fleet from being entangled in the shallows. This necessary precaution and the approach of night, compelled him to discontinue the pursuit, and saved from destruction a remnant of the enemy's fleet. No fewer, however, were captured, than eight ships of the line, two vessels of 56 guns, and two frigates. The loss of men on both sides in this bloody and well-fought battle, was considerable. In the British squadron it amounted to 700, and in the Dutch to twice that number, the choicest of their seamen. Such was the result of that skill, determination, and intrepidity, which distinguished the admiral from the beginning to the conclusion of the conflict. The victory was not less owing to the promptitude and judgment which carried the British fleet between the enemy and the shore, than to the valor of the subordinate officers and seamen.

Commodore Nelson having been promoted to the rank of admiral, was appointed to the command of an expedition against the isle of Teneriffe: He arrived at the place of destination on the 4th of July, and immediately prepared to carry his orders into execution. No individual could have been selected to undertake the enterprise, more worthy by his past exploits of the confidence of his country. To trace the progress of this illustrious character through the various vicissitudes of his eventful life is the province of the biographer rather than of the historian; and I shall therefore confine myself to the record of those events which more immediately tended to contribute to his future eminence, and to the elucidation of British history.

On the 11th of May, in the year 1749, the reverend Edmund Nelson, son of the then venerable rector of Hillborough, and himself rector of Burnham Thorpe, was married to Catharine, daughter of sir Maurice Suckling, rector of Barsham, in Suffolk, and of Woodton, in Norfolk, and prebendary of Westminster.

By this union the Nelson family gained the honor of being related to the noble families of Walpole, Cholmondeley, and Townsend: Miss Suckling being the grand

daughter of sir Charles Turner, Bart. of Warham, in the county of Norfolk, by Mary, daughter of Robert Walpole esquire, of Houghton, and sister to sir Robert Walpole of Woolterton, whose next sister was married to Charles, second son of viscount Townsend.

Of these virtuous and respectable parents, Horatio Nelson the fifth son, ⚫ and the sixth child, was born at the parsonage house of the rectory of Burnham Thorpe, on Michaelmas-day 1758. He was educated at the high school of Norwich, and was afterwards placed at North Walsham, under the care of the reverend Mr. Jones. Here he continued till in the autumn of 1770, captain Suckling having obtained the command of the Raisonable, of 64 guns, one of the ships connected with the intended expedition to Falkland islands, immediately ordered his nephew from school, and entered him as a midshipman. After being properly equipped for this situation, he was sent to join the ship at Sheerness. His uncle being absent from the vessel, he paced the deck during the whole afternoon of his farrival, without being distinguished by the smallest notice; till at length, on the second day of his being on board, some one regarded him with compassion, and discovered, for the first time, that he was the captain's nephew. His hopes, however, of distinction, experience, or preferment, were nipped in the bud by the recal of the expedition with whicn he was connected, before the close of the year.

Two years afterwards, captain Suckling was appointed to the command of the Triumph, on board of which he placed his nephew, whose progress as a seaman he superintended with singular vigilance and assiduity, notwithstanding the obstacles opposed to his wishes by the detention of the ship at Chatham. In 1773, he accompanied captain Lutwidge as cockswain, in the voyage of discovery, under commodore Phipps, to the north pole. In the subsequent year he obtained a birth in the ship of the gallant and unfortunate captain Farmer, who, in the year 1779, perished in the flames of the Quebec,

to-Quebec, and from thence conducted a fleet of transports to New York. He soon afterwards joined lord Hood in the West Indies, and was sent to the Havannah, on a cruize of observation. He continued actively employed in the West Indies till the peace of 1783; and, on the occurrence of that event, he returned to England, where he arrived in July. Having taken a trip to France, from whence he was recalled to undertake the command of the Boreas, of 28 guns, which was fitted out as a cruizer; and, being appointed to cruize on the leeward station, carried out lady Hughes and her family, to sir Richard Hughes, who commanded off Madeira. Having proceeded from that island to St. Kitts, he had the misfortune to incur the enmity of sir Richard Hughes, and of the inhabitants, in consequence of a misunderstanding with the latter. The quarrel, however, which proceeded to a legal contest, terminated in his favor, and several American vessels were condemned. Having appealed, while under the terrors of the law, to the gracious consideration of the king, his majesty had the goodness to order him to be defended at his own expense. in August admiral Hughes quitted the command, and shortly after captain Nelson received orders to take the Pegasus and Solebay frigates under his direction. The former of these ships was commanded by prince William Henry, the duke of Clarence, and the utmost cordiality subsisted between the commodore and his royal highness. At the island of Nevis, in March, 1787, he was united in marriage to the widow of Dr. Nesbit, daughter of Mr. Herbert, the senior judge. The marriage was celebrated with considerable splendor, and prince William Heury did them the honor to attend as the father of the bride. Of this lady he speaks in the first months of her marriage, with respect and indulgence; nor would it have detracted from his estimation with posterity, had he displayed the same good sense and the same discretion at a future period. A few days after his nuptials, he proceeded to Tortola, and from thence to England, where he arrived at Portsmouth in the beginning of

July, with Mrs. Nelson and her sou by a former marriage.

The Boreas was paid off in November, 1787, and the next five years of Nelson's life were spent in retirement and inactivity, chiefly at the parsonage house of Burnham Thorpe. In the year 1790, when the cruelties exercised by the Spaniards at Nootka Sound, seemed to have awakened the national vengeance, and an armament was ordered to be prepared, he immediately offered his services at the admiralty; but, precluded by the claims of some, and the importunities of others, his efforts were ineffectual.

After two years more passed i retirement, the revolutionary war, having extended its baneful influence to this country, it became necessary to put forth all the resources of our naval power. His commission was immediately signed for the Agamemnon, then in January, under orders of equipment for the Mediterranean, as a part of lord Hood's squadron; which soon after proceeded to the attack of Toulon. Lord Nelson, however, was not present at the final operations, as he was charged with dispatches from lord Hood to sir William Hamilton, minister plenipotentiary of the court of Naples; a mission which almost equally contributed, by his introduction to the court and to lady Hamilton, to the glory and to the infelicity of his future life. He accomplished, however, the object of his voyage, and, after accompanying commodore Linzee to Tunis, was ordered to take the command of a cruizing squadron of frigates off the coast of Corsica. I have already noticed as far as they were worthy of detail, the cruizes and operations in which he was engaged during the two subsequent years. On the 11th of August, 1796, he obtained the permanent rank of commodore in his new ship, the Captain, to which he was appointed by sir John Jervis. Having convoyed in safety all the British troops from Corsica to Porto Ferrajo, he joined that admiral in St. Fiorenza bay, and proceeded with him to Gibraltar, where he remained but a short time, being ordered by the commander-inchief to remove his broad pendant on board.