in the Temperature of Winter. 21 



turles, been frequently covered with ice sufficient to sus- 

 tain the largest armies that ever issued from the north. 



Dr. Williams has copied these remarks of Gibbon ; 

 and it is a most unfortunate circumstance for the author 

 and the transcriber, that the very winter after Dr. Wil- 

 liams published his History of Vermont, the French 

 troops crossed the Rhine into Holland on the ice. The 

 rivers and canals were all converted into bridges in Jan- 

 uaiy 1795.. ..See the speech of citizen Paulus to the Pro- 

 visional Convention, January 26 — State Papers, vol. iii. 

 The cold was unusually severe ; the event was an un- 

 common one ; but it is one that happens in hard winters, 

 a few of which occur every century.* 



It appears by interrogatories made by the Stadtholder 

 on the 18th of January 1795, to his naval officers, that 

 the Prince could not escape from Holland by any of the 

 rivers of that country — the eastern and western Ems, the 

 Elbe and the Weser, being obstructed by v:,^.... State 

 Papers^ vol. iii. 



With respect to the other part of Gibbon's assertion, 

 that the barbarians chose the winter season to make in- 

 roads into southern countries, because they could pass 

 on the ice, I can readily believe this might have happejied 

 many times. From his acquaintance with the original 

 historians, he was certainly well qualified to make the as- 

 sertion. Some instances of this fact are recorded. I 

 find in Cesar's History of the Gallic War no instance of 

 this sort; but many instances of Roman armies and bar- 

 barians crossing the great rivers on bridges. Cesar was 

 obliged to build bridges, at two or three different times, 

 to throw his troops over the Rhine. Had the freezing 

 of that river been an annual event, he would have taken 

 the advantage of a bridge of ice. 



That the Rhine did not freeze every winter, we have 

 positive evidence, in the 4th book of the Gallic War. 

 During the winter of the year 55 before the Christian era, 

 two German nations attempted to invade Gaul, but were 



* This event happened so opportunely for the purposes of the 

 French, that even atheists were disposed to admit the existence of 

 a God, for the purpose of arranging this event among the interposi- 

 tions of heaven in their favor. 



