have been animated by a passion to be distinguished in every thing: not content with the reputation he had acquired as a scholar, he aspired to excel in all the accomplishments to which a gentleman can aspire. He took lessons from the most fashionable dancing and fencing masters in London, and even hired an old pensioner from Chelsea College to teach him the exercise of the broad sword. During a hasty visit of three weeks which he made to Spa, in the Netherlands, he consumed part of his time in going over to Aix-laChapelle to learn new graces from a dancing-master there. After refusing the place of interpreter of the Eastern languages, which was tendered to him by Lord North, he translated into French, for the king of Denmark, a Persian manuscript, entitled the "History of Nadir Shah." This performance, after the style had been corrected by a native, he published in 1770, in 2 vols. 4to, with a prefatory "Treatise on Eastern Poetry." It has been justly considered a work of uncommon ability for so young a man. From the Persian language and poetry he flew to anatomy, and attended a course of Hunter's lectures, diverting himself at the same time with the study of music and Newton's Principia. Continuing his attendance on Lord Althorpe, he conducted him through Harrow school, and had the advantage of accompanying the family in a journey through France, Switzerland, and the south of Italy in the years 1769 and 1770. At the close of this year he renounced the office of preceptor, and became a student-at-law in the Temple. By this time we are assured that Jones's reputation had introduced him to an extensive correspondence with the literary men of his own country and foreign nations; but notwithstanding this accumulation of labour, he read and wrote on with undiminished ardour and facility. Taking up his degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts, in due course, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society, and entertained his friends with projects of works and aspirations of dignities, which, like many others, he never had the perseverance to execute, or the fortune to seize. In 1772 he produced a volume of poems. In 1774 he was called to the bar, and published his "Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry," (De Poesi Asiaticâ,) a work on the correction of which he had spent eight years, and which was reviewed with high praise by several eminent scholars. Choosing the Oxford circuit for practice, he began his career as a barrister in the following year, and having dedicated to Lord Bathurst a translation of the Orations of Isæus on the law of succession to property at Athens, was made a commissioner of bankrupts, an office which he rather pettishly described as one of great importance but little emolument. Finding his business now increase with rapidity, he made an unsuccessful dash at politics, and signalized his objections to the American war in an Alcaic Ode to Liberty, of which it is enough to observe, that it is a crude imitation of Horace, and a close copy of Collins. He started as a candidate for the university of Oxford at the general election in 1780, but was obliged to resign the contest through want of sufficient support. For the loss of this distinction he consoled himself by forthwith issuing from the press, in rapid succession, a treatise "On the Maritime Jurisprudence 66 of the Athenians, illustrated by five speeches of Demosthenes on Commercial Causes;" "A Dissertation on the Manners of the Arabians before the time of Mahomet, illustrated by a translation of the Seven Arabian Poets ;" and "An Enquiry into the Legal Mode of Suppressing Riots, with a Constitutional Plan of future Defence." These productions were soon followed by an Essay on the Law of Bailment," and a translation of an Arabic poem "On the Mahometan Law of Succession to the Property of Intestates." Connected with this epoch of his life are further to be mentioned his enrolment into the Society for Constitutional Information, his advocacy of the principle of universal suffrage, and his "Dialogue between a Farmer and a Country Gentleman on the Principles of Government," a party production, which, when published after his promotion to the bench in India, by Dr. Shipley, the dean of St. Asaph, was the subject of a government prosecution. From these diversified avocations Jones was finally removed, by an appointment which he had long sought, and in the result proved most suitable to his tastes and serviceable to his reputation. This was his elevation by Lord Shelburne's ministry to a seat on the judicial bench of Fort William at Bengal, in 1783, whither he repaired with the honour of knighthood during the course of the same year. Previous to his departure he married Anna Maria, the daughter of the Dean of St. Asaph, a lady to whom he had for some years paid court, and in whom he found an amiable and happy