you under a flag of truce to any place you think safest from our cruisers, hauling it down when fair to begin hostilities. You must, sir, be aware that my proposals are highly advantageous to you, as you cannot proceed to sea singly in the Chesapeake without imminent risk of being crushed by the superior force of the numerous British squadrons which are now abroad, where all your efforts, in case of a rencontre, would, however gallant, be perfectly hopeless. I intreat you, sir, not to imagine that I am urged by mere personal vanity to the wish of meeting the Chesapeake; or that I depend only upon your personal ambition for your acceding to this invitation: we have both nobler motives. You will feel it as a compliment if I say, that the result of our meeting may be the most grateful service I can render to my country, and I doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combat that your little navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of that trade it cannot protect. Favour me with a speedy reply. We are short of provisions and water, and cannot stay long here. I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient humble servant, (Signed) P. B. V. BROKE, Captain of H. B. M's Ship Shannon." N.B. For the general service of watching your coast, it is requisite for me to keep another ship in company, to support me with her guns and boats when employed near the land, and particularly to aid each other if either ship in chase should get on shore. You must be aware that I cannot, consistently with my duty, waive so great an advantage for this general service, by detaching my consort, without an assurance on your part of meeting me directly; and that you will neither seek or admit aid from any other of your armed vessels, if I detach mine expressly for the sake of meeting you. Should any special order restrain you from thus answering a formal challenge, you may yet oblige me by keeping my proposal a secret, and appointing any place you may like to meet us (within three hundred miles of Boston) in a given number of days after you sail; as unless you agree to an interview, I may be busied on other service, and perhaps be at a distance from Boston when you go to sea.-Choose your terms-but let us meet. "To the Commander of the U. S. Frigate Chesapeake. ENDORSEMENT ON THE ENVELOPE. We have thirteen American prisoners on board, which I will give you for as many British sailors, if you will send them out; otherwise, being privateers'men, thay must be detained." Some rough weather occuring, it was not found practicable to send the letter in till the morning of the 1st of June. In the interim, however, the proposed measures had been taken, to secure fair play to the enemy. Captain Capel having left Captain Broke in charge of the blockade, whilst he went into port for water, the Chesapeake had no line-of-battle ships to fear; and Captain Broke detached all the remaining ships to such a distance, as precluded the possibility of their affording him any assistance in the anticipated action. On the 1st of June, observing that the Chesapeake lay a long time with her sails loose, and wasting the morning, though she had a fair wind to come out, it was apprehended that she might not sail that day. Captain Broke therefore sent in his challenge, to quicken her movements. The Chesapeake, however, stood out of the harbour before the boats reached the shore; and Captain Broke having no assurance that she would not receive aid from other armed craft in Boston, in case of being crippled in action, stood across the bay, till about five leagues from the land, directly opposite to Boston Lighthouse. There he layto, to wait for her, in such a position that the action might be seen from the heights "To meet the foe she lies prepared ; Stopper'd is every topsail sheet, And in her tops above, The approaching action excited the liveliest interest, and the most confiden* anticipation of victory, amongst the po of Boston. A number of pleasure-boats, it is said, came out with the Cheasapeake, to see the Shannon compelled to strike; and a grand dinner was actually preparing on shore, for the Chesapeake's officers, against their return with the prize! "The bold Chesapeake Came out on a freak, And swore she'd soon silence our cannon; Stood to laugh at the sport, And see her tow in the brave Shannon. "Quite sure of the game, As from harbour they came, From our staunch wooden walls, Soon, however, was their joy turned into sadness-their cheering shouts into cries of mourning and of lamentation. In fourteen minutes from the time that the action commenced, the Shannon was no longer an enemy; the American flag was hauled down, and the proud old British Union floated triumphant over it. The Shannon was lying-to, under top-sails, top-gallant sails, jib, and spanker, with just steerage-way, awaiting the approach of the Chesapeake, and leaving it in her power to commence the engagement as she pleased, either at a distance or close, either on the starboard or larboard side. She came down in a very gallant style, on the Shannon's weather and starboard quarter, till within half pistol-shot. "The