writings, public records, libraries of learning-dwellings of individuals-edifices of education, and temples of the Deity --together with their insufferable ferocity, unprecedented indeed among civilized nations, in murdering on the field of battle, the wounded while begging for mercy”—and "carrying their malice beyond death itself, by denying the decent rights of sepulture to the dead." Such is the just and pathetic description of a young and gallant officer, who was then encountering the enemies of the rising Republic, upon land, as Biddle was upon the ocean. But mark the difference of the conduct of this noble American, when he had captured a king's ship, or a merchantman. His humane conduct made prisoners forget that they were in the possession of an enemy; and although their property had fallen a sacrifice to the depredations of war, the magnanimous Commodore shielded them from individual distress; and restored to them every thing needed, for personal necessity and convenience.

Although American Naval Officers have always been distinguished for a dignified deportment and feeling humanity, to a vanquished enemy, yet the example set by Biddle in the First, may well be supposed to have had much influofficers in the Second war with Britain.

ence upon

But as if" death loves a shining mark" and designates his sudden victims amongst the most brilliant ornaments of dying man, this favourite of his then warring and distressed country-the delight of his friends, and the admiration of his enemies was, by the most appalling, sudden, and terrific shock of warfare, to be torn from time into eternity.

The 7th of March 1778, was the day upon which this admired Officer, and one of the most gallant Crews of that age, were to be lost to their friends and country.

At 3 P. M. a sail, at the windward, was descried from the Randolph. A signal being made from the frigate, the squadron hauled upon a wind, to speak the strange sail. As the sail neared the Randolph and came directly before the wind, she had the appearance of a heavy sloop,* with only a square-sail set. It was not until 4 P. M. that she was discovered to be a ship. At about 7 P. M. the Randolph had the windward, the General Moultrie being to the leeward, when the ship fired ahead of the General

Moultrie and hailed her. Her answer was, "The Polly

from New-York," (then in possession of the British forces.) The ship suddenly hauled her wind and hailed the Randolph. The sail was H. B. Majesty's ship of the line Yarmouth, Capt. Vincent, of sixty-four guns.

According to the opinion of the most scientific and experienced naval officers, the Yarmouth was a fair and equal match for three ships of the rate of the Randolph.t As she ranged along side Com. Biddle's ship, an English lieutenant exultingly exclaimed, "The Randolph! the Randolph!"—and instantly poured into her a full broadside. The fire was returned from the Randolph, and the little Moultrie, with the utmost rapidity; and, from the disparity of force, with astonishing effect. The night was excessively dark; the Yarmouth shot ahead of the Randolph, and brought her between that ship and the Moultrie. One broadside from the last mentioned ship, in the hottest of the

* To a landsman, like the writer, this would appear improbable; but I have been assured by accomplished seamen, that this deception is by no means unusual.

The reader is referred to the report of Com. CHARLES STEWART of the American navy, made to the department of the navy in 1812, in support of this position; which was confirmed by Captains HULL and MORRIS. Mr. Secretary Hamilton expressly alludes to the battle of the Randolph and the Yarmouth.

action, through mistake went directly into the Randolph, the moment Com. Biddle was wounded dangerously in the thigh; and one of the survivors of the crew conjectured the wound was received from that fire.

And here, another example was set by the dauntless Biddle, which, to the admiration of Americans, and astonishment of the world, seems to have been universally followed by the modern heroes of our navy-never to leave the deck in consequence of a wound, however severe. After the Commodore fell, and they were about to carry him below, he exclaimed with a voice which was almost like a voice from the tomb-" Bring me a chair; carry me forward; and there the surgeon will dress my wound."-While this painful operation was performing, he animating the crew, the Randolph firing three broadsides to the Yarmouth's one; while the thunder of an hundred cannon reverberated over the ocean; while the vivid flashes of three armed vessels increased the horrors of the surrounding darkness, the Randolph was blown into atoms, and the mangled fragments of the whole crew, (excepting four) consisting of about three hundred and twenty gallant and patriotic Americans, fell sudden victims to their devotion for the cause of their country.

Doct. Ramsay in his admirable history of the American Revolution, very briefly alludes to this disastrous event, and says: "Four men only were saved, upon a piece of her wreck. These had subsisted for four days on nothing but rain water, which they sucked from a piece of blanket." It is with real pleasure I record, as one instance of British humanity, that upon the 5th day of their sufferings, Capt. Vincent of the Yarmouth, suspended a chase to rescue

these despairing Americans from certain death, and restored them to their country.

Although the naval heroes of the revolution are but seldom mentioned in the histories of that sanguinary contest, yet Doct. Ramsay has left upon his record the following testimony of the merits of this justly admired hero: "Capt. BIDDLE, who perished on board the Randolph, was universally lamented. He was in the prime of life; and had excited high expectations of future usefulness to his country as a bold and skilful naval officer."

The consternation produced by this disaster can neither be imagined nor described by one who was not a witness to it. The Yarmouth and Randolph were in such close action, that the Fair American concluded it to be the former that blew up, and her Captain, (Morgan) hailed her to inquire after Com. Biddle, knowing him to have been wounded. Alas! he, and also his valiant crew, were insensible to the solicitude of the remaining part of the squadron, which but a few minutes before, he so gallantly commanded. The Yarmouth was in a condition so shattered that Capt. Vincent could not capture either of the little vessels which were near her, and they all effected their escape.

The explosion of an armed vessel, with a large magazine of powder, is universally allowed to be one of the most awfully solemn and tremendously horrid scenes that can be presented to the eye of man. The mind of the reader of these imperfect sketches is almost irrisistibly hurried forward from the gloomy catastrophe of the 7th of March 1778, to the no less horrid one of Sept. 4th 1804, when the gallant SOMERS, WADSWORTH and ISRAEL became victims in chastising a barbarous foe, as the gallant Biddle and his associates did in defending his country against a Christian ene

my. From the very nature of such catastrophes, it is impossible to develope the causes of them. Whether they are occasioned by the inattention of the crew, or the accidents occasioned in a close and furious engagement, can scarcely ever be determined.

Thus lived, and thus died NICHOLAS BIDDLE, one of the early champions of American Independence. His premature death deprived him of the honours and rewards of a grateful, protected, and Independent Republic, and the enjoyment of the opulence which he had acquired by his valour. But even these enjoyments are trifling and evanescent, when compared to that glory which descends to late posterity. It was for this glory that the immortalized Biddle toiled, fought, bled, and died for his beloved country. Let the ardent and rising youth of the Republic ponder upon the example of this young and exalted hero; and when their country shall again be called to defend the independence acquired by the heroes of the Revolution, and secured by the war of 1812, may they emulate his virtues and patriotism; and like him, and Biddle the younger, ac、 quire fame which will descend to the remotest posterity.

CHARACTER OF NICHOLAS BIDDLE.

NICHOLAS BIDDLE was born at a period of the world pregnant with the most important events, and was peculiarly adapted for a distinguished actor in them. Ever since the discovery of the Magnetic Needle enabled man to traverse oceans from the equator to the arctic and antarctic circles, the watery element has been the fruitful nursery of unsurpassed heroes. But thirteen years had bloomed the cheek of Biddle, when he found his "home