eited not more by injuries, than by insulting irony and affected contempt. She will make an everlasting enemy, where kindness and consideration might have made an everlasting friend. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF LIEUT ANT JOHN TEMPLAR SHUBRICK. THE genius, and the spirit of republicanism, is closely allied with a disposition to do honour to merit without regard to the circumstance of rank. In hereditary governments, hereditary distinctions are often sufficient to claim the notice of the biographer; and on the death of a prince, however insignificant the part he acted while living, or however destitute his character may have been of every claim to the notice of his contemporaries or the remembrance of posterity, it is still considered a respect due to his rank, to give a sketch of his life, and if there was nothing in it to merit the attention of mankind, to supply the deficiency, by dwelling on the exploits of his remote ancestors. This disposition to commemorate the existence of men who, in their individual characters, have little claim to the notice of the world, merely on the score of the accidental circumstances of rank and station, is generally combined with an indifference to the claims of real worth; and hence it often happens, that the commanders of armies and fleets, whatever may be their merit, receive all the credit of success, while the secondary agents are left to the chance of the good report of the chief, for their reward. There is neither justice nor policy in this; for justice requires that honour should be paid where honour is due; and policy, that every stimulative should be given to the exercise of human powers, in every situation where they are to be excited honourably and advantageously. The person who ostensibly directs any affair whatever, is sufficiently aware that if honour results from its successful issue, the principal share will fall to his lot, unless he is notoriously deficient in the performance of his part. He, therefore, wants no additional motive to exertion. But it is otherwise with men in stations less conspicuous, who are often entirely overlooked, and sometimes stripped of their due, to embellish the fame of others. This ne glect or injustice deprives men of one of the best and most honourable motives, that render exertion voluntary, and not the mere effect of subordination. The most ordinary soldier, is more or less open to the reception of this feeling; and however it may be the fashion in other countries to debase the human species even below the brutes, by calling them machines, we, of this nation, have had ample proof of the superiority of men, who, to the habits of discipline in war, added, not only an enthusiasm in favour of the cause they espoused, but were impelled to activity by a conviction that their individual exertions, would gain them individual distinction. Men, from the mere effect of coercive discipline, may be brought to fight well with their hands, but they will never be a match for those who fight heart and hand. Few of the celebrated conquerors of ancient or modern times, and especially of those who raised themselves from a private station to the command of armies, and the rule of empires, overlooked this certain method of animating and attaching the hearts of their followers. A compliment paid in the presence of the army; an ornamented shield, a musket of honour, or some other trifling badge, to distinguish a man from his comrades, was sufficient to excite the keenest emulation, and to animate every man with an ambition almost equivalent to that of the chief himself, whose prize was perhaps an empire. Soldiers who merely fight for pay and plunder, are degraded to the lowest state of mankind; for nothing but the hope of distinction, or the love of country, can render the trade of war more honourable than than that of the assassin, who murders at a stated price. Both our opinions and feelings are therefore in favour of administering all the aid in our power to the reputation of deserving men, and especially those who have passed the best years of their existence in serving their country in a profession, which every day might call for the sacrifice of their lives. This duty can always be performed, without rendering the subjects ridiculous by exaggerating their merits, or cheapening their rewards by rendering them too common. By abstaining from inflated eulogy or superlative praise; by preserving a due consistency between the language and the subject; and carefully avoiding that profusion of ornament, which renders the finest figure ridiculous, a modest and decent memorial may be raised which will be dear to the hearts of friends, without exciting the ridicule of the indifferent, or deterring the stranger from stopping to ask to whose memory the simple structure is consecrated. With these remarks which are intended as a reply to certain gentlemen who think that untitled merit has no claim to the notice of our readers, we will proceed with the little sketch of the most material incidents in the life of an officer, whose death would always have been a subject of regret, even though it had not happened under such melancholy circumstances. JOHN TEMPLAR SHUBRIOK was born on the eleventh of September, 1788, at the seat of his father, colonel Thomas Shubrick, in South Carolina. He was educated partly at various grammar-schools in Charleston; was some time at the college, then under the direction of the reverend Mr. Woodbridge, from whence he went to a private seminary at Dedham, in the state of Massachusetts, where he remained nearly three years. On his return to South Carolina, he was placed in the office of William Drayton, esquire, a distinguished scholar and lawyer, since a colonel in the United States army, as a student at law. Discouraged by looking forward through the long interval that must elapse before he could possibly commence the practice of the law, and perhaps inspired by those suggestions which so often indicate to the youthful mind the path most likely to lead to distinction, he determined to relinquish his legal studies. Accordingly, after very mature deliberation, he applied to his father, who, coinciding with his wishes, made application in 1806, to the secretary of the navy, who promptly forwarded warrants for John, as well as his brother, William Branford Shubrick, now a lieutenant in the service; and who had also solicited permission of his father to enter the navy. This prompt attention of government to the wishes of colonel Shubrick, was due to his revolutionary services. He had been an active and distinguished officer during the great struggle in which this country burst her chains, after sweating blood for seven long years, and was among those to whom congress voted their thanks, and a medal, expressive of their high approbation. The claims of such men we hope will always be attended to when they are offered; for if there be any persons now living in this country, peculiarly entitled to our gratitude, it is those who stood by her in her most severe and sanguinary struggle, nor laid down their arms, or remitted their exertions, till they saw she had weathered the storm. The sons of colonel Shubrick did not degenerate; for during the last war, all of them, to the number of six, were in arms, and they were all brave. The subject of this sketch, though his honourable career was so early, and so unfortunately closed, perhaps saw more service, and was in a greater number of engagements, than any other officer of his age in the service. He early received a lesson of the necessity of always being prepared for action, in the affair of the Chesapeake, which sunk deep into the hearts of our naval officers, and which, however dishonourable to the national character, gave a lesson of infinite value, and roused a spirit which in the late war was fatal to England. He was in the Constitution in the action with the Guerriere, and on her returning to port for repairs, joined the Hornet, and was present in the affair with the Peacock. He was selected by captain Lawrence to take possession of the Peacock, but she sunk before it could be done. When the Hornet joined the President and Macedonian, he served as first lieutenant of the Hornet, under captain Biddle. From thence he passed into the President as second lieutenant. In the action which took place between the President and a British squadron, lieutenant Shubrick is spoken of in commodore Decatur's official letter, as having behaved with distinguished gallantry. The peace with England, which occurred shortly after, offered him an opportunity to return to the bosom of home, and to enjoy the society of the lady whom he had recently married in NewYork. But the war which was almost immediately afterwards declared against the regency of Algiers, again called him into action under his old commander, Decatur, as first lieutenant of the Guerriere, the flag-ship of the squadron. In this ship he was present in all those affairs which led to the submission of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, and the consequent revival of peace. On the consummation of these events, lieutenant Shubrick was despatched to the United States in the Epervier sloop of war, to bear the tidings |