The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

40 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [,ET. 22.
TO GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE.
Great Meadows, 10 June, 1754.
SIR,
Yours I received by the post, and return you mv
hearty thanks for your kind congratulation on our late
success, which I hope to improve without risking the
imputation of rashness, or hazarding what a prudent
conduct would forbid. I rejoice that I am likely to be
happy under the command of an experienced officer,
and man of sense. It is what I have ardently wished
words, —'I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something
charming in the sound.' On hearing of this the king said sensibly, -' He
would not say so, if he had been used to hear many.' However, this brave
braggart learned to blush for his rhodomontade, and, desiring to serve
General Braddock as aid-de-camp, acquitted himself nobly." Vol. I.
p. 347.
The above letter is the despatch communicated by Major Washington
to Governor Dinwiddie, giving an account of the rencounter with Jumonville's party, a copy of which was probably sent by the Governor to
England. It contains nothing about the whistling of bullets, nor is such a
sentiment uttered in any of his letters, that have been preserved. As the
writer refers to no authority, it may be presumed, that he had none but
rumor, either for the saying of Washington, or the more sensible reply of
the King. Yet this anecdote is not wholly without foundation, if we may
rely on a statement of Gordon, in which he says;-" A gentleman, who
had heard the Reverend Mr. Davies relate, that Colonel Washington had
mentioned, he knew of no music so pleasing as the whistling of bullets,
being alone in conversation with him at Cambridge, asked him whether it
was as he had related. The General answered,' If I said so, it was when
I was young."' Gordon's HiFstory, Vol. II. p. 203.
The.HMemoirs of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, quoted above, are
understood to have been written near the time of the events, but they were
not published till after his death. The Editor remarks, in a note on the
word braggart, -" It is wonderful, that Lord Orford should have allowed
this expression to remain, after he had lived to witness and admire the
subsequent career of that great man General Washington." It may be
added, that it was not by his own desire, but at the solicitation of General
Braddock, that Washington joined him as aid-de-camp.
There is another passage in these Memoirs, purporting to have been
written in 1754, which is remarkable for the declaration with which it
concludes. The author is censuring the government for the course pur