were not attended with more success, and that the armament under my command proved too weak to succeed in an expedition of such moment.

"Truth has prevailed over calumny and falsehood, and justice has wiped off the ignominious stain of my supposed want of personal courage or disaffection. My heart acquits me of these crimes. But who can be presumptuously sure of his own judgment? If my crime is an error in judgment, or differing in opinion from my judges, and if yet the error in judgment should be on their side, God forgive them, as I do; and may the distress of their minds and uneasiness of their consciences, which in justice to me they have represented, be relieved and subside, as my resentment has done! The Supreme Judge sees all hearts and motives, and to him I must submit the justice of my cause.-J. BYNG.'

Amongst the circumstances pointed out by Byng's friends in his favour, was the respectful opinion entertained of him by the national enemy. M. Voltaire interested himself much in behalf of the unfortunate admiral, and transmitted to him a letter which he had received from the Marshal Duc de Richelieu, containing the following passages :-'I am very sensibly concerned for Admiral Byng. I do assure you, whatever I have seen or heard of him, does him honour.

There is nothing against him but his being worsted. The strength of the two fleets was at least equal; the English had thirteen ships, and we twelve much better equipped and much cleaner. Fortune, that presides over all battles, and especially those fought at sea, was more favourable to us than our adversaries, by sending our balls into their ships with greater execution. I am persuaded, and it is the generally received opinion, that if the English had obstinately continued the engagement, their whole fleet would have been destroyed.' Voltaire afterwards introduced into his novel of Candide a bitter witticism respecting this murder of one of their officers by the English, which he said was pour encourager les autres--to encourage the rest.

PITTSBURG.

ABOUT 360 miles above Cincinnati, on the Ohio, stands the thriving small town of Wheeling, which is reckoned the head of the regular navigation for vessels of large burden, or steam-boats, it being only in certain flooded conditions of the river that these vessels can ascend ninety-five miles further to Pittsburg. Although Pittsburg is thus at a certain disadvantage in respect of waterconveyance for large craft, its situation otherwise, and its invaluable mineral resources, have given it a superiority over all other towns in the great central valley of America, with the exception of Cincinnati and New Orleans.

Pittsburg is the American Birmingham, and is daily engrossing a share of that well-known seat of the English hardware trade. On this account, alone, its progress and present state are worthy of being made well known among our artificers. Pittsburg is situated on a beautiful but not extensive plain, on a point of land formed by the junction of two rivers called the Alleghany and Monongahela, which, on uniting, form the river Ohio. The site of the town was regarded by the French as a suitable point for one of the chain of military strengths between their possessions in Canada and Louisiana; a fort was accordingly erected by them, called Fort du Quesne, around which a small town arose: but the whole falling into the hands of the British, the place was named Pittsburg, in honour of Mr Pitt, who was afterwards Earl of Chatham. The fort has long since gone to decay, and perhaps not a single vestige of it now remains; but the town, which was begun about the year 1765, has gradually increased in size and importance, particularly within the last fifty-five years, and has now about 33,000 inhabitants. The main cause of the rise and progress of Pittsburg has been the abundant supply of coal in the

adjacent country. The coal is excavated with the greatest ease and at the smallest expense, from the sides of the hills, and at once wheeled in carriages to the town. Iron ore, also, is brought in great abundance. The facility offered for carrying on the manufacture of iron goods of all kinds is, therefore, almost unprecedented, and nothing but capital and labour are required to produce' hardware, from a needle to an anchor,' in quantities sufficient for the supply of the whole civilised world. Every traveller describes Pittsburg as at once surpassingly smoky and hard-working, and a place quite the reverse in appearance of Cincinnati, the Western Queen.' Mr Hoffman thus speaks of his approach to it on a fine summer evening in sailing up the Ohio:-'Our course lay for a few moments anong islands that seemed to bloom in never-dying verdure; and then, as we escaped from their green cincture, the tall cliffs of the Monongahela, blackened by the numerous furnaces that smoke along their base, and pierced in various points with deep coalshafts that feed their fires, frowned over the placid water. It was just sunset, and the triangular city, with its steeples peering through a cloud of dense smoke, and its two rivers, spanned each by a noble bridge, lay before us. On the left [from the north-west], the calm and full tide of the Monongahela, flowing beneath rocky banks, some 300 feet in elevation, was shaded by the impending height, and reflected the blaze of a dozen furnaces in its sable bosom. On the right, the golden tints of sunset still played over the clear pebbly wave of the Alleghany [from the north-east], and freshened the white outline of a long low-built nunnery, standing on a sudden elevation back from the river. The dusky city lay in the midst, the bridges springing from its centre, terminating the view up both rivers. Truly, the waters have here chosen a lovely spot for their meeting; and it was but natural that such a stream as the Ohio should spring from such an union.?

