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to the unworthiness of his motives. It has been alleged that Sunderland was pensioned both by the prince of Orange and the king of France, in 1686, and that the fact was well-known to James himself. There is not sufficient evidence to support this allegation, for the passage on which it is founded in Macpherson's State Papers,' will be found on examination to be not an extract from James's private journal, as it has been represented, but a statement made by the anonymous compiler of James's life on his own authority. Neither is the alleged transaction with Monmouth any better supported. In the same papers there is an account of Ralph Sheldon informing James in the presence of Sunderland himself, that he (Sheldon) was directed by Monmouth to acquaint the king that Lord Sunderland had promised "to meet him," in order to join the insurrection. The anecdote, besides being extremely improbable in itself, rests only on the testimony of the anonymous writer already referred to, and is unsupported by any reference to the king's own memoirs.

In February 1685, Spencer succeeded Halifax in office of president of the council, while he still retained that of secretary of state. His negotiations with the party of the prince of Orange at last became evident to the whole court, and the catholic party clamoured loudly for his dismissal. Yet, on the arrival of William, Sunderland fled to the continent, and he was specially excepted from the acts of indemnity and free pardon, which the new sovereign promulgated in 1690 and 1692. It is not easy, therefore, to account for the marvellous facility with which the earl at last replaced himself in the administration of this country. Burnet declares that "he gained an ascendant over William, and had more credit with him than any Englishman ever had." He was not, indeed, brought forward in any specific office in the state, but he was virtually the prime minister, for the king gave himself up to his advice, until he found that the nation would no longer bear the approach of such a man to the royal ear. He reluctantly yielded to the clamour raised against his favourite by all parties, and allowed the earl to retire into privacy, at his seat in Northamptonshire, where he died in September, 1702.

"Lord Sunderland," says Burnet, "was a man of a clear and a ready apprehension, and a quick decision in business. He had too much heat," he adds, "both of imagination and passion, and was apt to speak very freely both of persons and things. His own notions were always good, but he was a man of great expense, and, in order to the supporting of himself, he went into the prevailing counsels at court; and he changed sides often, with little regard either to religion or to the interests of his country."

Vice-Admiral John Benbow.

BORN A. D. 1650.-DIED A. D. 1702

THIS eccentric but gallant naval officer was descended from a good family in the county of Salop, that had sacrificed its property to its loyalty during the civil wars. He was born about the year 1650, at Cotton-hill, near Shrewsbury. His father, Colonel John Benbow, dy

ing when his son was yet a boy, and leaving no property for the youth's support, the lad was apprenticed, by some humane friends, to a merchant-captain. He conducted himself so well that, before he had completed his thirtieth year, he became master and partly owner of a trig little merchant-vessel called the Benbow frigate. While thus occupied, a singular anecdote is related of him, which at once displays, in the most forcible colours, his gallantry and his very whimsical turn of mind. He was attacked in his passage to Cadiz by a Sallee rover, against whom he defended himself with desperate valour, though his crew was very inferior in numbers to his opponents. At last the Moors boarded him, but they were quickly beaten cut of his ship again, with the loss of thirteen men, whose heads Captain Benbow ordered to be cut off, and thrown into a tub of pork pickle! On arriving at Cadiz, Benbow went on shore and ordered a negro servant to follow him, with the Moors' heads in a sack. He had scarcely landed before the officers of the revenue inquired what he had in his sack. The captain answered, "Salt provisions for my own use." "That may be," answered the officers; "but we must insist upon seeing them." Benbow replied that he was no stranger there, and pretended to be much offended that he was suspected. The officers told him that the magistrates were sitting not far off, and that if they were satisfied with his word, his servant might carry the provisions whither he pleased, but that, as for themselves, it was not in their power to act otherwise than they did. The captain at last consented to go before the magistrates; they marched to the custom-house, Mr Benbow in the front, his men in the centre, and the officers in the rear. The magistrates, when he came before them, treated Captain Benbow with great civility; told him they were sorry to make a point of such a trifle; but that, since he refused to show the contents of his sack to their officers, the nature of their employment obliged them to demand a sight of them; and that, as they doubted not they were salt provisions, the act of showing them could be of no consequence one way or the other. "I told you," says the captain sternly, "they were salt provisions for my own use. Cæsar, throw them down on the table; and, gentlemen, if you like them, they are at your service!” The Spaniards were exceedingly struck at the sight of the Moors' heads, and no less astonished at the account of the captain's adventure, who, with so small a force, had been able to defeat such a number of barbarians.

