presided on the trial of Lieutenant Couchman and others, for piratically running away with his majesty's ship the Chesterfield; and very soon afterwards on the trial of an officer of rank, for disobedience of orders. In the month of December, 1749, he sat in the court-martial held at Deptford for the trial of Rear-admiral Knowles; and in the month of February following, on the trials of Captains Holmes and Powlett. In 1750 he was appointed to the Portsmouth command. On the 15th of August he entertained, on board the Monarch, his flag-ship, then lying at Spithead, their royal highnesses the prince and princess of Wales.

After the disastrous affair at Minorca, Hawke was sent to supersede Admiral Byng. He acted with great spirit during this cruise in the Mediterranean, especially in compelling the Austrian government to release Fortunatus Wright, the captain of an English privateer, who had been thrown into prison by the authorities at Leghorn, for au alleged violation of the neutrality of that port.

In 1757, Sir Edward, now vice-admiral of the white, was selected to command an expedition equipped for the attack of Rochefort. His force consisted of no less than sixteen ships of the line, two bombketches, two fire-ships, two busses, one store-ship, and fifty-five transports, exclusive of the Jason, of forty guns, employed as a transport, and the Chesterfield, as a repeating frigate. The land-forces consisted of ten regiments of infantry, two of marines, a squadron of light-horse, and a proportionate train of artillery. Formidable as was the force of this armament, the delays and hesitation of the general and other land officers, rendered the whole project abortive. No blame, however, was ever attached to Sir Edward, whose advice was rejected by Sir John Mordaunt, the commander of the land forces. Having returned to Portsmouth with the transports and troops, he again repaired to his station off the coast of France, for the purpose of blocking up the several ports and preventing any smaller armaments from putting to sea. was almost uninterruptedly occupied in this line of service, without meeting with any memorable incident, till the 3d of April, 1757, when he got sight of a squadron and convoy belonging to the enemy, off the isle of Aix. It was intended for North America, and consisted of seven ships of the line, as many frigates, and forty merchant vessels or transports. At the approach of the English fleet, the enemy immediately slipped their cables and fled towards shore; and by throwing the guns, stores, ammunition, provisions, and even their ballast, overboard from the men-of-war, together with part of the cargoes from the merchant vessels, they succeeded in dragging their ships up the Charente, and through the mud, into the harbour of Rochefort.

He

In 1758, he held a command in the fleet under Lord Anson; but, while in the bay of Biscay, he was attacked by a violent fever which compelled him to return to Portsmouth and quit active service. In the following year, he commanded the blockading squadron off Brest, which, being driven into Torbay by a tempest, M. de Conflans, with the French fleet, as soon as the storm had abated, put to sea. Hawke soon followed, and, on the morning of the 20th November, descried the enemy off Belleisle. On this occasion he told his officers that he did not intend to trouble himself by forming lines; for that "he would attack them in his old way, and make downright work with them." A mcst spirited, though irregular contest, necessarily occasioned by the

inclemency of the weather, and the rocky coast on which the action took place, immediately commenced. The British van attacked the rear of the French about half-past two o'clock in the afternoon: each of the foremost ships as they advanced poured a broadside into the sternmost of the enemy, and then bore down on their van. Hawke, in the Royal George, without returning the fire of several other ships, passed on towards the Soleil Royal, which bore Admiral Conflans' flag, and was nearly surrounded by breakers. When apprized by his pilot of the danger of advancing, he is said to have coolly replied, "You have done your duty in pointing out the danger; you are now to comply with my order, and lay me alongside the Soleil." The captain of the Thesée, a French ship of seventy guns, as the Royal George approached the Soleil Royal, gallantly interposed his own vessel to save that of his commander. The Thesée, consequently, received a broadside, intended for the French admiral's ship, and so terrific was its effect, that as soon as the smoke had cleared away, the tops of her masts alone were visible, and in another moment the sea rolled over her colours. The fight raged till night. In the morning the Soleil Royal finding herself in the midst of the English fleet, ran on shore, and was afterwards burnt. The same fate attended the Heros, of seventy-four guns. The Thesée, Superbe, and Juste, were sunk; and the Formidable, of eighty guns, bearing the rear-admiral's flag, was captured. Sir Edward, in his official despatches, assigned the following modest excuse for the loss of his antagonists not having been much greater than it proved: "In attacking a flying enemy, it was impossible in a short winter's day that all our ships should be able to get into action; or all those of the enemy brought to it. The commanders and companies of such as did come up with the rear of the French, on the 20th, behaved with the greatest intrepidity, and gave the strongest proof of a true British spirit. In the same manner I am satisfied those would have acquitted themselves, whose bad going ships, or the distance they were at in the morning, prevented from getting up. Our loss by the enemy is not considerable; for in the ships which are now with me, I find only one lieutenant and thirty-nine seamen and marines killed, and about two hundred and two wounded. When I consider the season of the year, the hard gales on the day of action, a flying enemy, the shortness of the day, and the coast we were on, I can boldly affirm, that all that could possibly be done has been done. As to the loss we have sustained, let it be placed to the account of the necessity I was under of running all risks, to break this strong force of the enemy. Had we had but two hours more daylight, the whole had been totally destroyed or taken; for we were almost up with the van, when night overtook us."

