have they exhibited an achievement that will be handed down by fame to posterity? We have seen much of wordy valour-much of allusion to their deeds of other times; but nothing of active, hazardous patriotism. The English fought their battles-excited their jealousy by such displays of courage for them, as they would not shew in their own cause, and for their own independence and at last, left the coun try, which they freed from danger, loaded with the abuse of their factious traitors. What can we expect of such a people? That they are prepared for tranquillity-for the enjoyment and support of a good government? It may be so-but it does not seem to be in the nature of things. Whether the measures of Ferdi nand are right or wrong, wise or ill judged, we do not pretend to determine; but they are of too marked a character not to be signally one or the other. He is either a tyrant, hastening to his own destruction, in which he will involve thousands-or the Spanish nation are a debased people, indifferent to liberty, and disqualified for the enjoyment of it. In either case the fate of Spain is far from enviable.

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ENGLISH VIEW OF OUR WAR. MR. Madison and his party have neither been able to persuade the enlightened in this country, nor men of sense in England, that his pretences for war were his real motives in declaring it. It is both amusing and interesting to know what British statesmen think on this subject, and we have selected the follow ing article from the QUARTERLY REVIEW, the most able and respectable publication devoted to the ministerial party, as of much more weight than any of their newspaper paragraphs. It well merits an attentive perusal, for it is correct, so far as it goes. The acquisition of territory is undoubtedly an object with the ad ministration, but not so, abstractedly considered. They are desirous of increasing the domain of the United States, not from national policy, but solely with an expectation of extending, strengthening, and perpetuating their politica! ¿

power.

FROM THE QUARTERLY KÉVIEW.

"The actual breaking out of the war, has only enabled us to look fairly at a subject which the apprehension of it would have precluded us from examining. The examination, we think, is not without its use. Truth is always valuable. Delusion is always dangerous. A notion had been fondly entertained, that be tween England and America there was a certain sympathy of taste and feeling which form ed them above all nations of the earth, for an intimate union of councils and affection's with each other. No sacrifice therefore was thought to be too great, no deference too humble onthe part of this country, for the purpose of keeping well with America. America and England against all the world-but England without America, nothing; with America against her, less than nothing. America was a young nation, therefore she must be humour.ed. She was wayward, therefore she must be soothed. She was alienated, therefore she must be won. Such was the doctrine. There. were those indeed who did not see any symp-toms of the existence of such sympathy be

tween the parent state and her alienated offspring but they kept their doubts to themselves. The general cry was too strong for them. The national councils were evidently swayed by it. The poor old mother went on doting and driveling for a long time, on the score of natural affection, and kindred habits, and similitude of language, and so forth; until in the hour of her trial and utmost need, the sentiments of her hopeful child towards her were manifested to her in a way not to be mistaken.

This

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COMMUNICATION.

WHAT can be the object of the National Intelligencer, at this time, when even the administration partly admit that we are literally "at the mercy of Great Britain," in studying a language calculated to provoke her utmost

tion, the case would no doubt have been a sub

DOMESTICK. We have melancholy accounts from the west. A battle was fought between Chippeway and Queenston on the 25th of July, which continued from 6 in the evening, until half past 10. It is reported 2400 men killed and wounded were left on the field, about 1200 on each side. Gen. Riall, his suite, and 300 British troops are said to have been taken prisoners. Generals Brown and Scott are both wounded, and Captain Spencer received two balls in his body, and was left in a house, near the scene of action,

incapable of being removed. It appears that our troops in this instance fought bravely; though they immediately withdrew to Fort Erie, under the command of Gen. Ripley, and are considered safe.

In the several engagements since our army crossed the Niagara, they advanced into Canada about 25 miles, and after losing in killed and wounded, nearly a hundred men for every mile, they have returned. This is indeed "a hopeless invasion."

Commodore Chauncey has recovered, and was to sail last Sunday.

Our army beyond the Niagara burnt the village of St. David's, before the recent battle.

