is in the deeds of vengeance and ferocity which have, at all times, signalized the revolts of slaves.

The blacks are, in some states, almost as numerous as the whites. In these, the chief wealth of the free inhabitants consists of slaves. But the number of the latter is not the only obstacle to their enfranchisement. The difference of colour is another, which has hitherto been thought insuperable. It may be expected that, in such climates, the blacks set free, would multiply faster than the whites; that, soon, having become the strongest, they would usurp the government; and, perhaps, might not be found grateful enough to their old masters, to disdain being oppressors in their turn!

The constitutions of the southern states have not as yet been adequate to the productions of a remedy for this horrible canker, which afflicts the philosophical observer the more, because it defaces works perfect in every other respect. If there can be found, as some believe, wise and humane means of cure, we may rely, for the proper application, upon the prudence of those concerned. It were presumptuous to undertake to indicate to them what they must well know.

The contrariety which exists between the interests of several states, cannot be dissembled, and will not be always easy to remove. Those of the North, are peopled by an enterprising, robust race, familiar with navigation and the dangers of the sea. They enrich themselves by commerce, and regard this as the most solid basis of their prosperity. Like all trading communities, they place wealth first on the list of the advantages of the social compact; power, and even na tional consideration, appear to them of a secondary order. The people of the South, less frugal, more addicted to luxury, more generally engaged in

agriculture, set little value on trade; and their maxims of political administration are of a loftier character. These discordances may have effects injurious to the public welfare. One party may call for war, the other for peace, and alternately. They will scarcely ever pursue steadily the same end, and this circumstance may often check and clog the due pace of national affairs. But the diversity of interests is an evil inherent in the great extent of the states. There is not, perhaps, in the world, a single com. munity, of which all the branches reason and act on uniform principles, and in which particular views are not often found at variance with the ge neral policy. The state lives nevertheless, it thrives,-and its existence is endangered then only when the adverse interests are so equally poised that the movement of government is altogether suspended.

Hitherto, the Americans have not made great progress in the elegant arts; their public libraries, their museums, would not, in Europe, be thought worthy to decorate the mansion of an opulent amateur. They style the edifices in which their legis. lators assemble, capitols, and this ap pellation, which is now held ambitious, will, one day, appear quite modest. They have no cirques, amphitheatres, nor mock sea-fights. It will never, perhaps, be necessary for them to con struct citadels, or environ their towns with ditches and ramparts. There will not be seen among them either pyramids, or proud mausoleums, or basilicks, or temples like those of Ephesus and Rome. Ages must revolve before they will erect those edifices of which the idle and barren magnificence imposes heavy sacrifices on the present generation; diverts their industry towards objects of mere parade, and entails wretchedness on posterity. The time of the Ameri

cans is wisely divided between permanently useful labours, and necessary repose. They employ themselves in preparing their fields for the production of food; in rendering their dwellings commodious; in opening roads and digging canals. Commerce and navigation already supply them with wealth; the arts of real utility embellish their cities, and Europe, which so long stood single as the country of the sciences and human wisdom, now shares with America this noble distinction.

A traitorous enterprise, which put to hazard such high destinies, has not fallen into oblivion; but all the most memorable circumstances of the affair have not been published, and I have thought that it would be well, in composing the narrative, to overlook no incident fitted to brighten the lustre of virtue, or to inspire a deeper horror for vice.

The war between England and her colonies broke out in 1774. From this period, the Americans were divided into two parties. The one that remained faithful to the mother coun

try, was most powerful in the beginning, but it quickly declined in strength. To the other belonged the personages the most esteemed for their virtues, and, in other respects, the most worthy of public confidence. During the ten years that this great quarrel lasted, Silas Deane and Benedict Arnold were the only men invested with important trusts, who betrayed the cause of independence. The first sold the secrets of congress to the English ministry; his perfidy did no harm, and the meanest deserter could not have been more speedily forgot

ten.

The treachery of Arnold was attended with more remarkable circumstances.

He concerted a plot, with the enemies of his country, to replace it under their dominion, and to deliver General Washington into their hands. The Republic was saved by the virtue of three young soldiers.

A witness of these events, I avail myself of the leisure which I enjoy, to report them to the world.

