to state as the result of his calculations that the number of Americans engaged in this conflict was as four to one to that of the English, and the weight of metal as two to one. This really outdoes his former attempts, bold as they were. But such is the history of misrepresentation every where. It begins with caution, but gradually acquires strength and confidence as it advances, and at length fearlessly overleaps the boundaries both of decency and probability. Thus we find the "British naval officer" immediately after this, asserting without producing any authority whatever, that notwithstanding this superiority of two to one and four to one, the loss of the Americans was only eleven men less than that of the British, when it is stated on undoubted estimates to have been sixty-one, instead of eleven. He then proceeds to complain bitterly of commodore Perry's quitting his ship the Lawrence to go on board the Niagara. This he calls a “ Yankee trick," and in order to make something of a good story of it, couples it with the assertion that the Lawrence struck her flag, while commodore Perry was leaving her, and hoisted it again, when he had got safely away. It is difficult to remark on such unblushing falsehoods, with the temper worthy of one writing in the support of truth. There is a miserable weakness, coupled with a weak and ineffectual malignity, the product of a fractious and disappointed arrogance, that renders them almost unworthy of notice.

On what ground does he make this despicable assertion? Has commodore Barclay ever sanctioned this charge?-Or if the charge had been true, would he, as he did, ever have toasted commodore Perry at a public dinner, given him at Tenebonne, in Canada, as "Commodore Perry, the gallant and generous enemy?" Nay, moreover, has any British officer, honourable or without honour, ever publicly charged commodore Perry with this departure from the modes of honourable warfare? Nay, still further, has any newspaper or publication whatever, even hinted at such a thing? No-it was left for this "British officer on the American station" to convert the most brilliant personal act of the whole war, into a charge fatal to the honour of him who performed it. Shame on the despicable and malignant hostility, that descends to such paltry falsehoods to stain the fame of those it cannot conquer! This may be a revenge worthy of Britons, but it would disgrace any nation

except one from whom none can expect either candour or justice, unless they become subservient to her views of uncircumscribed ambition, or insatiable vengeance.

We will quote two or three other passages of the preceding part of the Synopsis, and then conclude for the present number, tired as we are of exposing, and, as we suspect, our readers will be of seeing the exposure, of a chain of weak and petty misrepresentations, linked together by the aid of still weaker reasonings and conclusions. To our own countrymen, this exposure is unnecessary; for those who are not already satisfied, must be happily elevated above the influence of fact and argument. But there is a possibility, and we cannot help cherishing the hope, that chance may place these numbers before the eyes of some of the people of England, and that from them they will learn how the "British officer on the American station" has imposed on their ignorance, and sported with their credulity. This is the only chance they have of coming at the truth, since it is now a pretty notorious fact to the rest of the world, that this commodity is very little cultivated in the British publications of the present time. In Spain, when they were beaten, they laid it to the charge of the cowardly Spaniards; and if they gained a victory, modestly took all the credit to themselves. Even Walter Scott, whose reputation, whether deserved or not, ought to have placed him above this national infirmity, has lately written a poem on the battle of Waterloo, in which the Prussian army, which, to say no more, had at least an equal share in the victory, is introduced and dismissed in one single line, and there, only appear chasing the enemy whom the British had routed! But this subject will perhaps again come before us.

The writer of the Synopsis proceeds to remark, on this action, as follows:-" After the unexpected victory, the American commodore, believing himself (what he is among his countrymen called) a second Nelson, begins his official letter with Almighty God, &c. similar to the heading of that written by the immortal hero himself, after the battle of the Nile; and so surprised was he at the small number of prisoners he took, that in a second letter, close upon the heels of the first, he informed his government that the British loss was tenfold that of his own."

Here is another pleasant specimen of home-bred arrogance, which, instead of receiving it as a compliment, that the gallant young officer, who had just beaten the very sailors with whom lord Nelson beat the French and Spaniards, and annihilated a British squadron-and who, in so doing, had freed his countrymen, along an extensive frontier, from the invasion of hordes of savages, and paved the way for the conquest of a province, larger than all England, should condescend to imitate lord Nelson-actually converts it into a proof of his presumption! Really it seems impossible to please some people, and since they are so difficult to please, we think the Americans will be perfectly right in not attempting it any more. If we are patient under injuries, they contemn us-if we resent them, they abuse us--if we surpass them, they stoutly deny it—and if we imitate them, they call it sometimes a want of original genius, sometimes a proof of presumption. It is difficult to deal with a people so singularly perverse; to be friends with them long seems to be utterly impossible; and if, on any occasion, they are chastised into a momentary respect, their old habits return upon them with an irresistible impetuosity, and those who take the trouble to correct them, have at last only their labour for their pains.

