The Member chosen, Mr. W. Livingston.

The Committee of Claims reported, that there is due:

To Michael Connolly, expenses for Wagon-hire, carrying the Prisoners' Baggage from Bethlehem to Reading, and his own expenses four days, the sum of 160 Dollars.

To Richard Howell, the sum of 341/2 Dollars, for transportation of Powder to Burlington.

Ordered, That the above Accounts be paid.

Resolved, That Colonel Wayne be directed to march with his Battalion to New- York, and put himself under the command of General Lee, or the commanding officer there.

The Congress being informed that two Prisoners taken at Chambly and who had leave to stay at New-Yark, in the Province of New-Jersey, on condition of their making Gun-

to the general voice, rather than interrupt that union on which success depended; and when a measure was once resolved upon by the majority, however much contrary to his own advice and judgment, he magnanimously supported it with his utmost vigour; disdaining that Work of low ambition, which will strive to defeat in execution what it could not direct in planning,

His perseverance and conduct in gaining possession of St. John's and Montreal, have already been the theme of every tongue, and need not be mentioned in this place. His abilities in negotiation; the precision with which the various articles of treaties and capitulations are expressed; the generous applause he gives, not only to every worthy effort of his own officers, but to the commanding officer and garrison of St. John's; his noble declaration to the inhabitants of Montreal, "that the Continental armies despise every act of oppression and violence, being come for the express purpose of giving liberty and security;" all these, I say, did honour to himself, and lo that delegated body under whose authority he acted.

Leaving him, therefore, for a while, alas, too short a while—to enjoy the noblest of all triumphs, the applause of his country, and the conscious testimony of his own heart—let us inquire after another band of brave and hardy men, who are stemming rapid rivers, ascending pathless mountains, traversing un peopled deserts, and hastening through deep morasses and gloomy woods to meet him in scenes of another issue.

——Deserts in vain

Oppos'd their course, and deep rapacious floods,

Aud mountains in whose jaws destruction grina'd,

Hunger and toil—Armenlali snows and storms!

Greece in their view and glory yet untouch'd,

They held their fearless way—Oh! strength of mind

Almost almighty in severe extremes!—Thomson.

This praise was paid to ten thousand heroes, sustaining every danger, in a retreat to their own country, and is certainly due, so far as heroism is concerned, to less than a tenth part of the number, marching through equal difficulties against the capital of a hostile country.

Even the march of Hannibal over the Alps, so much celebrated in history, (allowing for the disparity of numbers,) has nothing in it of Superior merit, to the march of Arnold; and in many circumstances there is a most striking similitude.

The former had to encounter the rapid Rhone; the latter, the more rapid Kennebeck, through un immense length of country. The former, when he came to quit the river, found his further passage barred by mountains, rearing their snowy crests to the sky, rugged, wild, uncultivated. This was, also, the case with the latter, whoso troops, carrying their boats and baggage, were obliged to cross and recross the same Mountains sundry times. At the foot of the mountains, the former was deserted by three thousand of his army, desponding at the length of the Way, and terrified at the hideous view of those stupendous heights, which they considered as impassable. In like circumstances, about a third part of the army of the latter, deserted shall I say, or user the more courleous language, "returned homo.*" The march of the former was about twelve hundred miles in five months. The Virginia and Pennsylvania rifle companies, belonging to the latter, including their first march from their own habitations to Cambridge, and thence to Quebeck, marched near the same distance in about three months.

Bosides these rifle companies, Arnold's corps consisted of about five hundred New.England troops, who sustained all the fatigues of the Worst part of the march by land and water, with the utmost fortitude. And General Montgomery, ever ready to do justice to merit, having joined them before Quebeck, gives their commander and them this character:

"They are an exceeding fine body of men, inured to fatigue, with a style of discipline among them much superior to what I have been used to see this campaign. He, himself, is active, intelligent, and enterprising."