There can be no doubt that the perversity vengeance? Why does it bring a general and presumptuousness of the American gov-charge of "perfidy," when it is necessary to ernment in their late negociations with this search back twenty years to find an individual country arose mainly from a belief that they instance as proof; and why is the whole nation were backed by a considerable party here ; now denounced as 66 an enemy, which spares and as little doubt can there be, that whatever neither age nor sex," because two children 'backing' they had here (with very trifling exhave suffered, and lost a sick father in captiviceptions) arose from a mistaken impression of ty, in consequence of Mr. Madison 'swar? the American government and people. With what face can Mr. Madison or his editor, impression had been produced by causes suffi- proclaim them an "enemy, which spares neiciently obvious. The ill conduct and ill sucther age nor sex," while, at the same time, he cess of the American war had made every body withholds protection from this enemy, and in this country ashamed of maintaining the sends his armies abroad for foreign conquest? But if this character were true, all the coasts government side of the question. So universal was the abandonment of it, that within a very in his own vicinity would ere this have been few years after the peace of 1783, it became depopulated; as they are daily visited by this Mr. CHANGUION, minister from the Prince matter of wonder to a curious observer by enemy, and we hear of no outrage against of Orange, was received here, last Monday, whom, or with whose consent that war could woman nor child; but on the contrary that with the utmost cordiality. A very respectahave been carried on. Sturdy resistance to these are treated not only with civility, but ble Committee of Arrangements waited upon power attracts the good wishes of the gener- politeness. If there had been a single excep- his Excellency, informing him of the preparations for his reception. At 11 o'clock his Exject for three or four columns in the Intelli- cellency landed at India Wharf, where he was gencer. Why does not this paper give credit received by the Committee, the Marshals, the where it is due; why does it not encourage Selectmen of the Town, six companies of acts of humanity and magnamity? If individ- Light Infantry, and a long procession of citi uals are guilty of excesses, as must always be zens, by whom he was attended to the mansion expected, (for even we have those who burn house of the Hon. JOHN COFFIN JONES, who villages, &c.) let these be charged to whom had provided a very elegant collation. The they belong; and let the noble acts of others discharge of artillery and the display of flags be held up in contrast; and by this determina-over and along the streets, gave brilliance to tion they will all feel that they have some chance for justice. But what is the tendency of this unqualified abuse? Mr. Madison is not so ignorant of human nature, but he knows that it tends to kindle passion, to make the enemy sicken at every liberal act of which they feel conscious; and to become in fact what they are represented. Is the government determined to produce a war of extermination? It is enough to make every man, who has a family in the least exposed, shudder when he reads such language, and anticipates its effects; and how cruel, if it is not believed by the writer, thus to alarm and sport with the feelings of women and children. But if Mr. Madison has really believed, what he has uniformly laboured to prove, that the British are entitled to this ferocious character; what can be his excuse for thus wantonly bringing this enemy upon us, whose mercy is almost the only protection he deigns to give us?

ous; and success, whether in resistance or oppression, conciliates the approbation of the wary. In favour of America therefore, when she had secured her independence, there was apparently one unanimous voice through England; and that voice was echoed through succeeding years without much reflection upon the change of circumstances and progress of events. The patriots of 1783 were patriots still: -America was a word always received with a shout in a tavern toast ;-and Lord Erskine, (we well remember,) continued to quote in his Crim. Con. and Treason Trials, passages from Mr. Burke, and a song from the Padlock applicable to America in the very agony of her struggle, long after she had taken her place among the potentates of the earth, and when the question of that struggle was become as much matter of history as the Trojan War, or the Deluge.

While gentlemen in opposition dwelt with rapture on a theme which recalled the distinct idea of a forced change of administration, the partizans of government, on the other hand, found, in admissions highly favourable to the American revolution, an admirable qualification and relief for the invectives which they justly bestowed upon that in France. America therefore thus bepraised' on all sides, perhaps with very little meaning on any, grew by degrees into reputation and esteem with all sides, by the mere repetition and reflection of their own compliments. Most of all, she grew into esteem with herself, and ascribed very willingly to her own parts and merit,' to sober valuation and settled opinion, that general favour and good report which she owed in great measure to accidental causes wherein she had really but little concern.

Hence that overweening estimate of their own importance to this country, which has led the rulers of the United States so ridiculously astray; and hence that terror and trembling, that anticipation of untold loss, and unimagined danger which dashed the firmness of the British government, and made many worthy persons quake in their shoes at the prospect of an American war.' The very words had something awful and ominous in the sound,

GENERAL REGISTER.

