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REVIEW. Sherburne's Life of Paul Jones.

abolition of corporal punishment in regard to naval and military service.

"Splendid as had been his [Jones's] successes, he was convinced that, had he been properly supported, much more might have been done. A great want of subordination had been always apparent in his men; the American common sailors carrying their notions of Civil Government on board a manof-war, imagined that they had a right to be consulted whenever any extraordinary duty was to be performed. Jones had been formed in a very different school; he was a strict disciplinarian, and required every thing to be performed with the most rigid punctuality and obedience. But he was well acquainted with the faults of the American naval system, and his ambition was to reform it. His patience was, however, somewhat taxed, when on making signals to his consort the Drake, he found them totally disregarded, and that Lieutenant Simpson, who commanded the prize, did not consider himself amenable to his authority." P. 41.

Jones then proceeded to Brest, the American Commissioners (though the descendants of John Bull in the old country would have died first) having landed to solicit the aid of France; and certain it is that a man who could fight an English vessel of war, at par, was deemed a wonderful acquisition by both countries, indicative of the possibility of kicking Great Britain into the sea like a foot-ball. Sir Richard Grenvill (says Evelyn, Miscellanies, 664) with but 180 soldiers (of which 90 were sick and useless) in the ship Revenge, maintained a conflict for 24 hours against 50 Spanish galleons, sinking four of their best vessels;" but, compared with Paul Jones, Grenville was only Tom Thumb to King Arthur.

After Jones landed (for he delighted in the union of Mars and Venus), he wrote a polite letter to the Countess of Selkirk, in order to effect a restoration of the plate, an honourable delicacy of feeling, which it seems philosopher Franklin (p. 48) did not think it worth Jones's while to consult. It was, however, placed within the reach of Lord Selkirk. Jones next tried to obtain rewards for his men, but his adopted countrymen had no money so to do. He was not, however, disgusted. He required fast-sailing ships of force sufficient to repel our cruizing frigates, and proposed to harass and plunder our coasts; and that the interests of Religion and Morals might not be forgot ten also, he writes that he was in great

[Nov

want of a chaplain. We think so too; but as it may amuse our readers to see Paul Jones in the character of a Bishop, we shall give his own account of the sort of religionist he desired to have:

"I should wish him to be a man of read

ing and of letters, who understands, speaks, and writes the French and English with elegance and propriety; for political reasons, it would be well if he were a Clergyman of the Protestant profession, whose sanctity of manners, and happy natural principles, would diffuse unanimity and cheerfulness through the ship; and if to these essentials were added the talent of writing fast and in fair characters, such a man would necessarily be worthy the highest confidence, and might therefore assure himself of my esteem and friendship: he should always have a place at my table, the regulation whereof should be entirely under his direction." P. 59.

Thus the Chaplain was not to be Jones's spiritual instructor, but Captain's clerk and ship's steward besides. A command in the French service was not, however, so easily to be obtained; for the native officers did not like to serve under a foreigner, nor was it prudent to put one over their heads. Jones, who he says himself, "drew his sword only from principles of philanthropy, and in support of the dignity of human nature!! but spoiled these heroics by an honest confession that his desire for fame was infinite," had received a foolish promise from the Prince of Nassau, that he would accompany him (Jones) as a volunteer, and had the vexation to find the Prince retreat. Jones then wrote a letter to the King (Louis XVI.) and such was the effect of his appeal, that he was appointed to the command of the Duras of 40 guns. This appellation of the ship Jones, from his respect to Franklin, begged to change to the "Bon Homme Richard," from Franklin's authorship of "Poor Richard's Almanack," though "Bon Homme Benjamin" would evidently have been more intelligible. Difficulties and delays, however, occurred again. The object of Jones's expedition was to land suddenly near all important towns of Great Britain that were within a reasonable march, and put them to high ransoms, under the threat of burning them (p. 78); but the French Court thought the scheme improveable into a general invasion, "which

they

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REVIEW.-Sherburne's Life of Paul Jones.