FOUR years had gone by since the English colonies declared, in a Congress of their Representatives, that they were released from the dependence in which Great Britain had kept them for more than a century and a half. The mother-country had resolved to subdue them, and the quarrel was to be decided by arms. But, though the military successes on both sides were nearly equal, there was an important difference of character already discernible in this war. It was

this :-that the Americans without allies or subsidies, finding at home all the resources of a people defending their own soil, baffled the efforts of their former masters; while the latter no longer preserved a foothold on the territory of the revolted colonies, but by the aid of German mercenaries, and at an expense overbalancing, perhaps, the advantages of which the highest fortune in arms could be productive.

The necessity of hiring foreign troops opened the eyes of England

more fully, to the magnitude of the loss with which she was threatened. Her statesmen had adopted it as a maxim, that the colonies were, at all times, to recruit her fleets, and, during war, to hold in readiness a numerous militia, to be carried whither soever the exigencies of the mother, country might point. Military levies could never exhaust their population,-it doubled every twenty-two years, the plenty of all the necessaries of life drew to them continually crowds of emigrants from England and other parts of Europe, which will never see emigrants from America.

The pretension of the British ministry to tax the colonies was the first cause of the revolt. But the war soon proceeded on much higher motives. Independence being once declared, the question was, for the Americans, whether they were to be free, or subjected to the yoke of a people incensed by their rebellion. England, on the other hand, had now at stake, her prosperity, her glory, even her existence as the dominant power in Europe, at least, those who opposed the recognition of the independence believed, or affected to believe, this to be the case.

The colonies were established, said they, not to become, as those of the ancients, the equals of the mothercountry, but to be subservient to her will. In losing them, England lost the most prolific nursery of her seamen, her army suffered in like manner. It was to her colonial troops that she was principally indebted for the conquest of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island, Canada, Labrador, and Northern Louisiana, all acquired in the course of the century. The kings of England, and the English people, in stripping France of these vast and useful domains, had degraded her from the first rank, and taken her place. They engrossed,

with few exceptions, the commerce of the whole world; their preponderance in the affairs of Europe was no longer disputed; and these advantages resulted from the supremacy they had established at sea. They thought themselves sure of never losing it, if the colonies could be reclaimed and held to the yoke. But, if England were to be deprived of the aid of her American subjects, and of the naval munitions which they could furnish in such abundance ;—if she must renounce her sovereignty of the seas that wash the shores of their continent, and the monopoly of their ports and harbours for her armed fleets ;if, in fine, she were exposed to have them as enemies, the British power might be thenceforth regarded as a Colossus wanting a proportionate base. The mighty superstructure, raised with so much industry and perseverance, but not with a due foresight, must, sooner or later, be shaken to its foundations, and the damage might be irreparable.-An agricultural state, with economy as the rule of the whole system, could easily apply to navigation and commerce. But there was no such facility in the transition from commerce to agriculture ;-in the relinquishment of habits of luxury and the gratifications of wealth.

A preponderating power rarely fails to incur, by its arrogance and injustice, the hatred of the other nations. To the hatred imbibed against Eng. land, was added the favour which the cause of liberty usually conciliates from mankind, whatever may be the governments under which they live. No state, no potentate had an interest adverse to the independence of the colonies. Thus, Europe could calculate without alarm, to what a height of prosperity these new communities might attain. England alone had rea son to be jealous.

Spain, indeed, mindful that the con

quest of the Havanna had been the work of troops levied in the British provinces, should have startled at the prospect of their future greatness, and at an example that might be imitated throughout her vast colonies; but, swept along by the current of events, she yielded to necessity, and trusted to fortune for the preservation of her transatlantic empire.

France retained but a faint recollection of those violations of public law, by which, at the commencement of the last war, so many French vessels and sailors fell a prey to England; and it was at the same time forgotten that in this unlucky contest, the militia of the British colonies had mainly contributed to conquer Canada and Upper Louisiana for Great Britain. English America was little known in France, and yet the insurgents had no where else a more numerous or unreserved body of friends. That hate between the two nations, that jealousy which would seem destined to endure as long as the coasts of France and England lie op. posite, raged anew with the utmost intensity; and the disgrace of the treaty of Fontainbleau kindled, after a lapse of fifteen years, fiercer indignation, than when it was signed. It was thus that grievances were resuscitated, which will be eternal, if, at some future period, the party last discomfited, have not the wisdom to silence its resentments.

