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and men from capture when visited by the ships of war of the belligerent.' These safe conducts,' apply to the men as well as merchandize, and when properly authenticated, were sufficient protection. The same principle is again recognized in the treaties of 1666 and 1772,: XIIth article.

The treaty of England with Denmark, 1670, concluded at Copenhagen, in the XXth article, provides as follows. After prescribing the form of the passport' necessary to secure the vessel, goods and men, it proceeds thus

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"When therefore, the merchandize, goods, ships, or men of either of the confederates and their subjects and people shall meet in open sea, straights, ports, &c. the ships of war, &c. of the other confederate, upon exhibiting only the aforesaid safe conduct,' there shall be nothing more required of them, nor shall search be made after the goods, ships or men, &c. but if this solemn and set form of passport and certificate be not exhibited, or that there be any other urgent cause of suspicion, then the ship shall be searched,' &c.

Various other treaties recognize the same right. The treaty with Sardinia, concluded at Florence, 1669, XIIth article, has the following provision, which however, may only mean whilst the ships are in port; but the principle it conveys is in decided opposition to our pretensions.

• All mariners, subjects of his majesty, who shall desert their own captain or master and enter in any other ship or vessel, upon complaint made to the officer of his Royal Highness, at Rizza, Villa Franca, or St. Hospitio, shall be taken from the ship that received them, and be restored to their first captain or master.'

The States General, in consequence of an attempt by an English man of war, in 1654, to search a fleet of merchant ships under convoy, undertook the discussion of the right, and their conclusion was, that the refusal to let merchantmen be searched could not be persisted in.'* These instances are sufficient to shew the practice and principles of nations, respecting the right of search; we do not pretend to assert they will warrant the flagrant and unjustifiable practice of Great-Britain on this subject against which alone all our best arguments are applicable; but we think they will afford some authority under which her right can be maintained. But if the previous practice of nations could not be produced to illustrate the subject, we are of opinion that the opposition of our government can have but little ground of argument even on such principles of equity as must originally serve for the foundation of international doctrines. All the declamation of Mr. Madison about the unprecedented conduct of Great-Britain, is nugatory. The practice of searching for contraband was unprecedented once; but it did not follow

See Ordeal, page 117.

that equity would not authorize the assumption of the right. The general principle is, that the neutral in prosecuting his commerce, shall not materially and directly injure the friendly belligerent. If he does, the remedy is for the belligerent to put a stop to his underhand hostility, after he has ascertained its fatal operation. We maintain that if it be justto search neutral merchant vessels for contraband goods, it is equally so to search them for deserters as it is difficult to perceive why the principle which is just in one instance should not be so in the other. Āti all events we should be happy to see the distinction fairly pointed out.

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Under such impressions we cannot agree with our author, that it was right or judicious in our government to require the ambassadour at the Court of St. James, to mingle the subject of reparation for an acknowl edged wrong with claims for an immunity, which, to say the least, was of doubtful right, and ought to have been kept perfectly distinct from the controversy on an act, where (the principle which it includes being disavowed,) the only question was as to the amount of reparation due for the injury sustained. [To be continued.}{+ o' ཧྭ༢༣༡༡༣༩༡

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EVER since the election of the new President, we have heard his praises resounded, whilst his political opponents have been branded with. every opprobrious epithet which ignorance coupled with vulgar malig nity could invent. But we have lately met with a production of rather an elevated description; far from grovelling in the bathos, the author frequently soars into the sublime. His Pegasus indeed, appears rath er restive, but the rider maintains his seat to the end of his journey. As it is a pity that the most luminous talent on the democratick side, should waste its effulgence in the desert, and as we wish to satisfy the democrats of our willingness to sustain the weight of the arguments of their most formidable controvertists, we subjoin a few extracts from • An Oration pronounced at Portsmouth, by Samuel Haines, A. M. on the 4th of March, 1809. Our author introduces his subject in a most elegant style: despising the rules of criticism, he keeps propriety of meaning and metaphorical chasteness at a disdainful distance; as the following sentence of five lines containing six metaphors and two personifications, will abundantly evince.

"When the trump of fame proclaims to the universe the vanquish ment of the demon of despotism, and the frustration of his mad designs and nefarious machinations, the goddess of liberty adds a new laurel to her wreath of victory, and a fresh plume to her crown of glory.'

He proceeds thus loftily to compliment the illustrious patriot and statesman,' Mr. Madison, the venerable constitution of our political compact, whilst he denounces with great vehemence ☞ the infernal conspiracies of the dark plotting Catalines of America,' who he afterwards tells us are a party of no inconsiderable pretensions. In the course of his observations he takes occasion to make use of the ensuing metaphors; the bold-pinioned eagle of America, is placed among "wind woven clouds, of sulphureous faction, surcharged with nitrick gasses,' &c. &c. Then he speaks of poisoned quivers' being thrown from 'complicated artillery.' But let us hear Mr. Haines himself. Essentially and constitutionally hostile to the vital principles of republican freedom, the mighty monarchies of the east are co-operating in their exertions to expel liberty from the world. But the bold pinioned Eagle of America is still seen soaring amid the angry collisions of those wind-woven clouds of sulphureous faction (surcharged with the nitrick gasses of Britanical influence) which have darkened the polit. ical horizon of the western hemisphere. His towering height defies all the poisoned quivers, foreign despotism and internal treason are able to throw from their complicated artillery.'

