ner, as the reader will find in our account of that period, Vol. III. p. 77—81.

Peace being concluded soon afterwards, he quitted his command; but on th e28th of January, 1783, he was made first lord of the admiralty; which office he soon afterwards resigned to lord Keppel; at the end of the year he was re-appointed, and continued in that station till 1788, in which year he was created an earl of Great Britain. In 1793 his lordship accepted the command of the channel fleet. During the first year in which he filled this high station, no very remarkable occurrence took place; but on the 1st of June 1795, he obtained a decisive victory over the most powerful fleet France ever equipped for sea. See Vol. III. p. 267-8.

On his lordship's return with his prizes, their majesties visited Portsmouth, and went on board the Queen Charlotte, at Spithead. His majesty held a levee, and presented Earl Howe with a diamond hilt sword, valued at three thousand guineas; also a gold chain, to which the medal given on the occasion is suspended, to be worn round the neck. The royal party dined with Lord Howe, and in the evening returned on shore. The next morning their majesties and the princesses embarked on board the Aquilon frigate, and in the afternoon landed at Southampton, from whence they set off for Windsor.

His lordship received the thanks of both houses of Parliament, the freedom of the city of London, and the universal plaudits of the nation. At the death of Admiral Forbes, which happened on the 10th of March, 1796, he succeeded to the high station of admiral of the fleet, as being the senior naval officer in the list of admirals.

In 1797 he was honoured with the order of the garter, and in the same year resigned the command of the western squadron. His lordship died in August,

1799.

LORD NELSON

IS the fourth son of Edward Nelson, rector of Bur ham Thorpe in the county of Norfolk, born the 29th of Sepember, 1758. The high school at Norwich having instilled first principles of learning into his aspiring mind, he was removed to North Walsham. On the appearance of hostilities with Spain, relative to the Falkland islands, in 1770, he left the school at North Walsham, at the age of twelve years, to go on board the Raisonable, of 64 guns, commanded by his maternal uncle, Captain Suckling. The dispute between the court of London and Madrid being adjusted, our young mariner was sent on board a West India ship. Returning after a voyage in 1772, his uncle received him on board the Triumph. He had acquired, in the merchant service, a practical knowledge of seamanship; but had conceived an unaccountable prejudice against the naval service. That seemingly rooted aversion to the navy, was, however, so successfully combated by Captain Suckling, that he at length became reconciled to the idea of service on board a king's ship. In April, 1773, a voyage of discovery was undertaken by Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, towards the North. Pole. On this occasion instructions were issued that no

boys should be received on board; but the enterprising Horatio was so anxious to be of the party, that he solicited to be appointed cockswain to Captain Lutwidge; and his request was readily granted. The following anecdote may serve as a proof of the cool intrepidity which our young mariner possessed. In those high northern latitudes the nights are generally clear: during one of them, notwithstanding the extreme bitterness of the cold, young Nelson was missing, and every search was instantly made in quest of him, and it was imagined he was lost; when, lo! as the rays of the rising sun opened the distant horizon, to the astonishment of his messmates, he was discerned at a considerable distance on the ice, armed with a single musket, in anxious pursuit of an immense bear. The lock of the piece having been injured, it would not go off; he had therefore pursued the animal in hopes of tiring him, and at length was able to effect his purpose with the butt end. Being reprimanded for leaving the ship without leave, the young hero replied, "I wished sir, to get the skin for my father." Returning to England, he obtained a birth in the Sea Horse, of twenty guns, and sailed in it with a squadron to the East Indies. In this ship Mr. Nelson was stationed to watch in the foretop, and afterwards he was placed on the quarter-deck. In this vessel he visited almost every part of e East Indies, from Bengal to Bussora. A series of ill health, however, rendered it expedient for him to return to England; in consequence of which the captain caused him to be conveyed hither. On the 8th of April, 1777, Mr. Nelson passed his examination for the rank of lieutenant, and the next day received his commission as second of the

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