selves. He rose from rank to rank, from a smaller to a larger ship, and from the various stations he has occupied, as well as the various grades of vessels he served in, it would seem that no officer of his age in the service, has had better opportunities of acquiring a consummate knowledge of his profession than captain Warrington. That he has profited by his experience is evident from his conduct in the action with the Epervier, as well as in his subsequent cruise in the straits of Sunda, and especially from the testimony of his seniors, who uniformly bear testimony to his talents and professional skill.

While cruising in the Peacock in latitude 27°, 47', he had the good fortune to fall in with the British brig of war Epervier with whom he engaged. The result of the action is thus communicated in his official letter to the secretary of the

navy:

SIR,

"At sea, April 29th, 1814.

"I have the honour to inform you that we have this morning captured, after an action of forty-two minutes, his Britannic majesty's brig Epervier, rating and mounting eighteen thirty-two-pound carronades, with one hundred and twenty-eight men, of whom eleven were killed, and fifteen wounded, according to the best information we could obtain-among the latter is her first lieutenant, who has lost an arm, and received a severe splinter-wound in the hip. Not a man in the Peacok was killed, and only two wounded, neither dangerously. The fate of the Epervier would have been decided in much less time, but for the circumstance of our fore-yard having been totally disabled by two round-shot in the starboard-quarter from her first broadside, which entirely deprived us of the use of our fore-topsails, and compelled us to keep the ship large throughout the remainder of the action.

"This, with a few topmast and topgallant backstays cut away, and a few shot through our sails, is the only injury the Peacock has sustained. Not a round-shot touched our hull, and our masts and spars are as sound as ever.

When

the enemy struck, he had five feet water in his hold-his maintopmast was over the side-his mainboom shot awayhis foremast cut nearly in two, and tottering-his fore-rigging and stays shot away-his bowsprit badly wounded, and fortyfive shot holes in his hull, twenty of which were within a foot of his water-line, above and below. By great exertions we got her in sailing order just as night came on.

"In fifteen minutes after the enemy struck, the Peacock was ready for another action, in every respect, but the foreyard, which was sent down, fished, and we had the foresail set again in forty-five minutes—such was the spirit and activity of our gallant crew. The Epervier had under convoy an English hermaphrodite brig, a Russian, and a Spanish ship, which all hauled their wind and stood to the E. N. E. I had determined upon pursuing the former, but found that it would not be prudent to leave our prize in her then crippled state, and the more particularly so, as we found she had on board one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in specie, which we soon transferred to this ship. Every officer, seaman, and marine did his duty, which is the highest compliment I can pay them. I am, &c.

L. WARRINGTON." Captain Warrington had the good fortune to bring his prize safe into port, and on his return received the usual honours, which it had become customary to pay to men who conquered the enemy. Early in the following year he sailed from New York in company with the Hornet, captain Biddle, as part of a squadron under commodore Decatur in the President, which was intended to cruise in the Indian seas. The President had sailed shortly before, after appointing a rendezvous, and soon after was fallen in with by a British squadron, to which she was finally obliged to surrender, after having beaten the Endymion, their headmost ship. The Peacock and Hornet separated in chasing, and did not meet until they arrived at Tristan D'Acunha, the appointed rendezvous. From thence they proceeded to their ultimate destination, but were again.

separated in consequence of falling in with a British line of battle ship, and never afterwards joined. The Hornet was obliged to throw over her guns to escape from the enemy, which rendered it necessary to return to port; but the Peacock gained the straits of Sunda, where she captured four vessels, one of them a brig of fourteen guns in the East India company's service. From this vessel captain Warrington received satisfactory assurances of the ratification of peace between the United States and England, and in consequence made the best of his way to this country, where he arrived the beginning of November last, after an absence of almost a year. The Peacock was the first ship of war belonging to the United States that ever cruised in the straits of Sunda, in no part of which is there a friendly port, where she could calculate on receiving any supplies whatever. Since captain Warrington took command of this ship, she has captured nineteen vessels, three of which were given up to prisoners, and sixteen destroyed.

