It is probable the latter will fail of getting monied assistance from the Dutch.

Mons'r Penet is now on his way to look at our Cannon works near Richmond. This Gentleman, combined, I understand, with persons of much ability, have imported and propose to import more than 200 Workmen the most able in the art of making small Arms complete, and casting all kinds of Cannon. They propose doing every thing at their own expence, and to supply on contract any number of completely fitted Muskets or Cannon at a fixed price. They want only a fit place to sit down on. Your wisdom and patriotism will discover in a moment how extensively useful it will be to our Country to have these people fixed with us. A just estimate being put on our works and their Arms, we may thus be repaid in a most useful manner the expence we have already incurred, which will otherways, I fear, be loss altogether. To be independent of external aid, for these primary articles of defence, is surely a most capital object. I really think that it would require at least 100,000 stand of good arms and more than an hundred pieces of Cannon to put our State in a proper posture of defence. If you view this matter in the light that I do, Mr. Penet will, I am sure, meet with all possible encouragement.

I have the honor to be with great esteem dear Sir your most affectionate and obedient servant

RICHARD HENRY LEE.

P. S.-The Deaneans I find are aiming at an occlusion of the Press, except for the admission of their libels. Monopolised Press and Monopolised Commerce will never do for a free Country.

Phila., Feb'y 28, 1779.

MY DEAR SIR,-I arrived here on the 19th, thro the worst roads that I ever travelled over. I find the business of faction here pretty much at an end by the thorough exposure of its au

thor Mr. Silas Deane, who, if I am rightly informed, regrets ex-tremely his publication of December the 5th. But be this as it may, he has certainly gained nothing by it here in the public. opinion. Iinform you with pleasure Sir, that the King of France has formally agreed to rescind the 11th and 12th articles of the treaty of Commerce, so that now, the only unequal parts being removed, it rests upon the liberal ground of fair equality in every part. We are certainly indebted to Dr. Lee's attention for this beneficial alteration, for which the honest voice of posterity will indubitably thank him, when the poison of wicked faction shall cease to operate. The King of the two Sicilys has opened his ports to the Vessels of the United States, which is a good omen of Spanish attachment to our cause. Indeed we have abundant reason to believe that Great Britain will not get assistance from any power in Europe to carry on the war against us, and already our good Ally has made great havoc among the Privateers and with the Trade of our enemies. We hear that 7000 British Seamen are now prisoners in the jails of old france. Notwithstanding these favorable appearances it certainly behooves us to get a strong army in the field, as the enemy have yet here a strength sufficient to do much mischief if they are not properly opposed. From the best accounts that I can collect, it appears that they have not less than 11,000 men at New York and Rhode Island. Yesterday accounts from Jersey told us the enemy had landed at Elizabeth Town and had burned Gov. Livingstone's house, and were advancing into the country. Our army was preparing to resist them, and if they do not quickly return, I hope we shall give a good account of them. The enemy have published some curious letters of Mr. Braxton's which they have intercepted, I am informed they will be republished here, and when they are I will send you the paper.

I am with much esteem dear Sir affectionately yours,

RICHARD HENRY LEE.

P. S.-The enemies attempt upon Gen. Maxwell in the Jersies has turned out to our honor and their disgrace-Instead of

surprising Gen. Maxwell, they were themselves surprised by his being prepared. The enemy were forced to retire with loss and disgrace, and without burning Gov. Livingstons house.

March 2.

R. H. LEE.

THE NAVY OF VIRGINIA.

CAPTAIN IVY.

MR. EDITOR,-The readers of your "Historical Register" must have felt greatly indebted to your correspondent, Commodore Barron, for his interesting reminiscences of the Navy of Virginia. Though its exploits may not have been performed on the wide ocean, or been so brilliant as to engage much of the attention of the general Historian, yet were they of signal service to our military operations, in our struggle for independence, and well worthy of commemoration. Its deeds were often deeds of daring, though confined within the shores of the Chesapeake, and contributed in various ways to the success of the military movements by land. It was manned by the same stout hearts, inspired with a love of Liberty, which composed and invigorated our armies, and hence could not have failed honorably to acquit itself whenever any requisition was made upon it. Fortunately we are in possession of much of its records, in the Navy Journal, in the First Auditor's office, from which we learn that it was neither idle, nor inefficient; and Mr. Cooper might have honored it with a more extended notice than he has done. I do not propose, however, to supply his deficiency at present, but only to give you a brief notice of one of our revolutionary officers whose memory, I think, deserves a short record in your pages.

