a parallel. The former have been plundered discipline of the crew of the Argus? Ingersol of almost every article of clothing they pos- knew full well, when he attempted this sessed; the latter had their hearts and livers ridiculous excuse, that when a merchant taken out, which were actually cooked and vessel is taken by a man of war, that, should feasted on by the savages; and that too in she not be destroyed, a prize crew is put on the quarters of the British officers, sanctioned board of her, and she is despatched to the by Col. McDouall.' " nearest port; had he, therefore mentioned as a reason why the prize was recaptured, that the prize crew got drunk, it would have been of no unusual occurrence. Again, how were the crew of the Argus to have got at the wine; the prize was not taken by boarding, but by a gun fired across her bows, and so soon as a boat's crew was put on board of crew were recalled, and the brig set on fire. her, the Pelican being discovered, the boat's Is it probable that the captain and officers of the Argus would be so remiss in their duties as not to notice the boat's crew bringing back from the prize so much wine as to intoxicate a whole crew, that state for twenty-four hours, the time and keep them in that elapsed between the capture of the brig and the going into action. The whole idea is absurd, and only furnishes another instance of what American writers will resort to in order to bolster up any national dishonour or defeat. It is only necessary to remark on this extraordinary fabrication of Mr. O'Connor's, that there were no prisoners taken at Michilimacinac, and that in the proceedings, as reported by American journals, of the court of enquiry that tried the officers and crew of the Tigress, no such proceedings were even hinted at. Is it probable that such conduct, had it occurred, would have been passed over in silence, affording, as it would have done, such an opportunity of stigmatizing the British? The answer is obvious, yet we find that Mr. O'Connor's book, with the atrocious statement uncontradicted, has passed through many editions, and is even now a class book of history in the United States. In regard to the numbers, the statements furnished by authorities who wrote on the subject at the time, have enabled us to disprove the American exaggerations, by giving the correct numbers. Naval proceedings. 66 Hornet. We must now pass, for On the 24th of May Commodore Decatur, the present, from the opDecatur's cruise in commanding the United the United States, with States forty-four - gun erations by land, and take a glance at the Macedonian and sloop occurrences that had taken place during the frigate, with the Macelast few months. We must not omit, how-donian, thirty-eight, and the Hornet, eighteen ever, to notice one statement of Ingersol's gun sloop, started for the East Indies from relative to the capture of the Argus by H. M. New York. By the 1st June, the American Brig the Pelican, which we have already squadron had got through the intricacies of touched upon. Long Island sound, by which passage they were forced to endeavour to get out, Sandy In extenuation of the loss of the Argus, Hook being blockaded, and they stood out to Ingersol states that on the 13th August, sea. At nine a. m., however, they were disthe Argus captured a vessel loaded with wine, covered by II. M. ship Valiant, seventyof which too free use was made by the Amefour guns, in company with the eighteenrican crew, soon after which her flag was, pounder, forty-gun frigate Acasta, and imnot ingloriously, struck, after an engagement mediately chased. Here was a glorious with the English brig of war Pelican, Capt. opportunity for Commodore Decatur; he had Maples." been thirsting for an opportunity to tackle Now what inference is to be drawn from single-handed to a British seventy-four; and this passage? Is it to be construed into a as according to American accounts the confession that the American captain resorted Macedonian was as fine a frigate as the to an attempt to give his crew what is com- British had ever built, the Acasta was just monly styled Dutch courage, or should it be her match, and if any slight make-weight taken as a very severe reproof upon the might have been required, it was amply supplied by the Hornet. Commodore Decatur do? What then did sloop, which had been recently captured, The lieutenant did as he was ordered, and New London, being compelled to start a great part of his water, and throw his provisions overboard, to escape capture. The at 2 h. 30 m., p. m., while he and his men Commodore did not attempt to increase the were in the act of securing her, the schooner force in pursuit, but the American papers blew up with a tremendous explosion. The did; and it was, accordingly, circulated poor lieutenant and ten of the fine fellows, through the Union, that three vessels had who were with him, perished; and the rechased, a razee being added to the real maining three men escaped only with being shockingly scorched. number. An attempt was made a short time after Both James and Brenton are very severe the chase of Decatur and in their animadversions on this head, and the Ramilies, at Fisher his squadron, to blow up James declares that he fully concurs