Sir Edward did not return to Plymouth till the 17th of January in the ensuing year; the whole of the intermediate time being employed in cruising off the coast of Brittany. He was received in England with the greatest enthusiasm. A pension of £2000 a-year was immediately bestowed on him, with a reversion to his sons, and the survivor of them, by his majesty; and on the 28th of January following, being the first day of his attendance in the house of commons as member for the town of Portsmouth, he received the thanks of the house from the speaker.

In the mouth of August, 1760, he resumed the command of the fleet

stationed in Quiberon bay. On the 4th of January, 1762, the appointment of rear-admiral of England was bestowed upon him; and, on the resignation of Mr Osborne, on the 5th of November, 1765, he was made vice-admiral of Great Britain. On the 2d of the ensuing month, he was appointed first commissioner for executing the office of lordhigh-admiral, a station which he continued to fill with the highest honour till the 10th of January, 1771, when he voluntarily resigned it. He was created by letters patent, bearing date, May 20th, 1776, a peer of Great Britain, by the style and title of Baron Hawke of Tawton, county of York. He died, universally respected and lamented, on the 14th of October, 1781, at Sunbury, in Middlesex; and was buried at Swaithling, near Botley, in the county of Hants.

His lordship married Catharine, daughter of Walter Brooke of Burton-hall, in the county of York; and by that lady had issue, three sons and one daughter. He was succeeded in his title by Martin Bladen, his eldest son.

Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham.

BORN A. D. 1730.—died a. D. 1782.

CHARLES WATSON WENTWORTH, only son of Thomas Watson Wentworth, created Marquess of Rockingham in 1746, by Mary, daughter of the earl of Winchelsea, was born on the 13th of May, 1730. The estates of the earls of Strafford of the first creation, with their sirname of Wentworth, had passed to his paternal grandfather, who had already a splendid patrimony by the death of William the second earl. The subject of this notice succeeded therefore to an immense estate upon the death of his father in 1750. On coming of age, in 1751, he took his seat in the house of peers; on the 9th of July in that year, he was constituted lord-lieutenant of the county of York; and in 1760, he was made a knight of the garter.

In 1763, disgusted with the proceedings of Lord Bute, then the reigning favourite at court, he resigned the situation of a lord of the bed-chamber, which he had for some time before held, and also his lord-lieutenancy of Yorkshire. Two years had scarcely elapsed, however, when the whole system of government having undergone a change, he was appointed, on the 10th of July, 1765, first lord of the treasury. The death of the duke of Cumberland, and the proceedings in America, excited by Grenville's stamp act, placed Rockingham and his colleagues in a trying situation. For a time they hesitated as to the repeal of the obnoxious act. At last they resolved it should be repealed, but that a declaratory act asserting the supreme authority of the mother country should be passed at the same time. Burke probably suggested this measure; it at least had his strenuous advocacy. It was also known to have the approval of Franklin, who was then in England, and in communication with the ministry. This line of policy was a dubious one; it was calculated to unite against ministers the two extreme parties, one of whom contended for the expediency and right of taxing America, and the other strenuously denied both. The following extracts from letters written by secretary Conway to his brother Lord

Hertford, who had been appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland by the new cabinet, exhibit the prospect of ministers at this period.

