Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

From the Spirit of Seventy-Six, of Sept. 17.

LIEUTENANT BURROWS.

So shortly after announcing the victory obtained by the Enterprise over his Britannic Majesty's ship the Boxer, we would willingly refrain from the publication of any circumstance that is calculated to mar the general joy, or hide from the public view an event every way exhilerating the American sympathies. Our brave departed hero Capt. Lawrence won the victory of the Hornet over the Peacock, after his rights had been violated spurned the feelings of the Hero, because he had the firmness to remonstrate against his injury. Where is there to be found a man in the country that did not, while he admired the conqueror and the noble ardor and virtuous patriotism which prompted him to stand by the flag of his country, contemn the haughtiness and unmeaning insolence of the man, who had robbed him of the honor and rank to which he was entitled. It is with pain and just resentment we have learned that the late commander of the Enterprise, the lamented Burrows, had just sustained a similar injustice with that complained of in the case of Capt. Lawrence. His rightful claims had been violated recently by the promotion of junior officers over him. Can any thing be more afflicting to the sensibility of an honorable and feeling man, than a wanton act of injustice, that does not alone deprive him of his right, but invokes upon him the suspicion of his fellow citizens?—In the case of Lieut. Burrows we learn, that his friends endeavored to prevail on him to abandon the service, and depend upon his own enterprise to make him independent of the favors of the stilted tyrants of the day. But he magnanimously resolved to suppress his wounded feelings, with only a silent resentment, and using his own words, "To see his country through the war, and then dash his commission in the fire." Yes, Americans! that man who fell, weltering in his blood on the decks of the Enterprise, at the time when she won another wreath for your naval column, was but a few weeks previously thus treated by the government. But his countrymen will ever honor his memory. In spite of the usurping authority of an inflated upstart, the name of Burrows will live to the latest day in honor, in history, & in the hearts of his countrymen. He has placed his name so high in the temple of fame, that the tyrant who attempted to blast it forever, will never be able, though exalted on the stilts of executive favor, to erase it. He who withheld from him his just claims may flourish in swollen vanity, swaggering in all the majesty of stupidity about the palace, while the name of the departed Hero, whose valor he himself shall immerse in the ocean of eternity. Speaking of Charles J. Fox, Mr. Austin said. "In vain will the King of England by the scrawl of his hand endeavor to blot out his name; for every thing he does, and every thing he says, becomes a part of the history of his country."—The departed Burrows in his fall, has done that which his country will be proud to record as a part of its history.

Lieut. Burrows left few relatives to mourn his fate—but among them are his two amiable sisters Mrs. Thompson and Miss Harriet Burrows, who reside in the city of Washington—It is but a few weeks since their only brother left them to meet them no more. But let them be consoled—he has consecrated his name and endeared his memory to the affection and gratitude of his countrymen. The people of the United States will sympathise with them in their grief for the loss of their brother. When the most tender emotions of the heart have subsided, and reason and resignation restored the wounded tranquility of the bosom, they will experience a mournful pleasure, in the recollection of a brother, whose memory is alike beloved by them, and his countrymen.