Capt. William Ivy was born on the estate which he afterwards inherited from his father, called "Sycamore View," and situated on Tanner's Creek, in the county of Norfolk. This estate, or a

portion of it, is still in the possession of his lineal descendants, having been transmitted from father to son for 170 years. Very early in the revolutionary war, having been brought up to the sea, Capt. Ivy entered the naval service of the State, though not in his case for the reason assigned by Commodore Barron when he says that masters of vessels were compelled to enter the navy "in order to obtain clothes suitable to their decent appearance in public;" for at that time Capt. Ivy owned two plantations, and was in the habit of building vessels on them at his own cost. During the war, however, he suffered greatly from the depredations of the enemy; his residence, Sycamore View, being only about two miles from Hampton Roads. The houses on both of his estates were plundered and then destroyed by fire, together with his crops, after the depredators had abundantly supplied themselves; and about sixty of his slaves were carried off by the British, and never recovered.

Capt. Ivy entered the navy purely from the impulse of an active and patriotic spirit; and at first was satisfied to serve in any station that offered. Accordingly, we find that on the 20th of September, 1776, he was acting as Second Lieutenant on board the sloop Scorpion, commanded by Capt. Wright Westcott. I do not know of any action in which the Scorpion was engaged; but she was not idle, and we may trust that her sting was not unfelt by the foe. On the 4th of November, 1776, she was ordered to Portsmouth, there to be "put in order for making a cruise, and as soon as ready to return to Yorktown, and wait on the Board for further orders."-(Navy Journal, p. 100.) Those orders, on the 24th of December following, sent her to Fredericksburg to "bring thence all the public goods in the hands of James Hunter." But her return from the Rappahannock became so fraught with danger, that on the 22nd of January following, (1777,) she was ordered to remain up that river till further orders. In the mean time, however, on the 2nd of that month, Captain Ivy had been raised to the rank of 1st Lieutenant of the sloop Liberty, and soon afterwards, on the 7th, to that of a Captain, when he was immediately engaged in the recruiting service; for

we find that on that day it was "ordered that a warrant issue for thirty pounds to Captain Wm. Ivy to recruit seamen for the use of the Navy," &c. It was on this same day, too, that the Board "recommended him to his Excellency, the Governor, and the Honorable the Council, as a proper person to be appointed to the command of the sloop Liberty, in the room of Capt. Walter Brooke." (Navy Journal, Vol. 1, p. 152-3.)

This appointment was, no doubt, the height of his ambition at the time, and he entered upon it with alacrity, for on the 28th of January, we find, that orders were issued for ammunition, provisions, and other naval stores, and some nautical instruments to be delivered to him. Thus equipped, we are assured that he sailed about in his gallant little sloop, annoying the enemy, and otherwise serving his country in various ways, till the close of the year 1777, or the beginning of the year 1778, when he died— leaving a good name behind him, which is still fondly cherished by his descendants.

I observe that Commodore Barron, in his interesting sketch of the Schooner Liberty, in your April number, says that "she was commanded, in the commencement of our revolutionary war, by Captain James Barron, afterwards Commodore Barron, Senior officer of that Navy." This is no doubt substantially true, but to make it strictly so, we must take the word " commencement" to mean "early part;" for I find that Capt. James Barron was "recommended as Captain of the Boat Liberty," on the 29th of March 1777, which was sometime after the war began. And, by the way, as we have already seen, that the sloop Liberty had been previously commanded by Captains Brooke and Ivy, it might be inferred that Capt. Barron succeeded the latter in the command of that vessel, which would give Capt. Ivy a very short cruise. But a boat, it seems, is not a sloop, but a schooner, and it was a schooner Liberty which Capt. Barron commanded. There must have been two vessels then of the same favorite name. And indeed it would appear that there must have been three-for I find that mention is also made of a Brig of that name, and commanded by another Captain about the same time, viz. by Capt. Thos.