more floop of war, which joined the fquadron then cruizing on the coaft of Scotland, under the command of admiral Smith. During this cruize an action took place, in which captain Howe gave a fine example of perfevering intrepidity. The Baltimore, in company with another armed veffel, fell in with two French frigates of 30 guns, with troops and ammunition for the fervice of the pretender, which the instantly attacked by running between them. In the action which followed, captain Howe received a wound in his head, which at first appeared to be fatal. He, however, foon discovered figns of life, and, when the neceffary operation was performed, refumed all his former activity, continued the action, if poffible, with redoubled fpirit, and obliged the French fhips, with their prodigious fuperiority in men and metal, to feer off, leaving the Baltimore, at the fame time, in fuch a flattered condition as to be, wholly difqualified to pursue them. He was, in confequence of this gallant fervice, immediately made poft-captain, and, on the 10th of April, 1746, was appointed to the Triton frigate, and ordered to Lisbon, where, in confequence of captain Holbourne's bad state of health, he was transferred to the Rippon, deftined for the coaft of Guinea. But he foon quitted that ftation to join his early patron, admiral Knowles, in Jamaica, who appointed him firft captain of his fhip of 80 guns; and, at the conclufion of the war, in 1748, he returned in her to England. In March, 1751, captain Howe was appointed to the command of the Guinea station, in La Gloire, of 44 guns; when, with his ufual

fpirit and activity, he checked the injurious proceedings of the Dutch governor-general on the coast, and adjufted the difference between the English and Dutch fettlements. At the clofe of the year 1751, he was appointed to the Mary yacht, which was foon exchanged for the Dolphin frigate, in which he failed to the Streights, where he executed many difficult and important fervices. Here he remained about 3 years; and foon after, on his return to England, he obtained the command of the Dunkirk, of 60 guns, which was among the flips that were commiflioned from an apprehenfion of a rupture with France. This fhip was one of the fleet with which admiral Bofcawen failed to obftruct the paffage of the French fleet into the gulph of St. Lawrence, when captain Howe took the Alcide, a French fhip of 64 guns, off the coaft of Newfoundland. A powerful fleet being prepared, in 1757, under the command of fir Edward Hawke, to make an attack upon the French coaft, captain Howe was appointed to the Magnanime, in which thip he battered the fort on the inland of Aix till it furrendered. In 1758, he was appointed commodore of a fmall fquadron which failed to annoy the enemy on their coafts. This he effected with his ufual fuccefs at St. Malo, where a hundred fail of fhips, and several magazines, were deftroyed; and the heavy gale blowing into the fhore, which rendered it impracticable for the troops to land, alone prevented the execu ting a fimilar mifchief in the town and harbour of Cherbourg, On the 1ft of July he returned to St. Helen's. This expedition was foon followed by another, when prince Edward,

afterwards

afterwards duke of York, was intrufted to the care of commodore Howe, on board his fhip the Effex. The fleet failed on the 1ft of Auguft, 1758, and on the 6th came to an anchor in the bay of Cherbourg; the town was taken, and the bafon deftroyed. The commodore, with his royal midshipman on board, next failed to St. Malo, and, as his inftructions were to keep the coaft of France in continual alarm, he very effectually obeyed them. The unfuccefsful affair of St. Cas followed. But never was courage, fkill, or humanity, more powerfully or fuccefffully difplayed than on this occafion. He went in perfon in his barge, which was rowed through the thickeft fire, to fave the retreating foldiers; the reft of the fleet, infpired by his conduct, followed his example, and at leaft 700 men were preferved, by his exertions, from the fire of the enemy, or the fury of the waves. In July the fame year (1758) his elder brother, who was ferving his country with equal ardour and heroifm in America, found an early grave. That brave and admirable officer was killed in a skirmish between the advanced guard of the French and the troops commanded by general Abercromby, in the expedition againft Ticonderago. Commodore Howe now fucceeded to the titles and property of his family. In the following year (1759) lord Howe was employed in the channel, on-board his old fhip the Magnanime; but no opportunity offered to diftinguifh himself till the month of November, when the French fleet, under Conflans, was defeated. When he was prefented to the king, by fir Edward Hawke, on this occafion, his majefty faid, "Your life, my lord, has been one continued

feries of fervices to your country." In March, 1760, he was appointed colonel of the Chatham divifion of marines; and in September following, he was ordered by fir Edward Hawke, to reduce the French fort on the Ifle of Dumel, in order to fave the expenfe of the tranfports employed to carry water for the ufe of the fleet. Lord Howe continued to ferve, as occafion required, in the channel; and, in the fummer of 1762, he removed to the Princess, Amelia, of 80 guns, having accepted the command as captain to his royal highnefs the duke of York, then rear admiral of the blue, ferving as fecond in command under fir Edward Hawke, in the channel. On the 23d of Auguft, 1763, his lordship was appointed to the board of admiralty, where he remained till Auguft, 1765. He was then made treasurer of the navy; and, in October, 1770, was promoted to rear admiral of the blue, and commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. In March, 1775, he was appointed rear-admiral of the white: and was foon after chofen to reprefent the borough of Dartmouth in parliament. In the month of December, in the fame year, he was made vice-admiral of the blue. was on one of thefe promotions that lord Hawke, then firft lord of the admiralty, rofe in the houfe of peers and faid, "I advifed his majefty to make the promotion. I have tried my lord Howe on important occafions; he never afked me how he was to execute any fervice, but always went and performed it."We are now to confider lord Howe as commander-in-chief on the American station, a very critical part of his life, and which at the time, was fubject to the cenfure and praise of contending

