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an enforced reverence to its rays and its dotage. During the thirty-two years of his professional life, there is not on record of him an unkindness to a junior, asperity to a senior, an undue submission to overweening power, or a single instance of interested servility."

"There were times," says his biographer, "when he was subject to extreme despondency; but the origin of this was visible enough, without having recourse to any mysterious inquiries. It was the case with him as it is with every person whose spirits are apt to be occasionally excited the depression is at intervals in exact proportion. Like a bow overstrained, the mind relaxes in consequence of the exertion. He was naturally extremely sensitive,-domestic misfortunes rendered his home unhappy, he flew for a kind of refuge into public life; and the political ruin of his country, leaving him without an object of private enjoyment or of patriotic hope, flung him upon his own heart-devouring reflections. He was at those times a striking instance of his own remark upon the disadvantages attendant upon too refined a sensibility. 'Depend upon it, my dear friend,' said he, it is a serious misfortune in life to have a mind more sensitive or more cultivated than commonit naturally elevates its possessor into a region which he must be doomed to find nearly uninhabited.' It was a deplorable thing to see him in the decline of life, when visited by this constitutional melancholy. I have not unfrequently accompanied him in his walks upon such occasions, almost at the hour of midnight. He had gardens attached to the priory, of which he was particularly fond: and into these gardens, when so affected, no matter at what hour, he used to ramble. It was then almost impossible to divert his mind from themes of sadness. The gloom of his own thoughts discoloured every thing, and from calamity to calamity he would wander on, seeing in the future nothing for hope, and in the past nothing but disappointment, you could not recognise in him the same creature, who but an hour before, had set the table in a roar,'-his gibes, his merriment, his flashes of wit, were all extinguished. He had a favourite little daughter, who was a sort of musical prodigy. She had died at the age of twelve, and he had her buried in the midst of a small grove just adjoining this garden. A little rustic memorial was laid over her, and often and often have I seen him, the tears chasing each other' down his cheeks, point to his daughter's monument, and wish to be with her at rest.' Such at times was the man, before whose very look not merely gravity but sadness has often vanished,-who has given birth to more enjoyment, and uttered more wit, than perhaps any of his cotemporaries in any country,-who had in him materials for social happiness, such as we cannot hope again to see combined in any one; and whose death has cast, I fear, a permanent eclipse upon the festivities of his circle. Perhaps, after one of those scenes of misery, when he had walked himself tired, and wept himself tearless, he would again return into the house, where the picture of some friend, or the contingency of some accident, recalling an early or festive association, would hurry him into the very extreme of cheerfulness ! His spirits rose,-his wit returned,—the jest, and the tale, and the anecdote, pushed each other aside in an almost endless variety, and day dawned upon him, the happiest, the pleasantest, and the most fascinating of companions."

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George Ponsonby.

BORN A. D. 1755.-DIED A. D. 1817.

MR PONSONBY was the younger son of the Right Honourable John Ponsonby, speaker of the Irish house of commons, and brother of the earl of Desborough, by Lady Elizabeth Cavendish. Called at an early age to the bar, and possessing, for his rank, but a slender fortune, he was appointed counsel to the commissioners of the revenue, with the emoluments of which he was satisfied,—spending a considerable portion of his time in rural retirement; but the change of ministry which divested him of his place, roused him into activity, and laid the foundation of his political life.

In the same year he became a leading member in the Irish house of commons, and at the bar. His professional practice opened the road to riches, while necessary exertion subdued a constitutional indolence which might otherwise have settled into habit. Always acting in concert with the party of his noble relative, the duke of Devonshire, he was, on the change of administration in 1806, appointed lord-chancellor of Ireland, which office he resigned in 1807; and, on Lord Grey's removal to the upper house, he succeeded him as nominal leader of the opposition in the commons.

His time having been for the greater part previously spent in Ireland, and his mind occupied with Irish interests, this period may be considered as the commencement of his political career as a British senator. Like the great Lord Chatham, he died in the service of his country, being seized with a fit a few minutes after he had spoken in debate. He died on the eighth day afterwards.

