try. It is now reduced to a fact, which scepticism itself will not venture to call in question, that our heroes of the ocean have only to encounter their foes on equal terms, to be enabled to say, with the brave but modest Perry, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

In proof of this the guns of the gallant Warrington spoke, on the 29th of April last, a language that is altogether distinct and irresistible. On that memorable day, his Brittannic majesty's ship Epervier, a new and first rate sloop war, after an action of forty. five minutes, in which she had the advantage of the weather-gage, struck her colours, an easy conquest, to the Peacock, an American sloop of war of equal rate and weight of metal with herself. On the part of the American vessel, the victory might be said to be bloodless and without injury, not a man on board of her having fallen during the conflict, and but a few of her timbers having received even a shot. Not so, however, on the part of the British. She suffered severely in her officers and crew, was cut to pieces in her sails, spars, and rigging, and so extensively and dangerously shattered in her hull, that, had she attempted to sustain the fire of her enemy but a few minutes longer, she must inevitably have sunk.

Although the uniformity of the result, as often as our brave seamen have had an opportunity of meeting the foe, has taken from us the lively interest attendant on novelty, and all the pleasure which arises from surprize, yet neither that nor any other circumstance can diminish our sensibility to the renown of our country. men, or to the augmentation of our national glory. It is, therefore, with our warmest and loudest acclamation, that we hail this splendid achievement of the gallant young Virginian. Captain Warrington has, by his skill and intrepidity, eminently contributed to give a higher lustre to the stars which burn on the flag of his country, and, in so doing, has thrown around his own brow a chaplet of laurels that will never fade. We pronounce his eulogy in terms which ought to satisfy his loftiest ambition, when we add, that he has, by his late victory, acquired a just claim to rank with Hull, Decatur, Bainbridge, Perry, and the other members of that corps of heroes, whose achievements have reared on an impe rishable basis, and irradiated with the fairest beams of glory, the

adamantine column of our naval renown. His country, proud of his past, and eager in anticipation of his future exploits, will cherish his reputation with parental fondness, and enrol his name with that of the bravest and worthiest of her sons.

It is our intention to endeavour, in the next number of the Port Folio, to gratify our readers with a biographical notice of captain Warrington, as full and particular as our materials will allow. As we are not warranted to indulge an expectation of being able to procure, at an early period, a likeness of that distinguished young officer, we propose to publish, as no unsuitable accompa niment of his life, a plate, containing an accurate and well executed view of the engagement between the Peacock and the Epervier. Should we, in the meantime, be informed of the display of any signal act of American gallantry during this battle, or of any other circumstance of peculiar interest connected with it, the public may rest assured that it shall not be neglected. To render our offering the more worthy of the event which it is intended to commemorate, we hope, if the notice be not too short, that some of our correspondents will, by the fifteenth of the present month, or sooner, if practicable, furnish us with an ode or sea-song suitable to the occasion.

The very learned and able dissertation on vegetable life from our friend and correspondent T. C. was received at too late a period for the present number of the Port Folio. Part I of it shall appear in the next.

We regret that the same thing is true in relation to the elegant and profound essay on the subject of " American literature," from the pen of a distinguished correspondent in the south. It came to hand too late by a single day, for the present number of the Port Folio. In our next it shall receive the attention it so eminently merits.

A letter descriptive of Geneva and its environs, accompanied by an extract from the writings of Madame de Stael, has been received, and shall find an early place in the Port Folio. The fu

ture correspondence of the writer will be welcomed with a courteous and cordial reception. Having already stored his mind with the fruits of study, observation, and travel; nothing is necessary but the discipline of practice to place him in the number of elegant writers.

Our files contain, both in prose and verse, sundry pieces which shall receive due attention. We intreat our correspondents not to conceive themselves neglected or forgotten, although their communications should not be noticed as soon as they come to hand. The claims on us in that respect, however numerous, shall all be adjusted and complied with as promptly as possible As no premeditated slight will be offered to any writer, we flatter ourselves that no inference to that effect will be hastily drawn from the mere circumstance of our silence in relation to papers that may be sent for publication.