with the Ramilies, seventy- Brenton in the following remark:— Attempt to blow up Island. four, then at Anchor at Fisher's Island. James gives the following account of this occurrence. "A quantity of arsenic placed amongst the food, would have been so perfectly compatible with the rest of the contrivance, that Two merchants of New York, encouraged we wonder it was not resorted to. Should by a promise of reward from the American actions like these receive the sanction of Government, formed a plan for destroying Government, the science of war, and the law the Ramilies, Captain Sir Thomas Master- of nations, will degenerate into the barbarity man Hardy. A schooner named the Eagle of the Algerines; and murder and pillage was laden with several casks of gunpowder, will take the place of kindness and humanity having trains leading from a species of gun to our enemies." lock, which, upon the principle of clock some We confess we are not of this opinion. work, went off at a given period after it had been set. Above the casks of powder, and We see in this transaction nothing more in full view at the hatchway, were than the modified use of fire ships, and cancasks of flour, it being known at New York not see the difference between this scheme that the Ramilies was short of provisions, and the Emperor of Russia sinking submaand naturally supposed that Captain Hardy rine charges to blow up vessels attempting would immediately order the vessel alongSome eminent the passage to Cronstadt. side, in order to get the ship's wants supwriters on the subject, such as Wolf, &c., have asserted that war legalizes any violence, plied." and that fraud and poison may be employed "Thus murderously laden, the schooner against enemies; Grotius, Vatel, and other sailed from New York and stood up the authorities have defined the legitimate mode sound. On the 25th, in the morning, the of war to be the employment only of such Eagle approached New London, as if intend- force as is necessary to accomplish the end ing to enter that river. The Ramilies dis- of war-rather an ambiguous definition. patched a boat, with thirteen men, under Leaving, however, this nice point to be setlieutenant John Geddes, to cut her off. At tled by the peace congress, we would direct eleven, a. m., lieutenant Geddes boarded the attention to Ingersol's inconsistency on this schooner, and found that the crew, after subject. He is very eloquent on the emhaving let go her only anchor, had abandoned their vessel and fled to the shore. ployment of the Indians by the British, and declares that "God and nature put no such means in men's hands; shocking to every lover of honorable war. In vain has religion The lieutenant brought the fatal prize near the Ramilies, and Sir Thomas ordered been established if these acts of cruelty are him to place the vessel alongside of a trading permitted." Now surely the employment of Indians tive shore, where hundreds were assembled to was no more shocking to every lover of witness the engagement." honorable war, than the attempt to blow up the Ramilies. Yet we find Ingersol reprobating the one and passing over the other. "The commander of the seventy-four," adds the writer of this veracious document, "had it in his power, for five hours, to We are more honest than Ingersol, and bring us at any time to an engagement, our can find no difference between a shell thrown maintopsail to the mast during that time. into Odessa, and a fire-ship sent into Cron- It was afterwards ascertained that the ship stadt or Sebastopol. Every Christian must which declined the battle with the President, deplore war as a calamity, but so long as the was the Plantagenet, seventy-four, Captain necessity of a thing, so opposed to every Lloyd. The reason given by Captain Lloyd Divine law as a state of warfare, is recog- for avoiding an engagagement was that his nized by nations, we cannot see how it is to crew were in a state of mutiny." be regulated by Christian rules. American boastings in One would almost think that this was invenPerhaps one of the most signal instances tion enough to put forth on an imaginary subof unblushing effrontery ject; not so, however, as another American reference to the course occurred in the case of writer declares that "Captain Lloyd after the President, Commo- returning to England had several of his dore Rodgers. The President was on her sailors tried and executed on this charge." return from her third cruise, and having of the President. passed the Delaware was standing for New Unfortunately for the truth of these stateYork, "when," says the Commodore, "Iments, the Plantagenet, on the day that saw nothing until I made Sandy Hook, Commodore Rodgers was off the Hook, was when I again fell in with another of the off Barbadoes, at least sixteen hundred enemy's squadrons; and by some unaccount- miles distant. Again, the crew of the able cause, was permitted to enter the bay, Plantagenet was one of the finest in the although in the presence of a decidedly service, and no such trials took place on her superior force, after having been obliged to return home. The vessel that was magniremain outside, seven hours and a half, wait-fied into a seventy-four by the diseased imaging for the tide." ination