Mr Ponsonby was one of those very estimable characters who fill a private station in the most amiable and exemplary manner, and a public one with propriety and integrity. His talents were more useful than splendid; more suited to the arrangement of affairs, the detail of business, and the tranquil investigation of truth, than capable of obtaining a command over the understanding of others, of dazzling by their brilliancy, or controlling by their powers. He was, in truth, an honest, sincere, steady man; and his eloquence was naturally adapted to the level tenor of his mind. He never aspired to the lofty splendour of a Sheridan; and was incapable of the quick conception and rapid elocution of a Fox. The ardent spirit of his own party so far ran beyond him in their attacks, that they almost forgot they fought under his colours; to whom, therefore, he was rather a point d'appui after the battle, than a leader in the field. As the leader of a great political party, no man was ever more free from party-spirit; he was, in feeling and principle, the very man contemplated by those who consider a systematic opposition a necessary safeguard to the constitutional rights and liberties of England. The ingenuousness of his mind, the kindness of his heart, and the placability of his manners, conciliated his opponents, and assuaged all those feelings which defeat excites; and, if his triumphs were not more numerous, it was because the candour and generosity of his mind disdained to take advantage of his adversaries whenever he

thought them right. Where that was the case, all party-feeling vanished before his political integrity; and, on many critical occasions, he gave his adversaries the support of his learning and talents. Nobly disdaining all selfish views, he was here no longer the leader of a party; he showed himself the resolute, fixed, and unalterable friend of constitutional freedom.1

Sir John Thomas Duckworth.

BORN A. D. 1748.-DIED A.D. 1817.

THIS gallant admiral was the son of a clergyman. We find him holding a navy-lieutenant's commission in 1770. In July, 1779, he became commander of a sloop-of-war, and in the following year obtained post-rank. He was present in Lord Howe's action with the Brest fleet. In 1798 he was detached, by Earl St Vincent, with a small squadron against Minorca, in the reduction of which he succeeded jointly with Sir Charles Stewart, who commanded the land-forces. In 1799 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral.

In March, 1801, in conjunction with General Trigge, he captured the islands of St Bartholomew and St Martin, for which service he was made a knight of the Bath. In 1804 he was appointed vice-admiral of the Blue.

On the 6th of February, 1806, he fell in with a French squadron off St Domingo, three of which he captured, and drove two others on shore. For this exploit he was honoured with the thanks of both houses of parliament.

In 1807 he performed the hazardous service of forcing the Dardanelles. In his despatches to the admiralty on this occasion, the admiral writes, under date the 21st of February, and from on board the Royal George off Constantinople, "Your lordship will have been informed of my resolution of passing the Dardanelles the first fair wind. A fine wind from the southward permitted me to carry it into effect on the morning of the 19th. Information had been given me by his majesty's minister, Mr Arbuthnot, and Sir Thomas Louis, that the Turkish squadron, consisting of a 64 gun-ship, four frigates, and several corvettes, had been for some time at anchor within the Inner castle; and conceiving it possible they might have remained there, I had given orders to Rear-admiral Sir Sidney Smith, to bring up with the Thunderer, Standard, and Active, and destroy them, should our passage be opposed. At a quarter before nine o'clock, the whole of the squadron had passed the Outer castles, without having returned a shot to their fire, which occasioned but little injury. This forbearance was produced by the desire of his majesty's minister, expressed, to preserve every appearance of amity, that he might negotiate with the strongest proof of the pacific disposition of our sovereign towards the Porte; a second battery on the European side fired also with as little effect. At half-past nine o'clock, the Canopus, which, on account of Sir Thomas Louis's knowledge of the channel, joined to the steady gallantry, which