wife. Scarcely had he settled himself at Calcutta, than, associating with the most experienced scholars in the Eastern tongues, he began to study Sanscrit, and projected the plan of a society, which was speedily incorporated, for the avowed purposes of exploring the literature and antiquities of Asia. Of this body the Presidentship was tendered to Warren Hastings, then Governor-General of India, but by him politely renounced in favour of the founder. No man was better qualified, nor could any have more eagerly bent their exertions to the prosecution of its objects. The society commenced its sittings in 1784, and has since continued to labour with signal credit to the members, and benefit to the mother country. The first volume of its Researches, edited by the president, appeared in 1787; he superintended the publication of two others, and a fourth was ready for the press when he died. But one pursuit alone was insufficient for the busy mind of Sir William Jones: before a twelvemonth had elapsed he made an excursion into the interior, though suffering under severe illness; and upon his return to the presidency, set on foot a periodical publication, entitled "The Asiatic Miscellany," to which, for two years, he was a liberal contributor of poems and essays connected with Indian topics. Thus, sedulously diversifying his time between the duties of his office and the avocations of literature, he seized every opportunity of adding to his information, and supported his health by short journeys from Calcutta. But the climate had fixed its influence upon his constitution, and the progress of dissolution was gradual but sure. He was insensible, however, of the injury his health was suffering, and looked forward with vain confidence to a happy return to England. Meanwhile he applied himself to two undertakings com These mensurate in difficulty and importance. The delicacy of Lady Jones's health compelled her to revisit Europe in December, 1793. Sir William intended to follow her in a season or two, but his life was spared only a few months after her departure. On the evening of the 20th of April, 1794, he prolonged his walk to an unusually late hour, and in consequence of this partial irregularity, was seized with an inflammation of the liver, which, in seven days more, put an end to his career without any symptoms of particular suffering. Of Sir William Jones's works, which were printed by his lady, in six volumes, quarto, little is now read but his poetry, and that not often. An anecdote preserved of his habit of study in early life, will serve to indicate its prevailing character. He used to read, we are told, with a pen in his hand, and mark every striking passage for subsequent imitation. The influence of this habit pervades all his compositions. He is never original, and will be found a copyist or plagiarist through out. He enjoyed, nevertheless, a high reputation as a general scholar; and unquestionably was good and accomplished man,-a sort of admirable Crichton, clever at everything, great in nothing, still always quick, animated, and intelligent: apt for all subjects, however difficult or dissimilar, and displaying the same degree of talent on each, he dazzles without enlightening, and affords an example which it seems more prudent to admire than to imitate. ROBERT FALKNOR, R.N. ROBERT FALKNOR, captain of the Blanche frigate, into one battery; manœuvre He was shot through the heart*. has a monument, executed by Charles Rossi, R.A., But, unfortunately, soon after this bold and daring in the south transept of St. Paul's Cathedral. The design represents Neptune seated on a rock in the centre, and turning eagerly round to the right, to catch into his arms the dying sailor, who is introduced, naked, with a shield on one arm, and a broken sword in the other hand. To the left Victory advances with a wreath of laurel. These figures all exceed the size of life as to any merit displayed on them, it will be enough to observe, that the style in which they are executed is as plain and unattractive as the fable in which they are introduced is common-place and unnatural. The inscription is engraved in this order : This monument was erected To commemorate the gallant conduct The circumstances of determined bravery that Which lasted five hours, deserve to be recorded. Captain Falknor, having observed the great superiority of the enemy, And having lost most of his masts and rigging, Watched an opportunity of the bowsprit of La Pique coming athwart the Blanche, And with his own hands lashed it to the capstern, And thus converted the whole stern of the Blanche Facing this is the monument of Richard Rundell Burgess, another captain in the Royal Navy. It was executed by Banks, R.A., and introduces the deceased in the act of receiving a sword from the hand of Victory, who stands separated from him by a cannon. So far the design resembles almost all the