lic. Two representations of la Gouvernante attracted nobody: le Tambour Nocturne beat to arms in vain: the seats were empty, or presented merely the triste spectacle of a few sleepers and snorers, or at best gapers, yawning from each other from opposite boxes. The spectacles which please the public are such as manifest industry, alertness, vigour. The opulence of the French actors is, perhaps, one of the greatest obstacles to the improvement of the dramatic art. A player has a country residence, an equipage, servants at command: he enjoys the luxuries of life, he loves to walk about his parks, to lay out his gardens, to give orders to his cook: he must enjoy himself in summer. From time to time he favours the public with a few appearances; but these condescensions are distant, and at long intervals.

Is it altogether the fault of the Parisian public, if buffoonery and pantomime meet encouragement?-if the stags of Franconi are preferred to the successors of Baron and Preville? Is the Théâtre François deserted when the best actors play in the best pieces of our great masters? Indifference and idleness ruin the greater part of our national establishments; and the minor theaalone profit by the mismanagement of their superiors.

AMERICAN GALLANTRY-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

UNDER this title we have occasionally selected such incidents, in our military annals, as, from their minuteness, had escaped the view of the general historian; but which were calculated to excite the high and honourable feelings of patriotism. The present war has again awakened the energies of the nation; and already produced examples of signal intrepidity among our countrymen. It is, however, on the navy of the United States that our na tional pride, and our hopes of glory, at this moment repose. We have never been able to look without the highest satisfaction on that fearless profession; the nursery of generous courage, and of high-minded patriotism-to whose followers every form of danger is alike familiar and without terror.

Nor toil, nor hazard, nor distress, appear

To sink the Seamen with unmanly fear;

Who from the face of danger strives to turn,

Indignant from the social hour they spurn:
No future ills, unknown, their souls appal,

They know no danger, or they scorn it áll

But we have no language to convey our admiration of the young and gallant spirits, who, in the first essays of their strength, have triumphed over the veteran science, and the disciplined valour, of the habitual conquerors on the ocean. They have retrieved all our disasters-they have shed new lustre on our arms, and sustained even in the midst of mortifying reverses, the loftiest tone of national enthusiasm. Their only anxiety has been to find the enemies of their country; and, wherever they have met them, their valour has rendered victory certain, whilst their skill has made it easy.

Devoted, as is this journal, to all that can add honour or distinction to the national character, it has no fairer pages than those which record instances of bravery like the following, the account of which we have rendered scrupulously minute and authentic.

THE United States' sloop of war the Wasp, commanded by captain Jacob Jones, was cruising in long. 65° W. and lat. 37° N. the track of vessels passing from Bermuda to Halifax, when, on Saturday, the 17th of October, about eleven o'clock, in a clear moonlight evening, she found herself near five strange sail, steering eastward. As some of them seemed to be ships of war, it was thought better to get farther from them. The Wasp, therefore, hauled her wind, and having reached a few miles to windward, so as to escape or fight as the occasion might require, followed the strange sail through the night. At daybreak on Sunday morning, captain Jones found that they were six large merchant ships, under convoy of a sloop of war, which proved to be the Frolic, captain W hinyates, from Honduras to England, with a convoy, strongly armed and manned, having all forty or fifty men, and two of them mounting sixteen guns each. He determined, however, to attack them, and as there was a heavy swell of the sea, and the weather boisterous, got down his topgallant yards, close-reefed the topsails, and prepared for action. About eleven o'clock, the Frolic showed Spanish colours; and the Wasp, immediately, displayed the American ensign and pendant. At thirty-two minutes past eleven, the Wasp came down to windward, on her larboard side, within about sixty yards, and hailed. The enemy hauled down the Spanish colours, hoisted the British ensign, and opened a fire of cannon and musketry. This the Wasp instantly returned; and, coning nearer to the enemy, the. action became close, and without intermission. In four or five minutes the maintopmast of the Wasp was shot away, and, falling

down with the maintopsail yard across the larboard fore and foretopsail braces, rendered her head yards unmanageable during the rest of the action. In two or three minutes more her gaft and mizen-topgallantsail were shot away. Still she continued a close and constant fire. The sea was so rough that the muzzles of the Wasp's guns were frequently in the water. The Americans, therefore, fired as the ship's side was going down, so that their shot went either on the enemy's deck or below it, while the English fired as the vessel rose, and thus her balls chiefly touched the rigging, or were thrown away. The Wasp now shot ahead of the Frolic, raked her, and then resumed her position on her larboard bow. Her fire was now obviously attended with such success, and that of the Frolic so slackened, that captain Jones did not wish to board her, lest the roughness of the sea might endanger both vessels, but, in the course of a few minutes more, every brace of the Wasp was shot away, and her rigging so much torn to pieces, that he was afraid that his masts, being unsupported, would go by the board, and the Frolic be able to escape. He thought, therefore, the best chance of securing her was to board, and decide the contest With this view he wore ship, and, running down upon the enemy, the vessels struck each other, the Wasp's side rubbing along the Frolic's bow, so that her jibboom carne in between the main and mizen rigging of the Wasp, directly over the heads of captain Jones and the first lieutenant, Mr. Biddle, who were at that moment standing together near the capstan. The Frolic lay so fair for raking, that they decided not to board until they had given a closing broadside. Whilst they were loading for this, so near were the two vessels, that the rammers of the Wasp were pushed against the Frolic's sides, and two of her guns went through the bow ports of the Frolic, and swept the whole length of her deck. At this moment, Jack Lang,* a seaman of the Wasp, a gallant fellow, who had been once impressed by a British man of war, jumped on a gun with his cutlass, and was springing on board the Frolic: captain Jones, wishing to fire again before