undaunted Shannon mark'd his aim, "Stream'd from his peak and tall mast-head Her ensign of the same. "And as they floated on the breeze Thus breath'd his mental prayer:- Vouchsafe to hear my prayer: Thy judgments right I'll own: These colours be haul'd down !" The Shannon's men having orders to fire as they could get their guns to bear, commenced by firing first their after-guns on the main deck, and then their aftermost carronade on the quarter deck, just as the Chesapeake's bows were upon their quarter; these two guns were distinctly heard before the Chesapeake returned her fire, which then became furious on both sides; but the superiority of the Shannon's was so great, that at her second broadside nearly all the men were swept from the upper deck of the Chesapeake. About this time the ships came in contact, and the Chesapeake having shot rather a-head, was caught by one of the Shannon's anchors, and lay obliquely athwart her starboard bow, exposed to a most tremendous fire from the Shannon's after-guns, which, battering her lee-quarter, and entering her port-holes from thence towards the main-mast, strewed her main-deck with killed and wounded. A small open cask of musket cartridges, in an open chest abaft the mizen-mast of the Chesapeake, now caught fire and blew up, and when the smoke it occasioned had blown away, Captain Broke saw the favourable moment, and instantly, with a few men, not exceeding twenty, boarded her about the mizen rigging, from the starboard bow. Not a man was left standing on the Chesapeake's quarter deck when she was boarded, but about twenty made a slight resistance on her gangway, who were instantly driven before the foremost, and there being obliged to stand, fought desperately, but were quickly overpowered. A few endeavoured to get down the fore hatchway, but in their eagerness prevented each other; some jumped over, and one or two of them escaped by getting in again at the main-deck ports. Captain Broke and his first boarding party were almost immediately followed by between 30 and 40 marines, who secured possession of the Chesapeake's quarter-deck, dislodged the men from the main and fore-tops, that were firing down on the boarders, and kept down all who attempted to come up from the main deck. Being thus completely captured, Mr. Watt, the 1st Lieutenant, ran aft, and seizing the British colours from a sailor who brought them from the Shannon, bent them, and was in the act of hoisting them above the American, when he was struck on the as perfect as if they had only been exchanging a salute. Each fought from their tops, with guns and small arms. The Shannon had a four-pounder mounted in one of her tops, from which she fired 50 canister shot at each discharge. These, by spreading greatly, did much execution. It was from some of the Shannon's top-men that Captain Lawrence, the commander of the Chesapeake, received his mortal wound. He had been carried below before the boarding commenced. forehead by a grape-shot, and killed in the very moment of victory. He was shot by one of the Shannon's main-deck guns, the commanding officers of which did not know that the contest was already decided. At the commencement of the brief contest which took place on board the Chesapeake, Captain Broke had the misfortune to be wounded. He was in the act of charging a party of the enemy, who had rallied on their forecastle. He first parried a blow from the butt-end of a fire-lock, which had been raised to strike him. At the same instant, as it were, another of the Americans made a charge at him, with a bayonet; but that, | also, he successfully turned aside. The colours of the Chesapeake were down, when Captain Broke received a severe wound with a sabre, from one of three men whom he was earnestly calling upon his brave followers to spare. The man was instantly dispatched; and one "The enemy," says Captain Broke, of the Chesapeake's midshipmen, who, "came into action with a complement of having been in the fore-top, slid down a 440 men; the Shannon, having picked rope, and alighted close to Capt. Broke, up some recaptured seamen, had 330." at the moment, would probably have ex-Thus it appears to have been the result perienced a similar fate, but for his humane interference. The capture having been completed, Captain Broke, in a state of exhaustion and insensibility from exertion and loss of blood, was taken on board of his own ship, which, with her prize, afterwards proceeded to Halifax. The Shannon suffered most on the fore part of the main deck and forecastle, and her greatest loss of men was on those parts. The Chesapeake was terribly battered on her larboard bow and quarter; amidships there were not many marks of shot, which must have entered her port-holes, as the whole of her main deck was strewed with dead and wounded. of mere accident that the Shannon was only one hundred and ten men short of the number of her opponent !