of the fleet off the blockade of Toulon, but the port was watched by Blackwood in the Warspite, having with him Conqueror 74, Captain Fellowes; Ajax 74, Captain Otway; Euryalus 36, Captain G. H. L. Dundas; and Sheerwater brig, Captain Sibly. Six sail of the line, one a three-decker, and five two-deckers, and four frigates, under a Vice-admiral, came out, it would appear, to release a French frigate and her convoy at Bandol, and the Euryalus and Sheerwater were in danger of being taken; when the English Commodore, having brought to in line of battle, rescued his frigate and brig from below the enemy's guns. The Ajax engaged her namesake in the French line, and exchanged with her several broadsides; the Warspite and Conqueror likewise opened their fire; and the small squadron showed such a bearing and such an aspect as overawed the enemy, who declined any continued and closer conflict, and returned to their anchorage in the road. Sir Charles Cotton conveyed to the Commodore his "admiration of the gallantry and steadiness of the ships under his orders; " and though an officer in the French fleet in Toulon, who no doubt felt rather sore on such a discomfiture, in a letter to the Moniteur, ridiculed the idea of three English seventy-fours fighting six French ships, one a three-decker, and attributed their return to light and baffling winds, yet under so skilful a commander as Blackwood, and with such captains, we do not see any reason for doubting that the English squadron looked very formidable, or that, had the French Rear-Admiral not conducted himself with considerable caution, some accident might have occurred to one or two of his ships—such, perhaps, as being cut off and captured-which he prevented by effecting, notwithstanding the light and baffling winds, a seasonable return to his anchorage. "From the determined conduct of the squadron you did me the honour to place under my command," said Blackwood in his letter to Sir C. Cotton, "I am fully persuaded, had the ambition of the enemy permitted him to make a bolder attack, the result would have been still more favourable to his Majesty's arms." James, in his excellent Naval History, calls this “ a boast, from physical causes almost impossible to be realised," and regrets it had been made by an officer who had "already so unequivocally distinguished himself." Nor do we blame him for expressing his opinion, while we think it entirely mis

taken. To us the words he quotes seem no boast at all, but an opinion justified by the behaviour of the enemy, and by Blackwood's confidence in his own skill and squadron. Had the squadrons met, so that the adverse ships laid each other on board, a triumph by the English might indeed "have been from physical causes almost impossible to be realised;" but Blackwood would have fought after another fashion; and "physical causes" produce extraordinary effects at sea under the guidance of nautical skill, as a Spanish fleet was made to feel when they met with noble Jervis off Cape St Vincent. It is the duty of all commanders to commend the conduct of their officers and men when they deserve it, and Blackwood said neither more nor less than Sir Horatio Nelson himself might have said had he been the Commodore. James says, "that it was not many weeks afterwards ere a more decided display of British valour occurred off the port of Toulon.' A strong French squadron had worked out in the hope of capturing the British 18-gun brig-sloop Philomel, Captain Guion; and that brig being in danger of capture, the Repulse, 74, Captain John Halliday, gallantly bore up, and opened so heavy and well-directed a fire upon the three headmost heavy frigates, that in the course of a quarter of an hour, they wore and joined the line-of-battle ships, several of which were also by this time far advanced in the chase. It was, in good truth, noble behaviour in Halliday; and "Guion, in a spirit of honourable gratitude," telegraphed the Repulse, "You REPULSED the enemy and nobly saved us; grant me permission to return thanks." At this time, the blockading British fleet was out of sight to leeward, all but the Warspite, and the Alceste frigate, Captain Maxwell. "Captains Blackwood and Maxwell, and their respective officers and companions," says James well, "must have felt their hearts bound with delight at such a spectacle." They must-they were just the very men to exult in such heroism; but the effects of the fire of the Repulse afford the best justification, if it needed any, of the expression found fault with in Blackwood's account of this affair, with perhaps the selfsame squadron. For what if the Warspite, and Conqueror, or Ajax, and the Alceste frigate, had joined the Repulse after she had silenced and beaten off, in a quarter of an hour, three heavy French frigates, so that Blackwood's squadron had been of the same

strength as on the former occasion-what, in the opinion of Mr James, would have happened then? Would Blackwood, as the mendacious writer in the Moniteur said he formerly did, have run away? He would have attacked, or waited for the attack of the French squadron; and had it even consisted of six sail of the line, and among them one threedecker and two eighty-fours, can there be a doubt “that the result would have been still more honourable to his Majesty's arms?" We have thought it right thus to notice the criticism made by Mr James on Captain Blackwood's letter, because no officer in the navy was less given, either in writing or speaking, to "boast" than he; and this is seen in his simple accounts of the various actions and affairs in which he was engaged, now laid before the public in this memoir.