performances of our modern sculptors, who appear to be chiefly depressed by a penurious imagination. Banks, however, was decidedly a master in the art; and probably addicted himself to fabulous personifications, because he found them possessed of a certain degree of classical regulation. There remains, nevertheless, a broad distinction to be drawn, in this respect, between the ancients and the moderns. With those mythology was a religion, and allegory therefore sublime; but to these, as Christians, the former creed is a falsehood, and any exemplications of it consequently repugnant and nonsensical. One inconsistency of the present work strikes the eye at a glance the mortal is naked, but the goddess clothed. Overlooking this, however, the statue of Burgess cannot fail to command praise; the attitude is fine, and the air brave. The pedestal, too, projects boldly, and is profusely enriched with prows of ships and allegorical representations of Defeat and Captivity, in relievo. The inscription is as follows: Rowley, Captain J. Duckworth. August 22, in the following year, he came home with a letter from Sir Peter Parker to his mother, in which she was assured that her son more than answered the hopes entertained of him. The officer thus commemorated was the eldest son of Robert, a post-captain, and nephew of Jonathan Falknor, an admiral in the Royal Navy. These were not the only members of his family who figured with distinction in the same profession; for it appears by the records of the Admiralty, that April 7, 1782, he sailed in the Britannia with during the last two hundred years some one of his the squadron under Admiral Barrington, that inpredecessors or another of the family has been tercepted a French convoy to the East within the always honourably employed in the service. Robert, very same month. He was afterwards despatched the immediate subject of this sketch, was born at to strengthen Lord Howe in the relief of Gibraltar. Northampton in 1760, and lost his father when On the peace of 1783 he was reduced to half-pay, only three years old. After spending some time but in the same year was again employed on board at the grammar school of his native town, he of the Merlin sloop, from which, at different dates, became the first scholar admitted upon the esta- he passed into the Daphne, of twenty guns, the blishment of the Royal Academy at Portsmouth: Impregnable, the Hero, and Carnatic, all of seventyfavourable mention has been made of his success four guns. Early in 1790 he was a while on halfin study. The course of education in the Portsmouth pay, but was, during the same year, appointed to Academy is completed in three years; at the ex- the Royal George, of one hundred guns, Admiral piration of that term young Falknor was appointed Barrington, in which he continued until November, to the Isis of fifty guns, then commanded by the when he was gazetted a commander. He had the Hon. Captain Cornwallis, and attached to Lord | Pluto, a fire-sloop of fourteen guns, in April, 1791 ; Howe's fleet in North America, his commission the Zebra sloop, of sixteen guns, in 1793. The bearing date March 9, 1777. He was present Earl of Chatham chose the scene of operations in at that attack of Ford Island, in the river Dela- which Falknor was now engaged; and Sir John ware, in November following, for which the crew Jervis, the admiral in command, placed marked of the Isis were praised by the commander-in- confidence in him. The island of Martinique was chief. Upon this station he passed into the Chat- the first place assailed by the fleet, and within a ham, and almost immediately after into the Bedford short period the only points unconquered in it of fifty guns, in which Captain Cornwallis described were the Forts Bourbon and Royal. Falknor had him as one perfectly good, and bidding fair to be the honour of reducing the latter. After sustainas great a credit to the service as his father had ing a severe discharge of musquetry and grapeshot, without any prospect of being able to return it effectively, he took the gallant resolution of doing the duty of the Asia, which had failed in closing upon the fort through the ignorance of a Frenchman who steered her in. He ran his sloop directly on shore, leaped overboard at the head of his little crew, and carried the place by escalade before the boats destined for his support could reach the spot. Mounted on the walls, he perceived the enemy in a panic, and mercifully forbade his men to strike another blow. This intrepidity was honoured with three cheers from the fleet, which Sir John Jervis was the first to begin; and when the Zebra returned with the colours of the fort and the governor's sword, the same admiral publicly embraced her captain on his quarter-deck. been. During the next twelvemonth he is found on board of the Ruby, the Medea, and the Lion, which formed part of a squadron convoying our