hit on them, it was a matter of easy revival in New England, by royalists, against the people there, proverbially called by themselves, "Oliver Cromwell's children," in allusion both to their austere religion, and their free notions of government. In this view, it was even possible for the British officer at Albany, in 1755, as a man skilled in music, to have before heard of the old "Nankee Doodle," and to have renewed it on that occasion. That the air was uniformly deemed a good retort on British royalists, we must be confirmed in, from the fact, that it was played by us at the battle of Lexington, when repelling the foe; again, at the surrender of Burgoyne; and, finally, at Yorktown surrender, when La Fayette, who ordered the tune, meant it as a retort on an intended affront.-Vide La Vasseur's book, vol. i. p. 191.

While on this subject, it may be as well to give a passing notice of another national name just growing into common use-we mean the term " Uncle Sam," which first came into use in the time of the last war with England; but the cause of its origin is still unknown to millions of our people.-The name grew out of the letters E. A.-U. S., marked upon the army provisions, barrelled up at Troy, for the contractor, Elbert Anderson, and implied the initials of his name, and U. S. for the United States. It happened that these provisious were inspected there by Samuel Wilson, usually called, among his hired men, "Uncle Sam." One of his workmen, on being asked the meaning of the letters, E. A.-U. S., replied, archly, it meant Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam-(Wilson.) The joke went round merrily among the men, some of whom going afterwards to the frontiers, and there partaking of the very provisions they had assisted to pack and mark, still adhered to calling it Uncle Sam; and as every thing else of the army appointments bore also the letters U. S., Uncle Sam became a ready name, first for all that appertained to the United States, and, finally, for the United States itself—a cognomen which is as likely to be perpetuated, as that of John Bull for old England.

Amusing Incidents.-Among the amusing and facetious incidents of the war, which sometimes cheered the heart amidst its abiding gloom, was that of the celebrated occurrence of "the battle of the kegs," at Philadelphia. It began at early morn, a subject of general alarm and consternation, but at last subsided, in matter of much merry-making among our American whigs, and of vexation and disappointment on the part of the British. When the alarm of explosion first occurred, the whole city was set in commotion. The housekeepers and children ran to their houses generally for shelter, and the British every where ran from their shelters to their assigned places of muster. Horns, drums and trumpets sounded every where to arms with appalling noise, and cavalry and horsemen dashed to and fro in gay confusion.

The kegs which gave this dire alarm, were constructed at Bordentown, and floated down the Delaware for, the purpose of destroying

the British shipping, which all laid out in the stream, moored in a long line the whole length of the city. The kegs were charged with gunpowder, and were to be fired and exploded by a spring-lock, the moment the kegs should brush against the vessel's bottom. The kegs themselves could not be seen-being under water; but the buoys which floated them were visible. It so happened, however, that at the very time (in January 7, 1778) when the scheme was set in operation, the British fearing the making of ice, had warped in their shipping to the wharves, and so escaped much of the intended mischief. The crew of a barge attempting to take one of them up, it exploded and killed four of the hands, and wounded the rest. Soon all the wharves and shipping were lined with soldiers. Conjecture was vague, and imagination supplied many "phantoms dire." Some asserted "the kegs were filled with armed rebelsthat they had seen the points of their bayonets sticking out of the bung-holes. Others that they were filled with inveterate combustibles, which would set the Delaware in flames, and consume all the shipping. Others deemed them magic machines which would mount the wharves and roll all flaming into the city! Great were the exertions of officers and men, and incessant were the firings-so that not a chip or stick escaped their vigilance! We are indebted to the facetious muse of Francis Hopkinson, Esq., for the following jeu d'esprit upon the occasion. I give an extract:

Those kegs, I'm told, the rebels hold,
Pack'd up like pickled herring;
And they're come down t'attack the town
In this new way of ferrying.

The soldier flew, the sailor too,

And, scared almost to death, sir,

Wore out their shoes to spread the news
And ran till out of breath, sir.

"Arise, arise!" sir Erskine cries:
"The rebels, more's the pity,
Without a boat are all afloat,
And ranged before the city."

The royal band now ready stand,
All ranged in dread array, sir,
With stomach stout, to see it out,
And make a bloody day, sir.

Such feats did they perform that day,
Against these wicked kegs, sir,

That years to come, if they get home,
They'll make their boasts and brags, sir.