at once.

John Lang is a native of Newbrunswick, in Newjersey. We mention, with great pleasure, the name of this brave American seaman, as a proof, that conspicuous valour is confined to no rank in the naval service.

boarding, called him down; but his impetuosity could not be restrained, and he was already on the bowsprit of the Frolic; when, seeing the ardour and enthusiasm of the Wasp's crew, lieutenant Biddle mounted on the hammock cloth to board. At this signal the crew followed; but lieutenant Biddle's feet got entangled in the rigging of the enemy's bowsprit, and midshipman Baker, in his ardour to get on board, laying hold of his coat, he fell back on the Wasp's deck. He sprang up, and as the next swell of the sea brought the Frolic nearer, he got on her bowsprit, where Lang and another seaman were already. He passed them on the forecastle, and was surprised at seeing not a single man alive on the Frolic's deck, except the seaman at the wheel, and three officers. The deck was slippery with blood, and strewed with the bodies of the dead. As he went forward, the captain of the Frolic, with two other officers, who were standing on the quarter deck, threw down their swords, and made an inclination of their bodies, denoting that they had surrendered. At this moment the colours were still flying, as, probably, none of the seamen of the Frolic would dare to go into the rigging for fear of the musketry of the Wasp. Lieutenant Biddle, therefore, jumped into the rigging himself, and hauled down the British ensign, and possession was taken of the Frolic, in forty-three minutes after the first fire. She was in a shocking condition; the birth-deck, particularly, was crowded with dead, and wounded, and dying; there being but a small proportion of the Frolic's crew who had escaped. Captain Jones instantly sent on board his surgeon's mate, and all the blankets of the Frolic were brought from her slop-room for the comfort of the wounded. To increase this confusion, both the Frolic's masts soon fell, covering the dead and every thing on deck, and she lay a complete wreck.

It now appeared that the Frolic mounted sixteen thirtytwo pound carronades, four twelve-pounders on the main-deck, and two twelve pound carronades. She was, therefore, superior to the Wasp, by exactly four twelve-pounders. The number of men on board, as stated by the officers of the Frolic, was one hundred and ten-the number of seamen on board the Wasp, was one hundred and two; but it could not be ascertained,

whether in this one hundred and ten, were included marines and - officers; for the Wasp hád, besides her one hundred and two men, officers and marines, making the whole crew about one hundred and thirty-five. What is, however, decisive, as to their comparative force is, that the officers of the Frolic acknowledged that they had as many men as they knew what to do with, and, in fact, the Wasp could have spared fifteen men. There was, therefore, on the most favourable view, at least an equality of men, and an inequality of four guns. The disparity of loss was much greater. The exact number of killed and wounded on board the Frolic could not be precisely determined; but from the observations of our officers, and the declarations of those of the Frolic, the number could not be less than about thirty killed, including two officers, and of the wounded between forty and fifty; the captain and second lieutenant being of the number. The Wasp had five men killed and five slightly wounded.

All hands were now employed in clearing the deck, burying the dead, and taking care of the wounded, when captain Jones sent orders to lieutenant Biddle to proceed to Charleston, or any southern port of the United States; and, as there was a suspicious sail to windward, the Wasp would continue her cruise. The ships then parted. The suspicious sail was now coming down very fast. At first it was supposed that she was one of the convoy, who had all fled during the engagement, and who now came for the purpose of attacking the prize. The guns of the Frolic were, therefore, loaded, and the ship cleared for action; but the enemy, as she advanced, proved to be a seventyfour-the Poictiers, captain Beresford. She fired a shot over the Frolic; passed her; overtook the Wasp, the disabled state of whose rigging prevented her from escaping; and then returned to the Frolic, who could, of course, make no resistance. The Wasp and Frolic were carried into Bermuda.

It is not the least praise due to captain Jones, that his account of this gallant action, is perfectly modest and unostentatious. his own share in the capture, it is unnecessary to add any thing. "The courage and exertions of the officers and crew," he observes, "fully answer my expectations and wishes. Lieutenant Biddle's active conduct contributed much to our success, by the