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On the death of Mr. Pitt, and the accession of Lord Grenville as Prime Minister in 1806, and Lord Grey as first Lord of the Admiralty, Lord St. Vincent a second time accepted the command of the Channel fleet; and being promoted to the high rank of Admiral of the fleet, he hoisted the Union flag at the main in the Hibernia. Just then intelligence arrived of the renowned

cided dislike of a great portion of the naval | ed in kind and courteous terms, whether officers to the managing officers of his his refusals were addressed to the Princes Board. Lord Howick (Earl Grey) had the of the Royal Family, the first Nobles of the same feelings with Lord St. Vincent as to land, or to a poor Lieutenant. the naval department; but his short stay at the head of the Admiralty, did not permit him to enter upon any efficient steps for a reformation. He did not, however, forget the lesson he had learned at the Admiralty. or the principles inculcated by Lord St. Vincent; and from the moment (as Lord Grey) he became Prime Minister, his first instruction to Sir James Graham, as first Lord of the Admiralty, was, to take imme-victory of Trafalgar; on which occasion diate steps for an act of Parliament to can- the old Earl wrote thus to his Secretary:— cel the Patents of every Commissioner of Lord Collingwood has done himself imthe Navy, both at Somerset House and at mortal honor by his conclusion of the batthe ports, whether at home or abroad. tle, which Nelson so nobly began. Writing Thus, as appears by the Imperial Calendar, to you privately, I suppose I may confess twenty-seven commissioners of the Navy, that I do feel a pride in this great victory Victualling, and Transport Boards, were beyond the general enthusiasm. I was deprived of their Patents on the same day prepared for every thing great from Nelof whom nine belonged to the Navy Board, son, but not for his loss.' No wonder that and seven to the Victualling and other de- the news of this immortal achievement, and partments and in lieu of those sixteen, of the loss of the unsurpassable hero by were substituted five responsible officers, whose sublime genius it had been planned, one to each of the five departments into and who had hailed him as the father' of a which the new establishment was divided numerous contemporary group of England's -the Surveyor, the Accountant-General, most illustrious seamen, should have occathe Comptroller of Victualling, the Store- sioned a glow of enthusiasm, attempered keeper, and the Inspector of Hospitals and with a severe pang to a nature which, Fleets and each of these was under the though strong and stern, was yet as tender supervision of a Lord of the Admiralty. and feeling as it was warmly patriotic! Eight or nine superintendents at the ports supply the remainder of the twenty-seven.

About this time Lisbon was threatened with the presence of a French army; on This new system, we believe, works well, which it was deemed expedient to send an though at first it met with a determined embassy to negotiate with the house of opposition. It is now twelve years since Braganza, supported by a strong squadron it was established, and we are not aware and a large body of troops, which were imthat any changes have been found neces-mediately to be dispatched to the Tagus. sary in the plan, though a succession of Lord St. Vincent was nominated for this Whigs and Tories have formed the several Boards of Admiralty; but we may observe that, whether it works well or ill, Lord St. Vincent was, in fact, the primum mobile that impelled Lord Grey to adopt it, and Sir James Graham boldly and manfully to carry it into execution.

service, as being considered the most fit for such an occasion. The object was to defend the country, if that should be found practicable; and if not, the Court should resolve to remove itself with the ships, forces, and stores to the Brazils-in either case his lordship was to lend his co-operation. The We have thought it necessary to enter storm, however, did not break over Portubriefly into this discussion as part and par-gal quite so soon as was anticipated; and cel, or, at any rate, the result, of Lord St. before the end of the year Lord St. Vincent Vincent's administration of the navy. The was ordered to resume his command before space we have allotted for this article will Brest. not admit of transcribing any portion of his very voluminous correspondence. Suffice it to say, that it was always to the point in question-briefly and clearly expressed, and free from all ambiguity. When obliged to refuse a request, it was generally couch

