Berkeley And Jefferson Intelligencer

giving way one inch to that haughty spirit which characterises too many of the officers of the British navy. This spirit probably preserved him from the effects of their violence and he was dismissed as the damnedest obstinate Yankee rascal they had ever met with, without their knowing him as any thing else than the master of a common East India-man.

Previous to leaving the British ship, Capt. C. very leisurely took a memorandum of the officer's names who had insulted him, saying, "perhaps I may come athwart you some day when you shall know who and what I am."

MR. ALBURTIS.

The late transaction of a British ship of war at Norfolk, appears to have excited a laudable spirit of resentment among all descriptions of the American people; indeed no expression of that resentment can exceed the occasion. If we are allowed to rank among the nations of the earth, and the independence we achieved at so much expense of blood and treasure, be any thing more than nominal, we ought not to suffer ourselves to be treated in a manner that no nation would submit to, who had the spirit and the power to defend themselves, and where the means of defence are as easily obtained as in the United States. What will be the result, or how this outrage will terminate, is not for me to conjecture, because I am at a loss to know what reparation attainable, will be satisfactory. Can our brave Countrymen who have lost their lives in this transaction, receive any equivalent for their privation? Can our national honor, be computed by the rules of arithmetic, and its violation remunerated with dollars and cents? The exemplary punishment of the offender is out of our power, and we have no right to suppose, that from his own government, he will not rather meet with applause; we have seen the perpetrator of an offence something similar, after a pretended trial, advanced to a more honorable post; as if honor was the premium for aggressions of this nature; and it is not improbable, that the example had its influence, on the late wanton attack on our jurisdiction; and out of perfect contempt of our national prowess, and in despite of our national resentment, the officer returned to an anchorage in our port.

If this officer acted in conformity to the general orders of his government respecting their seamen, they cannot justly punish him, for his zeal in their service; especially as such punishment would be considered as an abandonment of the subject in dispute between the two nations. The principle of English jurisprudence to prohibit the expatriation of her subjects, she will never relinquish, and the utmost that she will agree to on this head, will be, to deliver up those real Americans in her service, and forbear to impress any of them in future, provided they are furnished with a certificate under the seal of some public office, that their birth and parentage are purely American. The intercourse between the two nations occasions a mixture of the subjects of the one with the citizens of the other. English Seamen enter into our service for higher wages; and it appears that some Americans, for some cause or other, go into the British service, and afterwards desert. Our republican systems do not permit us to restrain our citizens from going where they please but the prohibition of the English to the expatriation of her subjects, is known to the world and when we consider the importance of seamen to their national existence, it is not altogether just to resist their claim to the service of those, whom nature has made it a duty to pay allegiance, or even those of our countrymen who voluntarily enter into their service, unless they can produce a complete discharge; and as the similarity of features, complexion and language of the subjects and citizens of the two nations, often baffle the nicest judgment to distinguish them, it is not surprising that some Americans should be involved in this difficulty; and since it is universally agreed that every man is bound to perform a voluntary contract, if they sufficiently prove that any of our countrymen have deserted from them under such an engagement, they ought to be delivered up whensoever demanded; without some such regulations as these, this cause of dispute will probably produce an eternal state of warfare between the two nations.

No ships of war belonging to a neutral nation, ought to be subject to search, by those of any nation at peace with them and therefore the attack on the Chesapeake is a wanton violation of our national honor and it is a disgrace to our Country, that we were not able to resist or punish the insult. Our government, in a pompous display of a pacific system, has not only prevented the increase of our means of defence, by refusing to complete the six seventy four Gun ships ordered to be built by a former Congress; but considerably diminished the navy that was prepared to its hand notwithstanding it is obvious, that to prevent such outrages as we now justly complain of we must be at all times prepared to punish them. Can it be imagined that proclamations will over awe the insolence of naval superiority : or the arrogance of power? Or that they will be respected by those, who proudly claim the prerogative of the Ocean, especially when they see no other means resorted to, to punish the most daring violation of our neutral rights. Cannon is said to be the language of Kings, -and, republics who have intercourse with them, in order to be understood must of necessity some times speak the same language.

Mr. Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia states, that the surplus revenue of Virginia alone, without oppressing the people, would create a navy of 300 Guns every year; and admitting, Virginia to be one sixth part of the Union, and that the revenue of the other states is equally productive, it follows, that the United States in one year, could provide a navy of 1800 Guns. which would be a greater naval force. than we should -absolutely want, till the conclusion of another century. Now 1800 guns would fit out the following ships, viz.

12 74s 888
6 44s 264
20 36s 720
20 24s 480
20 18s 360
1800

Now since by Mr. Jefferson's calculation, such a navy of the above force, could be produced by the United States in one year, without oppressing the people. and since he then considered a naval force at least equal to any division of a navy that would be sent on our coast by any belligerent power, what good reason can be given, that we, after 25 years have elapsed, possess scarcely the one tenth part of that force, and, suffer ourselves to be insulted in our harbours for the want of it ? If Mr. Jefferson had not been a man of considerable erudition, we might have doubted the correctness of his calculations; but as we ought not to believe that a man of his talents would exhibit a book to the world, fraught with error, we are obliged to ascribe our national delinquency in this respect, to some other cause; not the want of money surely; because millions have been unnecessarily appropriated, for the purpose of foreign intercourse. To be sure, economy -has been the hobby horse of the present administration, and yet our expenditures have been increased by at least two -millions, for no kind of advantage whatever. which if it had been applied to the naval department, we should not now have had, the mortification to be insulted, and injured in our own ports, and to see the perpetrator go off without punishment; economy therefore is only the ostensible cause of our disgrace, and we must search still farther after the real one: If we examine the pursuits of Mr. Jefferson through life we shall discover that he has not had much time to study tactics. and therefore war and its concomitants, is not his talent y and that from nature, as well as inclination; he has cultivated only the arts of peace: and consequently has imbibed an invincible prejudice to the sound of a tremendous roar of cannon; his philanthropy would be exceedingly wounded by the carnage that is sometimes the consequence of a struggle between two nations, who shall do his antagonist the most harm; nor could his humanity bear the piercing cries of victims immolated at the altar of Mars ; what is so exceedingly disgusting to him, he possesses not the capacity to manage, hence it is, that under his administration, we are poor with a full treasury, and weak, with all the varieties, that constitute strength.

Old School.

6 ships of 74 guns each is	444
4 of 50 is	200
5 of 40 is	200
6 of 36 is	216
10 of 20 is	200
10 of 16 is	160
10 of 12 is	120
20 of 8 is	160
50 of 2 is	100