Sir Charles Cotton being superseded in the chief command by Lord Exmouth, Captain Blackwood continued to serve under that illustrious Admiral until May 1812, when he returned to England for the repair of the ship. He then joined Sir William Young in the blockade of the Scheldt, and in a few months was moved to the Channel fleet, under Lord Keith, in which he served in the blockades of Brest and Rochefort until November 1813, when he resigned the command of the Warspite, having held it for six active years. "In all," says the gallant officer, in a letter we have seen, written by him at that time, and narrating with the utmost simplicity some of the chief incidents in his career, "with the exception of ten months at the peace of Amiens, on active service, without any blemish to my public or private character, and under some of our most distinguished commanders, of thirty-two years and eight months, in the course of which I was engaged either as Lieutenant or Captain, in some of the most celebrated actions in both wars."

He now enjoyed uninterruptedly for about six years that domestic happiness which was ever dearest to his heart; and in 1814, by his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, was made Captain of the Fleet. He was appointed to bring over the crowned heads from France to this country; and at the Naval Review at Portsmouth, his skilful arrangements were the admiration of all who witnessed that magnificent spectacle, and for them he received public thanks. On this occasion he was created a baronet, and promoted to the rank of

Rear-Admiral. He attended his Royal Highness on the gratifying service of conveying back the King of France, and the members of that Royal House, to his dominions; and was afterwards appointed one of the new order of naval aides-decamp to the Prince Regent; and in 1818, Groom of the Chamber, to which situation he was reappointed soon after the accession of William the Fourth. The Duke of Clarence had for many years honoured him with his kindest regard; and our Sailor King well knew the great loss the service sustained on his death, and graciously sought to soothe the sorrow of her who survives him, by a communication expres sive of sympathy and condolence. In 1819, Sir Henry was appointed commander-in-chief of the naval forces in the East Indies, and on his way out in the Leander, had nearly suf fered shipwreck, off Madeira, in Funchal Road. With Captain Richardson, a cool and skilful officer, he spoke but for a moment, at a time the Leander was in imminent peril of drifting on the rocks; and orders, as we have heard, having been given, in the confidence of their united judgment, to wear, as the only chance of saving the ship, it was successfully effected, but with so little room to spare, "that a biscuit might

have been thrown on board from the cliffs." Sir Henry used to say, that in all his dangers he had never so

utterly given

up hope in his heart as on that occasion. In con Sequence of the new arrangement at the Admiralty, that Commodores should perform the duties of Commander-in-chief, Sir Henry was recalled before the expiration of his command; but his unfavourable opinion of that regulation, and the soundness of the reasons on which he formed it, were afterwards justified by the necessity which the Government were under of return

ing to the former system, and again sending out an Admiral to that station. In 1827, Sir Henry was raised by his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, then Lord High Admiral, to the command at Chatham, which appointment he retained for the usual period of three years. During that period, at his of a squadron, consisting of the Prince Regent and Britannia, suggestion, we believe, took place the Experimental Cruise first-rates, Pearl, Pylades, and Orestes, sloops. It was chiefly for the purpose of ascertaining the comparative advantages of round and square sterns; and Sir Henry, who was himself in the Prince Regent, was highly satisfied with the qualities of

that ship, and especially with her facilities for fighting her stern guns on each of her decks. Always alive to the interests of the service, he directed much of his attention to what he considered an improvement on the round stern that had been introduced by the zealous Sir Thomas Seppings, and we have heard, though not on assured authority, that some of his suggestions were afterwards adopted; but we believe that the ideas of the present Surveyor of the Navya man of original genius, and complete skill in nautical affairs, as exemplified in the construction of that noble frigate the Vernon, the Snake, and other fine ships and brigshave been approved of by the majority of the best judges in the profession.

So high an opinion did the people at Chatham form of Sir Henry's character, that shortly after the command was up, a strong request was made to him that he would stand for the representation of the town; but he prudently declined embroiling himself in any such contest; for though a man of too decided a character not to have his own opinions on politics, he had all his life long kept aloof from the violence of party. At sea and on shore his duties to his country had been nobly discharged in a noble service; and far happier would he have been, to the last, under any Ministry, any Government, any Constitution, settled, reformed, or revolutionised, on board a three-decker to prove his patriotism, and let his country's enemies hear the best eloquence of her naval heroes, "the thunder from our native oak." Sir Henry therefore retired, alas! but for a brief time, into the tranquillity of private life. Anxious and earnest as ever to benefit the service, he took a warm interest in the Naval School (for the sons of naval officers), about that time established, to which Dr Bell had made a munificent donation, and which was to be conducted on the principles of the Madras system. For its advancement, his exertions were indefatigable; he was elected President of the Committee for a year, deriving all assistance from the business-talents of that able officer, Captain Maconochie, then, we believe, Secretary; and he had the gratification of finding that the undertaking met with great public encouragement, which, we devoutly trust, will endure. In the full vigour of life-for in his sixty-second year he seemed as strong as in the prime of manhood-after a short illness, he died of typhus