soon died in great numbers. No good understanding subsisted between the general and the vice-admiral. The only place that remained to complete the conquest of Carthagena was Fort St Lazar, and the general determined to attempt carrying the place by storm. This resolution was formed without consulting Vernon; and Generals Blakeney and Wolfe protested against it as a rash and fruitless measure. As these experienced officers had foretold, the enterprise completely failed; and more than 600 men-the flower of the British army-were killed in the attack. The besiegers now gave up all hopes of being able to reduce the place; and the rainy season set in with such violence as rendered it impossible for the troops to live on shore. They were therefore reembarked, after the vice-admiral had made an unsuccessful attempt to bombard the town. The armament returned to Jamaica, having lost in the attack, and by sickness, upwards of 3000 men. An unsuccessful attack was next made upon St Jago, in the island of Cuba; and another upon Porto-Bello failed from the same cause that had ruined the former, from want of co-operation and cordial understanding betwixt the admiral and the commander of the land-forces. Ministers were at length convinced of the extreme impropriety of continuing two men possessing such jarring tempers any longer in the same command. An order of recall-which had been often solicited in vain on the part of the vice-admiral-was sent out by Captain Fowke, in the Gibraltar frigate; and that vessel arriving at Jamaica on the 23d of September, the vice-admiral sailed for England on the 18th of October, having resigned his command to Sir Chaloner Ogle.

Mr Vernon, after his arrival in England, continued unemployed till the year 1745; but, in the interim, was, on the 9th of August, 1743, advanced to be vice-admiral of the red. His retirement appears to have been compulsive, and was only borne with a very considerable degree of impatience. On the 23d of April, 1745, he was promoted to be admiral of the white squadron, and appointed to command the fleet ordered to the North sea, in consequence of the impending invasion of Scotland in favour of the pretender. In the month of August, he had his flag flying on board the St George, in Portsmouth harbour; but soon afterwards he removed into the Norwich and sailed for the Downs, where he continued-the intervals of cruising excepted-during the greater part of the ensuing winter. This period of his command was perhaps the most interesting of his whole life. No man could have been more diligent, or more successful in that particular service to which the necessities of his country called him. Unfortunately, however, some new and extraordinary regulations which he had taken upon him to make, being disapproved of by the board of admiralty, produced a remonstrance on their part, and a passionate public reply on that of Vernon. He returned to the Downs in a very few days afterwards, and struck his flag, which he never again hoisted. From this time he lived almost totally in retirement, troubling himself but little with public affairs.

He died, in an advanced age, at his seat at Nacton, in Suffolk, on the 30th of October, 1757. Vernon's judgment and abilities as a seaman are unquestioned; and his character, as a man of strict integrity and honour, perfectly unsullied. He is said to have been the first naval commander who brought into use the custom of mixing water

with the spirits allowed to the seamen ; and, it is added, the new beverage was denominated grog, because the admiral, its patron, generally wore a grogram waistcoat.

Admiral Byng.

BORN A. D. 1704.-DIED A. D. 1757.

THIS brave but unfortunate seaman was the fourth son of the gallant earl of Torrington, and entered the navy under his father's auspices. In 1727 he became captain of the Gibraltar frigate. In 1745 he was appointed rear-admiral of the blue, in 1747, vice-admiral. In 1748 he was made vice-admiral of the red; and in 1755 he relieved Sir Edward Hawke off Cape Finisterre.

When the English government received intelligence of the preparations making in the port of Toulon, and a descent upon Minorca seemed threatened, Byng sailed for the point of apprehended danger with what afterwards turned out to be a very inefficient force. He arrived off the island on the 19th of May, 1756, and made a fruitless attempt to communicate with the garrison. Shortly afterwards, he discovered the enemy's fleet, and stood towards it with the intention of engaging. About seven in the evening, the French attempted to gain the weathergage, but Byng, not choosing to yield this advantage, tacked also. Next day, at noon, the French were again in sight, and Byng hung out the signal to engage, which was obeyed by Rear-admiral West, who attacked the French with so much impetuosity that several of their ships were driven out of the line. Unfortunately Byng's squadron failed to come up to his support, so that West was obliged to haul off lest he should be separated from the rest of the fleet. According to Byng's statement, his division was retarded by the sternmost ship of the van losing her fore-mast, which compelled the whole to back their sails to avoid running foul of each other. Next morning, it was resolved in a council of war that the relief of Minorca was impracticable, and that the British fleet should immediately return to Gibraltar.

