rican citizens, when they got on board the President frigate, and nothing further would be required of them. Finding, however, on their arrival that "the oath of allegiance to the United States" was a preliminary, these conscientious rogues, who, though they had no objection to tell a lie, were too moral to swear to it, refused and were sent on shore, and obliged to return their advance money, or go to prison-as is usual in all cases of this kind.

"While on board the President," continues the American authority," they saw and spoke to numbers of their countrymen, who informed them that they had been seduced and defrauded in like manner." What miserable absurdity is this! In the very same article a number of British "seduced" sailors are suffered to go on shore on refusing the oath of allegiance, while a number of others "seduced and defrauded," are forcibly detained. Such inconsistencies as these are sufficient to destroy the credibility of any statement. But when one considers that the affidavit brought forward in this case, rests solely on the testimony of men who could not withstand the slightest temptation, but yielded to the "seductive" charms of "two gallons of milk-punch," nothing but impenetrable ignorance or unconquerable prejudice, we think, can resist the conviction that the whole may be traced to the second "seduction" of these innocent novices, who were probably bribed 2 second time, by "two gallons of milk-punch" to tell such a story as might suit the purposes of party, or save their necks when they were sent to England. Pending the late war, whenever a deserter was caught by the British, he had only to make oath to his" seduction," and state some of the horrors of an American ship of war, to insure his pardon.

The remarks we have made on these several proofs brought forward to sustain the charge of " the seduction" of British seamen, are probably sufficient to show its total want of foundation. They are so weak, so inconsistent, so absurd, and contradictory, or they are marked with such distinct characters of falsehood, and false colouring, that no credit can possibly be given to them but by those who are disposed to acquiesce in every thing disadvantageous to the American name. But in cases where circumstances are so liable to be distorted, truth will be most certainly discovered by resortIng to more general reasoning. Facts may be invented or misre

presented the hope of gain, or the fear of punishment may operate upon human hopes and fears, so as to impel the wretched being to fly in the face of the Deity, and outrage the purity of its nature by falsifying the truth, under the sanction of his name. In the conflict of national antipathies-in the shock of individual rivalship-in the war of opposing interests, prejudices, passions and animosities, the means of recrimination, and the instruments of revenge are sought for, too often with little regard to any other object than gratifying those turbulent, and monopolizing feelings. In such cases, he who is anxious for truth, will not resort to sources so questionable, and so impure. When testimony is produced resting on the authority of persons, who by their own acknowledg ment are unworthy of belief; or when it is rendered doubtful by other authority, equally worthy of belief; all that is then left to the mind, is to inquire into the general circumstances that render the testimony of one or the other probable or improbable, and decide accordingly.

We will now, therefore, proceed to inquire, first, into the probability of the fact that the Americans are in the habit of “seducing" the British sailors (poor innocent creatures!) from the service of their country and king; secondly, the probability of the fact that British sailors require any "seduction" to entrap them into the service of the United States. These probabilities depend on the motives operating on either, and these motives obviously depend on the relative situation of the parties. If, in the inquiry, it should be found that motives universally operative induce the British sailor to prefer the service of one party to that of the other-if the two great blessings, most universal in their estimation, freedom and plenty, are more easy in their attainment in the United States than in England, we will seek no further for the real causes that produce the phenomenon. The imputation of "seduction" will excite the contempt it deserves, and the real source of this deplorable undermining of British power be found in the actual superiority of this country, in affording to the labourer, of every class and degree, the means of plenty and happiness, and in the degree of personal freedom which the sailor most especially enjoys.

In England, the seaman on board a man of war is actually a

slave-on board a merchant ship, he is continually under the apprehension of being made one. The conscription of Bonaparte and the impressment of George are pretty much the same thing; and doubtless an English sailor, notwithstanding his enormous patriotism, has as great an objection to being impressed as the soldier of Napoleon had to being included in the conscription. The latter, indeed, was rather better off, for the period of his service was limited, and he was solaced by a succession of triumphs, while, on the contrary, there is no limit to the term of impressment, and of late the poor English sailor has had very few victories to boast of, except he was "seduced" to serve on board of one of the American frigates. On the other hand, the sailor of the United States serves only of his own free will, and for the period he has voluntarily prescribed to himself. The marked distinction arising from this circumstance is most strikingly exemplified in the contrast between the conduct of the American and British seamen, in every situation. The former never, on any occasion, during the whole of the late war, refused to volunteer for every service proposed to them. At the commencement of that war every commandant of a ship of war offered to his men the alternative of remaining on board or going on shore. In no instance were there more than one or two who chose the latter; and these were renegado Englishmen, who had made oath, previous to their admission, that they were citizens of the United States. On the other hand, how stands it with the British sailors? "Seduced" by the very sight of our shores, they desert to them whenever they have an opportunity; and there is not a British ship of war that can venture into any of our ports, without losing many men, notwithstanding the most unremitting vigilance. The crew of one of the British frigates mutinied, off New London, and a seventy-four was obliged to be moored alongside her, with guns pointed, in order to reduce them to obedience. The crew of the Plantagenet were more than one half in irons when the frigate President offered her battle, off Sandy Hook, as the captain of the Plantagenet proved, in the court of inquiry, held at Bermuda, to ascertain the cause of his declining the action. A hundred other instances might be given to establish the disaffection which is so prevalent among British sailors; and, if any proof of their total and universal dis

