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They at last both surrendered; and the commodore, on the quarterdeck of a Spanish first-rate, San Josef, received the submission and the swords of the officers of the two ships, while one of his sailors bundled them up with as much composure as he would have made a faggot, though twenty-two sail of their line were still within gun-shot."

The Excellent was paid off in January, 1799; but in a few weeks after Captain Collingwood was raised to the rank of rear-admiral, and hoisted his flag on board the Triumph. Soon after this he was employed in the blockade of Brest,—an irksome piece of service, of which he appears to have been heartily tired.

The truce of 1802 afforded him an opportunity of visiting his family at Morpeth. "His amusements," says his biographer, "were found in the intercourse with his family, in drawing, planting, and the cultivation of his garden, which was on the bank of the beautiful river Wansbeck;" but, he continues, "while, in cheerfulness and tranquillity, he was thus fully realizing those hopes of happiness which he had so long entertained, hostilities with France recommenced; and in the spring of 1803 he was once more called away from his home, to which he never returned again. The exact date of his departure from the north does not appear; but in the narrative of his life, from which several extracts have already been made, he observes, Since 1793 I have been only one year at home. To my own children I am scarcely known; but while I have health and strength to serve my country, I consider that health and strength to be its due; and if I serve it successfully, as I have ever done faithfully, my children will not want for friends.'

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After the renewal of the war, Admiral Collingwood successively shifted his flag from the Venerable to the Culloden; from her to the Dreadnought; and from the latter vessel to the Royal Sovereign, in which he bore a gallant and glorious part at Trafalgar. This vessel was the first that broke through the enemy's line in that decisive engagement. "Lord Nelson," says Collingwood's biographer, "had made the Royal Sovereign's signal to pass through the enemy's line at the twelfth ship from the rear; but Admiral Collingwood observing her to be a twodecked ship, and that the second astern of her was a first-rate, deviated so far from the order as to proceed to the attack of this last, which carried Admiral Alava's flag. While they were running down, the wellknown telegraphic signal was made, of England expects every man to do his duty.' When the admiral observed it first, he said that he wished Nelson would make no more signals, for they all understood what they were to do: but when the purport of it was communicated to him, he expressed great delight and admiration, and made it known to the officers and ship's company. Lord Nelson had been requested by Captain Blackwood, (who was anxious for the preservation of so invaluable a life,) to allow some other vessels to take the lead, and at last gave permission that the Temeraire should go ahead of him; but resolving to defeat the order which he had given, he crowded more sail on the Victory, and maintained his place. The Royal Sovereign was far in advance when Lieutenant Clavell observed that the Victory was setting her studding sails, and with that spirit of honourable emulation which prevailed between the squadrons, and particularly between these two ships, he pointed it out to Admiral Collingwood, and requested his permission to do the same. The ships of our line,' replied the ad

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miral, are not yet sufficiently up for us to do so now; but you may be getting ready.' The studding sail and royal halliards were accordingly manned, and in about ten minutes the admiral, observing Lieutenant Clavell's eyes fixed upon him with a look of expectation, gave him a nod; on which that officer went to Captain Rotheram, and told him that the admiral desired him to make all sail. The order was then given to rig out and hoist away, and in one instant the ship was under a crowd of sail, and went rapidly ahead. The admiral then directed the officers to see that all the men lay down on the decks, and were kept quiet. At this time the Fougueux, the ship astern of the Santa Anna, had closed up, with the intention of preventing the Royal Sovereign from going through the line; and when Admiral Collingwood observed it, he desired Captain Rotheram to steer immediately for the Frenchman, and carry away his bowsprit. To avoid this, the Fougueux backed her main top-sail, and suffered the Royal Sovereign to pass, at the same time beginning her fire; when the admiral ordered a gun to be occasionally fired at her, to cover his ship with smoke. The nearest of the English ships was now distant about a mile from the Royal Sovereign; and it was at this time, while she was pressing alone into the midst of the combined fleets, that Lord Nelson said to Captain Blackwood, See how that noble fellow, Collingwood, takes his ship into action. How I envy him!' On the other hand, Admiral Collingwood, well knowing his commander and friend, observed, 'What would Nelson give to be here!' and it was then, too, that Admiral Villeneuve, struck with the daring manner in which the leading ships of the Eng lish squadrons came down, despaired of the issue of the contest. In passing the Santa Anna, the Royal Sovereign gave her a broadside and a half into her stern, tearing it down, and killing and wounding four hundred of her men; then, with her helmn hard a-starboard, she ranged up alongside so closely, that the lower yards of the two vessels were locked together. The Spanish admiral, having seen that it was the intention of the Royal Sovereign to engage to leeward, had collected all his strength on the starboard; and such was the weight of the Santa Anna's metal, that her first broadside made the Sovereign heel two streaks out of the water. Her studding-sails and halliards were now shot away; and as a top-gallant studding-sail was hanging over the gangway hammocks, Admiral Collingwood called out to Lieutenant Clavell to come and help him to take it in, observing that they should want it again some other day. These two officers accordingly rolled it carefully up, and placed it in the boat." To his father-in-law, Admiral Collingwood writes thus:-"This was a victory to be proud of; but in the loss of my excellent friend, Lord Nelson, and a number of brave men, we paid dear for it. When my dear friend received his wound, he immediately sent an officer to me to tell me of it, and give his love to me. Though the officer was directed to say the wound was not dangerous, I read in his countenance what I had to fear; and before the action was over, Captain Hardy came to inform me of his death. I cannot tell you how deeply I was affected; my friendship for him was unlike any thing I have left in the navy,―a brotherhood of more than thirty years. In this affair he did nothing without my counsel, we made our line of battle together, and concerted the mode of attack, which was put in execution in the most admirable style. I shall grow very