On his arrival in the bay, Byng was arrested by Admirals Hawke and Saunders, and sent to England. On the 28th of December, he was brought to trial before a court-martial consisting of four admirals and nine captains, who found him guilty of a breach of the 12th article of war, but acquitted him of disaffection or cowardice. He was accordingly sentenced to be shot, which sentence, notwithstanding the strenuous exertions of various parties, was carried into execution on the 14th of March, 1757, on board the Monarch. He met his death calmly and heroically.

"That the admiral did not exert his utmost power against the enemy," says Campbell, in his Naval History,' "is very evident; and it is equally apparent, his fleet having the advantage of the wind, that his fighting or not fighting was a matter of choice. Hence it necessarily follows, (allowing that he ought to have fought,) that he either wanted judgment or resolution. As to judgment, it certainly required very little to comprehend the importance of the service upon which he was sent; and still less knowledge of the history of human events, not to

know, that, when great achievements are required, something must be left to fortune, regardless of the calculation of chances. In all battles, whether at sea or in the field, fortuitous events must have vast influence; but in naval conflicts most frequently, where a single shot from a frigate may disable a first rate man-of-war. This consideration is alone sufficient to determine any commander of a king's ship never to strike so long as he can swim, be the force of his antagonist ever so superior. Upon the whole, I believe we may equitably conclude, that Admiral Byng was constitutionally deficient in that degree of personal intrepidity, by no means essential to the character of a private gentleman, but which is the sine qua non of a British admiral.. The justice of punishing a man for a constitutional defect, rests solely on his accepting his commission with the articles of war in his hand." Charnock, however, in his Lives and Characters of Naval Officers of Great Britain,' after stating, that, as an officer, Byng was by no means popular, being a very strict disciplinarian, adds—“Though we most seriously believe him to have been by no means deficient in personal courage, and that intrepidity so necessary to form a great commander, yet, it having been his misfortune never to have met with any of those brilliant opportunities of distinguishing himself, which would have established his fame far beyond the power and malice of his enemies, he did not possess that love, that enthusiastic respect and popular kind of adoration,-which are, at times, indispensably necessary to enable the best commanders to surmount the difficulties attendant on their situation. His force was, perhaps, in point of common prudence, never equal to the service on which he was sent. It consisted, at the outset, only of ten ships of the line, some of them in a very ill condition for sea, and all of them indifferently manned." "Mr Byng," says the same writer, "had very inprudently irritated the minds of his noble employers by his letter, written from Gibraltar, on his first arrival, in which he, in pretty plain terms, reflects on the conduct of ministers, in sending him out too late to prevent the landing of the enemy on the island itself. If,' said he, 'I had been so happy as to have arrived at Minorca before the enemy had landed, I flatter myself I should have had it in my power to have hindered them from establishing a footing there.' To this unguarded censure, it is not improbable, the admiral owed his ruin, which, if before in doubt, was, from that moment, determined on. He had been weak enough to speak the truth, that he had been sent out too late ; and that the opportunity of saving the fortress was irrevocably lost. This was a crime of so dark a nature as not to be forgiven. Those whom he had obliquely charged with remissness found it their interest to declare against him, and endeavour, by any means, to throw off the imputation of negligence with which they were charged."

The conduct of the ministry during this tragical affair was somewhat equivocal. They seem to have been inclined to mercy, but had not firmness enough to withstand the impetuosity of the king and the pubfic. "The popular cry," says Waldegrave, "was violent against the admiral; but Pitt and Lord Temple were desirous to save him, partly to please Leicester-house, and partly because making him less criminal would throw greater blame on the late administration. But to avoid the odium of protecting a man who had been hanged in effigy in every town of England, they wanted the king to pardon him without their

seeming to interfere." It would thus appear that poor Byng's fate was decided in the king's closet, not on grounds either of public justice or royal mercy, but as a weapon which the king and his ministers were endeavouring to use against each other. Pitt did indeed move the king for mercy, but too feebly and irresolutely. Lord Temple also, whose duty it was, as first lord of the admiralty, to sign the warrant for execution, refused to do so until the opinion of the twelve judges was obtained as to its legality. Walpole insinuates that an opinion unfavourable to the prisoner was obtained from the judges by Hardwicke's interference; but this is too monstrous an assertion to be received on the authority of that gossipping author. Lord Hardwicke had at this time entirely relinquished legal life; and, supposing the twelve high functionaries to be so base as to decide on life and death at the nod of a superior, why should they, it has been well-asked, obey the nod of one who had ceased to be their superior, and, from his situation, age, and feelings, was never likely again to be?