Having approached those plains which the blood of Wolfe hath consecrated to deathless fame, our hero seemed emulous of his glory, and animated with a kindred spirit. The situation of his army pressed de-spatch! snows and frosts only quickened his motions. He hoped by one successful stroke, before the arrival of succours to the garrison, to compfetenis plan, and save the future effusion of much blood. He further Hattered himself, that his success, if speedy, might have some influence upon Parliament, in hastening a reconciliation. He understood that maxim of Folard, "No obstacle should break our resolution, When there is but a moment between a bad situation and a worse." This sentiment he expresses in his last letter with a spirit of modesty, and a sense of duty, as well as the danger attending it, which ought to be forever recorded to his glory. "I shall be sorry to be reduced to this mode of attack; because I know the melancholy consequences. But the approaching severity of the season, the weakness of the garrison, together with the nature of the works, point it out too strong to he passed by. Fortune often baffles the most sanguine expectations of poor mortals. I am not intoxicated with the favours I have received at her hands; but I think there is a fair prospect of success."

Poor mortals indeed, if nothing was to remain of them after death; for while he was courting this success, and gloriously leading on his troops in the Tront of danger, he received the fatal stroke, which in an instant released his great spirit, to follow and join the immortal spirit

of Wolfe!

O! thou swift winged messenger of destruction, how didst thou triumph in that moment! the stroke that severed Montgomery from his army, deprived them of more than a member. To reached the vitals, and struck the whole body with a temporary death. As when the forked lightning, darting through the forest, amid the black tempests of night, rends some towering oak, and lays its honours in the dust, the inferior trees which it had longslioltered from the stornij stand mournful around, bo stood the astonished bands over their fallen chieftain 1 nor over him alone; but over others, in their prim? of glory, prostrate by his side!

Here, ye Pennsylvanian youths, second to none in virtue, let a portion of your tears be sacred to the manes of Macpherson. You remember his generous spirit in his early years, for he drank of the same springs of science with many of you now before me; and we who reached the cup to your lip, rejoice that it contributed to invigorate both him and you into wisdom and publick spirit. Having finished his scholastick* education, he studied the laws of his country, under a lawyer and patriot t of distinguished name; and animated by his example, as well as precepts, had become eminent in his profession, at an age when some have scarce begun to think of business. The love of liberty being his ruling passion, he thought it his duty, in the present struggle, to offer himself to the service of his country, and he had soon an opportunity of attaining that military pre-eminence, of which he was laudably ambitious.

Enjoying an hereditary bravery, joined to a well cultivated understanding, and an active spirit, ho soon became the bosom friend of General Montgomery, was his Aid-de-camp, was intrusted with a share in the management of his most important negotiations, stood by his side in the attack upon Quebeck, and being, as it were, ariimatcd by one common soul, and dear lo each other in life—in death, they wcro not a moment divided!

Here, likewise, fell Captain Cheeseman, of the New-York forces, covered with honour, and lamented, by all who knew him, as an active and gallant officer. His particular merits, as well as the merits of some others, who shared his fate, ought to be more fully commemorated on this occasion, if proper accounts of them could be collected.I must not, however, omit the name of the brave Captain Hendficks,who commanded one of the Pennsylvania rifle companies, and-Wasknown to me from his infancy. He was, indeed, prodigal of hie life, and courted danger out of his tour of duty. The command of theguard belonged to him, on the morning of the attack; but ho solicitedand obtained leave to take a more conspicruous post; and having ledhis men through the barrier, where his commanding officer, GenenlArnold, was wounded, he long sustained the fire of the garrison withunshaken firmness, till, at last, receiving a shot in his breast, he immediately expired‡

Such examples of magnanimity filled even, adversaries with venwa-tion and esteem. Forgetting the foes in the heroes, they gathered uptheir breathless remains, and committed them to kindred dust, withpious hands "and funeral honours meet." So may your own remains, and particularly thine, O! Carleton, be honoured, should it ever be your fate to fall in hostile fields! Or if, amid the various chances of war, your lot should be among the prisoners and the woujid'eil, may you bedistinguished with an ample return of that benevolence which youhave shown to others. Such offices of hnmanity, softening the savage scenes of war, will entitle you to an honour which all the prideof conquest cannot bestow—much less a conquest over fellow-subjects, contending for the common rights of freemen.

