she bore down to the sloop, and never fired another shot, but careened her over and let some men down the side to stop her holes, & sent some to repair the rigging and sails, which were full of shot holes.  All the damage we got was one shot through our main-sail.  The ship mounted 6 guns of a side, and the sloop eight.  She was a Spanish privateer, bound on a cruize to the N’ward, & had taken 5 ships & the sloop which we had retaken some time before.  It grieved us to think that the fellow should go off with those prizes, which he would not have done, had the Captain been as willing to fight as we.  This battle took place in the Latitude 29 deg. 26’, Long. 74 deg. 30’ W. But no blood was shed on our side.

THE ADVANTAGES OF DEFEAT.

When the news flashed over the country, on Monday, the 22d of July, that our army, whose advance into Virginia had been so long expected, and had been watched with such intense interest and satisfaction,—­that our army had been defeated, and was flying back in disorder to the intrenchments around Washington, it was but natural that the strong revulsion of feeling and the bitter disappointment should have been accompanied by a sense of dismay, and by alarm as to what was to follow.  The panic which had disgraced some of our troops at the close of the fight found its parallel in the panic in our own hearts.  But as the smoke of the battle and the dust of the retreat, which overshadowed the land in a cloud of lies and exaggerations, by degrees cleared away, men regained the even balance of their minds, and felt a not unworthy shame at their transient fears.

It is now plain that our defeat at Bull Run was in no true sense a disaster; that we not only deserved it, but needed it; that its ultimate consequences are better than those of a victory would have been.  Far from being disheartened by it, it should give us new confidence in our cause, in our strength, in our final success.  There are lessons which every great nation must learn which are cheap at any cost, and for some of those lessons the defeat of the 21st of July was a very small price to pay.  The essential question now is, Whether this schooling has been sufficient and effectual, or whether we require still further hard discipline to enforce its instructions upon us.

In this moment of pause and compelled reflection, it is for us to examine closely the spirit and motives with which we have engaged in war, and to determine the true end for which the war must be carried on.  It is no time for indulging in fallacies of the fancy or in feebleness of counsel.  The temper of the Northern people, since the war was forced upon them, has been in large measure noble and magnanimous.  The sudden interruption of peace, the prospect of a decline of long continued prosperity, were at once and manfully faced.  An eager and emulous zeal in the defence of the imperilled liberties and institutions