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She was once pursued by the Chatham ship of war, out of the mouth of the Delaware, and made her way to Rhode Island at the rate of fourteen knots an hour. In so escaping, she was intercepted by the Speedwell sloop of war, which she succeeded to run down.

When arrived off Boston, she there encountered another foe in two sloops of war, both of which Commodore Barry succeeded to capture and to get into Boston. Barry himself was wounded.

She was the favourite ship of Commodore Barry, who began his career in her by taking Colonel Laurens and suite to France; after which she made a successful cruise in the British channel, and took five or six valuable prizes.

The widow of Commodore Barry, remembering with what esteem her husband regarded this ship, had a tea-caddy made out of her wood, as a memento: and I have a picture of the ship, framed with wood from her timbers after she was laid ashore.

She was the second vessel from Philadelphia to Canton; the Canton, Captain Truxtun, being the first. The Alliance sailed in June, 1787, to Canton, under the command of Captain Thomas Reed, making her voyage by an unusual route, outside of New Holland, and discovering several new islands, returned to Philadelphia on the 17th September, 1788, when she was much visited for inspection, by many of our citizens, still alive to speak of their recollections of that fortunate vessel.

Benjamin Eyre, ship carpenter, of Kensington, purchased the Alliance in 1785, then sold her to Robert Morris; and after making her repairs, she went to Norfolk to load with tobacco for Bordeaux. She returned in the spring of 1787-sailed for Canton under Capt. Reed in June, and returned to Philadelphia in Sept., 1788. In the spring of 1789 she sailed for Cadiz with flour-returned same year -was laid up, and in the spring of 1790 was sold, broken up, &c., and her remains laid upon Petty's island, after having run twelve years of service.

Such a vessel deserves some commemoration and some memorial to revive her fame. She is still a relic visibly uniting the present to the former navy, and in her single remains preserving single and alone the solitary link of union. She led those naval heroes of the infant navy, of which some remained to join their destinies with the present.

Sailors, who are fond of the marvellous, and like to be supported in their perils by the mysteries of luck and charms, should be indulged to have a relic of the fortunate Alliance chiseled into the future Philadelphia war vessels in which they may place their destinies. The magic security will be surely as good as that now attached to " Old Ironsides." Men who can "whistle for wind," love to indulge themselves in such fancies.

A more sober part of the story is, to say a few words respecting her construction, &c., which may possibly lead to useful imitation. She was 125 feet keel payable, and about 37 feet beam—making her

about 900 tons. She was thought to be long, narrow, shoal, and sharp, and to be over-sparred. Her main topmast was 18 inches diameter in the cap; main yard 84 feet long, 18 inches in the slings; her topsail yard was 18 inches in the slings. As she was built up the river Merrimack, at Salisbury, Massachusetts, which had a bar at the mouth, it perhaps accounts for a part of her construction as a shoal vessel. She was first sailed in the spring of 1778, soon after her being launched, and was then commanded by a Captain Landais, a Frenchman, who was preferred to the command as a compliment to his nation, and the alliance made with us, a new people.She was two years in building-built by John and William Hacket, Six of the persons who built her were alive at Salisbury, ten years ago, and all above seventy years of age.

All these facts may be deemed very minute; but we have our motives. Every nation forms its imaginary legends, and puts itself under the auspices of tutelary beings. We also are of an age now to construct our heroic age, and such a case as the Alliance presents a part of the material.

As Philadelphians, we are entitled to the peculiar distinction of forming the fastest sailing vessel in the world, viz.: the frigate United States, built by Col. Humphreys. With such a model we might have gone on to perfection in the art of ship construction: but our navy rulers have strangely retrograded, until we now have scarcely a good sailer to boast of. The United States frigate has outrun the fastest Baltimore clippers two miles an hour, when running nine and ten knots; but the frigate wanted ten feet more of beam to have been perfect. More beam is wanted by all our fast sailers, and they would have it, were it not to avoid the increase of tonnage duty! It is bad policy which thus induces the hazard of losing ships and lives to save a little money. Give more beam and they will not upset, and will be better sea vessels.

