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faint conception of native equality or native freedom-yet, although Paul of Dumfries was born of humble peasants, he might, with "Paul of Tarsus" have said, "I was born free." The devotion of the Scots peasantry is proverbial for its fervor; but the fervor of Jones seemed to have but little reference to Heaven! He divested himself of devotion and humanity also, and attached himself to an infernal, blood-stained, slave dealer. He left the diabolical traffic in human flesh, and became commander in chief in smuggling goods. He left the business of defrauding the revenue, for the daring employ of capturing the war ships of

his king.

He found himself an outlaw from the land of his birth, and sought a new home in France. As he had been a prince of smugglers on a little island,* he became a princely tavern-keeper on the continent: Disgusted with retailing wine and soup at Boulogne to replenish his purse, he dashed into London to fill it by gambling. Calculating himself a match for any thing, he there suddenly found himself outmatched. He once more appeared like a piece of abandoned goods, ready to be taken up by the first fortunate finder. This thoughtless and inconsiderate being, at length began to consider and think. Driven from two kingdoms in the Old World, he sought an asylum in a rising Republic in the new.

A passage across the Atlantic dissipated all the incongruous eccentricities of his character. From soaring like a comet, where the varying gusts of flames and winds hurled him, he began, and continued to move like a planet in a regular orbit. Furnished with secret instructions from WASHINGTON and the Old Congress, he repaired, incognito, to the proud capital of Britain. With a minute knowledge

*Isle of Man.

of the preparations of the Admiralty of the first naval power on the ocean, he returned to the struggling colonies, and suddenly ascended the "mountain wave" with the first "star-spangled banner" that ever waved upon a war ship of Independent America, bearing the first Post-Captain's commission, under the signature of WASHINGTON, that issued after the "Declaration of American Independence," and sailed in a ship, bearing the name of the first legitimate Saxon Prince who first gave regulated existence to English Liberty; which, after being banished from degenerate Britain, was rearing her mild and majestic front amidst a new race of Freemen, sprung from an old stock of subjugated and unresisting vassals.

The new-born Jones, a champion of the new-born Republic, wafted forth, violating the mechanical rules of studied naval warfare, and defying an enemy, who defied heav*en and earth, nor shrunk at the power of "profoundest hell." He rushed on from victory to victory, from "conquering and to conquer," till the Genius of Conquest claimed him as a favourite son. From the time of his defection from his tyrant king, and the beginning of his achievements in the cause of his "rebel colonies," he was sought after as a "piece of lost silver," and pursued, by the arm of vengeance, as a daring traitor. Jones eluded their search and their wrath; and, with a squadron of ill appointed ships, excited alarm for the homeward bound fleets of British merchantmen-captured their convoy, and compelled St. George's Cross to fall before the Republican Banner of America.

He menaced the cities of Old Scotia-visited the place of his birth as a conquering Commodore-took the plate of a Scots Peer for his own cabin, and drew from him a letter

of thanks for his magnanimity in restoring it. Upon one month he spread consternation and dismay upon the coast of Britain-upon the next, he received the congratulations of a Prince of Bourbon, and their High Mightinesses of Holland. He announced the victory over Burgoyne, and received the first salute ever given by a foreign power to the American flag. He re-crossed the Atlantic, like a prodigy, conquering as he passed, and received the highest meed of praise ever bestowed upon a hero-a Vote of Thanks from the Old Congress by the recommendation of WASHINGTON. At the height of glory, and the depths of bankruptcy, he once more rolled across the ocean-placed in his coffers the reward of his valor-again made his last voyage to the admired Republic-his adopted country. In the bosom of that favoured land, he lived an object of wondering contemplation, and died with the glory of one of the first heroes of the eighteenth century. His birth, his life, and his death, evinces that the most disheartening circumstances furnish no insurmountable barriers against an ardent and determined spirit; and that, by exertion, with the smiles of heaven, man can arise from obscurity to distinction, from penury to competence, and from degradation to glory.

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