A a 3

It

contending parties; but, leaving fuch difcuffions to hiftorical examination, we fhall proceed briefly to obferve, as it appears to us, that every enterprize in which his fquadron was concerned was uniformly fuccefsful; and he never failed in obtaining thofe objects that were within the reach of the naval force which he commanded. In 1778, France having become a party in the war, the French admiral (d'Eftaing) appeared, on the 11th of July, in fight of the Britif fleet, at Sandy Hook, with a confiderable force of line of battle fhips, in complete equipment and condition. Moft of the thips under lord Howe had been long in fervice, were not well manned, and were not line of battle fhips of the prefent day. The French admiral, however, remained feven days without making an attack, and by that time lord Howe had difpofed his inferior force in fuch a manner as to bid him defiance. On d'Eftaing's leaving the Hook, lord Howe heard of the critical fituation of Rhode Ifland, and made every poffible exertion to preferve it. He afterwards acted chiefly on the defenfive. Such a conduct appears to have been required from the state of his fleet, and the particular fitn ́ation of the British caufe in America. He, however, contrived to baffle all the defigns of the French admiral; and may be faid, confidering the difadvantages with which he was furrounded, to have conducted and clofed the campaign with honour. Lord Howe now refigned the command to 'admiral Byron; and, on his return to England in October, immediately ftruck his flag. In the courfe of this year he had been advanced to be vice

admiral of the white, and, shortly after, to the fame rank in the red fquadron. On the change of adminiftration in the year 1782, lord Howe was raifed to the dignity of a vifcount of Great Britain, having been previously advanced to the rank of admiral of the blue. He was then appointed to command the fleet fitted out for the relief of Gibraltar; and he fulfilled the important objects of this expedition. That fortrefs was effectually relieved, the hoftile fleet baffled, and dared in vain to battle; and different fquadrons detached to their important deftinations; while the ardent hopes of his country's foes were difappointed. Peace was concluded fhortly after lord Howe's return from performing this important fervice; and, in January, 1783, he was nominated firft lord of the Admiralty. That office, in the fucceeding April, he refigned to lord Keppel; but was re-appointed on the 30th of December in the fame year. On the 24th of September, 1787, he was advanced to the rank of admiral of the white; and, in July, 1788, he finally quitted his ftation at the Admiralty. On Auguft 19 following he was created an earl of Great Britain. At the commencement of the prefent war, in 1793, carl Howe accepted the command of the western fquadron, at the particular and perfonal requeft of his majefty, and juftified the choice which his fovereign had made at fuch a perilous and impor tant moment. The glorious victory of the firft of June foon followed; the enemy's fleet, which was one of the moft powerful that France had ever equipped for fea, was totally vanquifhed, and feven ships of the enc my's line were in poffeffion of the

conqueror.

conqueror. He now returned to receive all the honours which a grateful country could bestow.

On

the 26th of the fame month, their majefties, with three of the princeffes, arrived at Portfmouth, and proceeded the next morning in barges to vifit lord Howe's fhip the Queen Charlotte, at Spithead. His majefty held a naval levee on board, and prefented the victorious admiral with a fword, enriched with diamonds, and a gold chain, with the naval medal fufpended from it. The thanks of both houses of parliament, the freedom of the city of London, and the univerfal acclamations of the nation, followed the acknowledgements of the fovereign. In the courfe of the following year he was appointed general of marines, on the death of admiral Forbes; and finally refigned the command of the western fquadron in April, 1797. On the 2d of June in the fame year he was invefted with the infignia of the garter. The laft public act of a life employed against the foreign enemies of his country was exerted to compofe its internal diffentions. It was the lot of earl Howe to contribute to the reftoration of the fleet, which he had conducted to glory on the fea, to loyalty in the harbour. His experience fuggefted the meafures to be purfued by government on the alarming mutinies which, in 1797, diftreffed and terrified the nation; while his perfonal exertions powerfully promoted the difperfion of that fpirit which had, for a time, changed the very nature of British feamen, and greatly helped to recall them to their former career of duty and obedience. Such was earl Howe, who

which will mark one of the most diftinguished periods of British glory.

Anecdotes of the late Mr. Bacon.

HIS celebrated fculptor was

THIS

born, in London, on the 24th of November, 1740. His father was a clothworker, in Southwark. When he was about five years of age, he fell into a pit of a foapboiler, and must have perished if a man, who then entered the yard, had not difcovered the top of his head, and immediately drawn him out. About the fame time he fell before a cart, the wheel of which went over his right hand, and must have crushed it, had it not fallen between two projecting ftones.When very young, Mr. Bacon dif covered an inclination for drawing; but never made any great proficiency in that art. In the year 1755, and at the age of 14, he was bound apprentice to Mr. Crifpe, of Bow-. church-yard, where he was employed in painting on porcelain. Mr. Crifpe had a manufactory of china, at Lambeth, where Mr. Bacon occafionally went and affifted. His then occupation, indeed, was but a feeble step towards his future ac quirements, as he was chiefly employed in forming fhepherds, thep herdeffes, and fuch like fmall ornamental pieces; yet, for a felf-taught artift to perform even works like these with tafte, and, in lefs than two years, form (as he did) all the models for the manufactory, was to give indications of no ordinary powers. But, as goodness of heart excels greatness of parts, we ought not to admit recording here a proof of his filial affection. At this early A a 4

period