Almost immediately after this, Mr. Fox died, and Mr. Thomas Grenville took the place of Lord Howick (Earl Grey) in the Admiralty, where he remained only a few months; George III. being anxious to get rid of a ministry, many of whom,' says

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Mr. Tucker, he personally disliked, and fleet of the enemy.' On the whole, he adthe political principles of whom he detest-mits that the work is ingenious, and wored.' On the change of administration, thy the study of all young and inexperienced Lord St. Vincent immediately resigned his officers; adding, however, that he perceives command; and was ordered to strike his signs of compilation from Père le Hoste flag and come on shore-an order to down to Viscount de Grenier. The queswhich,' as he wrote to his Secretary, he tion as to the originality and merits of our meant to be very prompt in paying obe- distinguished countryman's system, we dience.' have long since fully discussed; and shall only now add, as we are bound in fairness to do, that the latter tendencies of opinion are rather adverse to that which we upheld.

During this short command we see little to call for any remark. There is, however, an observation his lordship makes in a letter to his former Secretary, who was now the second Secretary to the Admiralty, which rather surprised us. 'I pity,' he says, 'the exposure of the weakness of some of your lords, whose dulness I have long been acquainted with.' Now these weak and dull lords were his old colleague John Markham, and the other naval lords were Sir Charles Pole and Sir Harry Neale. In another letter to Lord Howick he thus ex

Lord St. Vincent having now struck his flag for the last time, received a summons to a private audience of the King. After a few preliminaries, the King said

""Well, Lord St. Vincent, you have now quitted active service, as you say, for evertell me, do you think the naval service is better or worse than when you first entered it?" 'Lord St. Vincent-" Very much worse, please your Majesty."

The King (quickly)—" How so, how so?" thought that a sprinkling of nobility was very 'Lord St. Vincent "Sire, I have always desirable in the navy, as it gives some sort of consequence to the service; but at present the navy is so overrun by the younger branches of nobility, and the sons of members of Parliament, and they so swallow up all the patronage, and so choke the channel to promotion, that the son of an old officer, however meri

presses himself'I am sorry to say there are few flags at the main or the fore I have any respect for;' and farther- If you will, my good lord, bring a bill into Parliament to disqualify any officer under the rank of Rear-Admiral to sit in the House of Commons, the Navy may be preserved; but while a little, drunken, worthless, jackanapes is permitted to hold the seditious language he has done, in the presence of flag-torious his services may have been, has little officers of rank, you will require a man of greater health and vigor than I possess to command your fleets.'

or no chance of getting on."

'The King-" Pray, who was serving cap tain of the fleet under your lordship ?"

'Lord St. Vincent-"Rear-Admiral Osborne, Sire."

'The King-" Osborne, Osborne! I think there are more than one of that name admi

rals."

'Lord St. Vincent-"Yes, Sire, there are three brothers, all admirals."

'The King "That's pretty well for democracy, I think.” '

it in detail, and ended thus :

In answer to another letter of Lord Howick, who had asked his opinion of Clerk's system of Naval Tactics, he says If it had any merit in the battles of the 1st June, of Camperdown, and Trafalgar, that fought off Cape St. Vincent is totally out of the question.' That Lord Rodney passed through the enemy's line by accident, not by design-that Lord Howe's attack upon How cleverly and adroitly was the fact the fleet of the enemy was at variance with the tactics of Mr. Clerk-that Lord Dun- as to the Osbornes drawn forth by the can's action was fought pell-mell, without King! The old lord proceeded to explain plan or system-that the attack of Aboukir furnishes no argument for, or against, these tactics that a fleet to windward bearing down at right angles upon the fleet of an enemy must be crippled, if not totally disabled, before it can reach the enemy,' (Clerk's position,) has been disproved by the more recent action, under Lord Nelson, bearing down in two columns at Trafalgar.' He adds—' Mr. Clerk is most correct in his statement of the advantages to be derived from being to leeward of the

"Sire, I hope your majesty will pardon me for saying, I would rather promote the son of an old deserving officer than of any noble in the land." The king mused for a minute or Lord St. Vincent-quite right.'" two, and then said "I think you are right,