tired of the sea soon; my health has suffered so much from the anxious state I have been in, and the fatigue I have undergone, that I shall be unfit for service. The severe gales which immediately followed the day of victory ruined our prospect of prizes. Our own infirm ships could scarce keep off the shore; the prizes were left to their fate, and as they were driven very near the port, I ordered them to be destroyed by burning and sinking, that there might be no risk of their falling again into the hands of the enemy. There has been a great destruction of them; indeed, I hardly know what, but not less than fifteen or sixteen, the total ruin of the combined fleet.”

For his services on this occasion, Admiral Collingwood was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Collingwood of Caldbourne and Hethpoole in Northumberland, and was granted a pension of £2000 for life, with other rewards to his family. He also succeeded his late comrade, Lord Nelson, in the command-in-chief of the Mediterranean station,- -a most harassing employment, but in which he acquitted himself very ably. His health, however, at last gave way, and on the 3d of March, 1810, he felt himself compelled to resign his command to Rear-admiral Martin, and sail for England in the Ville de Paris. When informed that he was again at sea, he seemed to rally for a time his exhausted strength, and said to those around him, "Then I may yet live to meet the French once more:" thus strong in death' appeared 'the ruling passion. On the following morning, when his friend Captain Thomas, on entering his cabin, observed, that he feared the motion of the vessel disturbed him, "No, Thomas," he replied, "I am now in a state in which nothing in this world can disturb me more. I am dying; and I am sure it must be consolatory to you, and all who love me, to see how comfortably I am going to my end." He told one of his attendants that he had endeavoured to review, as far as was possible, all the actions of his past life, and that he had the happiness to say that nothing gave him a moment's uneasiness. He spoke, at times, of his absent family, and of the doubtful contest in which he was about to leave his country involved, but ever with calmness and perfect resignation to the will of God; and in this blessed state of mind, after taking an affectionate farewell of his attendants, he expired without a struggle at six o'clock in the evening of that day, having attained the age of fifty-nine years and six months. The following is from the report of the surgeon of the Ville de Paris:-" In no part of his lordship's brilliant life did his character appear with greater lustre than when he was approaching his end. It was dignified in the extreme. If it be on the bed of sickness and at the approach of death,-when ambition, the love of glory, and the interests of the world, are over,—that the true character is to be discovered, surely never did any man's appear to greater advantage than did that of my Lord Collingwood. For my own part, I did not believe it possible that any one, on such an occasion, could have behaved so nobly. Cruelly harassed by a most afflicting disease, obtaining no relief from the means employed, and perceiving his death to be inevitable, he suffered no sigh of regret to escape, no murmuring at his past life, no apprehension of the future. He met death as became him, with a composure and fortitude which have seldom been equalled, and never surpassed."