It has been since questioned, whether France, in assisting the revolted colonies with all her strength, followed the dictates of sound policy. Some have thought that it would have been preferable to allow England to exhaust herself by a war, which we could have fed secretly but sparingly, and have thus made interminable. Others, considering rebellion as contagious, have ascribed the disasters of our Revolution to our connexion with

the United States. Without sifting these points at the best problemati cal-it would suffice, perhaps, in order to justify the conduct of the French government, to reflect what would have been the consequence of an alliance formed between England and her colonies on conditions perfectly equal, such as they were actually submitted for adoption, by several statesmen on both sides. It is probable that the ruin of the French marine would have resulted from this league. But the experience of ages has demonstrated, that great states cannot prosper when they are deprived of the benefits of navigation.

Navies are hardly less important than armies, for the defence of coasts and maritime cities; and colonies beyond sea, cannot be preserved without a respectable naval force. It equally behoves a great nation to keep her foreign trade independent of other powers. The nation that neglects this duty, is punished sooner or later. It surrenders to strangers, the profits of freight and commission. It is at their mercy in respect to its exports and imports, and even as to articles of first necessity. The ship is to commerce, what the plough is to agriculture.

Let us not revert to the American Revolution for the primary cause of the excesses which marred that of France, nor imitate those judges whose skill consists in awaiting the event. The cabinet of Versailles, far from being condemned, at the time, for this alliance, was blamed for extreme circumspection; an unjust reproach, because deliberation and ripeness of knowledge are never more necessary

than when the resolution to be taken

cabinet of Versailles affected to believe that she would not resent the proceeding, and acted as if she could have seen it with indifference. The squadron ready at Toulon should have sailed on the very day the French ambassador made known to the court of London that the treaty with the Americans was signed. The fruits of this expedition were lost by delays which might have been avoided. Ministers pleaded the necessity of opposing order and economy to a nation that expected to triumph by lavishing her treasures. But even order suffers by procrastination, and true ec nomy lies, in expending usefully and seasonably. This was felt and acknowledged at a later period. The transport of landsuccours was also deferred through a false prudence. An idle fear was indulged of alarming a people the more jealous of their liberty, as they were just beginning to enjoy it. So far, however, from dreading these succours, Congress had, by its ambassadors, made the most pressing instances for them. It was finally determined that a chosen force, not numerous, but ably commanded, perfectly disciplined, and completely equipped, should be despatched to America.

All the youth of France manifested the desire of fighting in America. We had never seen so thronged a competition for so few posts. Talents, favour, intrigue, every thing was brought to bear, to procure employment in this expedition. Since the era of the Crusades, there had not been exhibited such an eagerness to go beyond sea, to regions almost unknown, for the purpose of defending a of defending a cause scarcely understood.

To the passion of glory common to men of lofty courage, was added another feeling with which every bosom already throbbed. It was the first inspiration of liberty; and even then, we could perceive, that if this magic

1

power had wise and moderate friends in France, she would find also votaries fanatical in their zeal.

The news of this armament reached England immediately, and the nation, hitherto divided as to the object and utility of the war, appeared of a sudden to have but one purpose and desire that of vengeance. But a little before it was under deliberation, whether the mother-country should not acknowledge the independence of her rebellious children: now, the resolution was unanimous," to chastise their revolt, and the crime of having contracted an alliance with the impla cable enemy of the British power."

Thus commenced the war between two nations perpetually rivals; equally powerful; the one at sea, the other on land :-The one formidable for her fleets, the largest and the best managed that the ocean had ever borne, and for her credit which her punctuality has enabled her to stretch far beyond the limits prescribed by prudence ;-the other, for her population, her martial genius, and her military resources; both supereminent in arts, science, letters, and the discoveries by which the happiness of man has been promoted. The other powers became universally intent on the events which were to grow out of this rupture. The measures of France produced great, though tardy effects, and her arms shone, in the new world, with a lustre eclipsed, indeed, for the last thirty years, in the old.

But England, so redoubtable at sea, could not fail to discover that she was incompetent to contend, in both hemispheres, against a nation inexhaustible. in good generals and brave soldiers. This, then, was the moment to resort to corruption, and to lavish gold, the auxiliary of governments whose chief strength consists in their wealth. The English ministry employed emissaries who were instructed to spare nothing,