they sapiently inferred, from the lucky descents of Jones, whom they thought another Coriolanus, had a great chance of being successful. (p. 79.) However, as it would be a useful diversion in favour of the grand project, on the 19th of April, 1779, the American squadron, Bon Homme Richard, 42 guns, Alliance 36 guns, Pallas 30 guns, Cerf 18 guns, and the Vengeance 12 guns, sailed from L'Orient, under the command of the Honourable Commodore John Paul Jones. The object was to surprise Leith, and extort a ransom of 200,000l. from his brother Scotchmen; but want of cooperation in the French officers, a sudden storm, and a large body of troops at Edinburgh, prevented the execution of the scheme. The next event was the celebrated action with the Serapis, the parallel of which is not to be found in the naval annals of any nation. (p. 87.) Now this is really too much for any one acquainted with the exploits of Nelson, and of many other heroes of the late Revolutionary War. The fact was, that Jones being a British subject, would, if captured, have been hanged as a traitor, and therefore chose the least of two evils; and that Captain Pearson struck his flag because the Alliance sailed up to the support of Jones. Though the French commander of that ship did not do his duty towards Jones, Capt. Pearson could not tell that, and to him it must have appeared waste of life without object, to continue so unequal a contest; especially as his mainmast had gone overboard, and he could not escape. Let us suppose that he had not struck, and that the Bon Homme had sunk,-what then? The Alliance would have borne down upon him with impunity. In fact, as stated in p. 101, the Serapis struck to Jones's ship and the 32 gun frigate."

Jones made further depredations at Hull among the merchantmen, and then sailed to the Texel. Here he found our Ambassador Sir Joseph Yorke demanding of their High Mightinesses the restitution of the English ships, and the delivery unto the King his master of a certain Paul Jones, a subject of the King, who, according to treaties and the laws of

* Apparently he wished Jones to be sunk or taken, and then capture the Serapis himself easily.

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war, could only be considered as a rebel and a pirate. P. 104.

The Dutch Government declined interference, and Jones and the Americans were successfully intriguing with them, as they had done with the French, "to declare war against Great Britain, and join the common cause."

Now there is a simple mode of trying the effects of physick; i. e. by taking it. The French and the Dutch, by taking American physick, brought down upon themselves a revolution and a military despotism, which hurled the Bourbons and the Orange family from their thrones.

"Verily (says our author), the French Cabinet had their reward. The very men who, authorized by their secret instructions, hastened to assist rebellion in the colonies of a friendly power, returned to exercise in their own country a retributive vengeance." P. 18.

Jones escaped to France; and we suppose, through not having a Chaplain with him there, thought only of Fielding's addition to the code of honour, arising from the connection of Mars and Venus, viz. " that challenges to love and to fight are both to be accepted." He had acquired much fame as a warrior, and of course was a favourite with the women. In p. 143, we have an erotic poetical effusion to a Miss Dumas. In p. 153, a love-sick Delia, a sentimental lass, who would willingly have been the lowest of his crew, if he would but take her with him to America. Jones, however, left her to wear the willow, in order to gain a Countess de Lavendahl. This coquet, after having flirted with him, handed Jones over to her hushand, as soon as the former proposed a secret correspondence, being astonished at his audacity" (p. 156), but nevertheless, not willing to draw either into a duel, concluded her letter with a request that he would shew the Count, her husband, every civility as he passed through L'Orient. The real object seems to have been a joint expedition of the Count with Jones, by sea and land (see p. 158), for which the fair Countess was tickling Jones like a trout. Several Frenchmen, glad of opportunities of display, wanted also to join him as volunteers; the meaning of all which is, that, as the Baron de Stael informs us, the public service is on the Continent the sole means of acquiring rank and fortune. By the

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favour of Franklin, Jones was put in command of the American frigate Alliance; and as soon as he was in that situation, found that a Mr. Arthur Lee, a bitter enemy of Franklin, and a M. Landais, had laid various plots to ruin him. Jones, however, got over it, and in his efforts so to do, rests his claims to patronage upon his hostility to the English, and the mischief to be done to them through their commerce, and incursions on their coasts. A greater man than Jones, Napoleon himself, made the attempt with the whole power of France, and that of all the Continent. In the American war, the French, &c. (&c. only) were the mastives engaged with the lion Nero; but in that which followed, they found that they had Wallace to deal with; and we can certainly venture to say, with regard to Jones's preposterous derogations of Great Britain, that Nelson would have punished his presumption by suspension at the yard-arm as a traitor, at the end of a month. The conquest of America by Great Britain was a physical impossibility; and, because this was seen through, they persuaded the French that the subjugation of the parent country was only to burn a fishing town without a garrison,-armies after armies vanquished in Spain,-fleets after fleets destroyed, the tremendous Napoleon chained upon the rock of St. Helena ;" and yet nothing can parallel the engagement of Paul Jones with the Serapis!" We really are petrified by this bombastic gorgon's head. But the Americans confess that they never had a naval officer equal in valour and talent to Jones. True; but that man was not an American. God send them as many brave officers and as many blessings as they desire, as long as they have natural feelings towards the glorious land of their forefathers. To talk now of the tyranny of Great Britain, is utter nonsense; and had his father, uncle, or brother, or cousin, been in service on board the Serapis, and killed by the fire of the Bon Homme Richard, John Paul Jones would have buried them with funeral honours, and vindicated trea

son.