BOSTON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1814.

EUROPEAN. There are no further advices from Europe since our last. Dutch papers received by the Ajax contain the new constitution of government for Holland-it is, as the former, of a mixed character, but not so well tempered by aristocratick influence, as the English or French.

The restoration of the House of Orange, and the emancipation of the people from the French yoke, has diffused joy, and activity through Holland. That industrious nation were fast resuming their commerce, in peace with all the world,

this truly agreeable interview. The address on the occasion, and his Excellency's answer, revive in our minds the grateful recollection of the happy intercourse formerly subsisting between the two countries.

John W. Hulbert is elected member of

Congress from Berkshire county.
The famous Felix Grundy has resigned his
seat in Congress.
The judgment made
"Felix afraid."

LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS.

FOR THE BOSTON SPECTATOR.

THE WRITER, N. XIII. THERE are some men who never know what it is to be clear of debt, and who have such a facility of accumulating creditors, that they seldom meet a person who has not some demand against them. The whole business of their lives seems to be divided between contracting debts and contriving how to avoid paying them. I have known one of these men spend more time in hunting about for somebody to lend him a five dollar bill, than would have cost him to earn it, if he had em ployed his industry at any kind of profitable la

bour.

One would think that this was the most irksome as well as most shameful way of liv ing on the publick; for a man must not only feel mean and mortified, by meeting at every turn somebody he had deceived, but must have his thoughts constantly on the rack in devising means to deceive others,

Jack Countless is a young man, but he has already a great many old debts; several of which would be outlawed by the Statute, if he was not sometimes reminded by his officious

creditors, that they still remain unpaid. These obliging notices, as Jack calls them, are now frequently given; and as frequently put off by the same story he has told these five years, viz. that he is just upon the point of settling an estate in the country, which will at once clear him of his debts, and the trouble of managing an extensive concern that he has not leisure to attend to.

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this opinion, he endeavoured to supplant Mr. Locke in the esteem of his friends, and to engage protection for himself, by the discovery of every secret which the other had trusted him with in the unsuspecting openness of his heart; finding, however, that all attempts of this nature were fruitless, he suddenly disappeared, and carried off a sum of money, the property of his friend, which he knew must involve him in the greatest distress. Mr. Locke felt severely for the perfidy of his friend, and was to the last degree surprised, when informed of the methods he had taken to ruin his interest; but, still continuing his application to business, and deserving the favour of his patrons, he was advanced to some places of no inconsiderable profit and honour.

a man can so easily emerge from the embarrassment of his affairs, and rise on the distresses of his creditors, as in America? Or where do we so often see persons drive their pair of horses, and appear at publick places, in the height and extravagance of fashion, after having, more than once, paid only 28 on a pound of their debts thus extravagantly contracted. And yet, if we were to attend to the Jack began his career with but little money, numerous petitions which are yearly sent up but determination to be a great gentleman; to the legislature for their relief, and the unrehe therefore took expensive lodgings, kept his mitting endeavours of debtors to gain the gig, and drank his bottle of Madeira, until he publick to their side, and prejudice it against was known in all the best circles about Town. their oppressors, we might be led to believe Every thing succeeded to his best wishes; that all creditors ought to be hanged, and their no matter for money,' saysJack, as long as my property confiscated for the benefit and behoof credit is good.' And as credit may be said to of that suffering part of the community, which have introduced him to good company, so good they had so seriously injured by trusting them. company assisted his credit. Thus he contin- The Romans, as they had a barbarous ued to increase his bills, till some discontented method of treating those who would not pay fellows wanted to be paid; and when they their debts, so they observed a solemn sort of would trust him no longer, Jack with a beconi- ceremony in contracting them. In verbal baring spirit, declared he would never employ gains there were fixed forms; questions were them again; and as this was a good excuse asked, and answers were given regarding such for leaving them, he accordingly gave his cusbargains, before witnesses. There was the tom to others. In this way he has been a Reus Stipuland, and the Reus Promittendi. lodger in every publick house in Town, and Sometimes an oath was required, and the the books of almost every tradesman and shop-promise repeated to a second person, Astipu-giveness. keeper have a crowded page to the Debit of lator. The person, who promised, also usually Mr. Countless, with an entire blank on the had some correspondent obligation, &c. Contra side. Conversing the other day with Dr. Reverie upon this subject, he told me he had read of a country (but, as he is a great dreamer, I rather suspect he dreamt it) where the laws provided that every person, when he contracted a debt, should receive a sort of little medal, as a memento of his obligation to pay, and was bound to wear it at his button hole, that the publick might also know how much he owed, and thereby be better able to judge whether it would be safe to trust him.

