to be included an immense flotilla consisting of frigates, xebecs, gun and mortar boats, together with 300 large shallops to carry troops; so that, in the event of the fire of the garrison being silenced, a landing was to have been attempted. About eight o'clock in the morning the Spanish battering ships got under weigh, and by ten they were all placed in their respective stations. From the ten battering ships alone was opened a tremendous fire, from two hundred and twelve twenty-six pounders, while the Spanish lines, at the same time, played incessantly on the rock with heavy artillery and mortars. The following interesting account cannot fail of affording complete satisfaction :- The eyes of all Europe had long been turned on this famous siege, and the preparations latterly made by the allied forces of France and Spain, were of such a magnitude, that it was generally supposed victory must at length have crowned their persevering efforts; the princes of the blood royal of France, some of the principal nobility of Spain, and many distinguished military officers had joined the besieging army, and, together with an immense crowd of spectators, were anxious witnesses of the attack; the combined powers had formed the most sanguine expectations of success from their battering-ships deemed perfect in design, completed by dint of prodigious labour, and unlimited profusion of expense, and, by common report, pronounced invincible. The English batteries opened as the enemy came before them, and an awful and tremendous fire was kept up on both sides; the Spanish floating batteries were supported by the cannon and mortars in their lines and approaches, and two bomb ketches, which were brought forward, continued to throw shells into the garrison during the attack. Red-hot shot were sent with such precision from the garrison, that in the afternoon the smoke was seen to issue from the upper part of the Spanish admiral's and some other ships, and men were perceived ineffectually labouring to extinguish the fire by the use of tire-engines. The fire from the garrison was kept up briskly, and that of the enemy gradually decreased. About seven in

the

evening they fired only from a few guns, and that only at intervals. At midnight the admiral's ship was plainly discovered to be on fire, and an hour after she was completely in flames: eight more of the Spanish ships took fire in succession. Confusion was now evident among them, and the numerous rockets thrown up from each ship was a demonstration of the greatness of their distress; their signals were answered from the fleet, and they immediately sent launches and boats of different descriptions to take out the men; the fire from the Spanish lines, however, did not slacken, and the ships not completely in flames still sent a few shot at intervals. At this critical period Captain Curtis gave proof of his great skill and judgment; he advanced with the whole division of gun-boats, (twelve in number,) each carrying a twenty-four or eighteen pounder, and formed them so as to flank the line of the enemy's battering ships, while they were annoyed by an excessive heavy and well-directed fire from the garrison. The fire from the gun-boats was exceedingly well-directed, and kept up with great vigour; it effectually prevented the enemy from approaching to the assistance of their ships. General Elliot, in his public letter, observes, speaking of this manœuvre, that "the enemy's daring attempt at sea was effectually defeated by the constant and well-supported fire from the batteries; but the well-timed, judicious, and spirited attack made by Brigadier Curtis,

V.

rendered this success a complete victory." The scene now became entirely changed; the Spaniards having abandoned the ships, and left the men in them to the mercy of the English or the flames, the enemy became objects only of pity, and as much courage was exerted to save them as had before been displayed in repelling their attack; the men were seen amid flames, and on floating pieces of wreck, imploring the compassion of their enemies, and this humane service became a very perilous employment, from the firing of the cannon as the metal became heated. This scene cannot be painted in stronger language than in the words of General Elliot. "They fled precipitately with all their boats, abandoning their ships, in which some officers, and numbers of their men, including many wounded, were left to perish. This unavoidably must have been their wretched fate, had they not been dragged from amidst the flames by the personal intrepidity of Brigadier Curtis, at the utmost hazard of his own life, a life invaluable to his majesty's service. For some time I felt the utmost anguish, seeing his pinnace close to one of the largest ships at the moment she blew up, and spread her wreck to a vast extent round. The black cloud of smoke being dispersed, I was again revived by the sight of the pinnace, little apprehending that the brigadier was in the utmost danger of sinking, some pieces of timber having fallen into and pierced the boat, killing the cockswain, and wounding others of the men, and leaving scarce any hope of reaching the shore; providentially he was saved by stopping the hole with the seamen's jackets, until boats arrived to his relief." By the same explosion one gun-boat was sunk, and another damaged. Animated by the example of Captain Curtis, the British seamen discovered as much ardour in employing every effort to relieve their enemies, as they had done in conquering them; by their generous exertions thirteen Spanish officers, and 344 men, were rescued from the flames. Thus ended a contest, in which it is difficult to decide whether the intrepidity or humanity of the English deserved most commendation. Shortly after this, on the 11th of October, the St Michael, a Spanish 74 gun-ship, was driven under the walls of Gibraltar, and captured. By the great exertions of Captain Curtis, her stores were taken out, the ship got afloat, and warped into the Mole by the 17th, notwithstanding the enemy annoyed them exceedingly by shells when carrying out anchors, &c. to get her off. Lord Howe shortly after arrived with a convoy to relieve the garrison; it appears by his public letter, that had due attention been paid to the instructions communicated by Captain Curtis, the transports might have entered the bay some days earlier than was accomplished; however, the service was at length completely executed, and the fortress relieved in the presence of a very superior force, much to the honour of the British naval character. Captain Curtis, being charged with the final communications of General Elliot to Lord Howe, embarked on board the Latona frigate for that purpose. The situation of the enemy's fleet the next day, however, precluding him from returning to Gibraltar, he remained on board the Victory. The captain of that ship being despatched with an account of the proceedings of the fleet during the relief of Gibraltar, and the subsequent partial actions with the combined squadrons of France and Spain, a vacancy conse quently took place, and Captain Curtis was appointed to the Victory. Had it been a matter of choice probably he would have preferred re

