1796.] 
pofition to the arbitrary proceedings againft the 
people inhabiting this territory. He reprefented 
the town where he lived in affemblies and con- 
ventions, and held the office of juftice of the 
"peace for Rutland county, until in his advanced 
age he removed out of it. Asa poet, he was 
pofefied of a happy genius, and diftinguithed 
himfelf in many popular American publications. 
—Smith’s New World 3 or, Morning and Even- 
ing Gaze‘te. 
- Jn the 27th year of his age, of his wounds, 
at Alterkerchin, in Germany, Lieutenant-Gen. 
‘Marceau, in the fervice of the French Republic, 
on the sth complementary day (Quintrdi, feté 
des reccmpences) being the laft day but one of 
the ath year, according to the calendar of his 
native country, which anfwers to the 21f of 
Sept. 1796, with us, Among the innumerable 
calamities incident to warfate, one, and that too 
not the leaft lamentable, is the premature death 
of many of thofe illuftrious men who fmooth 
the rueged furface of a ftate, deemed by philo- 
fophers, little better than /egalined murder; and, 
in fome meafure, recompence human nature, 
for the multiplied .miferies to which fhe is un- 
naturally fubjeéted. The prefent conteft ex- 
hibits numerous inflances of this kind, in the 
armies of all the belligerent powers; and in 
none, more particularly than in the perfon of 
him who is the fubje@& of this brief memorial. 
General Marceau was born in 1756, and was 
confequently, but twenty years old, at the com~ 
mencement of the Revolution. In common 
with almoft every Frenchman net of the /rivi- 
lexed orders, and, to their honour be it {poken, 
of many alfo born within the fale of nobility, 
he felt that his country was enilaved and re- 
joiced at the profpect of beholding the Ubertic 
of his nation vindicated. On the impolitic in- 
tervention of the Emperor Leopold, he burned 
to revenge, what he deemed the infudt offered 
to the independence of France. He accordingly 
entered into the army, and made his firft cam- 
paignin Brabant; Mirabeau repented until the 
laft moment of his exiftence, that he had drawn 
his maiden-fword againft the free-born Cori- 
cans; while Marceau, onthe other hand, and 
all the patriots of that cay, gloried in the prof- 
pect of refcuing the Flemings from the iron 
yoke of Auftria, After fighting under a con/i/- 
tutional King, a new epoch occurred in the 
biftory of France and of buiope, and the army 
which had acquired nothing but difgrace under 
a feeble and wavering reprefentative of monar- 
chy, in the perfon of Louis XVi, following the 
memorable example of the camp at Maulde, 
readily {wore obedience to a commenwealth.— 
The youthful hero perceived that the happi- 
nes, at leaft the g/ory of France, as weil as his 
own advancement, were intimately connected 
with the change: he was thus attached to the 
new government, both by patriotifm and ambi- 
tion, which will be allowed to be no’ common 
sens in the hiftory either of nations or indt- 
widuals. In addition to this, he was friendly, 
even by education, to the tranfition, for he had 
_ Biographical Noticess——Gen. Marceau, Sco 
75% 
jut come from the fchools, where, notwith- 
ftanding the advice of Hobbes, after the civil 
war in England, a monaftic order fill conde- 
{cended to teach the claffics; and wich them, 
unwillingly infufed a portion of that kindred 
{pirit, which illumined and dignified the hifto— 
ries of Greece and Italy. The ftrugeles of 
Athens and ci Rome for liberty were familiar 
to him; and the crimes and expuliion of the 
Tarquin race pointed out, and, ina nearly fimilar 
fituation, fanétioned, in his mind, the profecution 
of the dynaity of the Gourbons. With princi- 
ples fuch as thefe, added to dauntlefs intrepidity, 
unabating exertion, and military iicill, Jt is not 
to be wondered that tis rife was rapid, and his 
promotion certain. Soom after the breaking out 
of the war of La Vendée, by far the mott ca- 
lamitous of any, Marecaa was fent thither, with 
the rank of general of brigade. ‘There he had 
to contend, not againft difcipline, fuch as he 
afterwards encountered during two campaigns on 
the banks of the Rhine, but iomething infinitely 
more terrible—it was fanaticifm, which, clad in 
canvafs, and wooden, fhoes, and armed at firft 
with nothing more formidable than clubs and 
pikes, encountered and defeated veteran ‘troops. 
Such were ‘the royal and catholic armies,’ the 
‘avengers of the crown,’ ‘ the league of Jeius,” 
‘the band of the holy and immaculate Virgin,” 
names that imply but feebly the fuperfiition of 
the fturdy and ignorant peaiantry who com- 
pofed them. Againft fuch enemies, it was 
almoft impoffible to fucceed in an offenfive 
war; and, indeed, they were never completely 
everthrown, until cther means were employed 
for their fubjugation. Yet, potwithftanding 
this, fuch was’ the reputation of young Mar- 
ceau, that he was appointed, in the 25th year 
of his age, as general in chief, ad interim, of the 
army employed againft the infurgents in La 
Vendée; gnd Turreau, whom he fuperfeded, 
bears ample teftimony to his mevit, in his 
 jWemvires,? although.a mifunderfianding ac- 
tually fubfitted betweed them. At the period’ 
we are now treating of, there were no leis than 
three commanders in chief, and three interme- 
diate ones, nominated within the {pace of three 
months, fome of whom exchanged the farorz 
for, the axe, and were dragged fiom theis own 
head-quarters to the feafiold. | Marceau’ was 
more fortunate. On the appointment of a fu- 
perior officer, he was invited to repair to the 
army of the North, which happened at that 
critical period, to be earning laurels on the fro- 
zen waters of the Rhine, the Waal, and the 
Polders, and canals of Holland, under the famoug 
Pichegru, It is not alittle memorable, that the 
joint ages of thefe youthf:] commanders, did 
not at that time exceed fifty-feven, a time of 
life, which before this eventful period, fcarcely 
entitled a foldier to become a Hero: it is to be 
obferved alfo, that the Prince de Cobourg, Duke © 
of Brunfwick, Generals Wurmier, Beantieu, 
and in fhort, all the veterans, grown hoary under 
arms, have been beaten by {fchoolboys lke 
thefe, The fucceis of this army was truly 
aftonifhing, 



