complete and fplendid that History can record, and in its confequences must prove highly beneficial and important, not only to Great Britain, but to mankind. It may be truly faid, that the Noble Lord has preferved from anarchy, diftrefs, and mifery, three fourths of the world. No officer, I will be bold to fay, ever more highly merited the gracious notice of his Sovereign and that of his Country; and I fhould have been greatly gratified had his honours been carried higher. Impreffed, therefore, as I am with the very diftinguished and meritorious fervices of Lord Nelfon, as well as with the fpirited and gallant conduct of the Captains, Officers, and Men, he had the honour to command, it is with infinite fatisfaction I fhall give my cordial vote for the Motion now before your Lordships; and with equal pleafure I fhall give it alfo for thofe the Noble Earl will follow it with. I beg three words refpecting the brilliant fuccefs of the little fquadron under the command of Captain Sir John Borlafe Warren upon the Coaft of Ireland, which, although not to be in any manner compared with Lord Nelfon's, yet it is highly important, and justly entitled to much praife. I cannot refrain, before I fit down, from offering to your Lordships my moft humble congratulations upon the zealous, intrepid, and able conduct that has been so strongly manifefted by his Majefty's naval Servants in the course of the prefent juft and neceffary war, which never has been, or, I think, ever can be exceeded; but I fully truft, my Lords, it will be equalled as often as opportunity fhall offer for the wing it."

Lord Minto faid, he was confcious that his feeble voice would fcarcely be heard in the general exultation of the country on fo interefting an occafion, as the voting the Thanks of the Houfe to Lord Nelfon, for his brilliant, fplendid, and truly important victory in the Bay of Becharia; but joining, as he did, in common with all Europe, in admiration of the gallant Admiral's extraordinary merit in the attainment of that great and comprehenfive object, he hoped the intrufion of the few words he meant to fay on the subject, would at least be deemed excufable, when he declared he could not fupprefs his fentiments from the impulfe of friendfhip for the man, whofe private virtues he revered not lefs, than he honoured his enterprifing fpirit and uncomman kill as a naval officer. With thefe feelings he was certain he would not be alone impreffed; every loyal heart in the Empire would beat in unifon with his, and Europe and the

whole

whole World would eventually join in the chorus. He held it unneceffary to enlarge then upon thofe important confequences. Indeed an adequate eulogium upon fuch advantages was beyond not only his individual powers, but thofe of eloquence itself. They tranfcended the fublimeft flights of the imagination, and even of the Mufe; nay, language itfelf afforded no adequate terms of expreffion. He confidered it, Lord Minto faid, as one of the moft fortunate circumftances of his life to have lived on intimate terms with Lord Nelfon for feveral years, and though he knew that no words which he could utter would add to his character, high as it. ftood upon the ground of the Epic Victory (for fo it might be called) off the Mouth of the Nile; yet he felt it but an act of juftice to the noble and abfent Admiral, to declare from his own knowledge, that his whole profeffional life had been a continued feries of exploits, fo gallant, fo fingularly well conducted, and fo replete with proofs of fkill and judg ment, that each or either would have afforded a bafis of fame, broad enough for the proudest man in the fervice to have refted on. His Lordship in particular stated as an inftance, Lord Nelfon's bravery on the 14th February, 1797, in the glorious action in the Bay of Bifcay, under the command of the great and immortal Earl St. Vincent, in which Lord Nelfon, with the utmoft intrepidity, had gone up with his fingle fhip, and attacked the whole Spanifh fleet; a circumftance of which he had been an eye-witnefs, and therefore could fpeak with perfect confidence. By the fpirited conduct of Lord Nelfon on that occafion, other officers were ftimulated to follow fo glorious an example, and the fuccefs that followed, with all its confequences, were too well known and remembered to need expatiating upon. His Lordship faid, the variety of proofs of extraordinary bravery and fkill which Lord Nelfon, though a young officer, had given the course of his life, were all fo brilliant and fplendid; that when each occurred, it was the general opinion that the laft could never be exceeded, nor could it have been but by himself, as the late unparalleled atchievement evinced, which in extent of fuccefs, of glory to his country's arms, of advantage to her interefts, and thofe of all Europe, as far furpaffed the beneficial effects of any one of his former services, great as they had all been, as the human imagination could well conceive. His Lordship faid he forbore to enter into any detail of the other meritorious proofs of Lord Nelfon's claim to the highest regard as a naval Officer, because, in

his

his mind, his conduct in the Bay of Biscay at the period to which he had alluded, and his conduct at the Mouth of the Nile, comprehended a volume, and in the importance of each threw all other evidences of his extrordinary merit at an immeafurable distance. In short, Lord Minto observed, he did not know how the ingenuity of any man could better contrive to difplay the character and the true claim to the highest refpect and admiration which Lord Nelfon was entitled to, than by quoting the fimple, mcdeft, and unadorned," but pious fentence with which that gallant Officer began his difpatch home, communicating the important news of his victory. In that their Lordships could not fail to obferve the fincere piety of our Chriftian Conqueror, contrafted with the blafphemous hypocrify of the French Atheists, who to fill up the measure of their guilt, after having publicly abjured the Diety at home, and all pretenfions to the facred ceremonies of the chriftian religion, had on their arrival in Egypt publifhed a declaration, profeffing themfelves to be worshippers of Mahomet. What he had taken the liberty of intruding upon their Lordships, might poffibly be imputed folely to the impulfe of private friendship; but ~* Lord Minto faid, when the great and glorious public events to which every word he delivered referred, were duly confidered, he hoped the Houfe would do him the honour to think his obfervations entitled to be regarded as refulting from a fentiment of a higher clafs. Before he fat down, his Lordship declared, that unwilling as he was to take up more of the hours of the Houfe, at a moment when he knew from the bufinefs of the day, it was preffed for time, he could not forgive himself if he did not ftate, what neither their Lordships, nor the World at large could be acquainted with, as marking features in Lord Nelfon's character. They had witneffed his extraordinary merits as a naval officer, but they could not know that he was not more eminent for his gallantry at fea, than his political wifdom on fhore. He had himself happily experienced the benefits of Lord Nelfon's continued fervices in taking fhare in councils, projecting plans, directing modes of fiege, and the conduct of military enterprize, fo that he felt himfelf fully warranted to declare Lord Nelfon as ready and as wife in the fcience of political knowledge as he was brave and expert in the conduct of naval exploit. His Lordship faid, it naturally would not have ftruck the Houfe, that fuch an extent of statefmanlike talent could be lodged in the mind of a Sca-Officer,