maining with his old friend, Lord Howe, as captain of the Victory, to again resuming the command at Gibraltar. It was not, however, left to his option; his majesty's ministers, in consequence of a pressing solicitation from General Elliot, having ordered Captain Curtis to Gibraltar in the Thetis frigate.'"

For his services on this occasion, Captain Curtis was knighted, and was also appointed ambassador to the emperor of Morocco, with the rank of commodore. After having for some time commanded the Ganges guard-ship at Portsmouth, he was nominated colonel of marines at Plymouth, as well as captain of the fleet under Lord Howe, and bore a distinguished part in the battle of the 1st of June, 1794. On the 4th of the following July he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral; and on the 10th of September created a baronet. In 1799 he became viceadmiral of the Red; and in 1800 obtained a separate command at the Cape of Good Hope. On the peace of Amiens he retired to his residence at Gatcombe in Hampshire, where he died on the 14th of Nov, 1816.

George Hardinge.

BORN A. D. 1743.-DIED A. D. 1816.

GEORGE, second son of Nicholas Hardinge, chief clerk in the house of commons, was born in 1743. He was educated at Eton and Oxford. Having studied for the bar, he soon came into considerable practice, and in 1780 was appointed solicitor-general for the queen. In 1783 he defended Sir Thomas Rumbold against a threatened bill of pains and penalties, and also spoke in favour of Warren Hastings, in his place as member for Old Sarum. In 1787 he was appointed one of the senior Welsh judges.

The following address to the grand jury of Presteigne, on the 12th of April, 1808, will convey some idea of Mr Hardinge's style and sentiments at once" Gentlemen of this grand jury,-It is now the 21st year of my judicial attendance in this court, a period in which more signs and wonders,' more distresses of nations,' and more awful changes, (not of empire alone, but of man,) have convulsed and have desolated the world, than ever before took effect in so limited a compass of time. Yet, in the midst of such alarming visitations around us on every side, this island-this little spot in the map-holds up its head, and covers under its wings the most envied community of the inhabited earth. What is it that has accomplished this unexampled security, and this elevated character? Is it the army? Is it the navy? Is it the peasant? or the merchant? It is not any one of these, nor all of these united, though each of them tells powerfully in the balance; but it is the soul which animates them; it is the constitution of the government, and the native spirit of the people! There are vital parts of us which the tyrant of Paris cannot reach, which his inordinate wealth cannot impoverish, and which his gifted abilities in seduction cannot mislead, We cherish these barriers against him, the more because we have taken a note from the example of his friends. The enemy there has been our friend. A reluctant witness against his own credit is, in courts of jus

tice, the most powerful advocate upon earth for the interests of truth A time was-it was a passing cloud-that some of us were tinged with levelling principles; but the good sense of the national mind and spirit soon recovered its tone; and, with prophetic sagacity, escaped in time from those vipers of the bosom. What is it that we now live to see in the wisdom of that awful instructor, Time? Engrafted upon the savage phrenzy of popular clamour against all government, whether of God or of man, is a despotism the most unbridled, and the most insolent, that ever degraded the liberty it overcame. Every nominal stake, for which innocent blood was the order of the day, and the policy of the guillotine, has been more than superseded, it has been thrown into wanton ridicule by the parade of that supercession. Kings were to be dethroned and murdered;—regicide was an attribute of honour;—the very name of king was to be a curse. An imperial king has not only taken the sceptre of his own French territory,' as he calls it, into his personal hand; but, as if to laugh at the fools he has enslaved, has littered, if I may use that phrase, half the continent with petty sovereigns, at the mercy of his breath.

tar.

