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real difference between this and the former action. One of the great pleasures I have received from this glorious event is, that I expect it will enable me to provide handsomely for those who serve me well. Give my love to my wife, and blessing to my children. What a day it will be to me when I meet them again! The Spaniards always carry their patron saint to sea with them, and I have given St. Isidro a berth in my cabin: It was the least I could do for him, after he had consigned his charge to me. It is a good picture as you will see when he goes to Morpeth."

By some extraordinary neglect, Captain Collingwood had not received one of the medals generally distributed to the officers who distinguished themselves in Lord Howe's action; and it is to this he alludes in one of the passages we have now cited. His efforts, however, on this last occasion, having been the theme of universal admiration throughout the fleet, and acknowledged indeed by a variety of grateful and congratulatory letters from the admirals, and from Captain Nelson, to whose aid he came most gallantly in a moment of great peril, it was at last thought necessary to repair this awkward

omission.

"When Lord St. Vincent informed Captain Collingwood that he was to receive one of the medals which were distributed on this occasion, he told the Admiral, with great feeling and firmness, that he could not consent to receive a medal, while that for the 1st of June was withheld. 'I feel,' said he, 'that I was then improperly passed over; and to receive such a distinction now, would be to acknowledge the propriety of that injustice.'-"That is precisely the answer which I expected from you, Captain Collingwood,' was Lord St. Vincent's reply.

The two medals were afterwards- and, as Captain Collingwood seems to have thought, by desire of the King-transmitted to him at the same time by Lord Spencer, the then First Lord of the Admiralty, with a civil apology for the former omission. I congratulate you most sincerely,' said his Lordship, on having had the good fortune to bear so conspicuous a part on two such glorious occasions; and have troubled you with this letter, only to say, that the former medal would have been transmitted to you some months ago, if a proper conveyance had been found for it.""

We add the following little trait of the undaunted Nelson, from a letter of the same year:

"My friend Nelson, whose spirit is equal to all undertakings, and whose resources are fitted to all occasions, was sent with three sail of the line and some other ships to Teneriffe, to surprise and capture it.

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LORD COLLINGWOOD AND NELSON.

After a series of adventures, tragic and comic, that belong to romance, they were obliged to abandon the enterprise. Nelson was shot in the right arm when landing, and was obliged to be carried on board. He himself hailed the ship, and desired the surgeon would get his instruments ready to dis-arm him; and in half an hour after it was off, he gave all the orders necessary for carrying on their operations, as if nothing had happened to him. In three weeks after, when he joined. us, he went on board the Admiral, and I think exerted himself to a degree of great imprudence."

The following letter to Captain Ball, on occasion of the glorious victory of the Nile, may serve to illustrate what we have stated, as to the generous and cordial sympathy with rival glory and fortune, which breathes throughout the whole correspondence:

"I cannot express to you how great my joy was when the news arrived of the complete and unparalleled victory which you obtained over the French; or what were my emotions of thankfulness, that the life of my worthy and much-respected friend was preserved through such a day of danger, to his family and his country. I congratulate you, my dear friend, on your success. Oh, my dear Ball, how I have lamented that I was not one of you! Many a victory has been won, and I hope many are yet to come, but there never has been, nor will be perhaps again, one in which the fruits have been so completely gathered, the blow so nobly followed up, and the consequences so fairly brought to account. I have heard with great pleasure, that your squadron has presented Sir H. Nelson with a sword; it is the honours to which he led you reflected back upon himself, the finest testimony of his merits for having led you to a field in which you all so nobly displayed your own. The expectation of the people of England was raised to the highest pitch; the event has exceeded all expectation.”

After this he is sent, for repairs, for a few weeks to Portsmouth, and writes to his father-in-law as follows:

"We never know, till it is too late, whether we are going too fast or too slow; but I am now repenting that I did not persuade my dear Sarah to come to me as soon as I knew I was not to go from this port; but the length of the journey, the inclemency of the weather, and the little prospect of my staying here half this time, made me think it an unnecessary fatigue for her. I am now quite sick at heart with disappointment and vexation; and though I hope every day for relief, yet I find it impossible to say when I shall be clear.

"Last night I went to Lady Parker's twelfth-night, where all the gentlemen's children of the town were at dance and revelry: But I thought of my own! and was so completely out of spirits that I left them in the middle of it. My wife shall know all my movements, even the very hour in which I shall be able to come to you. I hope

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they will not hurry me to sea again, for my spirit requires some respite from the anxieties which a ship occasions.

"Bless my precious girls for me, and their beloved mother."

The following are in the same tone of tenderness and considerate affection; and coming from the hand of the fiery warrior, and devoted servant of his country, are to us extremely touching:

"Would to God that this war were happily concluded! It is anguish enough for me to be thus for ever separated from my family; but that my Sarah should, in my absence, be suffering from illness, is complete misery. Pray, my dear sir, have the goodness to write a line or two very often, to tell me how she does. I am quite pleased at the account you give me of my girls. If it were peace, I do not think there would be a happier set of creatures in Northumberland than we should be!

