recollection of all. It is you who have defended us against ten combined kings; who have driven them from our territory; have transferred to their dominions the scourge of war. You have not only conquered men; you have overcome the obstacles thrown in your way by nature. You have triumphed over fatigue, hunger, and winter. What a spectacle for the people! what a dreadful lesson to the enemies of liberty!

A new-born republic arms its children to defend its independence; nothing can restrain their impetuosity; traversing rivers, carrying intrenchments, climbing rocks. Here, after a series of victories, they pushed back our limits to those barriers that nature intended for us, and pursuing over ice the remains of three ar mies, transformed an oppressed and hostile nation into a free and allied people. There they fly to exterminate the hordes of traitors and villains, subsidized by England; punish their thieves, and restore to the repub lic brothers too long misled. Here surmounting the Pyrenees, and precipitating themselves from their summit; overthrowing whatever opposes their progress, and checked only by an honorable peace; there ascending the Alps and Appenines, they fly across the Po and Adige.

The ardor of the soldier is seconded by the genius and boldness of the chiefs. They plan with science, and execute with energy; now displaying their forces with calmness; then courting danger at the head of their brothers in arms. Oh that I could here display the immense and glorious picture of their victories! that I could name our most intrepid defenders! What a crowd of sublime images and beloved names press upon my recollection! Immortal warriors, posterity will not believe the multitude of your triumphs; but to us history loses all its improbabilities.

But do we not see, even on this spot, a portion of those brave defenders? Victors over the exterior enemies of the state, they have come to repress our internal enemies; and preserve at home the republic

which

which they have caused to be respected abroad. Do we not also see those venerable warriors who have grown grey in the service; those whom honorable wounds have obliged to seek premature repose, and whose asylum is in sight? With what pleasure our eyes feed on this interesting reunion. With what agreeable emotions we contemplate those victorious

brows!

Heroes who have perished for liberty, why does there remain to us nothing but a recollection of your services? You will, however, live forever in our hearts; your children will be dear to us; the republic will repay to them the debt they owe to you; and we discharge here the first, by proclaiming your glory and our gratitude. Republican armies, represented here, by warriors from your ranks; invincible phalanxes, whose trophies I observe on all sides, whose fresh successes I foresee, come forward and receive the triumphal crowns which the French people command me to attach to your colors.

ADDRESS OF MR. ADET, FRENCH AMBASSADOR, ON PRESENTING THE COLOURS OF FRANCE, TO THE UNITED STATES, 1796.

I

MR. PRESIDENT,

COME to acquit myself of a duty very dear to my heart. I come to deposit in your hands, and in the midst of a people justly renowned for their cour age, and their love of liberty, the symbol of the triumph and the enfranchisement of my nation.

When she broke her chain; when she proclaimed the imprescriptible rights of man; when in a terrible war she sealed with her blood the covenant made with liberty, her own happiness was not alone the object of her glorious efforts; her views extended also to all free people; she saw their interests blended with her

H

own,

own, and doubly rejoiced in her victories, which, in assuring to her the enjoyments of her rights, became to them new guarantees of their independence.

These sentiments, which animated the French nation, from the dawn of their revolution, have acquired new strength since the foundation of the republic. France, at that time, by the form of its government, assimilated to, or rather identified with free people, saw in them only friends and brothers. Long accustomed to regard the American people as their most faithful allies, she has sought to draw closer the ties already formed in the fields of America, under the auspices of victory over the ruins of tyranny.

The National convention, the organs of the will of the French Nation, have more than once expressed their sentiments to the American people; but above all, these burst forth on that august day, when the minister of the United States presented to the national Representation, the colours of his country, desiring never to lose recollections as dear to Frenchmen as they must be to Americans. The convention ordered that these colours should be placed in the hall of their sittings.. They had experienced sensations too agreeable not to cause them to be partaken of by their allies, and decreed that to them the national colours should be presented.

Mr. President, I do not doubt their expectations will be fulfilled; and I am convinced, that every citizen will receive, with a pleasing emotion, this flag, elsewhere the terror of the enemies of liberty; here the certain pledge of faithful friendship; especially when they recollect that it guides to combat, men who have shared their toils, and who were prepared for liberty, by aiding them to aquire their own.

PRESIDENT

PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S ANSWER.

BORN, Sir, in a land of liberty; having early

learned its value; having engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it; having, in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure it a permanent establishment in my own country; my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom. But above all, the events of the French revolution have produced the deepest solicitude, as well as the highest admiration. To call your nation brave, were to pronounce but common praise. WONDERFUL PEOPLE! ages to come will read with astonishment the history of your brilliant exploits.

I rejoice that the period of your toils and of your immense sacrifices is approaching. I rejoice that the interesting revolutionary movements of so many years have issued in the formation of a constitution designed to give permanency to the great object for which you have contended. I rejoice that liberty, which you have so long embraced with enthusiasm; liberty, of which you have been the invincible defenders, now finds an asylum in the bosom of a regularly organized government: a government, which, being formed to secure the happiness of the French people, corresponds with the ardent wishes of my heart, while it gratifies the pride of every citizen of the United States, by its resemblance of their own. On these glorious events accept, Sir, my sincere congratulations.

In delivering to you these sentiments, I express not my own feelings only, but those of my fellow-citizens, in relation to the commencement, the progress, and the issue of the French revolution; and they will cordially join with me in purest wishes to the Supreme Being, that the citizens of our sister republic, our mag

nanimous

nanimous allies, may soon enjoy, in peace, that liberty, which they have purchased at so great a price, and all the happiness which liberty can bestow.

I receive, Sir, with lively sensibility, the symbol of the triumphs and of the enfranchisements of your nation, the colours of France, which you have now presented to the United States. The transaction will be announced to Congress; and the colours will be deposited with those archieves of the United States, which are at once the evidences and the memorials of their freedom and independence. May these be perpetual; and may the friendship of the two republics be commensurate with their existence.

THE OPPRESSIVE LANDLORD.

Enter DON PHILIP and WIFE.

Don Philip. We families out of my long range WEL dear, I have warned all

the

of buildings, and ordered them to pay double the rent they have done, for every day they remain. From every new tenant I am determined to have three times the sum. The present rent will never do in these times. Our children will become beggars at this rate; and you and I shall have to betake ourselves to hand labour, like the common herd, to earn our daily bread.

Wife. But I fear that some of our tenants are too poor to endure a rent, double to what they now pay; and I am certain it will be impossible for them all to remove, on account of the scarcity of houses to be obtained.

Don. P. That is not my look out. It is enough for me to attend to my own interest, not theirs.

Wife. But you will exercise a little lenity towards them, at this distressing time. I am persuaded, my dear, that you will not turn them into the street. Besides, it is thought by some that they already pay a reasonable rent.

Don P.