What seem their heads,

The likeness of a regal crown have on.'

The pillars of the church were to be subverted; the pope of the day was banished, was degraded, was imprisoned, was a rambling fugitive under a guard, and shown to the multitude as an object of derision; it was a murder; it took his heart. The successor of that pope, terrified or corrupted, is received into the very heart of Paris, and consecrates the imperial diadem, with all the imposing fopperies of the Catholic alThe nobles were to sink into the dust;-all were to be citizens. One of the noblesse, who was descended from the Bourbon race, took the name of D'Egalité, and paid for it with his head. What has become of that vulgar and brutal spirit now? Ask the dukes and princes, elevated into the peerage for being janizaries to the usurper, who animates their energies by terror, not by love! All badges of honour were to be torn off, trampled under foot, and abjured as humiliating memorials of slavery to kings. They are now spread over a court as full of parade as that of Louis XIV., and are wantonly exchanged in the coquetting intercourse of a regal confederacy against the obstinate, though solitary embers of spirit, independence, and freedom, left on earth! We thank him for this note which he has given to history,for the living proof, upon a record which he who runs may read,'that rebellion against the legitimate principles of government and of religion, is the unequivocal parent of tyranny in the church and state.' Returning home with a generous abhorrence from the awful picture of experiments like these, upon a foreign shore, our national spirit feels pride of heart in the scene before us. The dignity of independence receives every one of us into its open arms, animated by a social union of all the links in our political chain from the palace to the cottage; each of them sacred and revered in its turn, but not one of them intrusted with a power to injure the rest. You, gentlemen of this county in particular, if you are asked, 'what you have done as contributors to the bank and stock of your country's welfare?' can tell us, without one feather of arrogance, that you have promoted with success, tranquillity,

and justice, the most valuable blessings of human life;-that your judges, who visit you at stated periods, find their office anticipated or disarmed by your public spirit as magistrates, and by your example as men."

A fall from his horse hastened his death, which took place in April, 1816. He died at Presteigne, "leaving behind him," says the writer of the biographical notice appended to his Miscellaneous works,'1 "the character of possessing, rather than profiting by, great talents. From his father he enjoyed a very good hereditary estate; and with his wife, who still survives him, he obtained a very handsome dower. Either or both of these circumstances, united with a strong love for independence, might have rendered him less anxious for advancement. Mr Hardinge seems to have had some forebodings of the melancholy event which took him from his friends and the world. In one of his latest letters to Lady Knowles, he says, I despair of taking leave of Davies until the undertaker is waiting for me.' He had proposed to visit at Kingsland the shrine of Dr Davies. His remains passed through Kingsland to be interred with those of his family at Kingston-uponThames. A melancholy association with the recollection of the intended visit to the tomb of his last favoured hero of taste and virtue is formed in the mind; and painful moral feelings of regret arise, which teach us more forcibly to remember that man proposes, but God disposes. Mr Hardinge was rather short of stature, but very handsome, with a countenance expressive of the good qualities he possessed. His temper was admirable, and his perseverance in the cause of those he protected most extraordinary and exemplary. When we consider that few live to the advanced age Mr Hardinge attained without sustaining a loss in some material faculty, we shall more highly prize the rare gifts he enjoyed, both mentally and bodily; for, excepting the wrinkles and grey hairs, which hoary time by its iron grasp will leave on the strongest, his life may be said to have been mental youth, and his death a short interruption and passage to that blessed state of perfection which his goodness and philanthropy sought after while on earth. As a Christian, Mr Hardinge, in all circumstances, and in every part of his life, appears to have been a steady believer, and at times pious and devout in the extreme. In the character of a judge he was irreproachable; and his various charges for many years, at the different assizes in Wales, are admirable. In that respectable function, one of the latest acts of his life was the sifting to the bottom the grounds upon which all judges before his time had charged juries in cases of child-murder. Some excellent notes for a charge were prepared by the benevolent judge in April, 1816, not many days before his decease; but he did not live to deliver it. Mr Hardinge's ideas on this subject were fully confirmed by the unquestionable concurrent opinions of several professional gentlemen of first-rate eminence; and that this important subject had long before excited his attention, will appear from a letter addressed in 1805 to Dr Horsley, then bishop of St Asaph. Mr Hardinge had brilliant talents, and a power of showing them so as to afford to his companions and correspondents the greatest gratification. The talent of society he possessed in an eminent degree; and the rank which he held among the

Londor, 3 vols., 8vo.