These, however, are matters of principle; and we should not notice them, if these American narratives did not shew an insuperable propensity to degrade their ancestors, and with such

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trumpery conquests as that of Paul Jones, a traitor fighting to prevent being hanged, and canting with the Americans and French under the ostentation of patriotism, to gratify his own ambition. We are forced into these remarks, by insulting misrepresentations. Every body knows, that after Rodney set the example of breaking the line, victory attended the English. Paul Jones represents this very circumstance in the following light, viz. that the English did so from ignorance of superior French naval tactics; that is, that they broke the line from ignorance! Clarke's quarto volume of course never had existence. Paul was artfully persuading the French, that they might gain a victory by keeping the line of battle; and to support this, he tells some bouncing stories.

"The English, who boast so much of the ocean before the war that is now ended. their Navy, never fought a ranged battle on The battle off Ushant was, on their part, like their former ones, irregular; and Admiral Keppell could only justify himself by the example of Hawke in our remembrance, and of Russell in the last century. From that moment the English were forced to study and to imitate the French in their evolutions. They never gained any advantage when they had to do with equal force, and the unfortunate defeat of Count de Grasse, was owing more to the unfavourable circumstance of the wind coming a-head four points at the beginning of the battle, which put his fleet into the order of echequier, when it was too late to tack, and of calm and currents afterwards, which brought on an entire disorder, than to the Admiralship or even the vast superiority of Rodney, who had forty sail of the line against thirty, and five three-deckers against one. By the accounts of some of the French officers, Rodney might as well have been asleep, not having made a second signal during the battle, so that every Captain did as he pleased." P. 183.

We are acquainted with officers who were in that action. It is true that after Rodney had broken the line, a calm sprung up, and our ships were left in the midst of the enemy, without power on either side to avail themselves of tactics. The French had taken on board the day before a quantity of live oxen for fresh provisions, and had not had time to stow them. When the broadsides commenced, the poor distracted animals on the decks, in their wild motions, baffled all order, and gave that advantage

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REVIEW.-Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn.

to our Admiral. But this is all of which we could ever hear. Paul Jones adds,

"The English are very deficient in signals as well as in naval tactics." P. 184.

Sir Home Popham has, we believe, most importantly improved the former; and, for the latter, let the late war speak. Paul says, that he never knew any thing of naval tactics till he was acquainted "with that great tactician Count d'Orvilliers and his judicious assistant the Chevalier du Pavillion." p. 185. Now those great tactics were merely to escape defeat, not to gain victory; but the English broke the line, and what became of the great tacticians?

Here ended Paul's days of glory. Except as a diplomatist, and a Rear Admiral under the Russian service, in which he defeated the Turks (as the Greeks have done by fire-ships only), we hear no more of Paul Jones. The Proditori nulla fides followed him wherever he went. His bravery and talent were respected, but his principles were questioned. The Court of Denmark pensioned him, to buy off a dangerous man; and the Empress Catharine made a tool of him as long as he was wanted: but to suppose that the Monarchs of Europe would en tangle themselves with him and the republican doctrines of America, was utterly absurd. Catharine soaped his nose with the order of St. Anne, then pulled it, and he retired into France, assigning his dismissal to the intrigues of the English, and died at Paris in June 1791. The National Assembly went into mourning on account of his death, and no doubt wore the same clothes for many of their own relatives, whom the flattery of Paul Jones and the politics of America had brought to an untimely end by the guillotine.

We will, however, do justice to the really great personal merits of Paul Jones. Born in obscurity, with the consciousness of superior talents, America presented an opening for the exertion of them, which he never could have found in the old countries, with out going through the usual routine of service, which at the age of twentyeight was impracticable. In commerce he had been unsuccessful; and desperation made him an adventurer. Qualified for a hero, as a warrior, a statesman, and as a gentleman, he

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showed invincible bravery, masterly diplomacy, and chivalrous courtesy; but what shall we say to his unnatural hostility to his native country,—a country remarkable for nationality. He was a Scotchman, who formed a. plan for plundering Edinburgh; he was a fighting Fauntleroy, instead of a banking one; and would have preyed upon the funds and vitals of his relatives, his friends, and countrymen. Most Scotchmen would prefer death. Bernadotte never entered France, and him Napoleon had tried to depose. What had Scotland done to Paul Jones?

In short, as an officer, his conduct is a good exemplar, and for that object his life ought to be studied. In all other respects, he was an unnatural parricide. He had not suffered by the American war; nor had his country injured him in any shape.