autumnal trade to the West Indies. December 28, 1780, he was made a lieutenant, and nominated to the Princess Royal, of ninety-eight guns, Rear-Admiral On the 11th of October, 1797. By the unanimous act of her legislature, high in the list of those heroes Of this officer but a few particulars have been preserved. He was a native of Port Glasgow, in Scotland, and originally belonged to the merchant service of that neighbourhood. His first commanders in the Royal Navy were Admirals Rowley and Barrington, to whose notice he is said to have recommended himself by a strong thirst for scientific investigations. In these pursuits he distinguished himself by several valuable improvements in naval tactics-amongst which, a method of warping ships, when becalmed out of moorings, has proved essentially beneficial. He was wounded in the London, during the American war; and, according to all accounts, seems to have well deserved the praise bestowed on him in the preceding epitaph, for his conduct during the battle off Camperdown. The Ardent, carrying sixty-four guns, was nominated one of the seconds to Duncan; and such was the forwardness with which Burgess launched her into action, that the ship was almost immediately environed by no less than five opponents. Nevertheless she proved superior to all odds, but her captain fell before she had fully decided her share of the victory. In this encounter Falknor was wounded; a grapeshot grazed his arm, and shattered a cartouchebelt that hung round his waist, just at the moment he jumped ashore. To the fortunate resistance of that cartouche-belt he ascribed the preservation of a life which was still doomed to be the price of victory. An extraordinary incident took place on his next voyage. While the Zebra was approaching the walls of Port Royal, Falknor thought he observed evident marks of confusion in the countenance of his pilot. In order to satisfy himself of this, he approached the man, and putting some indifferent questions to him, discovered the agitation under which he laboured to be so intense as to render him incapable of uttering a rational answer. A moment or two of reflection ensued on the part of the captain, when the man added, in a low voice, and without raising his eyes, "I see your honour knows how I am; I am unfit to guide her; I don't know what is come over me. I dreamt last night I should be killed, and am so afraid I don't know what I'm about. I've been twentyfour years in the service, and never felt afraid D before." "Then give me the helm," replied Falknor," and go and hide your head in whatever you fancy to be the safest corner of the ship! But, mark me, fears are catching. If I hear that you speak to one of the crew, your life shall answer for it to-morrow." The pilot slunk away with shame, and sat down upon the arm chest, with his head resting on his hand. Falknor laid the ship close to the shore; but before he had time to leap on land, a grape-shot struck the arm chest and blew the prophetic pilot to atoms. Among the prizes taken at Martinique was the Bienvenue, a French frigate mounting twentyeight guns, to the deck of which Falknor was immediately promoted, with the rank of post-captain, by Sir John Jervis, who renamed the vessel the Undaunted, out of compliment to her new commander. The seizure of St. Lucie followed without much difficulty, but the conquest of Guadaloupe was more arduous. At the storming of Fleur de L'Epée, the principal fort on the island, Falknor commanded a body of sailors, who were directed to clamber up the side of an almost perpendicular mountain, while the grenadiers and light infantry approached by the open road. Upon gaining the ramparts the detachment was to a man so exhausted as to be obliged to halt for breath. Precisely at this juncture, and while the sailors were still scattered about, a sally took place. French officers made a simultaneous attack upon Falknor, of whom the one thrust a bayonet through the sleeve of his coat, but without grazing the flesh; while the other, after an exchange of parried blows, sprung upon his neck. Falknor still stood alone; and the latter Frenchman, fixing his teeth in his shirt, tripped up his heels, and, as they fell together, wrenched the sword from his hands. this moment, and while a dagger was uplifted against his breast, two seamen sprung to the relief of their captain, and struck his antagonist to the ground. The storm proceeded a while with considerable vigour and loss, but the enemy soon broke into a flight, which, once commenced, admitted neither of stop nor rally, and the English marched over the island without further opposition. Two At Falknor next passed into the Rose frigate, but was almost immediately transferred to the Blanche, on board of which he conveyed the Duke of Kent to the government of Canada in May, 1794. Re maining upon the same station he chased a national corvette into the