Sam Spendit is another of these luckless wights, who, by contracting early debts, has been "all his lifetime subject to bondage." He married young, and as his wife had been celebrated as a toast, there was nothing more natural, than that she should expect to be maintained as a Lady; accordingly they began an establishment, which his income and business would not support, and which of course his credit for a little while must. Money must be had for every fashionable amusement, when they could pay neither their bakers' nor gr cers' bills; and all their children were educated in the expensive accomplishments of musick and dancing, whilst the servants were obliged to sue for their monthly wages. But amidst all the splendour of high life, and whilst he was giving balls and suppers and costly entertainments, the world was astonished to see. Mr. Spendit come out bankrupt But he very honestly surrendered all his property according to the act, paid one cent on a dollar, for which the law gave him a receipt in full; and began life again, as he used to say, with a clear conscience, and, what was still better, clear of all debts, dues, and demands. His wife, to be sure, kept all her rich furniture; for what creditor could take any thing from a lady, and one who had been a toast. Thus they were able to keep up ap pearances; appearances deceived some, fair words and promises deceived others; it was the fashion to do business on credit, and no one could refuse to trust so genteel a man as Mr. Spendit. He therefore lived in his usual style, till a second embarrassment brought him within the limits." Here however he lived in style; his cards and billets were all dated from Court-street, on gilt paper, and he cracked his bottle of wine, and eat his suppers

with a brace of wax candles on his table. He

knew Iris "merciless creditors" could keep him here but forty days, and at the expiration of that time the law once more sat him at liberty with a clear conscience."

Among the numerous blessings, which we enjoy in th our happy republick over other countries, some people might think we ought 10 reckon that of being able to live upon the industry of others; for where do we find that

The old gentleman usually winds up his stories with some attempt at humour; and upon the present occasion he observed, that if the law was such in our country, we should often meet men with more badges, than was ever worn by Lord Nelson himself in all his glory.

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PARALLEL OF THE SEXES.

THERE is an admirable partition of qualities between the sexes, which the Great Author of being has distributed to each, with a wisdom which calls for all our admiration.

Man is strong-Woman is beautiful. Man is daring and confident-Woman is diffident and unassuming. Man is great in actionWoman in suffering. Man shines abroadWoman at home. Man talks to convinceWoman to persuade and please. Man has a rugged heart-Woman a soft and tender one. Man prevents misery-Woman relieves it.

Man has science-Woman taste.

Man has

judgment-Woman sensibility. Man is a be-
ing of justice-Woman of mercy"

TRAIT OF LOCKE.

One morning while he was at breakfast, word was brought that a man in a very shabby habit requested the honour of speaking to him. Mr. Locke, whom no advancement could raise above the practice of good manners, immediately ordered him to be admitted, and found, to his great astonishment, his old friend reduced by a life of cunning and extravagance to the greatest poverty and distress, and come to implore his assistance and solicit his for

Mr. Locke looked at him for some time very steadfastly, without speaking one word at length, taking out a fifty pound note, he presented it to him with the following remarkable ieclaration.

"Though I sincerely forgive your behaviour to me, yet I must never put it in your power to injure me a second time.-Take this trifle, which I give not as a mark of my former friendship, but as a relief to your present wants, and consign it to the service of your necessities, without recollecting how little you deserve.— No reply it is impossible to gain my good opinion, for know, friendship once injured is lost for ever!"

SKETCH

OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE NAVAL
POWER OF GREAT-BRITAIN.

That

Abridged from an English Review. AS early as the reign of Offa, who is said to have disputed the empire of the seas with Charlemagne (about 800) the English must have possessed a naval force of some consideration, when compared with that of surrounding nations; it was augmented by the Great Alfred, and still more by Edgar, who arrogaand Lord of all the Kings of the ocean, and of ted the lofty and offensive title of " Emperour all the nations which it surrounds!" the insular situation of this country should, in very early times, have impressed the inhabitants with the importance of a maritime superiority, is very probable; but we must not infer, from the assumption of these high-sounding titles, that half a dozen frigates, as they are now manned and gunned, would not have sunk their whole fleet. In fact, their vessels were little better than canoes, the largest of them hardly containing fifty men.

