Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

low, supposed to have been once a waiter at an inn in Kirkcudbright. The leader of the party, who was not the captain of the vessel, told, that their intention was to seize Lord Selkirk, who is now in London."

It appears, accordingly, that Paul Jones actually purchased the plate, and embraced the first opportunity, after peace, to transmit it to Lord Selkirk, accompanied by the following letter:

Paris, February 12, 1784. MY LORD, I have just received a letter from Mr Nesbitt, dated at L'Orient the 4th instant, mentioning a letter to him from your son, Lord Daer, on the subject of the plate that was taken from your house by some of my people, when I commanded the Ranger, and has been for a long time past in Mr Nesbitt's care. A short time before I left France to return to America, Mr W. Alexander wrote me from Paris to L'Orient, that he had, at my request, seen and conversed with your Lordship in England respecting the plate. He said you had agreed that I should restore it, and that it might be forwarded to the care of your sister-in-law, the Countess of Morton, in London. In consequence, I now send orders to Mr Nesbitt to forward the plate immediately to her When I received Mr Alexander's letter, there was no cartel or other vessel at L'Orient that I could trust with a charge of so delicate a nature as your plate; and I had great reason to expect I should have returned to France within six months after I embarked for America. But circumstances in America prevented my returning to Europe during the war, though I had constant expectation of it.

care.

The long delay that has happened to the restoration of your plate has given me much concern, and I now feel a proportionate pleasure in fulfilling what was my first intention. My motive for landing at your estate in Scotland was to take you as an hostage for the lives and liberty of a number of the citizens of America, who had been taken in war on the ocean, and committed to British prisons under an act of Parliament, as "traitors, pirates, and felons." You observed to Mr Alexander, that my idea was a mistaken one, because you were not (as I had supposed) in fa

VOL. I.

vour with the British ministry, who knew that you favoured the cause of liberty. On that account, I am glad that you were absent from your estate when I landed there, as I bore no personal enmity, but the contrary, towards you. I afterwards had the happiness to redeem my fellow citizens from Britain, by means far more glorious than through the medium of any single hostage.

As I have endeavoured to serve the cause of liberty through every stage of the American revolution, and sacrificed to it my private ease, a part of my fortune, and some of my blood, I could have no selfish motive in permitting my people to demand and carry off your plate. My sole inducement was to turn their attention, and stop their rage from breaking out, and retaliating on your house and effects the too wanton burnings and desolation that had been committed against their relations and fellow citizens in America by the British; of which, I assure you, you would have felt the severe consequence, had I not fallen on an expedient to prevent it, and hurried my people away before they had time for further reflection. As you were so obliging as to say to Mr Alexander, that my people behaved with great decency at your house, I ask the favour of you to announce that circumstance to the public. I am, my Lord, wishing you always perfect freedom and happiness, your Lordship's most obedient and most humble servant,

(Signed)

PAUL JONES.

To the Right Honourable the Earl of Selkirk, in Scotland.

After his combat with the Drake, Paul Jones sailed round the north of Scotland, and, on the 5th September, was seen off Lerwick. He did no damage, however, except carrying off a boat and four men from the island of Mousa. He then proceeded a long the east coast of Scotland. In the middle of September he sailed up the Firth of Forth, and on the 17th was seen nearly opposite to Leith, below the island of Inchkeith. A violent south-west wind, however, having arisen, drove his squadron so rapidly down the Firth, as to be soon out of sight. He had taken and plundered a few prizes. He sailed next to the

C

Texel, into which he carried, as prizes, two British vessels of war, the Serapis, and the Countess of Scarborough, which, after an obstinate engagement, he had captured near Flamborough Head. On this occasion, the British minister made urgent demands that the prizes, as well as Paul Jones himself, and his squadron, should be delivered up to his government. The Dutch, however, on the 25th October, came to this resolution: "That they could not pretend to judge of the legality or illegality of the actions of those who had taken, on the open sea, vessels not belonging to themselves; that they had merely given them shelter from storms, and would oblige them to put to sea, so that the British might themselves have an opportunity of taking them." To this resolution they adhered, notwithstanding the warmest remonstrances of the British minister.

During the course of Jones's stay at the Texel, he addressed the following letters to the Dutch Admiral, Baron Vander Capellen :

On board the Serapis at the Texel,

Oct. 19, 1779.

MY LORD,-Human nature, and America, are under very singular obligations to you for your patriotism and friendship; and I feel every grateful sentiment for your generous and polite letter.