Writing from London, under date, 7th November, 1765, Mr Conway says: "Your opposition of nine is a pretty little opposition. I should be glad to compound with our opposers for six times that number, and on this head have an unpleasant article to tell you, which is, that Barré has refused; I have this day received his very civil, but direct excuse. He is pleased to say he knows very little of the present administration but myself, and has no knowledge of the plans of government, &c. That is the fashionable language of the great, and almost of the little too; every body is minister, every body plans and lays systems of government. Happy times, which abound in so many great and wise men ! What I observe in general is, that every body knows how to govern, but those that should. I know you'll think our affairs quite desperate, after the chasm the poor Duke (Cumberland) has made, and this capital refusal. Yet we don't at all think so-nor does his majesty; but rather flatter ourselves the strength on the whole is good and promising. Ch. T. (Townshend) is very much disposed and very sanguine; my lord-chancellor declares himself roundly and strongly, and laughs at all despondency. It is not foreign from our thoughts, privately to sound Mr P. (Pitt); to do it publicly would hurt the cause in this moment; though some time hence it might do us service to have it known it was done. Don't be surprised, entre nous, if you hear that I am out again, I mean out of what I am in. You know how I hate this life, and it raises my spirits much to think I see an hole to creep out at. C. T. (Charles Townshend) with all his cordiality, fixes conditions to his good will. Confidence and the cabinet were the word a little while ago; now he wishes to be useful, and the way in which he can be so most, is as leader of the house. I closed at once, with the addition, that he should then be secretary of state too— this only to Lord R. (Rockingham) and the D. of G. (Duke of Grafton, the other secretary of state) to whom I think aloud; but to-day I have privately heard, that he has said in a letter that things were changed since he refused; he did it then on his brother's account, &c., which gives me hopes of doing what I much wish, laying aside my grandeur and my trouble, and the slavery of being tied to a desk, and taking his comfortable employment now, till I can wind about again into the situation I wish in the army. That's my plan; it suits all my views and ambition, though it will be despised and condemned by many: if I felt that much, it's clear I should not choose it. This for ourselves: that I dislike my station all the world may know." On the 14th November he writes: "You say I must have been in Ireland to know how much business you have. I was in Ireland, and to be sure not in an idle station,' yet for my sins it is now in England I learn what business really is, and learn to be so sick of it, I envy every captain I see." In a subsequent part of his letter he says: "I have little news of a domestic kind. I believe I told you Barré refuses; that you'll dislike, and yet I think we much rather gain than lose ground on the whole, notwithstanding even our late unhappy loss" (the death of the duke

'He had been Irish secretary in 1755, when the marquess of Hartington was lord. lieutenant,

of Cumberland.) On the 27th of December, during the adjournment, he writes: "As to our affairs here, I can tell you nothing new, at least with any certainty. Mr Pitt has declared, in general terms, strongly in favour of our measures, yet he keeps at Bath, and at a distance every way. Beckford, Cooke, Prowse, and other independent men, are strongly with us; if any thing goes wrong, it will be by a rottenness within. A certain party keep aloof, and the world says are certainly forming a bande à parte: I mean Lord B.'s (Bute's) friends-the two Townshends particularly; and if they have a mind, the American affairs will give them an opportunity to be troublesome. Lord Shelburne and Barré seem particularly fixed nowhere. Lord Temple and Lord Lyttleton will, I think, both oppose. The lord-chancellor and the Yorkes are, in appearance, very firm. Lord Mansfield and Lord Camden doubtful. This is a little sketch of our political anatomy. What opinion does it give you ?"

When parliament re-assembled on the 14th of January, 1766, no amendment was moved to the address in the lords; but an interesting debate took place in the commons. Pitt approved of the address on the ground that it decided nothing, and left every member at perfect liberty to take such a part concerning America as he might afterwards see fit. Turning to Grenville, near to whom he stood, he said that, as to the late ministry, every capital measure they had taken had been entirely wrong. Then looking over to the bench where Conway sat with the lords of the treasury, he proceeded: "As to the present gentlemen, to those at least whom I have in my eye, I have no objection; I have never been made a sacrifice by any of them. Their characters are fair; and I am always glad when men of fair character engage in his majesty's service. Some of them have done me the honour to ask my poor opinion before they would engage. These will do me the justice to own I advised them to engage; but, notwithstanding, I love to be explicit; I cannot give them my confidence; pardon me, gentlemen, (bowing to the ministry,) confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom; youth is the season of credulity. By comparing events with each other, reasoning from effects to causes, methinks I plainly discover the traces of an overruling influence." He then stated his opinions as to American affairs: "It is my opinion," he said, "that this kingdom has no right to levy a tax upon the colonies. At the same time I assert the authority of this kingdom over the colo nies to be sovereign and supreme in every circumstance of government and legislation whatsoever. Taxation is no part of the governing or legislative power. The taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the commons alone. In legislation, the three estates of the realm are alike concerned; but the concurrence of the peers and the crown to tax is only necessary to close with the form of a law. The gift and grant is of the commons alone." When Pitt sat down, Conway rose and emphatically denied the existence of the overruling influence (that, namely, of Lord Bute) at which Pitt had hinted. "I see nothing of it," he said; "I feel nothing of it; I disclaim it for myself, and as far as my discernment can reach, for all the rest of his majesty's ministers." The address was voted without a division, in the terms proposed by ministers.

On the 10th of February, five resolutions were moved by ministers,