THIS great man, in his early years, had contracted a very particular friendship, with a charges his officers "especially to retain and Edward I. published an edict, in which he young fellow who had lived in the same neigh- maintain the sovereignty which the kings of bourhood from his infancy. This esteem Mr. England, his ancestors, exclusively possessed, Locke carried so high, that he considered his in the said sea of England," &c. When Philfriend's interest as inseparably connected with lippe le Bel appointed an admiral in "the sea his own, and looked upon any instance of good of England," the English monarch resented the fortune in either to be a means of advancing insuit, and demanded justice. The Genoese, the welfare of both. However, having once got Catalans, Germans, Zealanders, Frieslanders, into the favour of some people in power the Danes, and Norwegians, were appointed arbifriend began to envy the situation of Mr. Locketers. The decision was in favour of the Engand, judging of that good man's heart by his own, supposed he would withdraw his friendship as he increased in fortune. Fraught with

lish monarch, the arbiters declaring that his predecessors had at all times been sovereigns of the sea in question, on which the kings of

France could not rightfully have any admiral, but simply a master or chef du flotte.

In the reign of Richard II. we find the first use of a fire-ship; a vessel was prepared, full of pitch, and carrying linen bags impregnated with sulphur, for the purpose of setting fire to the French fleet, which, however, in consequence of a tempest, escaped the calamity. Artillery seems to have been brought into use at about the same period, by Charles VI. of France, and obtained for him some considerable advantages.

Under Edward IV. the English marine was in a state of deplorable weakness; indeed from its origin, until the reign of Henry VII. it was ever fluctuating according to the character of the monarch, and the circumstances of the kingdom. To Henry VII. is attributed the honour of having laid the foundation of the naval power of his country, by turning the attention of his subjects to their native riches, the wool, which at this time was exclusively manufactured by the Flemings, who purchased it at a very low price. He annihilated the source of their wealth, by prohibiting an portation, which was highly prejudicial to his own subjects. The Levant trade was first opened to them under his reign.

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the state.

At the death of Elizabeth, her marine consisted of forty-two vessels, none of which, properly speaking, were of the tine; two of these were of 1000 tons, and three of 900, each mounting 40 guns; three others, of 800 tons, mounted 30 guns each; and the remainder, from 700 to 20 tons, would not all have been able to resist some of our frigates, or even a corvette singly. In the treaty of alliance, which this princess concluded at Brussels, on the 7th of January, 1578, with the Dutch, the latter engaged to furnish her with forty vessels, of which the least should be of 40 tons, which sufficiently proves that the maritime strength of the European nations was then but very inconsiderable.

The discomfiture of the Spanish Armada, although produced, in a great measure, by the adversity of winds and waves, and by the disobedience of orders, on the part of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, in concurrence with the gallantry of the English, nevertheless formed an epoch in the naval history of this country of high importance and distinction. The names of Howard, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher, were proclaimed by the loud voice of cannon, and heard with appal. Elizabeth was big with projects of retaliation, she immediately augThe English marine did not improve much mented her sea forces, and sent out several under the reign of Henry VIII. He was flat-squadrons, commanded by very able_officers. tered with the idea of possessing a navy, and built several ships of extraordinary size; but of these, as they were chiefly calculated for parade, some were incapable of being launched, and others lay rotting in the ports, perfectly useless. So little advantage did this capricious monarch derive from the opportunity, which the foundation of his predecessor afforded him, for the establishment of a naval force, that, when he declared war against France, he found himself under the necessity of hiring vessels at Hamburgh, Lubeck, Dantzick, and Genoa.

Under the reign of Edward VI. the marine of England was considerably improved the fisheries were encouraged, and the obstacles were removed which prevented the English from reaping the great advantages which those of Newfoundland presented.

The marriage of Mary with Philip II. was advantageous to this country in a commercial, as well as in a maritime view. In order to forward the projects of her husband against France, the Queen, at her own expense, fitted out a fleet of 160 sail. The English landed in Bretagne, and captured Conquet they were driven back, however, with loss; Calais was besieged by the Duke of Guise, and surrendered to the French.