Agreeable to your request, I have the honour to inclose a copy of my letter to his Excellency Dr Franklin, containing a particular account of my late expedition on the coasts of Britain and Ireland; by which you will see that I have already been praised more than I have deserved. But I must, at the same time, beg leave to observe, that by the other papers which I take the liberty to inclose, (particularly the copy of my letter to the Countess of Selkirk, dated the day of my arrival at Brest from the Irish Sea,) I hope you will be convinced that in the British prints I have been censured unjustly. I was indeed born in Britain, but I do not inherit the degenerate spirit of that fallen nation, which I at once lament and despise. It is far beneath me to reply to their hireling invectives; they are strangers to the inward approbation that greatly animates and rewards the man who draws his sword only in support of the dignity of freedom.

America has been the country of my fond election from the age of thirteen, when I first saw it. I had the honour to hoist, with my own hands, the flag of freedom the first time it was displayed on the Delaware; and I have attended it with veneration. ever since, on the ocean. I see it respected even here in spite of the pitiful Sir Joseph (Yorke;) and I ardently wish and hope very soon to exchange a salute with the flag of this republic. Let but the two republics join hands, and they will give peace to the world.

Highly ambitious to render myself worthy of your friendship, I have the honour to be, my Lord, your very obliged and most humble servant.

On board the Alliance at the Texel,

Nov. 29, 1779.

MY LORD,-Since I had the honour to receive your second esteemed letter, I have unexpectedly had occasion to revisit Amsterdam; and having changed ships since my return to the Texel, I have, by some accident or neglect, lost or mislaid your letter. I remember, however, the questions it contained, viz. 1st, Whether I ever had any obligation to Lord Selkirk? 2d, Whether he accepted my offer? and, 3d, Whether I have a French commission? I answer, I never had any obligation to Lord Selkirk, except for his good opinion; nor does he know me or mine, except by character. Lord Selkirk wrote me an answer to my letter to the Countess; but the ministry detained it in the general post-office in London for a long time, and then returned it to the author, who afterwards wrote to a friend of his, (Mr Alexander,) an acquaintance of Dr Franklin's, then at Paris, giving him an account of the fate of his letter to me, and desiring him to acquaint his Excellency and myself, that, "if the plate was restored by Congress, or by any public body, he would accept it, but that he could not think of accepting it from my private generosity." The plate has, however, been bought, agreeable to my letter to the Countess, and now lays in France at her disposal. As to the third article, I never bore, nor acted under any other commission than what I have received from the Congress of the United States of America.

I am much obliged to you, my Lord, for the honour you do me by

proposing to publish the papers I sent you in my last; but it is an honour which I must decline, because I cannot publish my letter to that Lady without asking and obtaining the Lady's consent, and because I have a very modest opinion of my writings, being conscious that they are not of sufficient value to claim the notice of the public. I assure you, my Lord, it has given me much concern to see an extract of my rough journal in print, and that too under the disadvantage of a translation. That mistaken kindness of a friend will make me cautious how I communicate my papers. I have the honour to be, my Lord, with great esteem and respect, &c. &c.

Paul Jones continued in the American service during the remainder of the war, and, on the 14th April 1781, the Congress voted to him an address of thanks, and presented him with a gold medal. At the peace of 1783, it was agreed that Jones should return some of the prizes taken during the war, but should receive a pecuniary indemnification. To arrange this transaction, he sailed for France, and arrived at Paris, where he was received with great cordiality. In the course of his residence there, he received the following letter from Dr Franklin:

Havre, July 21, 1785. DEAR SIR,-The offer, of which you desire I would give you the particulars, was made to me by Mr Le Baron de Walterstorff, in behalf of his Majesty the King of Denmark, by whose ministers he said he was authoriz'd to make it. It was to give us the sum of ten thousands pounds Sterling, as a compensation for having deliver'd up the prizes to the English. I did not accept it, conceiving it much too small a sum, they having been valued to me at fifty thousand pounds. I wrote to Mr Hodgson, an insurer in London, requesting he would procure information of the sums insur'd on those Canada ships. His answer was, that he could find no traces of such insurance; and he believ'd none was made; for that the Government, on whose account they were said to be loaded with military stores, never insur'd; but, by the best judgment he could make, he thought they might be worth about sixteen or eighteen thousand pounds each. With great

esteem, I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. Hon. Paul Jones, Esq.

