some degree to be formed, disciplined, animated, accustomed to marches, encampments, dangers, fatigues, and the frequent want of necessaries. Camps, of all worldly scenes, often exhibit the greatest pictures of distress. The sick and the wounded-the dying and the dead as well as the wants and sufferings of the living-all these call forth the most tender feelings, and require of a general, that, to the courage of a soldier, he should unite the utmost benevolence of a man! Our general possessed these united qualities in their highest lustre; of which there are numerous testimonies not only from his own army, but from the prisoners, English as well as Canadians, now amongst us. When his men laboured under fatigue, wanted bread and other necessaries, had their beds to make in snow or deep morasses, they were ashamed to complain, finding that he was willing to share in the execution of whatever he commanded. And the example which he thus set to others, did more to inspire patience, obedience, love of order and discipline, than the most rigid exercise of power could have done. The influence of this example was still stronger, as it did not appear to be the effect of constraint or political necessity; but the amiable expression of a sympathizing soul; leading him to condescend to all capacities; exact in his own duties, and great even in common things. His letters, confidential as well as official, are a full proof of this. "Our encampment is so swampy, I feel, says he, "exceedingly for the troops; and provisions so scarce, it will require not only dispatch, but good "fortune, to keep us from distress-Should things "not go well, I tremble for the fate of the poor Cana dians, who have ventured so much. What shall "I do with them, should I be obliged to evacuate "this country? I have assured them that the United "Colonies will as soon give up Massachusetts to "resentment as them.". These sentiments were worthy of a heroic soul, and of the faith he had pledged to those people. Nor is he less to be venerated for his tender regard towards his own army-Instead of making a merit of his difficulties (which were indeed more than ought to be mentioned in this place) he often seeks to conceal them; ascribing any little faults or tardiness, in his young troops, to their want of experience in forming; to their hard duty, the constant succession of bad weather and the like-still encouraging them to nobler efforts in future. And if any impatience of discipline appeared, he nobly attributes it to "that "spirit of freedom, which men accustomed to think. "for themselves, will even bring into camps with "them." His own superior military knowledge he has been known to sacrifice to the general voice, rather than interrupt that union on which success depended; and when a measure was once resolved upon by the majority, however much contrary to his own advice and judgment, he magnanimously supported it with his utmost vigor; disdaining that work of low ambition, which will strive to defeat in the execution, what it could not direct in planning. His perseverance and conduct in gaining possession of St. John's and Montreal, have already been the theme of every tongue, and need not be mentioned in this place. His abilities in negociation; the precision with which the various articles of treaties and capitulations are expressed; the generous applause he gives, not only to every worthy effort of his own officers, but to the commanding officer and garrison of St. John's; his noble declaration to the inhabitants of Montreal, "that the continental armies despise every act of oppression and violence, being "come for the express purpose of giving liberty and "security"—all these, I say, did honour to himself, and to that delegated body, under whose authority he acted. Leaving him, therefore, for a while-alas too short a while to enjoy the noblest of all triumphs, the applause of his country, and the conscious testimony of his own heart, let us inquire after another band of brave and hardy men, who are stemming rapid rivers, ascending pathless mountains, traversing unpeopled deserts, and hastening through deep morasses and gloomy woods to meet him in scenes of another issue -Deserts in vain Oppos'd their course, and deep rapacious floods, THOMSON This praise was paid to ten thousand heroes, sustaining every danger, in a retreat to their own country, and is certainly due, so far as heroism is concerned, to less than a tenth parth of the number, marching through equal difficulties against the capital of a hostile country. Even the march of Hannibal over the Alps, so much celebrated in history, (allowing for the disparity of numbers) has nothing in it of superior merit, to the march of Arnold; and in many circumstances there is a most striking similitude. The former had to encounter the rapid Rhone; the latter, the more rapid Kennebeck, through an immense length of country. The former, when he came to quit the river, found his further passage barred by mountains, rearing their snowy crests to the sky, rugged, wild, uncultivated. This was also the case with the latter, whose troops, carrying their boats and baggage, were obliged to cross and recross the same mountains sundry times. At the foot of the mountains, the former was deserted by three thousand of his army, desponding at the length of the way, and terrified at the hideous view of those stupendous heights, which they considered as impassable-In like circumstances, about a third part of the army of the latter, deserted shall I say, or use the more courteous language-" returned home*." The march When the oration was delivered, the author did not know that an inquiry had been made into the reasons of the return of this party, and that the commanding officer has been acquitted. But as a very general censure had been passed upon him through the Colonies, it was judged much more of the former was about twelve hundred miles in five months. The Virginia and Pennsylvania rifle-companies, belonging to the latter, including their first march from their own habitations to Cambridge, and thence to Quebec, marched near the same distance in about three months. Besides these rifle-companies, Arnold's corps consisted of about five hundred New-England troops, who sustained all the fatigues of the worst part of the march by land and water, with the utmost fortitude. And General MONTGOMERY, ever ready to do justice to merit, having joined them before Quebec, gives their commander and them this character they are an exceeding fine body of men, inured "to fatigue, with a style of discipline among them "much superior to what I have been used to see this "campaign-He himself is active, intelligent, and "enterprizing." Having approached those plains which the blood of Wolfe hath consecrated to deathless fame, our hero seemed emulous of his glory, and animated with a honourable for him to insert an account of his acquitment, than to suppress the paragraph-for all these transactions will be fully scrutinized by future historians. It was at the foot of the Pyrenees that the 3000 deserted from Hannibal, and he freely dismissed 7000 more, whose courage he perceived was not equal to the undertaking. Indeed Livy tells us that the sight of the Alps, "their snow-clad tops almost penetrating Heaven, the rude cottages built " on rocks, sheep and oxen pinched with cold, the men savage and wearing "long beards, every thing both animate and inanimate stiff with frost"struck even the remainder of his army with a temporary panic. It is not clear what use Hannibal made of his boats after crossing the Rhone, whether to carry his baggage, as he ascended along its banks, or not. |