During the long and auspicious reign of Elizabeth, her attention was never diverted from the system which she first adopted of extending the naval power of her country: that power continued progressively increasing from the first to the last year of her reign. Her ports were filled with shipping, her seainen were excellent, and her admirals were alike renowned and dreaded for their gallantry and skill. Nothing further remained than the creation of a royal navy, to accomplish which, arsenals were constructed, magazines provided, and naval stores collected. A resolution so advantageous appropriated to Elizabeth the titles of restorer of the maritime glory of the nation, and queen of the northern seas.

However, we should not judge of the English marine, at that period, by what we see it at present; the comparison would be neither rational nor just. The number, the size, the force of shipping are always proportionate to the extent of commerce, the progress of nautical science, and the powers or exertions of

The plunder of Cadiz, by the Earl of Essex,
was severely felt by Philip.

To be concluded in our next.

POETRY.

SELECTED,

[It is not often the world is favoured with a
song so elegant and interesting as the fol-
lowing. We do not know for what musick
it was written, but it will be observed from
the measure and pathetick spirit of the
lines, it may be sung in the air of "THE
EXILE OF ERIN," slurring the notes at the
end of the sixth line, in each stanza, where
there is a syllable less than in the original
song.]

From a late English paper.
SONG,

SUNG AT THE ANNIVERSARY OF MR. PITT'S BIRTH-DAY,

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CELEBRATED AT EDINBURGH.

Written by Walter Scott.

O DREAD was the time and more dreadful the omen,
When the brave on Marengo lay slaughtered in vain,
And beholding broad Europe bent down by her foemen,
PITT clos'd in his anguish the map of her reign.
Not the fate of wide Europe could bend his brave spirit,
To accept for his country the safety of shame ;
O then in her triumph remember his merit,
And hallow the goblet that flows to his name!

Round the husbandman's head, while he traces the fur-
row,

The mists of the winter may mingle with rain,

He may plough it with labour, and sow it in sorrow,
And sigh while he fears he has sow'd it in vain.
He may die ere his children shall reap in their gladness;
But the blithe harvest-home shall remember his

claim;

And their jubilee shout shall be soften'd with sadness,
While they hallow the goblet that flows to his name!

Though anxious and timeless his life was expended,

In toils for our country preserved by his care,
Though he died ere one ray o'er the nations ascended,
To light the long darkness of doubt and despair;
The storms he endured in our Britain's December,
The perils his wisdom foresaw and o'ercame,

In her glory's rich Autumn shall Britain remember,
And hallow the goblet that flows to his name!

Nor forget HIS grey head, who, all dark in affliction,
Is deaf to the tale of our victories won,
And to sounds the most dear to paternal affection,
The shout of his people applauding his SON.
By his firmness, unmoved in success or disaster,

By his long reign of virtue, remember his claim !
With our tribute to PITT join the praise of his Master,
Though a tear stain the goblet that flows to his name!
Yet again fill the wine-cup, and change the sad meas

ure,

The rites of our grief and our gratitude paid, To our PRINCE, to our Warriors, devote the bright treasure,

The wisdom that plann'd, and the zeal that obey'd. Fill WELLINGTON'S cup, till it beam like his glory! Forget not our own brave DALHOUSIE and GRAEME ; A thousand years hence hearts shall bound at their glory,

And hallow the goblet that flows to their fame.

ON MUSICK.

WHEN through life unblest we rove
Leaving all that makes life dear,
Should some notes we used to love

In days of boyhood, meet our ear,
Oh, how welcome breathes the strain!
Waking thoughts that long have slept ;
Kindling former smiles again

In faded eyes that long have wept !

Like the gale, that sighs along

Beds of oriental flow'rs

Is the grateful breath of song,

That once were heard in happier hours. Fill'd with balm, the gale sighs on, Though the flowers have sunk in death : So when pleasure's dream is gone,

Its memory lives in musick's breath! Musick !-oh! how faint, how weak! Language fades before thy spell ; Why should feeling ever speak,

Thou canst breathe her soul so well. Friendship's balmy words may feign; Love's are e'en more false than they; Oh! 'tis only Musick's strain

Can sweetly soothe and not betray.