"It is a great comfort to me, banished as I am from all that is dear to me, to learn that my beloved Sarah and her girls are well. Would to Heaven it were peace! that I might come, and for the rest of my life be blessed in their affection. Indeed, this unremitting hard service is a great sacrifice; giving up all that is pleasurable to the soul, or soothing to the mind, and engaging in a constant contest with the elements, or with tempers and dispositions as boisterous and untractable. Great allowance should be made for us when we come on shore: for being long in the habits of absolute command, we grow impatient of contradiction, and are unfitted, I fear, for the gentle intercourse of quiet life. I am really in great hopes that it will not be long before the experiment will be made upon me-for I think we shall soon have peace; and I assure you that I will endeavour to conduct myself with as much moderation as possible! I have come to another resolution, which is, when this war is happily terminated, to think no more of ships, but pass the rest of my days in the bosom of my family, where I think my prospects of happiness are equal to any man's."

"You have been made happy this winter in the visit of your daughter. How glad should I have been could I have joined you! but it will not be long; two years more will, I think, exhaust me completely, and then I shall be fit only to be nursed. God knows how little claim I have on any body to take that trouble. My daughters can never be to me what yours have been, whose affections have been nurtured by daily acts of kindness. They may be told that it is a duty to regard me, but it is not reasonable to expect that they should have the same feeling for a person of whom they have only heard: But if they are good and virtuous, as I hope and believe they will be, I may share at least in their kindness with the rest of the world."

He decides at last on sending for his wife and child, in the hope of being allowed to remain for some months at Portsmouth; but is suddenly ordered off on the very

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HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE.

day they are expected! It is delightful to have to record such a letter as the following, on occasion of such an affliction, from such a man as Nelson:

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'My dear Friend, I truly feel for you, and as much for poor Mrs. Collingwood. How sorry I am! For Heaven's sake, do not think I had the gift of foresight; but something told me, so it would be. Can't you contrive and stay to-night? it will be a comfort if only to see your family one hour. Therefore, had you not better stay on shore and wait for her? Ever, my dear Collingwood, believe me, your affectionate and faithful friend,

"NELSON AND BRONTE.

"If they would only have manned me and sent me off, it would have been real pleasure to me. How cross are the fates!"

He does stay accordingly, and sees those beloved pledges for a few short hours. We will not withhold from our readers his account of it:

"Sarah will have told you how and when we met; it was a joy to me that I cannot describe, and repaid me, short as our interview was, for a world of woe which I was suffering on her account. I had been reckoning on the possibility of her arrival that Tuesday, when about two o'clock I received an express to go to sea immediately with all the ships that were ready, and had we not then been engaged at a court martial, I might have got out that day; but this business delaying me till near night, I determined to wait on shore until eight o'clock for the chance of their arrival. I went to dine with Lord Nelson; and while we were at dinner their arrival was announced to me. I flew to the inn where I had desired my wife to come, and found her and little Sarah as well after their journey as if it had lasted only for the day. No greater happiness is human nature capable of than was mine that evening; but at dawn we parted-and I went to sea!"

"You will have heard from Sarah what a meeting we had, how short our interview, and how suddenly we parted. It is grief to me to think of it now; it almost broke my heart then. After such a journey, to see me but for a few hours, with scarce time for her to relate the incidents of her journey, and no time for me to tell her half that my heart felt at such a proof of her affection: But I am thankful that I did see her, and my sweet child. It was a blessing to me, and composed my mind, which was before very much agitated. I have little chance of seeing her again, unless a storm should drive us into port, for the French fleet is in a state of preparation, which makes it necessary for us to watch them narrowly.

"I can still talk to you of nothing but the delight I experienced in the little I have had of the company of my beloved wife and of my

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little Sarah. What comfort is promised to me in the affections of that child, if it should please God that we ever again return to the quiet domestic cares of peace! I should be much obliged to you if you would send Scott a guinea for me, for these hard times must pinch the poor old man, and he will miss my wife, who was very kind to him!"

Upon the peace of Amiens he at last got home, about the middle of 1802. The following brief sketch of his enjoyment there, is from the hand of his affectionate editor:

"During this short period of happiness and rest, he was occupied in superintending the education of his daughters, and in continuing those habits of study which had long been familiar to him. His reading was extensive, particularly in history; and it was his constant practice to exercise himself in composition, by making abstracts from the books which he read; and some of his abridgments, with the ohservations by which he illustrated them, are written with singular conciseness and power. I know not,' said one of the most eminent English diplomatists, with whom he had afterwards very frequent communication, 'I know not where Lord Collingwood got his style, but he writes better than any of us.' His amusements were found in the intercourse with his family, in drawing, planting, and the cultivation of his garden, which was on the bank of the beautiful river Wansbeck. This was his favourite employment; and on one occasion, a brother Admiral, who had sought him through the garden in vain, at last discovered him with his gardener, old Scott, to whom he was much attached, in the bottom of a deep trench, which they were both busily occupied in digging."

In spring 1803, however, he was again called upon duty by his ancient commander, Admiral Cornwallis, who hailed him as he approached, by saying, "Here comes Collingwood! - the last to leave, and the first to rejoin me!" His occupation there was to watch and blockade the French fleet at Brest, a duty which he performed with the most unwearied and scrupulous anxiety.

"During this time he frequently passed the whole night on the quarter-deck, a practice which, in circumstances of difficulty, he continued till the latest years of his life. When, on these occasions, he has told his friend Lieutenant Clavell, who had gained his entire confidence, that they must not leave the deck for the night, and that officer has endeavoured to persuade him that there was no occasion for it, as a good look-out was kept, and represented that he was almost exhausted with fatigue; the Admiral would reply, 'I fear you are. You have need of rest; so go to bed, Clavell, and I will watch by