Bay of Deseada towards the close of the same year; and, although exposed to a powerful battery, followed the enemy to the shore, and quickly towed her out again a prize. A movement so daring cannot be supposed to have taken place without loss. The Blanche suffered in her hull, masts, and rigging, and lost a midshipman and some sailors; but the damage done to the enemy was stated to have been far more severe. On the following morning he got sight of, and gave chase to, an armed schooner laden with powder, which took refuge from him under Fort Louis. He ran in upon her, and soon sent her off as a prize to St. John's, at Antigua. These occurrences happened in December, 1794, and in the following month he lost his life in an action with the French frigate La Pique. The Blanche carried only two-and-thirty guns, but the La Pique mounted eight-and-thirty, besides a number of brass swivels on deck. The ships fought for five hours, and the victory was as decisive as could possibly be gained. Twice did the Blanche | lash her bowsprit to the capstern of her opponent; and when the main and mizen masts fell, she payed off before the wind, and took the other in tow. Then only was it discovered that the stern ports were too small; but the crew blew the upper transom beam away, ran the guns out, and poured volley after volley for three successive hours into the enemy's bows. Resistance only ceased on board of the La Pique when every means to continue it were exhausted. Falknor was killed towards the close of the second hour of fighting: a rifleman, from the bowsprit of the La Pique, shot him in the breast: the bullet entered his heart, and he expired instantaneously. He had but just lashed the bowsprit of the enemy to the capstern with his own hands when the fatal shot was fired. The impression made upon the public mind by the death of an individual is no indifferent testimony of the value set upon his character. It may, therefore, be not inappropriate to mention, that the fall of Captain Falknor was made the subject of an historical picture by West, and of a dramatic interlude at Covent-garden Theatre. The former work was executed in a style worthy so popular a master; and the representation of the latter was successfully attended by interested audiences. THE monument erected by his country to perpetuate the reputation of this successful admiral, stands under the east window of the south transept in St. Paul's cathedral. In front is placed a statue of his lordship, leaning on a telescope, and guarded by a lion couched, the emblem of British strength and security. Above, on a rostrated column, sits Britannia with her trident, and to her right below, History appears in the act of recording the more prominent of his lordship's actions, while Victory, leaning forward over the shoulders of History, deposits a branch of palm in the lap of Britannia. Flaxman, the academician, was the statuary of the group, and the style in which it is executed may be safely said to uphold the character of the artist. Earl Howe's statue is imposing in attitude, and striking in feature; there are also some neat traces of merit to be distinguished in other parts of the work; but our praise of the whole cannot go very far; there is a heaviness about it, and the design is made up of cold and uninteresting allegory. The epitaph is expressed with no elegance, and runs thus :- Erected at the public expense to the memory of ADMIRAL EARL HOWE, In testimony of the general sense of his great and meritorious services, In the course of a long and distinguished life, and in particular for the benefit young captain fought most courageously, until a musquet-ball struck his brow, and he was carried from the deck apparently lifeless. Animation, however, soon returned, and while the surgeons were performing the painful operation of probing and closing the wound, the first use he made of his returning strength was to hail on his men above Derived to his country by the brilliant victory with cheers: no remonstrance could prevail upon which he obtained Over the French fleet, off Ushant, 1st June, 1794. He was born 19th March, 1729, and died 5th August, 1799, in his 74th year. Richard Earl Howe, the second son of Sir Emanuel Scrope, Viscount Howe, in the kingdom of Ireland, was educated at Eton school, and entered the navy in his fourteenth year. He made his first voyage under Lord Anson, when that memorable commander explored the South Seas. Accident prevented young Howe from receiving his full share of the honours which redounded upon those who were concerned in this expedition; for a storm scattered the fleet in the Straits of Lemaire, and his ship, the Severn, was so disabled by it, that the captain was obliged to put into Rio de Janeiro for repairs, and then return to England. Four years after, Howe, in the Burford, was placed under Admiral Sir Charles Ogle, along the shores of