Lord St. Vincent now retired into private life, bearing with him, as Sheridan happily said, 'a triple laurel-over the enemy, the mutineer, and the corrupt.' The state of his health did not allow him

to reside long at his house in London, and laborers, can never be forgotten. Throughhis small retreat of Rochetts, therefore, be-out his whole command, indeed, we concame his principal abode; but he occa-stantly meet with instances of his gensionally came up to attend the House of erosity. Let but a case of real misforLords, and sometimes, on particular sub-tune be brought before him, especially of jects, he spoke, and with biting severity.

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an officer who had deserved well, and whose necessity was not occasioned by his own He opposed Lord Grenville's bill for the imprudence, it would be sure to meet relief, abolition of the slave trade. He doubted promptly, liberally, and with an exquisite the humanity of the measure, as from his delicacy of feeling still more admirable.' own experience he was enabled to state, There can be no greater or more exalted that the West Indies was paradise itself to praise! A private soldier at Gibraltar fell the negroes, compared with their native into a deep pit, so filled with mud, and country; and he could only account for exhaling noxious vapors, that no one the noble proposer bringing it forward by would venture down to help him. One supposing that some obi-man had cast his Joaquim, who had been boatswain of Nelspell upon him.' He was a steady advocate son's ship, and now in the dockyard, let for Catholic Emancipation. God forbid,' himself down by a rope, and rescued the he said, that any the smallest alteration poor fellow. Lord St. Vincent presented should be made in the bill to enable the his deliverer with a piece of plate, value Catholics to serve in the navy and army;' £28, with this inscription- For preserv and he expressed his indignation on hearing a soldier's life at the risk of his own.' ing that Sir John Cox Hippesley had gone to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle to obtain a decree for the extinction of the Jesuits;an Order to whom we were obliged, not only for the most useful learning and dis-him £100, and desired an inquiry into coveries of every description, and necessary for the instruction of the Catholic youth throughout the civilized world.' With the same feeling of toleration and liberality, he is said to have subscribed £100 towards building a chapel for the Jews, and also to their hospital.

Hearing by chance that poor Dibdin, to whose happy genius such excellent nautical songs are due, was in distressed circumstances, Lord St. Vincent immediately sent

the real state of his case to be made; for it would indeed be a shame, Mr. Tucker,' he said, 'that the man who has whiled away the mid-watch, and softened the hardships of war, should be in need, while a seaman enjoys an abundance.' What a tribute to the Muse of Dibdin, and how noble, generous, and kindly the sentiment which it embodies!

It appears, indeed, that he was generous and charitable, even to profusion; of which several marked instances have been men- Never, indeed, was there a more comtioned in the course of our remarks. But passionate or a more kind-hearted man than he had no commiseration for the exigen- Lord St. Vincent. A domestic affliction cies of a spendthrift; and a gambler was had greatly depressed his old confidential his detestation. To an officer who had Secretary's health and spirits. To divert contracted debt he says-' Having fought his thoughts, and with no other motive, his my way up to where I now stand, without lordship said to him that he had long the smallest pecuniary aid from any one, wished to visit the Scilly islands to look at even when I was a mid, I cannot possibly a spot for a lighthouse, and also Cornwall entertain an opinion that officers of this to inquire into the rapid deterioration of day, whose half-pay is considerably more copper, and he desired the Secretary's atthan formerly, cannot practice the same necessary economy which marked the character of mine.' His Lordship, in the plenitude of his pecuniary circumstances, never lost sight of a prudent economy; but his generosity was liberally and extensively manifested. The charity to the poor,' says Mr. Tucker, from Lord St. Vincent's establishment, was equal to that of any mansion in England; and the delightful drives with him to inspect the erection of the cottages he built for some industrious

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tendance at these inspections; and his humane and now aged Chief actually took that long and fatiguing journey ostensibly with these objects, but really to assuage the grief of an old and attached servant.