"As a naval officer," says the Quarterly reviewer, "skilled in the

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practical part of his profession, Lord Collingwood, we believe, had few equals. He was a strict disciplinarian, and kept his ship in the highest order without severity; to corporal punishments he had rarely occasion to resort, and. whenever that happened, it is stated, he was for many hours afterwards melancholy and silent, sometimes not speaking a word again for the remainder of the day. He never omitted assembling the crew on Sundays for divine worship; but he had no opinion of those saintly gentlemen, who were more attentive to praying than to the comfort or discipline of the crew. I cannot,' he is said to have observed, I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend the religion of an officer who can pray all one day, and flog his men all the next.' We hope this may be a salutary hint to some of the same class who, we have been given to understand, are still to be found in command of his majesty's ships, flogging' and praying' alternately, as in the time of Lord Collingwood. When Lord St Vincent repressed, in the Mediterrean fleet, the spirit of mutiny which had unhappily prevailed at the ports of England, he was so convinced of the excellence of that prompt and decisive system which Captain Collingwood pursued, that it was his frequent practice to draft the most ungovernable spirits into the Excellent. Send them to Collingwood,' he used to say, and he will bring them to order.' On one occasion, a seaman was sent from the Romulus, who had pointed one of the forecastle guns, shotted to the muzzle, at the quarter-deck, and standing by it with a match, declared that he would fire at the officers, unless he received a promise that no punishment should be inflicted upon him. On his arrival on board the Excellent, Captain Collingwood, in the presence of many of the sailors, said to him, with great sternness of manner, I know your character well, but beware how you attempt to excite insubordination in this ship; for I have such confidence in my men, that I am certain I shall hear in an hour of every thing you are doing. If you behave well in future, I will treat you like the rest, nor notice here what happened in another ship: but if you endeavour to excite mutiny, mark me well, I will instantly head you up in a cask, and throw you into the sea.' Under the treatment which he met with in the Excellent, this man became a good and obedient sailor, and never afterwards gave any cause of complaint.' His abhorrence of corporal punishment, and his conviction of its utter worthlessness, as the means of discipline, grew stronger with his experience, so that a whole year would sometimes pass over without a single man being flogged in his ship. I wish I were the captain for your sakes,' cried Lieutenant Clavell one day to some men who were doing some part of their duty not to his satisfaction, when some one touched him on the shoulder, and, turning round, he saw the admiral, who had overheard him. And pray, Clavell, what would you have done if you had been captain?' 'I would have flogged them well, Sir.' No, you would not, Clavell; no, you would not,' he replied; I know you better.' When a midshipman made a complaint, he would order the man for punishment the next day; and, in the interval, calling the boy down to him, would say, In all probability the fault was yours; but whether it were or not, I am sure it would go to your heart to see a man old enough to be your father disgraced and punished on your account; and it will, therefore, give me a good opinion of your disposition, if, when he is brought out, you ask

IV.

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for his pardon.' When this recommendation, acting as it did like an order, was complied with, and the lad interceded for the prisoner, Captain Collingwood would make great apparent difficulty in yielding; but at length would say, This young gentleman has pleaded so bumanely for you, that in the hope that you will feel a due gratitude to him for his benevolence, I will for this time overlook your offence.' Lord Collingwood always kept the men strictly to their duty, and when they were sick, he visited them daily, even when an admiral, and supplied them from his own table; but by his attention to discipline, cleanliness, and above all, keeping the decks and their clothes dry, and the ship well ventilated, he had rarely more than five or six men on the sick-list, in a crew of eight hundred. The attention,' says his biographer, which Lord Collingwood paid to the health of his men has been already mentioned; but it may be added here, that in the latter years of his life he had carried his system of arrangement and care to such a degree of perfection, that perhaps no society in the world, of equal extent, was so healthy as the crew of his flag-ship. She had usually eight hundred men; was, on one occasion, more than one year and a half without going into port, and during the whole of that time never had more than six, and generally only four, on her sick list. This result was occasioned by his attention to dryness, (for he rarely permitted washing between decks,) to the frequent ventilation of the hammocks and clothes on the booms, to the creating as much circulation of air below as possible, to the diet and amusement of the men, but, above all, by the contented spirits of the sailors, who loved their commander as their protector and friend, well assured that at his hands they would ever receive justice and kindness, and that of their comforts he was more jealous than of his own.""

Henry, Viscount Melville.

BORN A. D. 1740.-DIED A. D. 1811.

HENRY, younger son of Robert Dundas, Lord Arniston, president of the court of session, was born in 1740, and educated at the univer sity of Edinburgh. He was called to the bar at an early age, and, though of gay habits, soon obtained considerable celebrity as an advocate. In 1773 he was appointed solicitor-general,-in 1775, lord advocate,—and two years after, joint-keeper of the signet for Scotland.

His immediate ancestors had ranked as the ablest lawyers of their time; his own talents, even more than his connexions, soon raised him to the highest honours of the law; and his personal qualities completed the ascendancy which his talents had obtained. "I know few men," said Lord Kaimes, when dedicating to Lord Melville, then Mr Dundas, his Elucidations of the Law of Scotland,' "I know few men, young or old, who have your candour, to make truth welcome against their own prepossessions; still fewer, who have your talents, to make it triumph over the prepossessions of others."

When lord-advocate he entered into parliament for his native county. Pursuing there the objects of a higher ambition, he early engaged in the business of politics, and withdrew himself entirely from the profes

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