We have also in our possession an original card of invitation to dinner from La Fayette, which shews the esteem in which he was held by that eminent character. He was satisfied as to his claims, and returned to America. But, in 1788, we find him offering his services to the Empress Catherine, by whom they were readily accepted. The following is the copy of a letter addressed to him by her Imperial Majesty upon this occasion: Copie de la lettre de sa Majesté l'Imperatrice de toutes les Russies auContre-Amiral de Paul Jones.

Monsieur le Contre-Admiral
PAUL JONES.

UN Courier de Paris vient d'aporter, de la part de mon envoyé en France M. de Simolin, la lettre si-jointe au Cte. de Besborodka. Comme je crois que cette lettre peut contribuer à vous confirmer la verité de ce que je vous ai dit de bouche, je vous l'envoy, et vous prie de me la renvoyer parceque je n'en ai pas fait tirer de copie tant je me suis hatez de vous la faire parvenir, J'espere qu'elle effaçera tout doute de votre esprit, et qu'elle vous prouvera que vous allés avoir affaire à quelqu'un qui est très-favorablement disposé à votre egard. Je ne doute nullement que de votre coté vous ne tachiés de remplir parfaitement l'opinion que nous avons de vous, et que vous vous appliqueré avec zêle à soutenir la reputation et le nom que vous ont acquis votre valeur et votre habileté très reconnue sur l'element sur lequel vous allés servir. Adieu.-Je vous souhaite bonheur et bon santé. (Signed) CATHERINE.

4 Czarskocelo, 11th May 1788.

What were the circumstances which disgusted Jones with the service of her Imperial Majesty, we have not yet been able to learn; but it appears that, in 1790, he was engaged in a negociation for entering into the service of her enemies. This is proved by the following very curious document, an original letter from Kosciuszko, addressed to "The Honourable ViceAdmiral Paul Jones, Amsterdam," written more politely than elegantly in English;

Varsaw, 15th Feb. 1790. MY DEAR SIR,-I had the honor to write you the 1st or the 3th of Feb. I do not recolect, but I gave you the information to apply to the Minister of Svede at Hague, or at Amsterdam for the propositions, (according to what Mr D'Engestrom told me.) They Boths had Orders to Communicate you. I wish with all my heart that could enswer your expectation I am totally ignorant what they are, but I would see you to fight against the opresion and Tyranny. Give me the news of every thing. I am, dear Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant,

not be ascertained. The cutting of the new road, however, has displayed an extensive section of the strata; and this circumstance, united with others, has unfolded, in a great measure, the geognostic relations of the beds which form the entire hill.

T. KOSCIUSZKO, G. M. Write me if you please who is Minister from America at Paris; I want to know his name.

This negociation does not seem to have succeeded; and it is said that Jones in vain solicited employment from France. He died at Paris in 1792, but not, as was stated in the papers of that period, in poverty. On the contrary, we have been assured, ́ upon the best authority, since our first edition appeared, that he left a considerable sum, which was remitted to his sisters in Scotland, the last of whom died at Dumfries on the 6th September 1817. (See page 196.) The National Assembly voted a deputation of their members to attend his funeral.-At a future period we hope to be able to lay before our readers an interesting biographical notice of this extraordinary character.

ON THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF
THE CALTON HILL.

MR EDITOR,
THE new approach to Edinburgh
on the south-cast, by a road winding
over a part of the Calton Hill, and
joining Prince's Street at the Regi-
ster Office, is doubtless one of the most
magnificent improvements of which
this picturesque capital is susceptible.
Our purpose, at present, is, not to
enlarge on the beauties and advan-
tages of this new approach, but mere-
ly to notice a favour which has, by
this improvement, been conferred on
mineralogists, certainly without being
contemplated by the public-spirited
individuals who conceived it. Owing
to the uniform covering of debris and
of sward on the east side of the Cal-
ton Hill, the nature of the rocks con-
stituting a great part of the hill could

The distinguished professor of mineralogy in our university makes it a rule to visit this hill, accompanied by the young gentlemen attending his class, and to point out the nature and relations of the rocks. We shall here give, as succinctly as possible, an idea of the succession of these, or of the structure of the hill, such as we gathered from attending the professor on one of these excursions.