As it is probable that for some time to come there will occur but few opportunities of gaining distinction in the service, in any other way than by the faithful discharge of the erdinary duties of the profession, our biographical labours may possibly be brought nearly to a close. It never was nor ever will be our intention, to cheapen one of the most honourable rewards of honourable actions, by decorating this work with the lives of men, who never performed any action worth remembering. By this indiscriminate praise the insignificant are only made more ridiculous by being placed in the cruel sunshine, which renders folly more perceptible, and imbecility more conspicuous-while he, who is truly deserving, shrinks in disgust from sharing in honours that are bestowed without discrimination, and received without desert. He who overcome, he who has valiantly defended himself against the enemy, he who has fallen with distinction in the service of his country-and he who has performed any illustrious action in her honour, or in her service, shall never want our feeble aid,

such as it is. But no consideration of interest, or popularity. shall ever induce us to prostitute the pages of this work, to the notice or praise of men whose services to their country are sufficiently repaid by the faithful and unquestionable records of a tomb-stone. Biography, as an incentive to virtue, or as a reward for its exercise, grows worthless, when it be comes a mere dictionary of names, arranged alphabetically, and commencing with Adam, and Aaron, not because they were the greatest of men, but because they begin with the first letter of the alphabet.

We have selected the distinguished officers of our navy as subjects for biography, not only because they naturally came under the notice of this work, but because their actions are not liable to doubt or misconstruction, and their victories when gained, are unquestionable. When they sink a ship, or bring her into port, or destroy, or capture a fleet, no denial, or opposite claim on the part of the beaten enemy can invalidate the victory, or render it for a moment doubtful. We have substantial proofs of its reality. If one vessel takes another. we know that the latter must be beaten. If two vessels separate after an action, we know that it is a drawn battle. But there is not this certainty with respect to the operations of armies, and for the most part we can only ascertain the result of an engagement, by the movements which take place afterwards. The consequence is, that we are continually presented with the preposterous spectacle of two nations singing Te Deum for the very same victory, and mocking Heaven with thanks for what cannot possibly be an advantage to both. One other observation will, we trust, be excused. The people of the United States seem now to consider it a matter of course to beat an Englishman of equal force. They passed suddenly from the depths of despondency to the pinnacle of exultation, and justified in some degree by numerous examples of success, in the opinion that success is easy, they have betrayed an indifference to our later naval triumphs, which is highly injurious, because it takes away one great incentive

to the exertions of generous minds. We hope it will be long before this confident opinion of superiority approaches to an arrogant presumption in the minds of our gallant tars, the fatal effects of which are exemplified in the disastrous and mortifying history of our great enemy, during the last war. Inflated by victories over enemies whose skill lay on the land, and not on the ocean, and elevated into a vain-glorious folly, by songs, and theatrical exhibitions, in which the poor Frenchman and Spaniard, and Portuguese and Yankee were always represented with some ridiculous circumstances of inferiority, they thought themselves invincible, and in the triumph of that conviction, forgot the means that had made them so.

To that nation, we are often referred for examples, and it is sometimes well to look to her, at least for examples of what we ought to avoid. Though we believe the warning is not necessary, still we will anticipate its necessity, and caution the gallant officers of our navy, never, under the idea of superiority, to remit those cares and exertions by which that superiority was gained-never while they live, to rely upon any thing for success, but their own actual skill and valour, which are much better securities for victory, than the memory of former triumphs arising from causes that have ceased to exist, or any delusive reliance on the inferiority of the enemy. The English, with whom we seem destined some day or other to dispute, and finally to decide the rights of nations on the ocean, though undoubtedly our inferiors in naval prowess, are by no means enemies to be despised. Let us not cease

our exertions to beat them, because we have beaten them so easily, for if we do, we shall peradventure be caught napping on the waves, and thrown upon our backs like a great turtle, as they were at the commencement of the last war. The late reduction of the British navy, so far from offering an argument against the propriety of this vigilance, enforces the necessity of its unremitting exercise. By reducing her navy, Britain will be the better enabled to equip and man her remaining ships of war with crews not taken indiscriminately from all