inclination to the service is wanting, it will be found in a case of recent occurrence. The other day, when lord Exmouth, one of the most distinguished British naval officers of the present day, addressed his fleet, for the purpose of inducing the sailors to volunteer against Algiers, not a man not a single man volunteered! Do such sailors require "seduction" to induce them to desert?

In the ships of war of the United States the seaman sérves voluntarily; in the merchant ships he receives higher wages, and is not so much exposed to impressment. In the ships of war of the United States, a mutual confidence and good will subsists, on the part of the officers and men: the former feel secure in the fidelity of the latter, because they voluntarily choose their situation; while the sailor looks to his officer with complacency, be cause he freely subjected himself to his command. The officer lies down at night, free from the apprehension of mutiny; the sailor goes to rest, exempt from the anticipation of perpetual slavery. On the other hand, the sailors on board a British ship of war see in the officers but the leaders of a pressgang, the gaolers that watch the outlets of their loathsome prison, the tyrants that stand between them and liberty. The officers cannot even trust the men with arms, at night, for fear they should make use of them, not against the enemy, but themselves. In the face of these facts, and the conclusions inevitably resulting from them, the idea of an English sailor being "seduced" into our service is equivalent to that of a man seduced from hopeless imprisonment to perfect liberty--from misery and despair to the enjoyment of peace, plenty and happiness. What is it that makes the English, Scots and Irish manufacturer and labourer, of every class, look to this country as a refuge? What is it that draws the Swiss, the German, from his various circles to the bosom of this country? What makes the persecuted patriot, the exiled general, the dethroned monarch, throw themselves into this noble republic? Why is it that, from every corner of this abused and suffering earth, however near or however distant, the impoverished and down-trodden victim of authority traverses half the globe, to reach at last this LAND OF THE EXILE? Are they, too, "seduced" from their country and accustomed home, by "a couple of gallons of milk punch," or a bounty of forty dollars, and twelve dollars a month? No: they come with a conviction that, of all the countries of the

earth, this furnishes the asylum where the victim of legitimate vengeance will not be surrendered to his persecutors-where the exiled patriot can solace himself for his disappointment at home, in contemplating the successful exertions of others in the attainment of happiness, and where the industrious mechanic and labourer is sure to enjoy the free fruition of his labours. The vulgar pride of upstart wealth, the bloated vanity of hereditary rank, covering its own insignificance by the merits of its ancestry, may sigh for other countries, more favourable to the enjoyment of these ignoble distinctions, but it is here that the great class of mankind, those who create the enjoyments of the rich, without whose aid wealth and power would never have existed, and, destitute of whose support, they cannot sustain themselves-these will long be "seduced" into our country, by the irresistible allurements of freedom, plenty and happiness.

It has ever been, and, it is hoped, ever will be the policy of the United States to afford, under proper regulations, a participation of their rights to emigrants, from all parts of the world, and to permit their own citizens to go where they please. Our government, it is presumed, will never shut its doors against the coming of the one or the going of the other, and desires no citizens but such as come or stay voluntarily. If they cannot live happily here, they are at liberty to go whither they please; the world is before them, and, if they can find a place where human rights are better secured, or human happiness more widely diffus. ed, there let them pitch their tents. That country must be in a miserable state where the exercise of authority is requisite to prevent the desertion of its people; and that country, we think, must be ill governed where such restraints are laid on the freedom of mankind, in their pursuit of happiness. It is the misfortune of England to afford this example, and it is the fault of her advocates that, while they cannot deny the fact of desertion, they ascribe it to causes that have no existence. If, instead of looking to "seduction," they were to contemplate the natural and political advantages held out by the United States of America to every class of people but one, they would behold in these, and these alone, sufficient cause to produce the phenomenon. These, and these alone, are the "temptations" and "seductions" practised by the Americans; it is these that tempt landmen from the fields