The fame of Benbow's valour and exploits at last reached the ears of the English government, who at once issued a captain's commission to him, and appointed him to the command of the York, of sixty guns. This was in 1689: next year the earl of Torrington made him master of his own flag-ship, the Sovereign. Perhaps Benbow shared for a time in the disgrace of his superior, for we find no subsequent mention made of him till 1693, when he was appointed to the Norwich, and sent out with a squadron to bombard St Maloes. His services on this, and several other similar occasions, gave much satisfaction to the government, and were rewarded by his elevation to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue.

When ministers suspected that the court of France was meditating a blow at our colonies in the West Indies, Benbow was despatched with an armament for their protection. He fulfilled his mission admirably,

and was a second time despatched on the same errand. King William, on this last occasion, thinking it hard that a man who had so very recently returned from such a disagreeable service should be again sent out, wished some other officer appointed; but none could be found, in whom the ministry had sufficient confidence, willing to undertake a service in which there was so little probability of acquiring either honour or advantage. Perceiving this, the king is said to have wittily exclaimed: "Well then, as I find I must spare our beaux, I will send Benbow!" From the moment he received official information of the rupture between Great Britain and France, he redoubled his activity; and having got his ships in the best condition for service his circumstances would permit, put to sea from Port-Royal on the 11th of July, having with him eight ships of the line, a fire-ship, a bomb-ketch, and a sloop. His intention was to form a junction with rear-admiral Whetstone, whom he detached a few days before; but having received advice on the 14th that Du Casse was expected at Loogane, in Hispaniola, he directed his course thither; and though not fortunate enough to meet with Du Casse there, his disappointment found some palliative in the destruction of a French ship, carrying fifty guns. Having thus effected all the mischief he was capable of doing the enemy in this quarter, he again put to sea on the 2d of August in pursuit of Du Casse. On the 19th of the same month he fell in with ten sail to the westward of St Martha, which he very soon discovered to be French. Their force consisted of four ships of from seventy to sixty-six guns each, a large Dutch built frigate mounting nearly forty guns, a transport with troops, and four small vessels. Benbow immediately made the signal for his squadron to form, he himself being, as is customary, in the centre; but the dilatoriness of many of the captains prevented the line from being properly arranged till the day was too far advanced for him to expect any material advantage ere night would put an end to the encounter. He resolved, however, to make the attempt; but the absolute flight of Captain Kirby, who commanded the Defiance, of sixtyfour guns, and the misbehaviour of Captain Constable in the Windsor, of sixty, contributed to render the short action much less decisive than it might have proved. Indeed the whole weight of the engagement lay upon the Breda, the vice-admiral's ship, and, in all probability, he would have fallen a sacrifice to his own gallantry, had he not been most ably supported by Captain Walton, in the Ruby, of forty-eight guns. Benbow, in the hope of reclaiming his recreant officers, made an alteration in his line of battle, and led the van himself on both tacks in the Breda. In this expectation, however, he was unfortunately disappointed, for at break of day, on the morning of the 20th, he found himself close to the enemy, without a single ship near him except the Ruby; the remainder of the squadron were three, four, and five miles astern. But though the admiral appeared to be so deserted, the enemy seemed irresolute, and afraid of making use of that advantage which fortune had thrown in their way. Although the Breda was within gun-shot of them, they suffered her to remain unmolested, and a breeze springing up about three o'clock, crowded all the sail they could to avoid any further encounter. The admiral and Captain Walton attacked with their chase-guns; but night came on, and the French ships continued their retreat, without having suffered any material damage. On the