Curaçoa and the Caraccas. February 23, 1745, the Burford came into action, during which the damage done was so severe, that her destruction became unavoidable. At the court martial which ensued after this loss, the evidence of young Howe was heard with interest; he detailed the circumstances of the engagement with a perspicuity and modest proof of knowledge, and described the death of his captain, who had both his thighs shot off, with an overflow of honourable grief, which fully deserved the compliments that were paid to him upon the occasion. While attached to the same squadron, he gave a proof of judgment and intrepidity which deserves to be recorded. Sailing before the Dutch settlement of Eustatia, with the rank of acting lieutenant on board a sloop of war, he volunteered his services to claim an English merchantman, which had been captured and carried into port by a French frigate. Disappointed of success in his efforts at negociation, he devised a scheme for cutting the merchantman out of the harbour, and solicited leave to execute the plan himself. The captain strongly represented the dangers of such an attempt; but his ardour was not to be subdued, and he was at length permitted to execute his project. The event justified his boldness; he was completely successful, and had the honour of restoring the captured vessel to her owners without loss or damage. In the momentous events of the year 1745, he rose alike in rank and merit. Appointed to the command of the Baltimore sloop of war, which was one of the vessels serving under Admiral Smith on the coast of Scotland, he had the fortune, in company with another sloop, of falling in with two French frigates, which were loaded with arms and ammunition for the Pretender. No sooner were the hostile colours recognized, than he ran his vessel between the Frenchmen, and at a first tack was almost close enough to board. A desperate conflict arose not content with commanding, the him to control his excitement; his head was no sooner bound, than he rushed upon deck amidst the shouts of his crew, and supported the action with redoubled impetuosity and determination. The effect of this gallantry soon became apparent : the French sheered off disabled, but the Baltimore was so shattered that a pursuit was impossible. The Admiralty fully appreciated the conduct of the victor; and his promotion to a post-captaincy, and the command of the Triton frigate, serving on the same station, followed the public account of the action without delay. In March, 1750, we find him again as actively and as successfully employed on board La Gloire, of forty-four guns, with the command of his majesty's ships along the coast of Africa. Upon his arrival, he was met with loud complaints from the settlers along Cape Coast, of ill treatment from the Dutch governor of an adjoining fort. After trying in vain to obtain satisfaction by inoffensive means, he disposed himself so as to dictate the terms of accommodation, and soon adjusted every difficulty before him. From this quarter he is to be traced in the command of several ships of the line, and through a varied succession of difficult services in the Mediterranean, until the year 1758, when he obtained the Dunkirk, a new ship of sixty guns, and was dispatched under Admiral Boscawen to cope with the French fleet, which at the same period set sail for North America. Arrived on the coast of Newfoundland, it was there determined to prevent the enemy from entering the gulf of St. Lawrence; and though the execution of the plan was much impeded by a succession of fogs, under which the English fleet were scattered, and the French concealed, still the first clear day that came showed two frigates in sight,--the one the Alcide, of sixtyfour, and the other the Lys, of twenty-two guns. For these Howe immediately made sail, and, first coming up with the Alcide, ordered her to the stern of the British Admiral. The Frenchman asked whether this was for peace or war, and was answered that the orders to fire were expected every moment; upon which he coolly answered, "The English may begin when they please." this Howe replied with equal indifference, that he would yield the advantage of beginning; and, in consequence, both ships came into action almost at the same time. They fought on for an hour, when, though superior in tonnage, guns, and men, the Frenchman struck, with a capital of 80,000l., and nine hundred land forces on board. A night or two after this, Howe was roused from sleep by the lieutenant of the watch, with notice that the magazine was on fire. If such be the case, observed the captain, we shall soon have convincing assurance of it, and proceeded very deliberately to dress himself, while the lieutenant flew back to his post in evident agitation. Returning again in a few moments, he found Howe still going on coelly with his toilet, and told him that he need not be To |