Sir Paul Methven.

BORN A. D. 1671.-DIED A. D. 1757.

THIS statesman was born in 1671, and educated for the bar. He rose to the dignity of lord-chancellor of Ireland; and it was while holding that high office that he concluded the celebrated commercial treaty with Portugal which bears his name. He also resided for some time in a diplomatic character at the court of Savoy. He died on the 11th of April, 1757. Sir Richard Steele dedicates one of the volumes of the Spectator to him. Swift calls him "a profligate rogue, without religion or morals, but cunning enough, yet without abilities of any kind." He was a staunch whig, and of course every thing that was bad in the dean's estimation.

Spencer, Duke of Marlborough.

BORN A. D. 1706.-died A. D. 1758.

THIS nobleman succeeded his elder brother, the earl of Sunderland, m 1729; and, in 1733, became duke of Marlborough, in right of his mother, daughter of the first duke. In 1743 he accompanied the king to Germany, and was present in the battle of Dettingen. He took no part in the political struggles of the period, but was one of the first to arm a force in defence of the established government on the breaking out of the troubles in 1745. His loyalty was rewarded by several honourable appointments.

In 1757 he was president of the board of general officers, appointed to inquire into the management of the Rochefort expedition. In the same year he encountered an extraordinary adventure with an unknown correspondent, whose object seems to have been either to extort money from the duke by the threat of assassination, or to gratify a capricious fancy by alarming the duke for his personal safety, and exciting the

public mind to a thousand vague conjectures as to the reality of a plot against the duke's life. The details of this transaction are already before the public in so many forms that we need not here repeat them. The duke acted with great firmness and prudence throughout the whole affair.

In 1758 Marlborough was placed at the head of an armament intended to make a descent on the French coast. He executed his cominission with all the requisite ability; the insignificance of the result was due to the minister who projected such a foolish enterprise. Soon after, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Germany; but he died shortly after his arrival in that country.

"Never," says one of his cotemporaries, speaking of the duke, "did the nation lose, in one man, a temper more candid and benevolent, manners more amiable and open, a more primitive integrity, a more exalted generosity, a more warm and feeling heart." Smollett describes him as having been a nobleman, who, although he did not inherit allthe military genius of his grandfather, yet far excelled him in the amiable and social qualities of the heart. "It is surprising," observes the same historian, "that the death of the duke was never attributed to the secret practices of the incendiary correspondent, who had given him to understand that his vengeance, though slow, would not be the less certain."

Major-general Wolfe.

BORN A. D. 1726.-died a. d. 1759.

JAMES WOLFE was the son of Lieutenant-general Edward Wolfe, an officer of distinguished worth, who served under the duke of Marlborough, and was very active under General Wightman in suppressing the rebellion of 1715. James was born at Westerham, in the county of Kent, as appears from his baptismal register bearing date the 11th of January, 1726. It is to be lamented that we have no memoirs of his juvenile years, in which perhaps we might have traced that amazing fortitude, indefatigable assiduity, cool judgment, and alacrity, for which he was afterwards so justly famed. He must have been educated for the army almost from his infancy, since honourable mention is made of his personal bravery at the battle of Lafeldt, in Austrian Flanders, fought in the year 1747. We are not told what rank he held at this time; but his royal highness the duke of Cumberland highly extolled his behaviour, and took every opportunity to reward him by promotion. The gradations of his rise are not ascertained; we are only informed, that, during the whole war, he continued improving his military talents, that he was present at every engagement, and never passed undistinguished in any. His promotion, however, must have been rapid; for we find him holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel of Kingsley's regiment soon after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. In this station, during the peace, he applied himself assiduously to his professional duties, and introduced the most exact discipline into his corps, without exercising any severity.

In the year 1754, a fresh rupture with France was rendered inevit