Our Navy. It occurs to us to say a few words concerning the public marine of the revolution, a branch of the service which has been but little considered and known by the mass of our citizens. Like "the poor Indians," the poor sailors have had no chroniclers to preserve any adequate account of their perils, darings, and devotedness, not even among those who professedly write our naval histories. Then, those who entered the marine service took, freely, all the risks, without any provision by law for themselves, in case of being wounded, or for their families in case of their deaths. In this they wholly differed from the land service, although there were double chances against the adventurers in the sea service; for, generally, they had to make "their way in the deep," with fearful odds against them.

It is a part of our history, that it was not till fifty years after the revolution, that any provision was made by law, to reach cases of killed and wounded in the marine service of that day; and then it was only as an incidental measure connected with the land service, and came so late as to find few or none to benefit. Who ever heard

of any mariners, officers or men, of the revolution, on our pension list? It don't exist! Of the three hundred and fifty men blown up in the Randolph frigate, only one of the families ever received any public grant!

Even those who had thus perilled their lives in a peculiarly desperate service, when they had gained prizes and brought then, in nuinbers, to New London and Newport, and others to the West Indies, never came to any valuable distribution. We could hear of the prizeagents getting enriched, but never the hardy combatants themselves. Such have never been told or heard of. My own father turned all of the little he got of prize-money into sets of silver spoons, still in the family. This he did, he said, to break the proverb, that prize-money could not last.

Before sales and settlements could be made of prize cases, the men were again off to sea, to seek more adventures. Some, more or less of them, were captured, and put to swell the masses in the prison ships of New York; and, from suffering and sickness, finally died by thousands, and were whelmed in the Wallabout. was the great charnel house of our revolutionary mariners.

That

To those who would wish an insight into the perils and doings of our sea service, we commend the reading of the Memoirs of Lieut. Nathaniel Fanning, late of the United States' navy. He had been commander of several American private armed vessels in the British channel, sailing out of France. He presents a real picture of sea-peril, and cheerful enterprise and daring. Every two or three days they had a brush with something. We see, in his facts, how they had to work their way through heavy odds, always with a buoyant spirit, and always glorying in the soubriquet of "Yankee boys," and showing their "Yankee daring." He was brother to that Captain Edmund Fanning who projected our late voyages of discovery to the South pole, by Lieutenant Wilkes. Both of the brothers were residents of New York, and Connecticut-born Yankees. Colonel Fanning, their uncle, who had been secretary to Governor Tryon, was on the British side. For more concerning our navy, see App. p. 560.

THE FEDERAL PROCESSION.

""Twere worth ten years of peaceful life-
One glance at their array."

THIS great procession took place at Philadelphia, for the purpose of celebrating the adoption of the Constitution, and it was appointed on Friday, the fourth of July, 1788, for the double purpose of commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the fourth of July, 1776. Although we have had several processions since, none

have ever equalled it in the pomp and expense of the materials engaged in the pageantry. The soldiery then were not so numerous as in the late entry of La Fayette, but the citizens were more numerous, and their attire more decorative. It was computed that five thousand walked in the procession; and that as many as seven thousand were assembled on the "Union Green," where the procession ended, in front of Bush-hill. The whole expense was borne by the voluntary contributions of the tradesmen, &c., enrolled in the display; and what was very remarkable, the whole of the pageantry was got up in four days!