The loss of Sir Thomas Troubridge sank deeply into his heart. In a postscript to a letter are these words 'Oh, Blenheim ! Blenheim! where are you?' After the receipt of every letter he would exclaim— Where is the Blenheim ? What can have become of the Blenheim? I shall never

see Troubridge's like again.' He called him the Bayard of the British navy.'

In 1816, when in his 81st year, Lady St. Vincent died. On her monument, by Chantrey, in the church of Stone, is the following short but classically simple inscription by his lordship :

'Sacred to the memory of MARTHA, COUNTESS ST. VINCENT, who was eminently pious, virtuous, and charitable.'

Her age is not given, but she could not be much less than seventy. No mention is made of her domestic life. It is only stated that she was a lady of kindly feelings; that the state of her health had made her very infirm; and that, as a wife, her adoration of her lord was very ardent. They lived together thirty-four years.

In answer to a note from Captain Tower, accompanied by a bust of Napoleon, in which the Captain says 'I feel a gratification in presenting it to one who knows how to respect a great and fallen enemy,' Lord St. Vincent replies-You do me justice in attributing the feelings you so well describe to my character; and I blush for those who trample upon a man many of them feared, and all allowed, in the career of his military glory, to be an astonishing character.' And shortly before his death he took occasion to observe 'That it had often been a matter of satisfaction to him, that Bonaparte saw such specimens of our naval officers as Sir Henry Hotham, Sir George Cockburn, and Sir Frederick Maitland.' When reminded that they all had risen from his own school-' No,' he nobly replied, that is too much. They would have been as great any where; it was with such men that I formed a school.' He was much pleased when the present Lord Melville appointed him General of Marines; and took this opportunity, as he had done on a former occasion, of testifying his sense of the justice which Lord Melville did to the services of sea-officers' -a compliment most justly due to every part of the administration of that amiable and excellent nobleman, who came into office and left it, twice as first Lord of the Admiralty, with an with an unblemished repu

tation.

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Lord St. Vincent's great desire, in the declining years of his life, plainly for the sake of his profession, was the Garter. He cherished a hope of it, Mr. Tucker says,

to the day of his death, frequently observing, that when so many were worn by the soldiers, the sailors should at least have one; that surely England's naval merit must be equal to that; and that the navy never should be without one.' When the Prince Regent increased the order of the Bath, and created Knights' Grand Crosses, his lordship said, he did not care whose name they placed on the list, if they had only done him the favor to strike his out; that when he was created a K.B., it was an honorable distinction; but that now he saw names on the list which he thought disgraced it, and all classes with them.' The Duke of Wellington, according to Colonel Gurwood, was pretty much of the same opinion as regarded the Army.

In 1818, then in his eighty-third year, the decay of his health was so perceptible, and his cough so distressing, that he was advised to winter in a milder climate. Captain and Miss Brenton, and a medical attendant, accompanied him to the south of France. Every honorable reception and attention were paid to him in passing through France. He continued at Hyeres until the spring of 1819, and then returned. An anecdote is told by Mr. Tucker, which the writer of this article heard from the noble Earl himself, at his own table at Rochetts. He had been walking in his grounds, and looking at a green-house then building, when his bailiff suggested that a venerable old oak should be felled, as it was rapidly decaying. 'I command you to do no such thing,' said his lordship; that tree and I have long been contemporaries; we have flourished together, and together we will fall.' He was then exceedingly cheerful and agreeable, but occasionally distressed with his cough; yet even at this time, Miss Brenton, who remained in the house, said he came down stairs about five every morning.

In 1821, Lord Melville appointed him to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet; and shortly afterwards the King honored him with a naval baton, accompanied by an expression of his Majesty's warmest regards, as a testimony of his Majesty's personal esteem, and of the high sense he entertained of the eminent services which his lordship has rendered to his country, by his distinguished talents and brilliant achievements.'

