engaging person, mien and aspect, devoted to immediate execution. Major Andre walked with firmness, composure and dignity, between two officers of his guard, his arm being locked in theirs. Upon seeing the preparations at the fatal spot, he asked with some degree of concern, "Must I die in this manner?" He was told it was unavoidable. He replied, “I am reconciled to my fate, but not to the mode;" but soon subjoined, "It will be but a momentary pang." He ascended the cart with a pleasing countenance, and with a degree of composure which excited the admiration and melted the hearts of all the spectators. He was asked, when the fatal moment was at hand, if he had any thing to say? he answered, "Nothing, but to request that you will witness to the world that I die like a brave man." The succeeding moments closed the affecting scene.

This execution was the subject of severe censures. Barbarity, cruelty and murder, were plentifully charged on the Americans, but the impartial of all nations allowed, that it was warranted by the usages of war. It cannot be condemned, without condemning the maxims of self-preservation, which have uniformly guided the practice of hostile nations. The finer feelings of humanity would have been gratified, by dispensing with the rigid maxims of war in favour of so distinguished an officer, but these feelings must be controlled by a regard for the public safety. Such was the distressed state of the American army, and so abundant were their causes of complaint, that there was much to fear from the contagious nature of treachery. Could it have been reduced to a certainty that there were no more Arnolds in America, perhaps Andre's life might have been spared; but the necessity of discouraging farther plots fixed his fate, and stamped it with the seal of political necessity. If conjectures in the boundless field of possible contingencies were to be indulged, it might be said that it was more consonant to extended humanity to take one life, than by ill-timed lenity to lay a foundation, which probably would occasion not only the loss of many, but endanger the independence of a great country.

Though a regard to the public safety imposed a necessity for inflicting the rigours of martial law, yet the rare worth of this unfortunate officer made his unhappy case the subject of universal regret. Not only among the partizans of royal government, but among the firmest American republicans, the friendly tear of sympathy freely flowed, for the early fall of this amiable young man. Some condemned, others justified, but all regretted the fatal sentence which put a period to his valuable life.

This grand project terminated with no other alteration in respect of the British, than that of their exchanging one of their best officers for the worst man in the Americar army. Arnold was immediately made a brigadiergeneral in the service of the king of Great Britain. The failure of the scheme respecting West Point made it necessary for him to dispel the cloud which overshadowed his character by the performance of some signal service for

his new masters. The condition of the American army afforded him a prospect of doing something of consequence. He flattered himself that, by the allurements of pay and promotion, he should be able to raise a numerous force from among the distressed American soldiery. He therefore took methods for accomplishing this purpose, by obviating their scruples and working on their passions. His first public measure was issuing an address, directed to the inhabitants of America, dated from New York, five days after Andre's execution. In this he endeavoured to justify himself for deserting their cause. He said, "that when he first engaged in it he conceived the rights of his country to be in danger, and that duty and honour called him to her defence. A redress of grievances was his only aim and object. He however acquiesced in the declaration of independence, although he thought it precipitate. But the reasons that were then offered to justify that measure no longer could exist, when Great Britain, with the open arms of a parent, offered to embrace them as children and to grant the wished-for redress. From the refusal of these proposals, and the ratification of the French alliance, all his ideas of the justice and policy of the war were totally changed, and from that time he had become a professed loyalist." He acknowledged that "in these principles he had only retained his arms and command for an opportunity to surrender them to Great Britain." This address was soon followed by another, inscribed to the officers and soldiers of the continental army. This was intended to induce them to follow his example, and engage in the royal service. He informed them that he was authorized to raise a corps of cavalry and infantry, who were to be on the same footing with the other troops in the British service. To allure the private men, three guineas were offered to each, besides payment for their horses, arms and accoutrements. Rank in the British army was also held out to the American officers, who would recruit and bring in a certain number of men, proportioned to the different grades of military service. These offers were proposed to unpaid soldiers, who were suffering from the want of both food and clothing, and to officers who were in a great degree obliged to support themselves from their own resources, while they were spending the prime of their days, and risking their lives in the unproductive service of Congress. Though they were urged at a time when the paper currency was at its lowest ebb of depreciation, and the wants and distresses of the American army were at their highest pitch, yet they did not produce the intended effect on a single sentinel or officer. Whether the circumstances of Arnold's case added new shades to the crime of desertion,' or whether their providential escape from the deep-laid scheme against West Point gave a higher tone to the firmness of the American soldiery, cannot be unfolded: but either from these or some other causes, desertion wholly ceased at this remarkable period of the war.

It is matter of reproach to the United States, that they brought into public view a man of Arnold's character, but it is to the honour of human nature that a great revolution and an eight years' war produced but one. In civil contests, for officers to change sides has not been unusual, but in the various events of the American war, and among the many regular officers it called to the field, nothing occurred that bore any resemblance to the conduct of Arnold. His singular case enforces the policy of conferring high trusts exclusively on men of clean hands, and of withholding all public confidence from those who are subjected to the dominion of pleasure.

A gallant enterprise of Major Talmadge about this time deserves notice. He crossed the sound to Long Island with eighty men, made a circuitous march of twenty miles to Fort George, and reduced it without any other loss than that of one private man wounded. He killed and wounded eight of the enemy, captured a lieutenant-colonel, a captain, and fifty-five privates.

HOUGH General Arnold's address to his countrymen produced no effect in detaching the soldiery of America from the unproductive service of Congress, their steadiness could not be accounted for, from any meli. oration of their circumstances. They still remained without pay, and without such clothing as the season required. They could not be induced to enter the British service, but their complicated distresses at length broke out into deliberate mutiny. This event, which had been long expected, made its first threatening appearance in the Pennsylvania line. The common soldiers enlisted in that state were for the most part natives of Ireland; but, though not bound to America by the accidental tie of birth, they were inferior to none in discipline, courage, or attachment to the cause of independence. They had been, but a few month's before, the most active instruments in quelling a mutiny of the Connecticut troops, and had on all occasions done their duty to admiration. An ambiguity in the terms of their enlistment furnished a pretext for their conduct. A great part of them were enlisted for three years, or during the war-the three years were expired, and the men insisted that the choice of staying or going remained with them, while the officers contended that the choice was in the state.

The mutiny was excited by the non-commissioned officers and privates, in the night of the 1st of January, 1781, and soon became so universal in the line of that state as to defy all opposition. The whole, except three

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regiments, upon a signal for the purpose, turned out under arms without their officers, and declared for a redress of grievances. The officers, in vain, endeavoured to quell them. Several were wounded, and a captain was killed in attempting it. General Wayne presented his pistols, as if about to fire on them; they held their bayonets to his breast, and said, "We love and respect you, but if you fire, you are a dead man. We are not going to the enemy; on the contrary, if they were now to come out, you should see us fight under your orders with as much alacrity as ever; but we will be no longer amused, we are determined on obtaining our just due." Deaf to arguments and entreaties, they, to the number of thirteen hundred, moved off in a body from Morristown, and proceeded in good order, with their arms and six field-pieces, to Princeton. They elected temporary officers from their own body, and appointed a serjeant-major, who had formerly deserted from the British army, to be their commander. General Wayne forwarded provisions after them, to prevent their plundering the country for their subsistence. They invaded no man's property, farther than their immediate necessities made unavoidable. This was readily submitted to by the inhabitants, who had long been used to exactions of the same kind, levied for similar purposes by their lawful rulers They professed that they had no object in view, but to obtain what was justly due to them, nor were their actions inconsistent with that profession.