The parties to the procession all met at and about the intersection of Cedar and Third streets, and began their march by nine o'clock in the morning. They went up Third street to Callowhill; up that street to Fourth street; down Fourth to High street; and thence out that street, across the commons, to the lawn before Bush-hill, where they arrived in three hours. The length of the whole line was about one mile and a half. On this lawn were constructed circular tables, leaving an area for its diameter of about five hundred feet. The tables were covered with awnings, and the centre was occupied by the "Grand Federal Edifice," drawn there by ten white horses-and by the ship Union, drawn there also by ten horses. There an oration, on the occasion, was delivered by James Wilson, Esq., to upwards of twenty thousand people: after which the whole members of the procession sat down to the tables to dinner. The supplies were abundant: no wine or ardent spirits were present; but porter, beer, and cider flowed for all who would receive them; and of these liquors, the casks lined all the inner circles of the tables. They drank ten toasts in honour of the then ten confederated states. As the cannon

announced these, they were responded from the ship Rising Sun, laying in the Delaware, off High street, decorated with numerous flags.† The same ship, at night, was highly illuminated. This great company withdrew to their homes by six o'clock in the evening, all sober, but all joyful. The occasion was the strongest which could exercise the feelings of the heart in an affecting manner. It was to celebrate a nation's freedom, and a people's system of self-government-a people recently made free by their desperate efforts, the remembrance of which then powerfully possessed every mind. They then all felt the deep importance of the experiment of self-government, to which their hearts and voices were then so imposingly pledged. The scene ought not to be forgotten. We should impress the recollections of that day, and of the imposing pageantries, upon the minds of our children, and of our children's children. This has been already too much neglected; so that even now, while I endeavour to recapitulate some of the most striking incidents of the day, I find it is like

This was then Hamilton's elegant country-seat.

Besides this ship, ten other ships lay off the several streets, highly decorated, and each bearing a large flag with the name thereon of the State in the Union which each thus represented.

reviving the circumstances of an almost obliterated dream. I did not see the spectacle, but it was the talk of my youthful days for years after the event.

The Procession was thus, to wit:

1. Twelve axe-men in white frocks, preceded as pioneers. 2. Captain Miles' company of dragoons.

3. John Nixon, Esq., on horseback, bearing a liberty cap, and under it a flag, with the words thereon, 4th of July, 1776.

4. A train of artillery-Claypole's corps of infantry-Bingham's dragoons.

5. Several single gentlemen, on horseback, bore silk flags, highly ornamented; one had the words "New Era," another, "17th of September, 1787,"-that being the day the Convention adopted the Constitution.

6. A car, called the Constitution, in the form of a large eagle, drawn by six white horses, in which were Judges M'Kean, Atlee, and Rush, in their robes. M'Kean bore a splendid flag.

7. Ten gentlemen, preceded by Heysham's infantry, bore each a silk flag, bearing the name of each state.

8. All the consuls of foreign states, in a car drawn by four horses, and each bearing his nation's flag.

9. A carriage bearing P. Baynton, Esq. and Colonel I. Melchor, the latter magnificently habited as an Indian sachem, and both smoking the calumet of peace.

10. The Montgomery and Bucks county troops of dragoons.

11. The "New Roof, or Grand Federal Edifice," was a most splendid spectacle. It was a dome sustained by thirteen columns; but three of these columns were purposely left unfinished. The name of each state appeared on the pedestals; a cupola rose above the dome, on which was a figure of plenty. The carriage and superstructure made thirty-six feet of height. The words, " In union the fabric stands firm," were very conspicuous around the pedestal of the edifice. Ten white horses drew this elegant pageant."

12. After this edifice followed the architects and house-carpenters. 13. The Cincinnati and militia officers, followed by Rose's company of infantry.

14. The Agricultural Society, bearing a flag, followed by farmers; these had two ploughs: one, drawn by four oxen, was directed by Richard Willing, Esq. A sower followed, sowing seed.

15. The Manufacturing Society, with their spinning and carding machines, looms, jennies, &c., bearing a flag. The carriage which bore these, was thirty feet long, and was drawn by ten bay horses:

This was afterwards placed in front of the State-house, and it is really strange that none of the numerous, elegant silken flags should have been preserved to this time. If some of them still exist, they would be very interesting in processions now. As many of them as now exist should be collected and preserved by the Penn Association, which is, in effect, our Antiquarian Society.

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