-In this instance, American vanity, raised to the most inordinate height by their former successes in three very unequal contests, was mortified in the extreme, and stung almost to madness, by this unequivocal The loss on board the Shannon, out proof of their inferiority to us in fair and of 330 men, was three officers and twenty-equal combat; hence we account for three men killed; Captain Broke, two the ridiculous and extravagant falsehood officers, and fifty-eight men wounded; of their statements, the baseness of their eighty-seven total. On mustering the calumny, and the inveteracy of their crew of the Chesapeake the following malice. According to them, the fire of day, they found that out of 440 men, the Chesapeake was more “vivid and the second lieutenant, master, marine effectual," until the Shannon threw on officers, some midshipmen, and ninety board of her," an immense body of comseamen and marines were killed; Capt. bustibles and inflammable matter, (like Lawrence mortally wounded, and the an infernal machine of a new and horfirst and second lieutenants, some mid-rible construction) which enveloped the shipmen, and 110 men also wounded; making a total of killed and wounded between the two ships of nearly 300 men, or twenty men for every minute the ships were in action. The Chesapeake was a fine frigate, and mounted forty-nine guns, eighteens on her main deck, two-and-thirties on her quarter-deck and forecastle. Both ships came out of action in the most beautiful order, their rigging appearing Chesapeake in a volume of flame to her very tops; and that to the effects of this all-destroying explosion, the Shannon was entirely indebted for her victory." The only circumstance that could have given rise to this wonderful tale of mysterious horror, was the cask of musket cartridges which caught fire, and blew up abaft the Chesapeake's mizen-mast, which had been placed there by themselves, to supply their marines. These cartridges not being confined, exploded | of that ship, he vindicated the gallantry with so little violence, that scarcely any of the effects were to be traced on her quarter-deck; the only appearance of a singe that was to be found, was a small portion of the spanker-boom, and that so slight as to be scarcely visible. Their assertion that the superiority of the Chesapeake's fire was proved by, the fact of "its having carried away the jibboom, and fore and mizen royal-masts of the enemy," is totally false. Neither of the ships lost a single spar. The damage sustained by both was in their hulls; and that of the Shannon was trifling indeed, compared with that of the Chesapeake. of her commander, the discipline and bravery of her crew, and their sigual display of coolness and courage to the last; and then, as a new instance of the bravery and skill of those officers and seamen which, he observed, the noble lord had been so much in the habit of depreciating, he detailed, in a style of lively, brilliant, and enthusiastic eloquence, the unexcelled, the almost unparalleled conduct of Captain Broke. The statement was new to the house; and the effect which it produced was almost equal to that of electricity. Towards the of his speech, Mr. Croker remaked, that the British sailors not only boarded from every deck, but even those who were aloft sprung upon the enemy's yards, and stormed their tops. Lieutenant Falkiner, he added, had described the action as the most beautiful and gallant scene that he had ever witnessed. There was found on the Chesapeake's decks more shot than could have been fired away had the battle lasted several hours, among which were (besides grape, canister, and double-headed shot) bars of wrought iron connected by links, so as to form an extended length of five feet, and others with four bars of more After the arrival of the dispatches rethan a foot each, all connected at one lating to the action, the Lords Commisend by a ring, which expanded in four sioners of the Admiralty very promptly points as they flew. The Shannon had and handsomely acknowledged the seronly round shot, grape, and canister; vices which had been rendered by the but many of the Chesapeake's canisters captain, officers, and ship's company of were afterwards opened, and all were the Shannon. They complimented Capfound to contain, in the centre, an-tain Broke in the most flattering manner gular and jagged pieces of iron, of various shapes and sizes; and all their musket cartridges had three, and some four buckshot loose in the powder; the evident design of which must have been, not merely to disable and to destroy (for round balls are equally effectual for these purposes), but to increase the torment and retard the cure of the wounds they inflicted. They had also a large cask of unslaked lime, with the head open, standing on the forecastle, and a bag of the same on the fore-top; and their intention was (if they had had time) to throw it by handfuls into the eyes of our men when they attempted to board. It happened that, on the evening of the day on which the account of the action between the Shannon and the Chesapeake arrived, Mr. Croker had occasion to advert to some statements of Lord Cochrane, in the House of Commons, on a former night, respecting the capture of the Macedonian. By reading the sentence of the court martial which had been holden on the officers upon his gallant achievement, and