By such offices as these, you likewise give a gleam of comfort to those mourners, who mix their tears with ours on Schuylkill and Susquehannah;¦ and to her§ especially, on Hudson's Silver, pre-eminent in we! Angels, and ministers of grace, complete her consolations! Tell her, in gentlest accents, what wreaths of glory you have entwined, to adorn the brows of those who die for their country; and hovering for a while on the wing of pity, listen to her mournful strain:

Sweet ivy, twin'd with my file, form ft shade

Around the tomb where brave Montgomery's laid!

Beneath your boughs, shut from ihe beams of day,

My ceaseless tears shall bathe the warriors, clay;

And injured "Freedom shall a while repair,

To dwell, with me, a weeping hermit there."

Having now paid the honours due to the memories of our departed friends, what need I add more? Illustrious, although short, was their race!" But old age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor is measured by number of years—wisdom is the grey hair to man, and an unspotted life is old age."

To such men, Rome in all her glory would have decreed honours; and the resolve of Congress to transmit the memory of their virtues, is worthy of that magnanimity which ought to characterize publick be dies. Jealous and arbitrary rulers are sparing of honours to those who serve them, lest their own should be thus eclipsed; That your lustre, gentlemen, can suffer no diminution this way; and the glory you justly bestow upon others, will only be reflected to increase your own!

* When the Oration was delivered, the author did not know that an inquiry had been, made into the reasons of the return of this party, and that the commanding officer has been acquitted. But as a very general censure had been passed upon him through the Colonies, it was judged much more hononrable for him to insert an account of his acquaintent, than to suppress the paragraph—for all these transactions will be fully scrutinized by future historians.

It was at the foot of the Pyrenees that the three thousand deserted from Hannibal, and he freely dismissed seven thousand, more, whose courage he perceived was not equal to the undertaking, linked, Livy tells us that the sight of the Alps, "their snow-clad steps almost penetrating Heaven, the rude cottages built on rocks, sheep and oxen pinched With calm, the men savage and wearing; long beards, every tiling, both animate and inanimate, stiff with frost;" struck even the remainder of his army with a temporary panick. It is not clear what use Hannibal male of his boats after crossing the khone, whesber to carry his baggage, as he ascended along its banks, or not.

* He was educated partly at the College of Philadelphia, and partly at that of New-Jersey. A few days before his death, he visited the very spot on which General Wolfe expired; and the reflections in his letter on this occasionas well as in that which he leftsealed up for his father, in case of his death in the attack upon Quebeck, were stich asbecome a Christian and soldier. He bequeathed what little fortunehe had accumulated,,to his only brother, an offleerin the regulararmy. Asa reward for his services, he wasappointed by the Congress, a Major in a battalion to be raised in the Delaware Counties, but had received no account of this promotion.

† John Dickinson, Esquire.

‡ These, particulars where certified by General Thompson and Colonel Magau, his commanders in the Pennsylvania Rifle regiment, and they give me this further character of him in their letter, viz "No fatigues or duty ever discouraged him; he paid the strictest attention to his company, and wal ambitious that they should excel in discipline, sobriety and order. His social and domestick virtues you were welt acquainted with."

|| The rivers on which the parents of Major Macphertan and Captain Hendricks live.

§ Mrs. Montgomery.

¶ The original lines, for which these were substitued and formed to musick, are well known, viz:

"Wind gentle evergreen to forma shade,

Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid, &c."

Part of the two last lines b from an Ode of Collins.