of Rodgers and his officers, was the thirty-eight gun frigate Loire, Captain ThoThis assertion of the Commodore's was mas Brown, and his reasons for not bringnot sufficient for the officers of the Pre-ing the President to action were, that he sident, who improved on the story, and had seventy-four men away in prizes, and asserted that seeing a large ship to wind- forty in sick bay, thus leaving out of three ward they "backed the maintopsail and hundred and thirty two men, only two huncleared for action. The strange sail came dred and seventeen to go into action with a down within gun-shot, and hauled her wind vessel carrying four hundred and seventy. on the starboard tack. We continued, with our maintopsail to the mast, three hours, and, seeing no probability of the seventyfour gun ship's bearing down to engage, the President gave her a shot to windward, and the end of 1812, on a cruise to the Pacific. hoisted our colours; when she bore up for The Essex was to have made this cruise us reluctantly. When within half gun-shot, in company with the Constitution and Horbacked her maintopsail. At this moment, net, but not meeting with these vessels at all hands were called to muster aft, and the the rendezvous, Captain Porter proceeded Commodore said a few but expressive words, alone, and on the 14th of March, having though it was unnecessary; for what other captured the British packet Norton, with stimulant could true Americans want, than eleven thousand pounds sterling on board, fighting gloriously in the sight of their na-arrived at Valparaiso, on the coast of Chili. We have lost sight of the Essex, thirty-two gun frigate, Capt. Porter, who sailed towards Cruise of the Essex. Having revictualled his ship, Capt. Porter ten wounded. Captain Porter asserted that stood over to the Gallipagos, where he cap- he had fifty-eight killed and sixty-six tured twelve whalers. Two of these the wounded, and there is no means of disprov"The battered state of American commander armed and manned as ing the assertion. cruisers, the manning part of the operation the Essex," declared Captain Porter, "must being completed by inducing several of the prevent her ever reaching England." In crews of the whale ships to desert, and by spite, however, of the assertion, she was taking several Americans out of a Peruvian safely anchored in Plymouth Sound. The vessel. The larger of these vessels, newly superiority was decidedly in favour of the christened the Essex Junior, was armed with British (not more so, however, than in the twenty guns (ten long sixes, and ten eigh- three first actions of the war, the advantage teen pound carronades) and a complement was the other way), so there is no room for of ninety-five men. It does not appear that Capt. Porter was very successful between this time and the beginning of 1814, when we find him still in company with the Essex Junior in Valpa raiso. further observation on the matter, than to macetti oil taken from the others, and deOn the 8th of February the British thirty-spatched to the United States; her passage six gun frigate Phoebe, Captain Hillyar, and was cut short in the West Indies by the Bathe eighteen gun sloop, Cherub, Captain rossa frigate. The cargo was valued at one Tucker, long in pursuit of Captain Porter, hundred thousand dollars. The Policy and discovered his vessels at anchor with two of New Zealander were filled with all the oil They the prizes, stood into and anchored in the from the other ships, and sent home. port. With the usual policy of his country, were, however, both recaptured, with their Captain Porter began to tamper with the prize crews-the first by the Loire, the second British seamen, by hoisting at his fore-top-by the Belvidera. The Rose and Charlton gallant mast head a white flag, with the were given up to the prisoners; the Sir motto, "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." Andrew Hammond was taken by the CheThis was answered by Captain Hillyar, who rub; the Hector, Greenwich, and Catherine ran up a St. George's ensign, with the motto got burned, and the Seringapatam was run "God and Country; British Sailors' Best away with by her crew, who delivered her to Rights; Traitors offend both." Three or her owners in payment of salvage. It will four days after, Captain Porter returned to thus be seen that, a balance being struck, the the attack by hoisting a flag, on which was result would not be very favourable to the American Government, the loss of the Essex inscribed "God, our Country, and Liberty being taken into consideration; not to speak Tyrants offend both." of the valuable services of Captain David After remaining sometime in harbour, and Porter, of whose talents as a despatch-writer making several ineffectual attempts to escape we will furnish the reader with an example from his watchful antagonist, Capt. Porter, in our next chapter. on the 27th of March, was blown out of the Harbour, followed immediately by both Bri- ASCENSION DAY, HOLY THURSDAY.