The New Hampshire Gazette

ADDRESS OF THE WARRIORS OF
THE ARMY OF ENGLAND.

"French soldiers; I have not to lay before you political interests. It is in cabinets and not in camps that they are to be weighed. It matters little whether extensive territories or a rock be the object of the war. For this rock a great country has just armed the whole of its population, covered the sea with its vessels, and Europe with its emissaries: for this rock a civilized nation has just broken a solemn treaty, has braved all the evils of war, and all the shame of perfidy. Behold those showers of bombs! hear that thundering artillery! those are the calls that demand Malta of you. They demand of you all the honor of France, and all the glory of your victories.

"It is in vain that you have filled the earth with the fame of your arms: it is in vain that you have triumphed over the frosts of Holland, over the rocks and precipices of Mount St. Gothard, and over the sands and winds of the desert; a new element is presented to you as the field of battle, and opposed to your experience. You must be left ignorant of nothing. All England already celebrates your defeat. The fogs of the Thames promise themselves to wither the laurels of Arcola and Lodi: the cupola of St. Paul's to ornament itself with your standards, and the white cliffs of Dover to redden themselves with your blood.

"Far be it from me to seek to excite your enthusiasm. Frenchmen have only to guard against impatience and temerity.

"Never was it more necessary for you to restrain your courage. Every thing is new in this new war. I know not that the maritime discipline has added itself to the discipline of camps; you have gone through your exercise upon land—you are now going to perform it upon the water. To know how to form on the waves, to perceive each other in the night, to make yourselves be heard in the tempest, to combat at once the sea, the enemy, and the winds—such is to be your task.

"In the midst of so many new and minute precautions, in the midst of so many foreign and fastidious details, I dare implore even that hatred which you bear to the enemy. My imitations are cool—a feeble animosity is not durable; but very different are the characteristics of a noble anger. Docile, because it is confident; patient, because it is sure; it bears towards things a wisdom which disdains to oppose to men. It knows that it ought to be at that time not passionate, and vehement, but discreet and industrious. It knows that it should then direct its conduct by prudence, arrange its plans with calmness, and keep its impetuosity and zeal for the proper time to exercise them.

"As your combats will shortly be different, so also will your glory. Every thing is changed for you upon this new theatre, but in like manner is every thing enlarged. Courage never loses its splendour. In all ages, glory belongs to the heart that is called ons to a vulgar love of life but if your former trophies have borne this mark, their object has, perhaps, not always had an unanimous assent: You have not yet forgotten those times of civil feuds and of distress. In that horrible night when your ancient country was no more, and the new one did not exist, your noble foreheads were not always crowned by pure hands. Now that our divisions are extinguished, that the war is no longer tarnished by principles of desolation and ruin, now that the funeral sorrow has been banished by the gladsome sentiment of our internal peace, of our future hopes, the return of our ancient grandeur; it is now in particular that your character is great, for you have the wishes and approbation of all hearts."