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withdraw, or keep back, or not come into fight, or shall not do his utmost to take or destroy every ship which it shall be his duty to engage; and they sentenced him to death accordingly. But,' so concluded the verdict, as it doth not appear to the court that it was either through cowardice or disaffection that he acted in the way he did, they do unanimously recommend him to mercy. They further sent a letter to the Admiralty, enforcing their recommendation, and explaining their sentence as given under a rigid interpretation of a very strict act, while they faithfully believed that Admiral Byng had only been guilty of an error of judgment.

The ministry, however, had determined to make Byng their victim. An order was sent for the execution of the sentence on the 28th of February 1757. When the judges found that their recommendation was not listened to, some of them became very uneasy, and petitioned to be released by act of parliament from the obligations of their oaths, in order that they might be able to disclose something relative to the sentence, which greatly affected their consciences, and which it was necessary to disclose in order to do justice to Admiral Byng. He was consequently respited for a fortnight, till the 14th of March, and a bill for this purpose was brought into the Commons, and passed, but was rejected in the House of Lords.

The fatal morning arrived, but was by no means met by the admiral with reluctance. The whole tenor of his behaviour had been cheerful, steady, dignified, sensible. While he felt like a victim, he acted like a hero. Indeed, he was the only man whom his enemies had had no power to bend to their purposes. He always received with indignation any proposal from his friends of making an escape; an advantage he scorned to lend to clamour. Of his fate he talked with indifference, and neither shunned to hear the requisite dispositions, nor affected parade in them. A few days before, one of his friends standing by him, said: "Which of us is tallest?' He replied: "Why this ceremony? I know what it means; let the man come and measure me for my coffin.' He said that,

being acquitted of cowardice, and being persuaded on the coolest reflection that he had acted for the best, and should act so again, he was not unwilling to suffer. For the last fortnight he constantly declared, that he would not suffer a handkerchief over his face, that it might be seen whether he betrayed the least symptom of fear; and when the minute arrived, adhered to his purpose. He took an easy leave of his friends, detained the officers not a moment, went directly to the deck, and placed himself in a chair with neither ceremony nor lightness. Some of the more humane officers represented to him, that his face being uncovered, might throw reluctance into the executioners, and besought him to suffer a handkerchief. He replied with the same unconcern: If it will frighten them, let it be done: they would not frighten me? His eyes were bound; they fired, and he fell at once.

Just before his execution, which took place at Portsmouth, on board the Monarque, Byng gave the following paper to the marshal of the Court of Admiralty :—

A few moments will now deliver me from the virulent persecutions, and frustrate the further malice of my enemies. Nor need I envy them a life subject to the sensations my injuries and the injustice done me must create, persuaded I am justice will be done to my reputation hereafter. The manner and cause of raising and keeping up the popular clamour and prejudice against me will be seen through; I shall be considered (as I now perceive myself) a victim destined to divert the indignation and resentment of an injured and deluded people from the proper objects. My enemies themselves must now think me innocent. Happy for me, at this my last moment, that I know my own innocence, and am conscious that no part of my country's misfortunes can be owing to me. I heartily wish the shedding my blood may contribute to the happiness and service of my country; but cannot resign my just claim to a faithful discharge of my duty according to the best of my judgment, and the utmost exertion of my ability for his majesty's honour, and my country's service. I am sorry that my endeavours

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 among 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 flour