A French poet (PARCEVAL GRANDMAISON) thus translates a passage from TASSO, giving 2 fine description of

THE SPIRIT OF THE WAR-HORSE.

TEL un coursier long-tems guidé par un héros,
Volupteux époux, vit au sein des troupeaux ;
Mais s'il entend l'airain, tout-à-coup il s'arrête,
Il tressaille, il frémit, et redressant sa téte,
Il respire la guerre en ses larges nazeaux ;
Déja, déja terrible appelle ses rivaux,
Déja croit, en volant sous le maitre qu'il aime,
Les heurter, les fouler, les ecraser lui-même.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED FOR

JOHN PARK,

BY MUNROE & FRANCIS,

NO. 4 CORNHILL.
Price three dollars per annum, half in advance.
Subscribers may be supplied with the preceding
numbers.

VOL. I.

DEVOTED TO POLITICKS AND BELLES LETTRES.

BOSTON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1814.

NO. XXXIII.

POLITICAL.

FROM THE LONDON] QUARTERLY REVIEW.

Concluded.

"FROM the beginning of the French war, America had very prudently and properly made the best of her situation. One of her own writers has observed that

She discovered no sympathy in the convulsions of a whole continent, no anxiety about the sufferings of other nations, as long as those sufferings opened new channels of commerce

and swelled the revenues of the state.'

what by the second but the extension of dominion over the whole continent of America from sea to sea ?-for till that is effected, it is obvious that, stretch their territory as wide as they may, they must still have other nations bearing sway upon their borders.'

to the United States;' but the President, Mr. | objects but the conquest of Canada? And
Jefferson, who best knows why, refused to rati-
fy the treaty to which this arrangement was an-
nexed; and since that period it had never
been once insisted upon as a point that must be
settled for the preservation of peace between
the two countries. In the arrangement with
Mr. David Erskine, for instance, when the
Americans had every thing pretty much their
own way, the question of impressment is not so
much as hinted at among the conditions which
they stipulated for the renewal of friendly in-

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tercourse with Great Britain. No-no. Or-
ders in Council,' and impressment,' and Pa-
per Blockades,' (as they were impudently
termed,) were mere pretexts-each of them
successively brought forward, as another be-
came unavailable, to cover the noble ambition
of conquest. The truth is not to be disguised.
This war is on the part of America a war of
The Sesostrises of ancient, or the
conquest.
Timours of later times, themadman of
Macedon,' or the Swede,'-the steady Ro-
mans,' or the modern Gauls, were not, and
are not more essentially conquerors in their
disposition, than the American government
acting upon the politicks of Messrs. Jefferson
and Madison.

We think this sarcasm unreasonably severe. We do not blame America for indifference-if she had been in the strict sense of the word indifferent, between the contending parties in Europe, and had impartially respected the rights of both belligerents. But of her partiality to France, since the abdication of Washington, there can be no rational doubt. It could not be to the principle of liberty in France that America was favourable, since, though her favour gilded in the first instance the republican excesses of the earlier part of the French revolution, its beams have continued to play with full lustre on the diadem of the tyrant who now oppresses France and has desolated Europe, and whose majesty, we We think too (and candour obliges us to know, loves the Americans.' Is it then en- avow) that this consideration accounts, in some mity to England that has been the pervading degree, for that manifest partiality and subserprinciple of her conduct? Of France, wheth-viency to France, which have been attributed er republican or despotick, whether lacerating tion has been justly said to be the highest deto other and more degrading motives. Imitaher own bosom with civil wounds, or carryi scourges, chains and fire throughout Europegree of flattery; and a conqueror of this day the prevailing sentiment has still been enmity naturally adopts Bonaparte for his model; but that is a very different thing from being sworn to England; and the participation in that sentiment alone could (as it seems) account conto his service, or actually in his pay. Bent on sistently for an unvarying partiality to France, the same objects, the acquisition of territory, one for the revival of the empire of Charlethroughout all the varieties of her atrocity, in any nation not immediately within the scope of magne, the other for the aggrandisement of her power. the largest empire on the face of the earth,' Not that we are uncharitable enough to be--Bonaparte and Mr. Madison have assimilaas circumstances would lieve the war to have been undertaken by ted, as far America merely out of pure hatred to Great Britain. That such disposition exists in the body of the American people, and that it has long been studiously encouraged and fomented by their government, we have no doubt: but the war had other motives.-Orders in Council and impressment of seamen ?-That we presume no man is now so helpless an innocent,' as to believe. As to the Orders in Council, it is sufficient that (as we have already observed) they were repealed while the war was yet in embryo-before a blow had been struck or a cannon fired-while Mr. Madison, though he might have forged his thunderbolts, held them yet unlaunched in his red right hand. The impressment of British seamen out of American vessels (usually described by the Americans, to be sure, as the impressment of American seamen) so far from being a cause of war, even in the view of the American government themselves, had never been brought forward, through six years of negotiation, but as a matter for amicable adjustment, if means of satisfactory adjustment could be found. Adjusted we know it had once been (in the year 1806) in a manner, which their negociators represented to their government as honourable and advantageous

