The truth is, the British ministry had for a long time depressed the unfortunate Americans into mere _hewers of wood and drawers of water_, by making them bring all their rich produce of tobaccos, furs, &c. to English ports, and there give them the meanest prices; sometimes a penny, and even half a penny a pound for their brightest tobacco, which they would the next hour sell to the Dutch merchants for two shillings a pound. To preserve such a trade as this, as Lord Howe ingenuously confessed, from going into any other channel, was a grand object to the ministry. But this they could not long count on, if the Americans were furnished with muskets, cannon, and powder. They therefore, very prudently, determined to leave Dr. Franklin's _excellent marksmen_ out of the question, and confide to their own creatures the protection of a country whose trade could so _well repay them for it_. But their folly in preferring such troops was soon made evident, as Franklin had predicted. In the spring of 1755, two thousand veterans, the elite of the British military, were sent over to drive the French from the Ohio. One half that number of Virginia riflemen would have done the business completely. But such was the ministerial jealousy of the American riflemen, and so great their dread to embody and arm that kind of troops, that they permitted no more than three companies to join the army. And even these were so ludicrously scrimped up by governor Dinwiddie, in jackets scarcely reaching to their waists, that they became a mere laughing stock of the British army, who never called them by any other name than the "VIRGINIA SHORT RUMPS." Many believed that this was done purposely, that by being thus constantly laughed at, they might be _cowed_ thereby, and be led to think meanly of themselves, as quite an inferior sort of beings to the MIGHTY ENGLISH. But blessed be God whose providence always takes part with the oppressed. A few short weeks only elapsed when this motley army was led, by an incautious commander, into a fatal ambuscade of the French and Indians--general Braddock, at the head of his 2000 British veterans, and young George Washington at the head of his two hundred "_Virginia short rumps_." Then was displayed the soundness of Dr. Franklin's judgment, in the wide difference, as to _self-possession and hard fighting_, between these two kind of troops. The conceited Englishmen behaved no better than WILD TURKIES; while the despised "_Virginia short rumps_" fought like lions, and had the glory of saving the wreck of the British army. This sad defeat had like to have ruined doctor Franklin, by whose credit with the Pennsylvanians, colonel Dunbar of the rear guard of his army, had been furnished with fifty wagons, which were all burnt on the retreat. His escape from this danger was owing to the generosity of governor Shirley, who learning that Franklin had incurred this debt on account of the British government, undertook to discharge it.