In the course of some building operations at a brewery at the foot of Calton Street, some time ago, (about the beginning of the year 1816,) a bed of sandstone, highly siliceous, or of the nature of quartzy sandstone, was exposed to view; and, from the dip and direction of this bed being to the east, it was evident that it passed under the great mass of the hill. Sandstone was also partially displayed in digging the foundation of the large building, in North Back of Canongate, lately erected by Messrs Muir and Wood as a manufactory of musical instruments. Over the sandstone is a bed of porphyry, which, near to the buildings of the Bridewell, extends upwards almost to the level of the new road. To this succeeds a bed of greenstone, which is visible in the section formed by the new road fronting Bridewell. In proceeding upwards, examining the series of rocks from the governor's house to the base of Nelson's Monument, we observe a bed of trap-tuff. Over this a bed of porphyry; then a thin bed of greenstone; a second bed of trap-tuff, of no great thickness; another bed of greenstone; a third bed of trap-tuff, and uppermost, a thick mass of porphyry, forming the summit of the hill, and supporting the monument. This bed of porphyry has long been exposed, having many years ago been used as a quarry for affording small stones for laying on the high roads. It is now, however, more immediately brought into view, in consequence of the fine walk lately made in front of it, by means of the funds collected by the public for affording employment to industrious workmen, thrown idle by the difficulties of the times.

All the beds which have been mentioned dip to the east, so that, in walking eastward, to the first turn of the new road, after passing Bridewell, the beds which pass immediately below Nelson's Monument come to be on a level with the road, and soon after even to dip under it. Accordingly, we first meet with a bed of greenstone inclining to wacke, and traversed by numerous veins of calcareous spar; and immediately the porphyry of the top comes in view. In proceeding further in the direction towards the east road to Leith, the section on the north side of the new road has displayed a series of thin beds which lie over this porphyry, or which, in geognostic situation, are superior to those which constitute the geographical summit of the hill. They occur in the following order, proceeding from below upwards: Bituminous shale; wacke; sandstone; bituminous shale; wacke; shale with ironstone; wacke; shale and ironstone, (several times repeated ;) wacke, in a state of decomposition, so as to resemble fullers' earth; bituminous shale and wacke, (several times repeated ;) and lastly, or geognostically uppermost, a thick bed of sandstone-conglo

more lately in clearing out the foundation for the County Hall of Mid-Lothian; and further, that both pass under the Calton Hill. If all the inclined beds, from the sandstone seen running below the Castle basalt on the west side, to the sandstone and greenstone of Lochend on the east side, be, in the " mind's eye," brought to a horizontal position, so as to exhibit a perpendicular section, the height or thickness becomes indeed surprising.

It may be remarked, that the same individual beds are not, in every part of their extent, of equal thickness; on the contrary, they vary much in this respect. For instance, some one of the several beds of greenstone, which are thin on the S. E. side of the hill, has acquired considerable thickness where it appears in the quarry opened on the N. E. side of the hill. The bed alluded to lies over the sandstone which has there been quarried, and is covered by a thin bed of bituminous shale. This inequality in thickness, at different parts of the same bed, is a fact perfectly familiar to those accustomed to geognostic observation.

PAT. NEILL.

Canonmills, 2d Aug. 1817.

merate. Quarries have been opened ABSTRACT, WITH OBSERVATIONS, OF

in this bed of sandstone; and the under storey of the new jail was built from it; the upper part of the building having, with good taste, been constructed of finer sandstone.

We thus find that the Calton Hill consists of many beds of trap rocks, included between two great beds of sandstone; the lower of which is of the kind called quartzy sandstone; and the upper, sandstone-conglome

rate.

The alternation of beds of sandstone and greenstone is seen again at Lochend, to the eastward; and, from the dip and direction of these Lochend beds, we are warranted to conclude that, if projected, they would pass over the Calton Hill. On the other hand, the Castle rock, situated to the westward, consists of beds of sandstone, and a thick bed of basalt; and, on the same data, we conclude, that this bed of basalt lies below the great bed of quartzy sandstone, on the ledge of which the High Street of Edinburgh is built, and which was seen in digging the foundation for the Bank of Scotland some years ago, and

THE EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON STEAM-BOATS.

MR EDITOR,

IN the last number of the Scots Magazine, I find inserted a valuable document, the report of the Committee of the House of Commons on steam-boats. In a question, however, in which all classes of the community are so deeply interested, the public will not be satisfied without examining for themselves the evidence from which the report was drawn up. I will frankly say, that the perusal suggested to me views of the subject not exactly agreeing with those which have been adopted by the Committee in their report. On this point, however, your readers may be able to judge, when I lay before them the principal statements actually made by those persons who were examined before the Committee.

The main points at issue are, whether the engines in steam-boats ought to be what is called high pressure, or whether they ought to be boilers of

« AnteriorContinuar »