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CRIMPING. 



" A la guerra me Hera mi necessidad, 



Si tuviera dineros no fuera en verdad." SPANISH ROMANCE. 



WERE it possible to penetrate the secret motives that influence the 

 actions of mankind, we might without exaggeration assert, that nine- 

 tenths of those fiery spirits who during the years of 1817 and ]818 left 

 the shores of old England, to fight under the banners of South 

 American Independence, those who at a later period vainly strove to 

 free from the yoke of the haughty Ottoman the classic land of Miltiades, 

 and those who are now proceeding to whiten with their bones the soil 

 of Portugal, in a cause, the true rights of which the major part are as 

 ignorant as the priest-ridden Luzitanians themselves. Nine-tenths of 

 them we repeat, were they asked the motives that induced them to 

 embark in so desperate an enterprise, would reply in the spirit of the 

 Spanish romance which we have quoted as an appropriate rubric to the 

 present paper. 



Since the days of that prince of crimps, the renowned General 

 Devareux, who sold commissions to his deluded countrymen that were 

 never confirmed by the Columbian Government, and who it may be 

 recollected boldly assured the corporation of Dublin, that six weeks 

 after his arrival in South America, he would not leave a royalist alive, 

 a boast which he reiterated at Margaretta, in a speech of such por- 

 tentous length, as to leave some doubts on the minds of the audience, 

 whether the speaker were not rather destined for a preacher than a 

 soldier. Since his day, no event in the political world has afforded so 

 rich a harvest to the crimps as the pending Portuguese struggle ; aroused 

 from their long inactivity, their ragged battalions are darkening the 

 face of the land. They swarm in the capital, crowd the out-ports, and 

 overrun the rural district, but their operations have not been solely 

 confined to this country, detached corps have been sent to the continent, 

 and by the exertions of these gentry, did he possess the adequate 

 funds, in spite of foreign enlistment bills, and high-flown protestations 

 of neutrality, Peter the Emperor would soon see himself at the head of 

 a host, as motley in character, and as numerically strong as that which 

 centuries ago, marched upon the Holy Land under his doughty name- 

 sake, Peter the Hermit. 



As we were one evening, during the last month, whiling away an 

 hour at a coffee-house, our eyes lighted on the following advertisement, 

 in a morning paper " Any military gentleman possessing a knowledge 

 of mercantile affairs, may hear of a desirable situation abroad, by 

 applying at, &c. &c." This would have been a poser to most country 

 gentlemen, but acquainted, from dear-bought experience with the 

 metaphors of crimps, we immediately saw that it was an offer for 

 foreign service for we have ourselves trod that thorny path, so fruitful 

 in hard blows but still to speak tactically, as both our flanks are at 

 the moment " dans 1'air," we confess that we read not the advertise- 

 ment without emotion, as holding out an opportunity of advancement. 

 Not that we are of those who are caught by the glitter of an epaulette, 

 or dazzled by the specious glare of a star or cross ; our shoulders have 

 long been accustomed to the one, and so prodigally lavished are the 



