of Great Britain, since the famous capture of the Smyrna fleet in the reign of king WILLIAM.

The war in the northern provinces of America seemed throughout the whole of the summer of 1780 to be almost at a stand. On the 10th of July a large body of French troops commanded by the comte de Rochambeau, under convoy of a confiderable fleet, arrived at Rhode-Island. This the comte afsfured the states was only the vanguard of a much greater force destined by the king, his sove⚫reign, to their aid. A scheme was soon after formed by fir Henry Clinton and admiral Arbuthnot, of a combined attack against the French and Americans at Rhode-Island; and a large portion of the forces stationed at New York were embarked for that purpose: but general Washington, by a rapid movement paffing the north river, and advancing to New York compelled them to defift from their purpose.

It affords a grateful relief from the sensations which oppress the mind in listening to the tale of human folly and wretchedness, to revert to an act of the most exalted philantrophy passed about this period by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, to the following purport: "When we contemplate our abhorrence of the condition to which the arms and tyranny of Great Britain were exerted to reduce us-when we look back on the variety of dangers to which we have been exposed, and the deliverances wrought when hope and fortitude have become equal to the contest, -we conceive it to be our duty, and rejoice that it is in our power, to extend a portion of that freedom to others which hath been extended to us, to add one more step to universal civilization, by removing, as much as possible, the forrows of those who have lived in undeserved bondage. Weaned by a long course of experience from those narrow prejudices and partialities we had imbibed, we conceive ourselves, at this particular period, called upon, by the bleffings we have received, to manifest the fincerity

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of our profession. In justice, therefore, to perfons who having no profpect before them whereon they may reft their forrows and their hopes, have no reasonable inducement to render that service to fociety which otherwise they might; and also in grateful commemoration of our own happy deliverance from that state of UNCONDITIONAL SUBMISSION to which we were doomed by the tyranny of Britain: BE IT ENACTED, that no child born hereafter shall be a SLAVE; that negro and mulatto children shall be fervants only till twenty-eight years of age; that all flaves shall be registered before the first of November next; that they shall be tried like other inhabitants; and that no negroes or mulattoes, other than infants, shall be bound for longer than seven years."-Such were the fentiments and such the conduct of a people once attached to Britain by every civil and focial tie, by which either dignity or advantage could be derived, or durability be hoped-but whom Britain, in the hour of her infolence and infatuation, first attempted to treat as flaves, and then to punish as rebels.

Towards the autumn of the present year, a remarkable event took place in the defection of general Arnold, who commanded a confiderable by of troops at West Point on the North River, and who had entered into a fecret correspondence with fir Henry Clinton to betray into his hands that important post, and the whole of the troops entrusted to him. The military talents and fucceffes of Arnold had raised his reputation so high, that the danger of placing confidence in a man wholly destitute of honor and probity in private life was not fufficiently adverted to. The intercourse between the American and English generals was carried on through the medium of major André, a young man of fingular accomplishments, who had paffed up the river unknown and unsuspected from the head quarters at New York to the post of West Point. But on his return by land, September 23d, after eluding eluding the vigilance of the regular patroles, he was apprehended in disguise, and with a false passport, by three American privates, to whom he in vain offered great rewards if they would fuffer him to escape. On examination, the papers found upon him, and which he had no opportunity to destroy, discovered all the particulars of the conspiracy. His case being referred to a board of general officers, of which the marquis de la Fayette was one, they unanimously determined that he came under the denomination of a spy; and, that agreeably to the law and usage of nations, he ought to fuffer death; which, notwithstanding the urgent folicitations and the impotent and injudicious menaces of fir Henry Clinton, was, on the 2d of October, inflicted upon him in that degrading mode "which gives the brave the keenest wound." Such was the noble candor and magnanimity of his conduct confe. quent on the discovery, that the high character of the American commander would have derived additional lustre from indulging the earnest and fole request of major André, to be permitted to die as a foldier, not as a felon. General Arnold, with great difficulty, on the apprehenfion of major André, made his escape to New York, and was immediately promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the king's service.

In the fouthern provinces the events of the war were of a nature more important and interesting. After the departure of fir Henry Clinton from Carolina, lord Cornwallis was left with a force apparently very inadequate to maintain poffeffion of the province against the increasing armies of the Americans of which general Gates, the conqueror of Burgoyne, had now taken the command. The British forces, having advanced towards the north frontier of the province, found their farther progress intercepted by the enemy, who with far fuperior numbers were pofted near the town of Camden. Lord Cornwallis, sensible that a retreat would be equivalent to an abandonment, ment of the recent conquests, determined to risk an engagement; and in the night of the 15th of August, 1780, the troops were put in motion, in hope of furprizing general Gates in his camp. That commander with a view likewife to the surprisal of lord Cornwallis, had marched his troops during the night to the attack of the British camp, and the advanced parties of the two armies unexpectedly met in a wood near Camden. A fort of truce was obferved till day-light appeared, when the action commenced on the part of the British general, who was well pleased to observe that the American commander had been under the neceffity of taking a very disadvantageous and confined pofition, bounded by swamps on both fides, which prevented his making any efficacious use of his great fuperiority of numbers. The militia, of whom general Gates's army chiefly consisted, unable to resist the new and formidable attack of the bayonet, fled at the first onset. The continental troops maintained, nevertheless, their ground with great resolution; but finding themselves totally deferted by the militia, who could never be brought to rally, were compelled to retreat, leaving behind them their cannon, camp-equipage, and stores, This victory seems to have been the most complete which was obtained in the whole course of the war. The pursuit continued for more than twenty miles; and colonel Tarleton coming up with a detached corps at the Catabaw fords under general Sumpter, charged them with such vigor that they were instantly broken, and the greater part either cut to pieces or taken prisoners.

General Gates, who thus unfortunately at Camden faw those laurels fade which he had fo gloriously acquired at Saratoga, now, with little apparent attention to the point of honor, left the shattered remains of his army to the care of a general Smallwood, and retired into North Carolina to confult with the government of that province

province upon the means of future resistance and defence.

Lord Cornwallis, eager to improve his victory to the utmost, advanced, as foon as the exceffive heats incident to the climate and season would permit, to the vicinity of Salisbury, on the frontier of North Carolina, having first detached major Ferguson to the western fide of the province to collect and arm the royalists in that quarter. No fooner was the communication of this officer with lord Cornwallis interrupted by the extenfion of the distance, than a plan was formed to furround and cut him entirely off. Divers corps of the provincial militia effected a rapid junction with the mountaineers of the western districts, under the command of colonels Williams and Cleveland, to the amount of several thousand men, and, marching in quest of Ferguson, soon discovered his encampment on an eminence known by the name of King's Mountain. The Americans, dividing their force into different columns, ascended the hill in various directions, and attacked the royalists with great fury. Major Ferguson was successful on whichever fide he directed his efforts; but no sooner was one division driven back, than the former refumed its station, so that his exertions were entirely unavailing. But his unconquerable spirit disdained all ideas of furrender; and the unequal conflicted continued till this officer received a mortal wound; and no chance of escape being left, nor prospect of fuccessful resistance remaining, the second in command sued for quarter, which was granted, and more than eight hundred men laid down their arms, about three hundred being killed or wounded in the action.

This disafter was in its consequences almost as fatal to lord Cornwallis as the affair of Trenton to general Howe. On the first intelligence of it, his lordship retreated to Wynnesborough, where he was much haraffed by the irregular but continual attacks of the Provincials; and general Gates