cumstances, as that which took place in the case of the Essex. To have sustained, for two hours and a half, within the reach of their shot but beyond that of the greater part of her own, the fire of double her number of guns worked by twice her complement of men, is a sample of resistance of which no country on earth except America can boast. In the technical language of the world the capture of the Essex will be called a defeat. But for all the purposes of renown to captain Porter and his brave associates, it was a brilliant victory. As such we trust it will be viewed and rewarded by their country.

In relation to this unparalleled scene of American gallantry, it shall be our business to be more particular hereafter.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

WE regret that the very liberal and gentlemanly note from our worthy correspondent, Mr. Holland, of Charleston, South Carolina, was received at too late a period to be acted on in the present number of the Port Folio. In our next it shall receive the attention it merits. In the mean time it would be laying an undue restraint on our feelings not to say, that Mr. Holland's note is such as does equal credit to his head and heart. It shows him to be superior to all the littleness of envy, and to have attained an honourable mastery over himself. Praise must never be withheld from him who so magnanimously praises the performance of a competitor.

We have received our worthy correspondent R's translation of the Latin elegy on the death of Mr. William Thomson, published in The Port Folio for June last; but have to lament that it is written in a hand so unusually intricate that we are unable to read it. Were we to attempt to print from it, mistakes would inevitably ensue. We are compelled, therefore, to apply for a fairer

copy.

We avail ourselves of this opportunity to intreat our correspondents in general, to write to us in a hand as fir as possible. To say nothing of our own trouble and difficulty in decyphering a careless

WHEN We seriously contemplate our revolutionary struggle, and its issue, the emancipation of our country from the British yoke, we cannot fail to regard them as a work, though not miraculous, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, yet peculiarly under the direction of superior wisdom-as a series of measures and achievements in which the hand of Heaven was more signally displayed than it usually is in the concerns of mortals. The suitableness of the time and the aptitude of the means harmonized and co-operated in a wonderful manner to the certain and necessavy production of the great moral and political result.

The British monarch, possessed at best of but a limited capacity, was far from being either liberally experienced in state affairs, or profoundly versed in the knowledge of man. His ministry, although not unusually weak, nor yet, perhaps, preeminently wicked, was notwithstanding narrowed by avarice, maddened by ambition, and wantonly regardless of, if not absolutely blind in relation to, the character, the interests, and the disposition of America. Their obstinacy and self-confidence, qualities in which Pharaoh himself was scarcely their equal, led them to push Hh

VOL. IV.