When George IV. was about to embark on his visit to Scotland, Lord St. Vincent proceeded to Greenwich, and slept at the house of Sir George Keats, governor of the

hospital, in order to pay his respects to his Majesty on board his own yacht. Long before six in the morning, the old Earl was seen on the terrace with four old pensioners, who had served under him, walking in his wake, and in frequent conversation with them. Their only object was an interview with their old Commander-in-chief, now in his eighty-eighth year. On his return to breakfast he appeared in more than usual spirits, related the interview, and said, 'We all in our day were smart fellows.' On this occasion he wore, for the first time, the repudiated Star of the Grand Cross of the Bath, that of the Knights Commanders being usually worn by him. It is stated, as a trait of his kind attention to children, that one day being asked by a child what that star was, and where he found it-I found it,' he replied, 'upon the sea; and if you become a sailor, and search diligently, To this not very felicitous summary we perhaps you may find just such another.' may add a few words, though we have The interview with his Majesty was long already touched on most of the transactions and gracious; it was also the last time that in which, throughout his public life, he his lordship was on the water, and the last bore a principal part. It cannot be suppoofficer who, on duty, had the honor of at- sed that, during his long and active career, tending him, was the present Commander Lord St. Vincent escaped censure;-proM'Clintock, whose arm assisted his lord- ceeding mostly, however, from those civil ship's tottering step on shore from the servants of the naval department whose boat; and then taking off his hat to the irregularities-to call them by no harsher youthful midshipman, Thank ye, sir-name--had provoked his ire, and induced thank ye!' said the old admiral, in his last him to the adoption of measures for their adieu to the naval service.

than to eulogize his naval career, which would not be more glowing than just. To repeat his inexhaustible expedients to overtion, the rapid advance of his school; the come difficulties; the reformation, the instrucspirit which he infused of enterprise; the omnipresence which he enforced of obedience; the perfect discipline of his energetic command; the distinguished officers whom he educated; the boldness with which he attacked and defeated an enemy's fleet nearly doubling his own in numbers; the grandeur of his conduct in the mutiny; the wonderful skill with which he drew forth the powers and resources of all ranks of subordinates, and then combined them to work together for the country; his fearless opposition to injurious prejudices and usages, of however long standing, however high abode; and, what crowns his course, the emanated from his system-on all this it would ulterior and lasting excellences which have be delightful to indulge.'

correction, which seriously affected the From this day, August 1822, to March reputation of some, and the interests of 1823, Lord St. Vincent's robust frame was many. Neither can it be expected that approaching its last functions; old age, he passed through the various stages of debility, and convulsive fits of coughing, public life altogether free of blame. But had all but worn it out. Yet, on the 13th if he had faults, they were so much neutralof that month, while the hand of death was ized by great and eminent virtues-charity, just upon him, he was still alive to the great generosity, and magnanimity-as to prepassing events of the day; and about eight vent their assuming any general or promiin the evening, after lying in silent exhaus-nent character. Nor was there in his distion for two hours, he departed without a sigh or a groan, in the presence of his affectionate friends, Sir George Grey, Doctor Baird, and his faithful old Secretary. It is stated he did not die wealthy. He was succeeded in the Peerage by his nephew, Mr. Edward Jervis Ricketts, inheriting the Viscounty only. His remains were interred at Stone in Staffordshire, quite privately, as his will directed. A public monument is erected to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral.

We shall here extract Mr. Tucker's synopsis of the Earl's public character and

services:

To the ardent admirers of the great admiral, nothing could be more easy or gratifying

position any thing sullen or morose, whatever the provocation might be. His anger was never smothered, but readily appeased by giving it full vent. He was undoubtedly severe; but the occasions which called for its exercise fully justified it. These were chiefly two. The first, his prompt measures for the complete extinction of the mutiny in the fleet before Cadiz, augmented as it frequently was by mutinous ships sent to him from England. What the consequences must have been of an organized mutiny in a fleet close to an enemy's port, on a foreign station, cannot be unknown to any, and is fearful to contemplate; but by a stern and uncompromising severityif sending the criminals to immediate exe

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