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If

low, their measures and their doctrines.
Bonaparte had his continental system to starve
Europe, Mr. Madison has his embargo to
distress America. If Bonaparte proclaimed
that the flag covers the merchandize, Mr Mad-
ison proceeds a step further, and declares that
it shall cover the traitor. If Bonaparte set up
the doctrine of natural limits-the Rhine, the
Alps, and the ocean, Mr. Madison feels it
right not to be left behind in geography, and
presently finds out that Canada is a nook

which deforms the area of the United States on
one side, just as the Floridas cribbed and con-
fined them on the other; and that his great
est of empires' will never be expanded to its
just proportions until the striped flag shall
wave in right of dominion over the shores of
Hudson's Bay and those of the Gulf of Mexico.

The love of France, therefore, and the hatred
of England were merely played off by the gov-
ernment to keep alive the spirit of party, and
to reconcile the people to the policy of a war
of conquest, a policy the objects of which are
ingenuously avowed by Mr. Madison to be-
the making of territorial reprisal for oceanick
the making of territorial reprisal for cceanick
outrages,' and the removing of vexations
caused by the sway of other Lations upon their
orders.' What is meant by the first of these

Ambition says the poet, is a god-like fault; and whatever may be its criminality, it is apt to excite a notion that there is something grand and awful in the mind of which it is the predominant feature. When therefore a nation sets up for a conquering nation, it invites a scrutiny into its acquirements and pretensions, into its means of realizing mighty projects, or its capacity for bestowing splendid benefits, which would be altogether out of place with respect to a nation that busied itself solely about its own affairs

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A society of sober traders and peaceful husbandmen, occupied in turning to advantage the blessings of an abundant soil, and of opportune harbours, a society decent in morals, serious in piety, in manners neither rudely clownish, nor meretriciously refined-studious of personal liberty, and of national independence, but observant of the laws at home, and breathing peace and good will to their neighbours abroad;-a society so framed, and actuated by such principles, could not but attract the respect of all mankind, and command their sympathy if insulted by foreign power, United Sta Such was the impression respecting the hastily taken up, and fondly cherished this country, and generally throughout Europe; an impression which the merely keeping quiet on their part might have left unexamined and undissolved to the present hour. Exempted by their position from any direct participation in the contests and calamities of the old world, they might have availed themselves of the dreadful interval of the last twenty years to grow and flourish in noiseless prosperity; and if, in the course of so widely extended hostilities, the whiff and wind' of maritime conflict had sometimes unavoidably ruffled their peaceful sails, and retarded then gainful adventures, they might surely have balanced against these trifling inconveniences the substantial advantages of a profitable neutrality.

If such had been the conduct of the United States, and if Great Britain, in resentment for this prudent and unoffending determination to preserve themselves from the contamination of the hostile mind, as well as from the shock of the hostile movements of Europe, had wantonly invaded the United States from Canada,pretending some fanciful necessity of removing a stranger's sway from the neighbourhood of her provinces-witif what indignation would all the world have raised their voice against so unjustifiable an aggression! Then, indeed, the Emperor of Russia, our ally, might have said, with truth, that the Americans had done all in their power to avoid a rupture with England.' But reversing the picture, and beholding in the government of the United States the predetermined invader and would-besovereign of Canada, indignation of another sort is reused against an attempt as preposte ous as prefligare.

Admiration of the enemy was one of the la

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