who

who without hefitation could carry up his fingle fhip against numerous fleet and break through their line (as had been the cafe in the Bay of Bifcay), or who could boldly attack a more powerful fquadron of an enemy, regardless of the apparently ftrong pofition of that fquadron, the menacing forts which gave it the highest probable fecurity, and the fhoals and dangers of an unknown bay, but fuch was the bravery of the noble Lord in queftion, that in fpite of thefe obvious difficulties he had obtained the moft fplendid victory for his country, that ever graced its annals, and fuch the extent of his political fagacity as he had defcribed.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence faid, he rofe from motives fimilar to those of the noble Lord who had just spoken, and obferved, that he should have found it neceffary to say a little more than he now intended, were it not for the very warm and juft eulogium pronounced by that noble Lord upon his gallant friend, and in a much better and more eloquent manper than he himfelf was capable of doing.

He was alfo in habits of particular friendship with the noble Baron, and was fully aware of his profeffional merits: but at prefent he would confine his obfervations to the atchievement for which the thanks of that Houfe was proposed to him. The noble Earl at the head of the Admiralty had juftly obferved that a detail of the beneficial confequences of Lord Nelson's victory was not the fit bufinefs of that day: certainly it was not; but he must nevertheless fay a word refpecting it. He had heard that the French Admiral confidered his pofition as fecure from danger in every refpect, and that it might defy attack from a British fleet. Confidered in fome refpects, his Royal Highness faid, he was inclined to coincide with him in opinion, and he would ftate his reafons for thinking fo. Towards the end of the last war, two events took place which certainly tended to corroborate fuch an opinion; the one was, when Admiral Barrington lay in a fimilar manner with a fquadron at anchor at St. Lucie, Monfieur D'Estaing, with a very fuperior fleet, found all his attempts completely baffled. The other, when he himself had the honour of ferving under a noble Lord near him Lord Hood), to whose kindness he fhould, on all occafions, be proud to exprefs his gratitude; in that cafe, the fame fuccefs had attended the noble Lords pofition, which feemed, at the time, to prove, that a British fleet at anchor may be confidered as fo many impenetrable batteries; but when these Atheifts had recourfe to a fimilar expedient, they found, to their confufion that it did not avail them against the prowefs and energy of his noble friend. He trusted the naval fpirit of

this country would be always manifefted with the fame fuccefs, and that their Lordships, would repeatedly find, as in the event of Lord Nelfon's victory, which reflected fo much glory on that gallant officer, and on his Majesty's arms, that British valour afloat was not lefs active than when at anchor.

His Royal Highness thought it proper to take fome notice of the rumour that had gone abroad, that there had been diffentions among the officers of Earl St. Vincent's fleet, in confequence of the felection of Adiniral Nelfon to command the expedition to Egypt, and of the officers who ferved under him; upon which he muft obferve, that he confidered that the right of the selection of every commander and officer for any particular fervice indubitably lay with the Board of Admiralty and the Admiral of the particular fleet from which a fquadron was at any time detached; and that, were the cafe otherwife, the public intereft might materially fuffer; he faid this, without the leaft difparagement to the rest of the officers of Lord St. Vincent's fleet, many of whom were his particular and intimate friends; and a better proof of the advantage of the doctrine he had juft ftated, or of the wifdom' and propriety of the felection that had been made in each inftance, could not be wished than the very eminent and glorious fuccefs with which the enterprife had been crowned. As the noble Earl at the head of the Admiralty had well faid, the victory carried with it its own eulogium, he would not therefore dwell further upon Lord Nelfon's fingular merit.

His Royal Highness faid he was particularly forry on that day, as indeed be should be on any other, to feel himself obliged to fay any thing that could tend to give rife to debate, but he muft take the liberty of differing with the noble Lord (Lord Hood) who had faid, he wifhed the honours of Lord Nelfon had been carried higher. That was, in the first place, a topic not very fit to be difcuffed in that Houfe, as he conceived, because it was the undoubted prerogative of the Crown to distribute honours-mercy and rewards being in fact the two most glorious prerogatives of his Majefty-and the very fame reafoning that he had ufed refpecting the right of felecting officers to command and ferve on any expedition, which he had ftated. ought to lay with the Admiralty Board and the Admiral of the fleet from which a fquadron was detached, applied in this cafe. Befides this, he thought his Majefty had been well advised in conferring upon Rear Admiral Nelfon his prefent honour, because it was to be recollected that he was a young flag officer, and not a commander in chief, but only at the head of a detached fquadron, and in the distribution of honours due regard VOL. I. 1798. muft

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