If commodore Perry really had Nelson in his eye when he wrote this obnoxious letter, we think it was paying his lordship a high compliment. There is no very material objection to our officers imitating him in the laconic style of his letters, provided they refrain from following his example in other matters not quite so unexceptionable. There is, however, hardly any hope of their ever equalling him in the brilliancy of his achievements, as they have no lady Hamilton to inspire and direct them in the pursuit of glory: still less is there any hope of any of them ever arriving at the singular honour of having their dead bodies exposed, as spectacles like beasts and monsters, at the price of a shilling a head.

We have looked over the commodore's official letters detailing the particulars of this action, and in none of them can we find the assertion ascribed to him by the writer of the Synopsis, that "the British loss was tenfold that of his own." From this, and other suspicious circumstances that have lately come under our observation, we are strongly inclined to suspect, that our official

letters are not always published verbatim in England. If the writer ever saw it in a letter of commodore Perry, it was an interpolation: if he did not, he is guilty of dishonourably imputing to another words of his own invention, and charging him with a falsehood of which he himself is the author. Such being the case, we must be permitted to doubt very seriously, whether we Americans merit the compliment bestowed upon us by the British officer in the concluding note, to that part of the Synopsis which we have just given to the reader. As the English writers have denied us a claim to the invention of steam-boats, and various other important matters, we will not deny them (to use the elegant words of the British officer,) "the patent for lying," which, with such unexpected liberality, he concedes to us. High as the power of intellect may have carried the people of that country in arts, science, and literature, there is, perhaps, nothing in which they so much excel, as in original invention, that great characteristic of genius. Whether this power be exercised either in the invention of tales and fables, for the amusement of mankind, or the construction of libels for the purpose of deceiving them, it is still a proof of genius; and the less foundation there is for such libels, the greater the power of original invention, of course. Whoever will take the trouble of reading the Synopsis, and various other British publications of like nature, will, whatever may be his partiality to his own country, be thoroughly satisfied, that the British claim to the "Patent" is altogether incontestible.

(To be continued.)

SELECT REVIEWS.

On the late Persecution of the Protestants in the South of France By Helen Maria Williams. 8vo. pp. 62. Price 3s. 6d.

[From the Eclectic Review.]

OUR Countrywoman in Paris, has availed herself of an advertisement in the English Journals, containing the words"H. M. Williams's Confession," to introduce to the British public a Letter on the late Persecutions of the Reformed in France. Whether anxiety to perfect her exculpation, zeal for the Protestant interest, or any other feeling of a more ordinary and business-like nature, dictated the correspondence, we presume not to determine; but this letter forms a bulky pamphlet, of 62 pages, of very large bold type; and besides a great deal more of extraneous matter, one whole quarter, that is from p. 16 to p. 32, consists of the tale of other times, and anecdotes of the sufferings of Protestants in the good days of Louis 15th, &c. &c.

The Letter is however highly important, from the circumstance of its being written by a distinguished Protestant in Paris, who must have had access to the best informed persons in the Protestant Communion, and also to many respectable fugitives from the various scenes of desolation. And it is still more important, as it is written by a devoted admirer and a voluntary panegyrist of the Bourbon family, under whose reign these unhappy events have taken place. The Times, the Courier, and even the Christian Observer, may surely venture to quote this Pamplet, as pure and high authority.Does Miss Williams, then, with the last publication, style the tragedies of the South, "PRETENDED persecutions?" or, with the others, describe them as the mere factious struggles of Jacobins and Bonapartists?

The following extracts will furnish our readers with the means of forming a just decision on this point:

The persecutors of the nineteeth century have not entered into the niceties of religious belief; they have not, in the indulgent spirit of their predecessors under Louis XIV, proposed the alternative of "La messe ou la mort;"-" repent, or perish; become