Personal Adventures during a Trip overland from Sidney to Port The Coffin-Maker, from the Russian, by Thomas B. Shaw, A Gallop through Southern Austria, by J. Marvel, Some Account of the last Expedition to the Albert Thorvaldsen, a biographical Sketch, by H. C. Andersen, The Military Career of the celebrated Earl of Peterborough Mr. Brooke, Governor of Labuan, and Rajah of Sarawak, by J. A. St. Portrait of Mr. John Duncan, the African Traveller, Expedition of the Knights of France and England to Africa in 1390, MEMOIR OF THE EARL OF DUNDONALD. WITH A PORTRAIT. BY W. C. TAYLOR, LL.D. TIME and peace have equally tended to lessen that passionate sympathy with deeds of heroism which was general throughout England during the arduous period of continental war. Most of our naval and military heroes have taken their place in history; we read of their exploits as of the deeds performed by English chivalry in the days of the Plantagenets. The trophies of Aboukir are as the glories of Crecy; the victory of Trafalgar as the triumph of Agincourt. Howe, Nelson, and Duncan are as much recorded memories as Talbot, Manny, and Bedford; But their bones are dust, And their good swords rust, And their souls are with the saints, we trust. The few veterans who survive enjoy during life the honours that are usually awarded by posterity. There are, however, those among them who claim at our hands the reversal of decisions pronounced by a past generation, and the redress of grievances inflicted by party, under the excitement of pride, of prejudice, or of passion. One of the greatest of those appellants, to whom tardy justice has been recently rendered by our gracious sovereign, is the Earl of Dundonald, immortalized in the history of two worlds as the gallant Lord Cochrane. After the lapse of a period nearly equal to that which nature assigns to the average duration of human life, his reputation is exonerated from an unfair stigma, his rank restored, and his position in the roll of British chivalry re-established. Never was there a nearer approach made to the Egyptian judgment of the dead. Our queen has pronounced the verdict of posterity. It remains for us not to vindicate the sound decision, but to state the reasons why it should command not merely the approbation, but the grateful applause of the English people. Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald, was born in Scotland, Dec. 14th, 1775. His father, the ninth Earl of Dundonald, had passed the earlier part of his life in the naval service, while his later years were devoted to the pursuit of practical science, in which he made many useful discoveries. At the early age of eleven Lord Cochrane entered as a midshipman under his uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, a gallant and enterprising admiral. A tutor was provided for the boy; and thus, while he rapidly acquired a practical knowledge of seamanship, the higher pursuits of science and literature were not neglected. The romantic enthusiasm of his character was manifest at a very early age, and was evinced in many adventures. His age for some time delayed his promotion; but his gallantry in attacking some French privateers and gun-boats, in the bay of Algeziras, was so appreciated by Lord Keith, that he at once appointed him to the command of the Speedy, a sloop of eighteen guns. VOL. XXII. B In February, 1801, he captured the Caroline, a French brig; and in April he took several Spanish xebeques; but in the May of that year he achieved his first great exploit, in the attack and capture of the Spanish frigate, El Jamo, off Barcelona. The inequality of force was truly alarming; the frigate mounted thirty-two guns, twenty of which were long twelve-pounders, and she had a crew of three hundred and nineteen men. On the other hand, the Speedy had only fourteen four-pounders, and her crew amounted only to fifty-two men and two boys. But this small crew was worthy of being commanded by such a captain. No sooner did Cochrane announce his intention of boarding his enemy, than men and boys proclaimed themselves ready to follow him. The surgeon was obliged to take the management of the wheel. The very audacity of the attempt disconcerted the Spaniards; they made a brief, spiritless resistance, and even threw down their arms. Many similar achievements followed. During the ten months that Cochrane commanded the Speedy he captured thirty-three vessels, mounting in all 128 guns, and manned by 533 sailors and marines. Unfortunately, he fell in with a large French squadron commanded by Admiral Linois, and was obliged to strike to such a vastly superior force. But his captivity did not last long; he was liberated on an exchange of prisoners, and promoted to the rank of post-captain in La Raison frigate. On the renewal of the war after the peace of Amiens, Lord Cochrane was appointed to the Arab, and afterwards to the Pallas, of thirty-two guns. In her he made several valuable captures, and particularly that of the galleon, Il Fortuna, laden with specie to the amount of 150,000 crowns. It is highly honourable to the generosity of the captors that they returned 10,000 crowns to the Spanish captain and crew, as some alleviation of their misfortune. In 1806 Cochrane made a daring and successful attack on a French squadron in the Garonne, a river of most dangerous and difficult navigation. He sent a detachment in his boats to cut out the corvettes, which were twenty miles up the river, and they succeeded in carrying La Tapaguese, a corvette of fourteen long twelve-pounders and ninety-five men, though she lay under the protection of two powerful batteries. Day dawned as they were bringing her off. Another corvette of larger size gave chase to recover the Tapaguese; but after an hour's fight she was so roughly handled that she too would have fallen into the hands of the English, but for the rapidity of the tide. During the absence of his boats, three ships of the enemy, mounting in all sixty-four guns, advanced against Lord Cochrane; but, though so large a portion of his crew was absent, he met them half way, and attacked them so vigorously that they were driven on shore, where they lay complete wrecks. His next exploit was the destruction of the Semaphores on the French coast; then followed the storming of a battery; then a battle with a French frigate of vastly superior force, which would have been taken, had not two others been sent to her assistance, and several daring cuttings out of vessels in the teeth of forts and batteries. From the Pallas Lord Cochrane was transferred to the Imperieuse; and in her, between the 13th of December, 1806, and the 7th of January, 1807, he took and destroyed fifteen ships of the enemy, chiefly laden with wine and provisions. Unfortunately for his fame, Lord Cochrane wished to add senato |