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Then our author's pathos begins to rise and he soon attains the very pinnacle of sublimity.

The voice of an injured country hath invoked unanimity.-Nay, the blood of our revolutionary martyrs hath been heard from the ground!-The solemn eloquence of the death-sleeping fathers of our surviving republick hath spoken from the tomb !-The heaven-enthroned spirit of our departed Chief hath descended on a beam of his celestial glory, and whispered awful admonitions to his rebellious children beneath the spheres !-Yet, they heed it not, nor is their wrath abated,”

Shakespeare's scene in ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream' then attracts his attention, as Hamlet's soliloquy on death has the good fortune to do immediately afterwards. He speaks of trembling shocks," furious treason,' 'frantick blood,' ' portentous clouds," 'shuddering worlds, and many other expressions which remind us how Nick Bottom's

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The inhabitants of Boston now receive the most tremendous phil

lippick.

Yes, within the peninsula of Boston, where the bold intrepid éloquence of an Adams and a Hancock once chafed the ears" of British tyrants and flashed conviction on the mind of every trembling Felix ; where the etherial flame of patriotism first electerized the generous bosoms of Columbia's free-born sons, where the sacred altar of American freedom first smoked with holy incense to the God of battles;— even there, has hydra faction burrowed deep its dark and serpentine domain; whence loathesome reptiles sally forth in all their envenomed forms of furious treason, to prey upon the fairest fruit of freedoms verdant tree.': wil ik củ eu

We cannot but admire the true republican pathos and sentiment contained in the following sentence: ytrin

Though meek eyed charity drops the tear of compassion upon the blindfold folly of deluded honesty; and speaks to benighted reason and misguided virtue, the language of conciliation, in accents as gentle and soothing as the balmy zephyrs of the vernal morn; yet stern, unbending justice, from this exalted throne of spotless purity, thunders denunciations dire on all the dark designs of plotting mischief, and of hell-born treason."

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Our author then in the spirit of the party of which he seems so able a leader, invites them to feast and be merry, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.' He talks of reciprocating the generous' flow of soul," on the occasion, as well as the generous currents of convivial joy.' He tells his audience not to be parsimonious of life,' but to sacrifice it to Mr. Madison. As Junius says of Lord Granby, our author seems like a drunken landlord, he deals out his promises as liberally as his liquor, and we dare swear, did not suffer his guests to go home ei, ther sorrowful or sober."

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We have not room, (and if we had we should fear for the Federal cause) to quote all the energetick expressions of this redoubted champion. It may be only necessary to remark that it is in the same taste with those which we have already submitted to our readers; and are as to style, what the reasonings of the Chronicle are as to argument, something truly wonderful. We shall finish our remarks by offering the concluding sentence of this oration as a specimen of the best manner of the most formidable champion' whom we have yet observed in the lists of democracy.

'If civil war must ere long drench Columbia's fertile and verdant domain in the frantick blood of slaughtered kindred, we implore the God of battles, it may spend its fury before the hoary veterans of seventy-five, who yet live, shall pass beyond the stars. They have once conversed with England's thundering cannon; they have once dispersthe menial jackals that crouched around the British lion: and when the minority shall take up arms against the Constitutional Laws of the

majority, an attempt to wade to government and power through the innocent blood of their patriotick countrymen; when that Junto of Rebel Tories and their mortgaged hosts of servile minions, who are at this moment fanning the angry flame of civil discord, shall strike' their meditated blow of insurrection, the sleeping swords of war worn whigs and of their patriotick offspring shall leap from their scabbards and put the fiend-like foe to flight.'

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K

EXTRAORDINARY GENIUS.

MESSRS. EDItors,

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THOUGH scribbling is not my profession, nor controversy my delight, yet I beg leave to trouble you with a few lines, for your next Ordeal. My object is to pay the tribute of my respect' to that anonymous though sagacious critick and elegant writer, who has occupied half of your two last papers, in reviewing the Rev. Mr. Carey's Sermon. I cannot find language sufficiently lofty to express the exalted opinion I entertain of his profound judgment and critical eruditions. A production so replete with genuine wit, nice discrimination, classical allusion, and though last not least,' so luxuriantly speckled with inverted commas and apostrophes, I presume to say, has never before been seen in the tide of times,' and will never again be witnessed, at least in our generation. Great geniuses are like comets, that are permitted to visit our ken of sight, but once in several centuries; and then excite universal admiration.

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I remember reading when I was a boy, a story of a great genius that appeared at Rome, in the reign of Augustus Cæsar. With respect to the birth, parentage, and education of this genius, we have to regret that history is silent. In consequence, however of the most diligent and laborious application, he had acquired an unheard of facility and accuracy of shooting peas from a pop-gun. Bore a hole of the exact size of a pea through a target, and this man at the amazing distance of three inches would shoot a pea through the hole, to the astonishment of the beholders. His fame spread through the vast Roman empire, and at last reached the ear of Augustus, who directed him to be brought into his presence. After witnessing his wonderful performance, the emperor dismissed him, and as a reward for his genius commanded fifteen of the most noble of the senators to present him with a whole bag full of peas!!

I am, yours, &c.

TIMOTHY.

P.S. If the reviewer should find in this letter a reprehensible fancy for repetition, please to tell him, Messrs. Editors, that he has wisely said himself, that two epithets do not sound so well as four.'

Vol. 1.

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