According to Mr Stuart, who visited this part of America in 1830, Pittsburg contained steam flourVOL. XVII.

H

mills, carding and spinning mills, iron mills, distilleries, breweries, brick-yards, air-furnaces, lead factories, naileries, glass-making establishments, potteries, gunsmitheries, tobacco-factories, tanneries, with establishments of all the ordinary trades; but ironmongery, cutlery, and glass, are the most important manufactures. Cottons and woollens, pottery and copper ware, are exported to a great extent. In 1828, the annual value of the various manufactures was estimated at 2,000,000 dollars. Since that period, it has in all probability been doubled or trebled, for the recent demand for iron rails for railways, and also steam enginery, must have been very considerable. Although Pittsburg is situated at the distance of 2000 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi at New Orleans, it is able to carry on an export-trade by navigation to the most remote countries in the Old World. Mr Clay, a member of Congress, in one of his speeches some years ago, alluded as follows to the shipping of Pittsburg :-To illustrate the commercial habits and enterprise of the American people, he would relate an anecdote of a vessel, built and cleared out at Pittsburg for Leghorn, in Italy. When she arrived at her place of destination, the master presented his papers to the custom-house officer at Leghorn, who would not credit them, and said to the master: "Sir, your papers are forged! there is no such place as Pittsburg in the world! your vessel must be confiscated!" The trembling captain laid before the officer a map of the United Statesdirected him to the Gulf of Mexico-pointed out the mouth of the Mississippi-led him 1000 miles up it to the mouth of the Ohio-and thence another 1000 to Pittsburg. “There, sir, is the port whence my vessel cleared out!" The astonished officer, before he saw the map, would as soon have believed that this ship had been navigated from the moon.'

The inhabitants of Pittsburg are a mixture of the people of various nations-Germans, French, English, Scotch, Irish, and native American-and are famed for

r spirit of industry and economy. The mixture of

so many nations into one composite mass has had a natural effect in liberalising the minds of the people; a universal toleration of differences of creed prevails, and no one race pretends to arrogate any superior distinction to itself. A pleasing trait of this harmony of feeling is mentioned by Mr Power, the late well-known dramatic performer, who visited Pittsburg in the course of a professional tour. Upon Grant's Hill,' says this gentleman, a spur of one of the surrounding heights that thrusts itself boldly into the heart of the delta on which the town is built, I found a Gothic edifice almost completed, the magnitude and tasteful design of which attracted me: I entered it, and perceived at once that it was a place of Catholic worship. From a communicative little man, whom I perceived for some time eyeing me with a sociable look, I learned that this was the cathedral; and it stands a pleasing memorial of the liberality of the sects of this town, having been raised by the voluntary subscriptions made among the numerous congregations of the place. It is a grateful task to record such evidences of the existence of true Christian charity; they reconcile one to one's fellows, and serve to balance the barbarous acts of bigotry and blindness which yet occasionally disgrace the age and degrade humanity. This edifice, when completed, will be an attractive object, both from its commanding site and the character of its architecture, which is of the florid Gothic, tastefully sustained throughout.

In the neighbourhood of Pittsburg, on a rising-ground on the opposite side of the Monongahela, is shewn the scene of the inglorious defeat of the British forces commanded by General Braddock in 1755. The French colonists in Canada and the Vale of the Mississippi, having for a series of years, in conjunction with tribes of Indians, made encroachments on the boundaries of the British provinces, government at length interfered to check the odious petty war that was carried on against their possessions. A body of provincials, among whom was George Washington, at that time a young officer of