The British
fleet and army arrived off the Chesapeak five days after the
surrender. Having learned the melancholy fate of their
countrymen, they were obliged to return, without effecting any
thing, to their former station.
"Such was the catastrophe of an army, that in intrepidity of
exertion, and the patient endurance of the most mortifying
reverses, are scarcely to be equalled by any thing that is to be
met with in history. The applause they have received
undiminished by their subsequent misfortunes, should teach us to
exclaim less upon the precariousness of fame, and animate us
with the assurance that heroism and constancy can never be
wholly disappointed of their reward."
The publication before us is written with that laudable industry, which
ought ever to distinguish a great historian. The author appears to have
had access to some of the best sources of information; and has
frequently thrown that light upon a recent story, which is seldom to be
expected, but from the developements of time, and the researches of
progressive generations.
We cannot bestow equal praise upon his impartiality. Conscious however
and reserved upon general questions, the historian has restricted
himself almost entirely to the narrative form, and has seldom indulged
us with, what we esteem the principal ornament of elegant history,
reflexion and character.
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