77. The Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn, Esq. F.R.S. Author of "Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees," Memoirs, &c. Now first collected, with occasional Notes, by William Upcott, of the London Institution. 4to. pp. 849. Colburn.

IN every country village, says Swift, it is necessary that there should be one man who can read and write; and we would add, that it is necessary for every gentleman resident in the country, that he should have a taste for the pleasures of imagination. The exercise of this quality is intimately connected with the existence of the emotions of sublimity and beauty. Unless this exercise of imagination be excited, whatever is great or beautiful in the scenery of external nature, the landscapes of Claude Lorrain, the music of Handel, the poetry of Milton, excite only feeble, if any, emotions.

As all the pleasures of intellect arise from the association of ideas, the more the materials of association are multiplied, the more will the sphere of these pleasures be enlarged. To a mind richly stored, almost every object of nature or art which presents itself to the senses, either excites fresh trains and combinations of ideas, or vivifies and strengthens those which existed before; so that recollection enhances enjoyment, and enjoyment heightens recollection.

We have made these remarks, because we think that they philosophically

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REVIEW.-Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn.

cally explain the intellectual habits of Evelyn, and furnish a useful suggestion for augmenting the pleasures of persons resident in the country. It is not sufficient to be a sportsman or a farmer. These avocations are only connected with the kitchen-garden of the mind; they have nothing to do with its park or shrubbery. They may gratify the necessity for action, a necessity as powerful as that for eating, but they do not make it plea surable also. In short, it is obvious that innocent enjoyments cannot be too much multiplied under rural residence; and that musick, books, drawing, landscape-gardening, and planting, are essential ingredients of felicity in the situation described.

Such a man was Evelyn,-a man who, in the words of our Author, was a perfect model of what an English gentleman should be; a man whose whole life was devoted to the advancement of those arts which have been the source of the wealth, greatness, and prosperity of his country. Pref. xxiii.

The first article of this volume is a Tract on Liberty and Servitude, translated from the French of La Mothe le Vayer, a crafty rogue, who finding his Vertu des Payens drop dead from the press, procured a Government order for its suppression, in consequence of which manœuvre the whole edition was rapidly sold. P. 3.

We were startled, not being inclined to think a Frenchman's idea of liberty sound law on the subject; but this fox confines himself to philosophical liberty, freedom from the tyranny of passions and appetites, and wisely considers, concerning the political sort, that "Louis the Just is such a Prince, that there is no imagining liberty which can possibly be so sweet and advantageous unto us, as the obedience rendered to him. (p. 36.) La Mothe la Vayer was called the French Plutarch, and assuredly this tract is an admirable imitation of one of that Greek's essays. The second Essay is, The state of France as it stood in the ninth yeer of this present Lewis the XIII. This tract is headed by a preface, in which it is observed, concerning foreign travel, that a man derives no benefit from it who passes through a country "like a goose swimming down a river" (p. 46), acquires only the language, "a parrot virtue," the "shell only of

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the kernel," or counts steeples; but he who in foreign manners sees things which may improve his own, especially in point of drink and tobacco, which are our Northern, national, and most sordid of vices." (p. 46.) The truth is, that men travel for education at an age when they are least qualified and inclined to indulge in ethical, philosophical, and political studies; and if they travel in more mature years, it is either for business, or to little purpose in ethics, unless they have lived among the people for some time, and then it is too often only the miserable drudgery of unlearning what is good and best. We really think the advantages of travel, as to political and moral good, to be merely the Hibernian gain of a loss; for "Frenchified and Italianized Englishmen" are not those from whom their country derives benefit. Besides, there is nothing in which Mind is of more consequence, than in Travel. A fool brings back only snuff-boxes and cigars, and remembers nothing more than his refreshments, accommodations, and adventures, in his peregrinations. He brings home no improvements in commerce, the conveniences of life, and the arts. Sir Rich. Sutton brought to England clover and the locks of canals; and a philosophical Frenchman would take home from England the steam-engine.

From this preface we proceed to Evelyn's "Account of the state of France, at the period in question." He begins with a Court Calendar of the titles of the Royal Family, from which we learn (inter alia) that the Salic law, or bar to the succession of females, was only a piece of Court legerdermain, to elude and invalidate the title of our former and ancient Kings of England, as to succession in the right of their mothers and wives." (p. 54.) By this the French have unintentionally rendered us the most valuable of services, for had our Monarchs succeeded to the throne in question, Paris would have been the Metropolis, and England become only a province. He next gives us the characters of the Royal Family in flattering colours, and then adjoins the French opinions of Royal illegitimates, &c. in the following words:

"Touching the natural issue of the Kings of France (who are ever in this kind country in very great reputation and place,

suitable