Virginia Argus

From the London Star of December 15.

The President begins with congratulating the nation on being in good health! the compliments of the season then follow—such as the defeat of Gen. Hull, and the no less disgraceful affair of Gen. Rensselaer. Gen. Harrison, however, the Fabius, cui datur restituere rem—has now a large militia force under him, and a few regulars. So far we have no occasion to be alarmed. The dispatches of their defeated generals have made us fully acquainted with the base semi-metal of which these same militia are compounded; and as for the few regulars, we must presume, that with such coadjutors, they will continue to think discretion the better part of valor.

The capture of the Guerriere, as might be expected, is spoken of in the language of triumph. Here we must confess there is some ground for feeling sore; for it has conjured up the phantom of an American Navy to frighten the tenants of the nursery, and will tend more than any other circumstance to procrastinate the war. The hopes which the Americans have built upon their navy in a contest with Great Britain, must be destroyed ere we can hope for a permanent peace, they must, in fact, be beat into submission; and, while they have a single frigate or a gunboat capable of floating, they will never acknowledge the superiority of the British flag. It is, indeed, highly ridiculous to hear America talk of maritime rights. What means has she of enforcing them?