The trickling tears of the Convention, at the sight of a bit of linsey-woolsey, puts me in mind of Mark Anthony and his mob of blubbering plebeians. "Kind souls!" says he, "do you weep at "the sight of Cæsar's garment only? What will you do then, when you see Cesar himself." Upon which he shows them the corpse, and the rascals, who would have knocked his brains out if he had not been dead, begin bellowing like so many town bulls round a buxom heifer.-The Convention would not have acted this silly part by America. If they could have got "Casar him"self" under their clutches, they would have completed the farce of the Crocodile; dried up their tears and fell to cracking our bones.

Whether the French Convention did really cry, or whether the tears flowed, or rather trickled, from the leaky imagination of Citizen Adet, I know not; but this I know, that the reception of their flag produced just a contrary effect here. What makes them weep, makes us laugh; and what makes them laugh, makes us weep. Thank heaven, we are exactly their opposite in every thing!

From French tenderness we naturally turn to British barbarity. They form a contrast like the gem and the foil, and therefore the Citizen, who is at once a statesman and an orator, has, with great art and judgment, contrived to squeeze them close together in the peroration of his Blunderbuss. "Alas!" says he, "time has not yet demolished "the fortifications with which the English rough"ened this country-nor those the Americans "raised for their defence; their half rounded sum"mits still appear in every quarter, amidst plains,

on the tops of mountains. The traveller need not "search for the ditch which served to encompass "them; it is still open under his feet. Scattered "ruins of houses laid waste, which the fire had

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"partly respected, in order to leave monuments "of British fury, are still to be found.-Men still exist, who can say, here a ferocious Englishman slaughtered my father; there my wife tore her bleeding daughter from the hands of an unbridled Englishman. Alas! the soldiers who fell under "the sword of the Britons are not yet reduced to "dust; the labourer, in turning up his field, still "draws from the bosom of the earth their whiten"ed bones; while the ploughman, with tears of "tenderness and gratitude, still recollects, that his "fields, now covered with rich harvests, have "been moistened with French blood; while every "thing around the inhabitants of this country animates them to speak of the tyranny of "Great Britain and of the generosity of French"men."

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I have till now avoided quotations as much as possible; but I could not resist the temptation to cull this fairest flower of the diplomatic posey. Some imaginations are said to rush forward like a flood, others to flow like a stream, and others to glide like a current; but poor Citizen Adet's neither rushes, flows, nor glides: it trickles, like the eyes of his masters; it drains, it dribbles, it drops. -Dear Citizen, if you love me (of which I much doubt, by the bye), never again employ your elo quence to rouse the passions; for it lays them as completely as the cold hand of death. Instead of inflaming, you freeze us: instead of firebrands, you turn us into icicles.-No; when you wish to excite the vengeful feelings, keep to your insolence; that is your fort; there your talents will ever ensue you the same success as they have done on the pre

sent occasion.

And were you so vain, so completely the Frenchman, as to imagine, that this tasteless, turgid, hyperbolical nonsense of yours, would make the peo

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ple of America believe, that ferocity is the characteristic of Britons? A little reflection might have told you that your malignant endeavours would be in vain. Two-thirds of the inhabitants of these States are of British descent: they know that the ashes of their forefathers sleep in the island of Britain. They know also, that only twenty years ago they were justly proud of being called Britons themselves; and though a political revolution has rendered that name no longer proper, they know that no revolution has taken place in their national character. To charge the British character with ferocity then, is saying to the Americans: "I do not "call you a set of ferocious rascals; but you are of "a d-d ferocious breed."

To retaliate here would be superfluous; for the ferocity of the French is now acknowledged by themselves even. But, when I hear a man talk about whitened bones, and assert that " every thing "animates the inhabitants of this country to speak "of the tyranny of Britain and the generosity of "Frenchmen," I am naturally led to look back to the cruel and savage war, which these generous Frenchmen carried on against the inhabitants of this country, and in which they would have succeeded · in exterminating the whole of them, had it not been for the protecting "tyranny of Britain."

In the charge of ferocity which Citizen Adet has brought against the British, he contents himself with a flourish of mere hyperbole, as destitute of novelty and elegance as it necessarily is of truth. He has not attempted to produce a single fact in support of his slander, and for this best of reasons, because he knew no such fact was to be found. I shall proceed in a different manner. I shall give such damning proof of the generosity of Frenchmen towards the people of America as will leave no room for denial.

During the savage war of 1757, above alluded to, when the French had formed a chain of posts stretching from the Bay of Funday to the Mississippi, with the intention of subjugating these states or else driving the people into the sea, they took several forts, and, for a long time, had pretty general success: what use they made of it, how generous they were, will appear from the following account of their capture of Fort William Henry. I am not about to repeat a vague report. I am not even appealing to the history of England, or the writings of Englishmen. I am going to copy, what was said, written and printed, by Americans themselves. I could apply to many American publications of the time; but I choose, for many reasons, to draw this proof of the "ge"nerosity of Frenchmen," from Doctor Franklin himself.

In his paper, published at Philadelphia on the 25th August, 1757, after saying that the fort surrendered by capitulation, with leave to march out with the honours of war, he proceeds thus: "The French immediately after the capitulation, "most perfidiously let their bloodhounds loose up"on our people. Some got off, the rest were strip

ped stark naked; many were killed and scalp"ed, officers not excepted. The throats of the "women were cut, their bellies ripped open, their "bowels turned out, and thrown upon the faces of "their yet palpitating bodies. The children were "taken by the heels, and their brains beat out against the trees or stones, and not one of them "saved."

The Doctor then observes, that this cruelty of the French is nothing new; for that, "they massa"cred several hundreds of General Braddock's "wounded men, that they murdered their prisoners near Ticonderoga, and all the sick and wounded

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"of the garrison of Oswego, notwithstanding the "previous capitulation." He concludes thus: "To what a pitch of perfidy and cruelty is the French nation arrived! Would not an ancient heathen "shudder with horror on hearing so hideous a "tale. Could the most savage nations ever ex"ceed such French barbarity? It is hard for an Englishman to kill his enemy that lies at his feet, "begging his life; but will not our armed men in "future be obliged to refuse all quarter? Consider of it my countrymen; take advice, and speak your "minds"--In another place the Doctor exclaims: "The Lord knows what French treachery will do. "When shall we have revenge?"

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I do not know Citizen Adet's person, I cannot therefore tell whether his cheeks be covered with buff or not. From his notes, I should rather suppose they are; but if they are not, he must blush himself to death upon comparing the Old Doctor's account of French generosity with his own.-He will say, perhaps, that it was the French king, and not the nation, that these cruelties must be attributed to. Well then, it is the king and not the nation, that the aid this country received last war must be attributed to. In both instances, the king was the director and his people the actors ; with this remarkable distinction, that, it is certain the troops that came to America were always sent by him, while it is not certain that he ever ordered them to turn human butchers when they got here.

Let us now take a view of "the generosity of "Frenchmen," towards America, from the bloody times above mentioned to the present day..

When, by the united valour and perseverance of America and Britain, they were driven from this continent, they laid in watch, as the devil is said to do when he sees a happy couple, for an opportunity

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