Neither is it necessary to call Jones the “father of the American navy.” If such a title could be properly applied to any one, that person is John Adams, who, from the beginning, strenuously advocated the need of a navy, and worked harder than any one man of his time for its establishment on a permanent basis. The fame of Captain Jones needs none of these artificial bolsters for its support. It stands on the solid foundation of personal merit and nothing can add to or detract from it. We have ample evidence of this in the extraordinary manifestation of popular interest in the removal of his remains from a foreign soil to a final resting place in America. What has been said here about the exploits of other naval heroes in the Revolution is used merely as a foil for the better setting off of the great central figure of the navy of that period. What Biddle, Wickes, Conyngham, Thompson, Hinman, and the American privateersmen did separately, Jones did as one man. After taking as commendable a part as a subordinate could in the successful expedition to New Providence, he commanded the warship _Providence_, and performed some of the most remarkable feats in seamanship on record, besides inflicting serious losses on the enemy. As commander of the _Alfred_, in which he began his American career as lieutenant, he added to his reputation as a daring and successful skipper. In the _Ranger_ he cruised in the Irish Sea with a boldness and success that has never been surpassed, while his extraordinary career in the _Bonhomme Richard_ stands unsurpassed in the annals of the world’s naval history. Within the scope of his necessarily limited naval activities, he has set a standard of professional excellence that present and coming generations of naval aspirants will find difficult to surpass. EDGAR S. MACLAY. _Evening Post_, N. Y. THE MOONLIGHT BATTLE We have much pleasure in presenting our subscribers with the first engraving of Thomas Birch’s painting of John Paul Jones’ greatest sea-fight. It illustrates the desperate encounter at the moment when a hand-grenade has been dropped from the _Bon Homme’s_ mainyard down a hatchway of the _Serapis_, causing a terrible explosion. In the distance can be seen the British merchant vessels, under the protection of the guns of Scarborough Castle, as also the conflict between the _Pallas_,—the only other ship of Jones’ squadron actively engaged,—and the _Countess of Scarborough_, which also ended in the defeat of the British vessel. For the use of the plate we are indebted to the kindness of Mr. S. V. Henkels, Philadelphia. BURLEIGH—AND JOHNSON’S ISLAND