informed him that they had awarded him the honour of a medal; adding, that they had immediately promoted the two surviving lieutenants (Wallis and Falkiner) to the rank of commander, and Messrs. Etough and Smith to that of lieutenant; and that they should be happy to attend to the reward or promotion of such petty officers or seamen, as Captain Broke might particularly recommend for their conduct in the engagement. On the 25th of September following, his Royal Highness the Prince Regent was pleased to confer upon Captain Broke the dignity of a baronet of the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and on the 1st of February, 1814, as an additional and especial mark of royal favour, his Royal Highness was pleased to allow him and his descendants to bear," as a memorial of his highly distinguished conduct and gallantry," the following crest of honourable augmentation:-" Issuant from naval crown, a dexter arm embowed, encircled by a wreath of laurel, the hand grasping a trident erect; together with the motto, 'Savumque tridentem servamus.'" Amongst the tributes of a more substantial nature which were paid to the skill, intrepidity, and noble disinterestedness of Captain Broke, that of the underwriters of Halifax, in Nova Scotia, stands first in the order of time. As a grateful memorial of the estimation in which they held his services-services which had contributed, in an unusual manner, to the protection of their trade -they presented him with a flattering address, accompanied by a piece of plate, of the value of a hundred guineas. The Court of Common Council of London also voted Captain Broke their thanks, with the freedom of that city, and the present of a sword of a hundred guineas value. This information was conveyed to him in a letter from the, Lord Mayor, complimenting him on the glorious result of his enterprise. ANECDOTES OF THE INHUMANITY OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. It is a treason to human nature to neglect any chance of rendering more universally known the following anecdotes; which ought to be written in adamant, and translated into every language on the face of the earth. Buonaparte is said to have forced the bridge of Lodi from an impulse of vanity, in front of the Austrian cannon, at the expense of six thousand of his best troops; when at the distance of a few miles he might have forded the river with an inconsiderable loss. Buonaparte having carried the town of Jaffa in Syria by assault, many of the garrison were put to the sword; but the greater part flying into the mosques, and imploring mercy from their pursuers, were granted their lives: and let it be well remembered, that an exasperated army, in the moment of revenge, when the laws of war justified their rage, yet heard the voice of pity, received its impression, and proudly refused to be any longer the executioners of an unresisting enemy. Soldiers of the Italian army, this is a laurel wreath worthy of your fame, a trophy of which the subsequent treason of an individual shall not deprive you! Three days afterwards, Buonaparte, who had expressed much resentment at the compassion manifested by his troops, and determined to relieve himself from the maintenance and care of three thousand eight hundred prisoners, ordered these to be marched to a rising ground near Jaffa ; where a division of French infantry formed against them. When the Turks had entered into the fatal alignment, and the mournful preparations were completed, the signal gun fired. Volleys of musketry and grape instantly played against them; and Buonaparte, who had been regarding the scene through a telescope, when he saw the smoke ascending, could not restrain his joy, but broke out into exclamations of approval: indeed he had just reason to dread the refusal of his troops thus to dishonour themselves. Kleber had remonstrated in the most strenuous manner, and the officer of the etat-major who commanded, the general to whom the division belonged being absent, even refused to execute the order without a written instruction; but Buonaparte was too cautious, and sent Berthier to enforce obedience. When the Turks had all fallen, the French troops humanely endeavoured to put a period to the sufferings of the wounded; but some time elapsed before the bayonet could finish what the fire had not destroyed, and probably many languished days in agony. Several French officers, by whom, partly, these details are furnished, declared that this was a scene, the retrospect of which tormented their recollection; and that they could not reflect on it without horror, accustomed as they had been to sights of cruelty. Their bones still lie in heaps, and are shown to every traveller who arrives; nor can they be confounded with those who perished in the assault, since this field of butchery lies a mile from the town. Such a fact should not however be alleged without some proof, or leading circumstance stronger than assertion, being produced to support it; but there would be a want of generosity in naming individuals, and branding them to the latest posterity with infamy for obeying a command, when their submission be |