-A tish vessels, and, after an attempt to run his commemoration of the Ascension of our Lord. vessel on shore, easily captured; the Essex The day before on which the Doge of Venice junior having been secured also. Captain solemly embarked in the Bucentaur to wed Porter and part of his crew succeeded in es- the Adriatic. This pompous ceremony took caping to shore, taking with them part of its rise in 1173. Pope Alexander having the specie. This, however, was only partially been rescued from the fury of the Barbaroseffected, from their boats having been much sa by Ziani, the doge, he presented the cut up by the fire of the Phoebe. The loss latter with a ring, in token of the subjection of the two British vessels was five killed and of the sea to the Venetian republic. ; 1 THOUGHTS FOR JULY. It is during this month, too, that the farmer most anxiously watches his wheat-fields. The filling "The voice of thy thunder was in the Heaven; the of the ears-violent storms, which break or lay lightning lightened the world." PSALM lxxvii. 18. "Look upon the rainbow, and praise him that made it; very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof." ECCLESIASTICUS xliii. 11. flat the stalks the rust, that mysterious disease so fatal to the hopes of the husbandman, are all sources of anxiety to him. With all these causes of anxiety, however, he whose lot is cast in cities, The summer sun has at last asserted its full power, far from the genial aspects of Nature, is sincerely and under its influence the plants, whose growth a to be pitied during this period of the year. After wise provision had hitherto partially checked, have the early summer rains, all Nature seems revived, now attained their full size. Meadows and gardens and the sun appears to shine with additional brilare, on every side, in luxuriant blossom, and already liancy. In a little work entitled, "The Hand of the early currant and gooseberry peep invitingly God manifested in his Works," the author, when from amid the thick clusters of leaves which sur-describing the emotions of David, "the anointed round them. of the Lord, and the sweet psalmist of Israel,” Before the intense heats of the latter part of the represents him as “singing with prophetic inspiramonth set in, nothing can be more delicious than tion the praises of the Rock of Israel, influenced an early ramble. The eye literally feasts on the by the beauty of Nature under such sweet summer varied hues and forms of the flowers and shrubs, aspects. The same author also quotes the well and, when overpowered by the heat, a refuge is known lines:sought in the woods, there, in happy contrast, do we find strength and vigorous life manifested, and, screened from the fierce beams of the sun, we are content to loiter till "The bright planet of the night "The softening air is balm; Wanders o'er the blue sky free." Pleasant, however, as these rambles are, they are not unattended with "chances of change," as in this and the following month it is almost impossible to reckon with confidence on the most beautiful We have already pointed out how wonderfully morning not ending either in rain or a thunder-during the early months of the year the evidences shower. It is not, however, to the rambler that of Divine benevolence were manifested, and now the uncertainty of the weather brings the greatest that the fruition of all the intentions of Providence inconvenience, as the season of hay-making gene- draws nigh, we daily find some new proof of his rally commences towards the end of the month, goodness. "The provision of food, the maturing and many a sweet-smelling swathe, or haycock, of plants and animals, the development of seed for has, again and again, to be turned or spread ere the the reproduction of vegetable life in the following labours which," with regular strokes and a sweep-spring," have all in turn been unrolled from ing sound," lay low the sweet and flowery grass, Nature's page for the benefit of the poet, the are crowned with success. Sorely indeed is the naturalist, or the Christian. It will be well, howpatience of the mower too often tested, and with ever, to remember "that the lessons of summer us, even as in our dear fatherland, it is often mid-will, no more than those of spring, reconcile all night "ere," as Howitt writes, "the fragrant ricks difficulties, or illuminate to us what is mysterious, rise in the farm-yard, and the pale, smooth-shorn fields are left in solitary beauty." A marked difference, too, will be noted by "Him who seeks the dawn," as with us it is not as in merrie England, when the mowers are afield long ere the sun glances above the horizon. This early work is quite impossible in our climate, where the dew loves to linger long after the sun has shown himself above the horizon, and from dawn till an hour after sunrise, our fields remain unenlivened by "hay-makers tossing the green swathes to the sun." VOL. V.-B. obscure, or incomprehensible in the ordering of Nature, and the dealings of God with man; but in so far as these lessons are clearly expressed, they point with no less distinctness to the same conclusions, and show us that the God of Nature is a God of love." William Howitt's lines on "Summer and the Poet" will be found very appropriate, as showing what ought to be the spirit in which we should regard all the manifestations of Providence through the great book of Nature, and how prone is humanity to murmur, even while the choicest blessings are being showered on him. Howitt thus sings: |