[To the son of the same gentleman we have since been indebted for our two national songs, "Hail Columbia " and "Columbians all, the present hour."]

In gathering up these scrapiana, it occurs to the mind to think what numerous facts could yet be found among the remains of Robert Morris' office, the great financier. They have never been explored. Wherever they are, they have gone out of the hands of his family. After his embarrassments, they fell into the hands of his friend, Mr. West; but where they repose now I have not learned. That his papers should now be so hidden from the public eye, may show the strange mutability of human things. While he once filled the mouths of all men, he was a most sedulous preserver of all manner of papers passing through his hands-keeping even his own billets, &c.-saying, as his motto, to those about him, "No paper is ever to be lost in my office-they pay no taxes!"

The Gazettes.-James Humphreys, jr., of Philadelphia, being a tory, made his "Pennsylvania Ledger," with the royal arms at the head of it, into "The True Royal Gazette." The whole copy is still extant in the City Library, No. 304. It is appropriately enough labelled by the binder, to wit: "Publication of the Enemy in Philadelphia." It appears to have been the individual copy preserved by Humphreys himself. It having, with the gazettes, all the extra handbills and the private marks of the numbers printed, of all such as were circulated for military or police purposes. Several of them are for the purpose of alluring our men into the British army or navy under promise of land, &c. The Gazette contains such facts, generally prejudicial to ourselves, as we wished to suppress; also statements of occurrences different from ours. They often published intercepted letters ill-spelled, &c., from small officers among us. A number of letters are given as from Washington to Lund W., and to Lady W., said to be very graphic of our poor affairs, &c. A MS. note to one of them imputes them to Mr. Randolph, then in London.

The Gazette of Hall and Sellers was continued by James Robertson, under the name of " the Royal Pennsylvania Gazette," at $3 per annum. On the 26th of May, 1778, (his last Number,) he says he must suspend its publication for some time! The Gazette, in his hands, frequently announced events occurring in the "rebel army," and all they state respecting the American incidents, they called rebel trans"Rebel hills and rebel dales, by rebel bands surrounded."

actions.

ALLIANCE FRIGATE.

As Philadelphians, we are entitled to some pre-eminence for our connexion with this peculiar 'frigate. After the close of the war of Independence she was owned in our city, and employed as a merchant ship. When no longer seaworthy, she has been stretched upon the margin of Petty's island, to remain, for a century to come, a spectacle to many river passengers, and qualified to raise numerous associations of the past, connected with her eventful history in the revolution.

She was the only one of our first navy, of the class of frigates, which was so successful as to escape capture or destruction during the war! In the year 1781, she and the Deane frigate were the only two of our former frigates, then left to our service. She was in many engagements and always victorious-she was a fortunate ship -was a remarkably fast sailer-could always choose her combatshe could either fight or run away-beating her adversary either by fight or flight!

Twice she bore the fortunes of La Fayette across the ocean; De Noailles was also along at one time. When I presented the former with a relic of her timber, he was delighted with it for the mental associations it afforded him. Another relic, which I had given to one of our naval officers, was formed into a miniature ship, held a place at the president's palace, and now rests with General Jackson.

When coming out of the Havanna with the specie intended for founding the Bank of North America, and having for her companion the Lausanne, of twenty-eight guns, under Captain Green, they were encountered by three British frigates. Captain Barry, who commanded her, chose the smallest first, and put her to flight, he having orders to avoid an engagement for the sake of the specie. He then pursued his way. He soon left his consort far behind. He then came up with a French sixty-four, which promised him aid, when he again made back, just in time to save the Lausanne, by engaging the frigate near her, under the command of Captain Vaschan. He killed thirty-eight, and wounded fifty men, as was afterwards ascertained. The Frenchman not joining them, he then went back to her, and got a renewed promise, when they both bore down together, and all the British frigates filled their sails and fled. The Frenchman, as his excuse, said he had a million of dollars on board, and was instructed to avoid an engagement. Captain Brown, who was in the Lausanne as a lieutenant at the time, told me of these facts, and said nothing could surpass the sailing of the Alliance.

Once, when she was in the West Indies, she was pursued all day by one of the fastest seventy-fours in the British navy, and from which she effected her escape by changing her trim