21st the engagement was renewed at break of day; for the admiral, with his gallant second, had succeeded in keeping close antagonists during the whole of the night. The Breda had the good fortune to drive one of the largest of the enemy's ships out of the line; but the Ruby being small, and ill adapted to contend against such powerful ships as Du Casse had with him, the vice-admiral was obliged to send his own boats to tow her out of reach. No other ship of the British squadron came up during the whole of this day's encounter, and the contest consequently remained undecided, the enemy using every effort to escape, while Benbow was equally active on his part to prevent their flight. On the 22d, the Greenwich, of fifty-four guns, commanded by Captain Wade, was near three leagues astern, although the signal for the line of battle had never been struck, from the hour it was first hoisted on the 19th; the rest of the squadron, however the Ruby excepted, which was in a very wretched and disabled state-were pretty well up with the Breda; but the whole of the day passed on without its being possible for the admiral to effect any thing decisive. Appearances, on the morning of the 23d, were still more inauspicious; the enemy were six or seven miles a-head, and the English squadron very much scattered, several of the ships being four or five miles astern; but the exertions of the admiral were such, that in spite of every impediment, he nearly closed with the French by ten o'clock, and after exchanging several shots with two ships, captured the Anne galley, an English vessel, which Du Casse had taken on his passage to the West Indies. The Ruby being found too much disabled to be capable of rendering any further assistance, was ordered to Port-Royal. The ensuing night put an end to the contest, which, though it terminated unfortunately, ended most gloriously for the reputation of Benbow. "On the 24th," says the Journal of the encounter, "at two in the morning we came up within hail of the sternmost; it being very little wind, the admiral fired a broadside, with double and round below, and round and cartridge aloft, which she returned. At three o'clock the admiral's right leg was shattered to pieces by a chain-shot, and he was carried down; but presently ordered his cradle on the quarter-deck, and continued the fight till day, when appeared the ruins of a ship of about seventy guns; her mainyard down, and shot to pieces; her fore-topsail shot away; her mizenmast shot by the board; all her rigging gone, and her sides bored through and through with our double-headed shot. The Falmouth assisted in this matter very much, and no other ship. Soon after day the admiral saw the other ships of the enemy coming towards him with a strong gale of wind easterly; at the same time the Windsor, Pendennis and Greenwich, ahead of the enemy, ran to leeward of the disabled ship, fired their broadsides, passed her, and stood to the southward; then the Defiance followed them, passed also to leeward of the disabled ship, and fired part of her broadside. The disabled ship did not fire above twenty guns at the Defiance, before she put her helm a-weather, and ran away right before the wind; lowered both her topsails, and ran to leeward of the Falmouth, which was then a gunshot to leeward of the admiral, knotting her rigging, without any regard to the signal for battle. The enemy seeing our other two ships stand to the southward, expected they would have tacked and stood with them. They brought to with their heads to the northward; but seeing those three ships did

not tack, bore down upon the admiral, and ran between the disabled ship and him, firing all their guns, in which they shot away his main topsail yard, and shattered his rigging much. None of the other ships being near him, nor taking any notice of the battle signal, the captain of the Breda hereupon fired two guns at those ships ahead, in order to put them in mind of their duty. The French, seeing this great disorder, brought to and lay by their own disabled ship, remanned, and took her in tow. The Breda's rigging being much shattered, she lay by till ten o'clock; and being then refitted, the admiral ordered the captain to pursue the enemy, who was then about three miles distant, and to leeward, having the disabled ship in tow, steering N.E., the wind at S.S.W. The admiral, in the mean time, made all the sail after them he could; and the battle-signal was always out. But the enemy, taking encouragement from the behaviour of some of our captains, the admiral ordered Captain Fogg to send to the captains to keep their line, and to behave themselves like men, which he did. Upon this, Captain Kirby came on board the admiral, and pressed him very earnestly to desist from any further engagement, which made the admiral desirous to know the opinion of the other captains. Accordingly he ordered Captain Fogg to make a signal for all the other captains to come on board, which they did, and most of them concurred with Captain Kirby in his opinion; whereupon, the admiral perceiving they had no mind to fight, and being not able to prevail with them to come to any other resolution, though all they said was erroneous, he thought it not fit to venture any further. At this time the admiral was abreast of the enemy, and had a fair opportunity of fighting them; the masts and yards in good condition, and few men killed, except those on board the Breda." Du Casse himself is said to have most grievously condemned that cowardice and misconduct which saved him from destruction; and he is even reported to have written Benbow a letter with his own hand, couched in the following terms:-"Sir! I had little hopes on Monday last but to have supped in your cabin, but it pleased God to order it otherwise; I am thankful for it. As for those cowardly captains who deserted you, hang them up, for by they deserve it.-Yours, "DU CASSE."

Benbow finding it impossible to effect any thing decisive against the enemy, till the ships under his orders were commanded by other offi cers, returned to Jamaica, where it was found necessary to amputate his shattered limb, for the purpose of preventing mortification. A fever ensued, which, though his robust constitution held out for a long time, at length put a period to his life on the 4th of November, 1702.

Samuel Pepys.

BORN A. D. 1632.-DIED A. D. 1703.

SAMUEL PEPYS was descended from a younger branch of an old Norfolkshire family of that name, which had settled at Cottenham in Cambridgeshire early in the sixteenth century. Younger sons are proverbially richer in blood than money, and we must not therefore be surprised to find that this branch of the family had fallen somewhat away