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I had before experienced, had been appointed to lead-entered the narrow passage of Sestos and Abydos, and sustained a very heavy cannonade from both castles, within point-blank shot of each. They opened their fire on our ships as they continued to pass in succession, although I was happy in observing that the very spirited return it met with had so considerably diminished its force, that the effect on the sternmost ships could not have been so severe. Immediately to the north-east of the castles, and between them and Point Pesquies, on which a formidable battery had been newly erected, the small squadron which I have already alluded to were at anchor. The van division of our squadron gave them their broadsides as they passed, and Sir Sydney Smith with his division closed into the midst, and the effect of the fire was such, that in half an hour the Turks had all cut their cables to run on shore. The object of the rear-admiral was then to destroy them, which was most rapidly effected; as in less than four hours the whole of them had exploded, except a small corvette and a gun-boat, which it was thought proper to preserve. I enclose to your lordship a statement of their number; and when I add also an account of the loss his majesty's ships have sustained, I cannot help expressing my satisfaction that we have suffered so slightly; as, had any of their stone shotsome of which exceeded 800 weight-made such a breach between wind and water as they have done in our sides, the ship must have sunk; or had they struck a lower mast in the centre, it must evidently have been cut in two. In the rigging too, no accident occurred that was not perfectly arranged in the course of next day. The sprit-sail yard of the Royal George, the gaft of the Canopus, and the main-topsail-yard of the Standard, are the only spars that were injured. The Sixty-four having run on shore on Pesquies Point, I ordered the Repulse to work up and destroy her, which Captain Legge, in conjunction with the boats of the Pompée, executed with great promptitude and judgment. The battery on the Point, of more than thirty guns, which, had it been completely finished, was in a position to have annoyed the squadron most severely in passing, was taken possession of by the marines and boats' crew of the rear-division, the Turks having retired at their approach, and the guns were immediately spiked. At a quarter past five P. M., the squadron was enabled to make sail; and on the evening of the next day, the 20th, came to an anchor at ten o'clock, near the Prince's Islands, about eight miles from Constantinople, when I despatched Captain Capel, in the Endymion, to anchor near the town, if the wind, which was light, would permit the ship to stem the current, to convey the ambassador's despatches to the Sublime Porte in the morning by a flag of truce; but he found it impracticable to get within four miles, and consequently anchored at half-past eleven P. M."

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In another despatch, dated from without the Dardanelles, 6th March, Admiral Duckworth explains the circumstances under which he did not deem it prudent to attack Constantinople. Referring to the position of the fleet on the 21st of February, the admiral proceeds to say:- Had it been then in our power, we should have taken our station off the town immediately; but as that could not be done from the rapidity of the current, I was rather pleased than otherwise with the position we had been forced to take; for in the conferences between Mr Arbuthnot and

the Capitan Pacha-of the particulars of which your lordship is in possession-it was promised by Mr A. that even when the squadron had arrived before Constantinople, the door to pacification should remain open, and that he would be willing to negotiate on terms of equality and justice. In consideration of this promise, and as it would convince the Porte of his majesty's earnest desire to preserve peace, as well as possess her ministers with a confidence of the sincerity of our professions, it was the opinion of Mr A., in which I concurred, that it was fortunate we had anchored at a little distance from the capital, as a nearer approach might have given cause for suspicion and alarm, and have cut off the prospect of an amicable adjustment of the differences which had arisen. At noon of the 21st, Ysak Bey, a minister of the Porte, came off, from whose expressions Mr Arbuthnot thought it impossible not to believe, that in the head of the government-for in the present instance every circumstance proved, that between him and the armed populace a great distinction is to be made-there really existed a sincere desire for peace; and the negotiation was carried on, as will appear by the documents transmitted to your lordship, till the 27th; but from the moment of our anchorage till we weighed on the morning of the 1st of March, such was the unfortunate state of the weather, that it was not at any time in our power to have occupied a situation which would have enabled the squadron to commence offensive operations against Constantinople. On Sunday the 22d alone for a few hours, the breeze was sufficient to have stemmed the current where we were placed; but such was the rapidity on shore where the Endymion was at anchor, that Captain Capel thought very doubtful whether the squadron could have obtained an anchorage, though it had been held in preparative readiness by signal, from day-break; but the peculiarly unsettled state of the weather, and the minister's desire that I should give a few hours for an answer to his letter through Ysak Bey, prevented me from trying. Before 5 o'clock, P. M., it was nearly calm, and in the evening the wind was entirely from the eastward, and continued light airs or calm till the evening of the 28th, when it blew fresh from the N. E., and rendered it impossible to change our position. Two days after our arrival near Constantinople, the ambassador found himself indisposed, and has been ever since confined with a fit of illness, so severe as to prevent him from attending to business. Under these circumstances he had delivered in on the 22d to the Turkish ministers, a projet, as the basis on which peace might be preserved, and at his desire the subsequent part of the negotiation was carried on in my name, with his advice and assistance; and while I lament most deeply that it has not ended in the re-establishment of peace, I derive consolation from the reflection, that no effort has been wanting on the part of Mr Arbuthnot and myself to obtain such a result, which was soon seen, from the state of the preparations at Constantinople, could be effected by negotiation only, as the strength of the current from the Bosphorus, with the circuitous eddies of the port, rendered it impracticable to place ships for an attack without a commanding breeze, which, during the ten days I was off the town, it was not my good fortune to meet with.

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"I now come to the point of explaining to your lordship the motives which fixed me to decide in repassing the channel of the Dardanelles, and relinquishing every idea of attacking the capital; and I feel confi

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