ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD.

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(MAY, 1828.)

A Selection from the Public and Private Correspondence of ViceAdmiral Lord Collingwood: interspersed with Memoirs of his Life. By G. L. NEWNHAM COLLINGWOOD, Esq. F.R.S. 2 vols. 8vo. Ridgway. London: 1828.

We do not know when we have met with so delightful a book as this, or one with which we are so well pleased with ourselves for being delighted. Its attraction consists almost entirely in its moral beauty; and it has the rare merit of filling us with the deepest admiration for heroism, without suborning our judgments into any approbation of the vices and weaknesses with which poor mortal heroism is so often accompanied. In this respect, it is not only more safe, but more agreeable reading than the Memoirs of Nelson; where the lights and shadows are often too painfully contrasted, and the bane and the antidote exhibited in proportions that cannot but be hazardous for the ardent and aspiring spirits on which they are both most calculated to operate.

Is it a mere illusion of national vanity which prompts us to claim Lord Collingwood as a character peculiarly English? Certainly we must admit, that we have few Englishmen left who resemble him; and even that our prevailing notions and habits make it likely that we shall have still fewer hereafter. Yet we do not know where such a character could have been formed but in England; -and feel quite satisfied, that it is there only that it can be properly valued or understood. The combination of the loftiest daring with the most watchful humanity, and of the noblest ambition with the greatest disdain of personal advantages and the most generous sympathy with rival merit, though rare enough to draw forth at all times the loud applause of mankind, have not been without example, in any race that boasts of

illustrious ancestors. But, for the union of those high qualities with unpretending and almost homely simplicity, sweet temper, undeviating rectitude, and all the purity and sanctity of domestic affection and humble content we can look, we think, only to England, -or to the fabulous legends of uncorrupted and uninstructed Rome. All these graces, however, and more than these, were united in Lord Collingwood: For he had a cultivated and even elegant mind, a taste for all simple enjoyments, and a rectitude of understanding-which seemed in him to be but the emanation of a still higher rectitude. Inferior, perhaps, to Nelson, in original genius and energy, and in that noble self-confidence in great emergencies which these qualities usually inspire, he was fully his equal in seamanship and the art of command; as well as in that devotedness to his country and his profession, and that utter fearlessness and gaÏlantry of soul which exults and rejoices in scenes of tremendous peril, which have almost ceased to be remarkable in the character of a British sailor. On the other hand, we think it will scarcely be disputed, that he was superior to that great commander in general information and accomplishment, and in those thoughtful habits, and that steadiness and propriety of personal deportment, which are their natural fruit. His greatest admirers, however, can ask no higher praise for him than that he stood on the same lofty level with Nelson, as to that generous and cordial appreciation of merit in his brother officers, by which, even more, perhaps, than by any of his other qualities, that great man was distinguished. It does one's heart good, indeed, to turn, from the petty cabals, the paltry jealousies, the spiteful detractions, the irritable vanities, which infest almost every other walk of public life, and meet one, indeed, at every turn in all scenes of competition, and among men otherwise eminent and honourable,-to the brother-like frankness and open-hearted simplicity, even of the official communications between Nelson and Collingwood; and to the father-like interest with which they both concurred in fostering the glory, and cheering on the for

NOBLE FRANKNESS AND DISINTERESTEDNESS.

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tunes of their younger associates. In their noble thirst for distinction, there seems to be absolutely no alloy of selfishness; and scarcely even a feeling of rivalry. If the opportunity of doing a splendid thing has not come to them, it has come to some one who deserved it as well, and perhaps needed it more. It will come to them another day-and then the heroes of this will repay their hearty congratulations. There is something inexpressibly beautiful and attractive in this spirit of magnanimous fairness; and if we could only believe it to be general in the navy, we should gladly recant all our heretical doubts as to the superior virtues of men at sea, join chorus to all the slang songs of Dibdin on the subject, and applaud to the echo all the tirades about British tars and wooden walls, which have so often nauseated us at the playhouses.

We feel excessively obliged to the editor of this book; both for making Lord Collingwood known to us, and for the very pleasing, modest, and effectual way he has taken to do it in. It is made up almost entirely of his Lordship's correspondence; and the few connecting statements and explanatory observations are given with the greatest clearness and brevity; and very much in the mild, conciliatory, and amiable tone of the remarkable person to whom they relate. When we say that this publication has made Lord Collingwood known to us, we do not mean that we, or the body of the nation, were previously ignorant that he had long served with distinction in the navy, and that it fell to his lot, as second in command at Trafalgar,, to indite that eloquent and touching despatch which announced the final ruin of the hostile fleets, and the death of the Great Admiral by whose might they had been scattered. But till this collection appeared, the character of the man was known, we believe, only to those who had lived with him; and the public was generally ignorant both of the detail of his services, and the high principle and exemplary diligence which presided over their performance. Neither was it known, we are persuaded, that those virtues and services actually cost him his life! and that the diffi

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LORD COLLINGWOOD

EARLY STORY.

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culty of finding, in our large list of admirals, any one fit to succeed him in the important station which he filled in his declining years, induced the induced the government, most ungenerously, we must say, and unjustly, refuse his earnest desire to be relieved of it; and to insist on his remaining to the last gasp, at a post which he would not desert so long as his country required him to maintain it, but at which, it was apparent to himself, and all the world, that he must speedily die. The details now before us will teach the profession, we hope, by what virtues and what toils so great and so pure a fame can alone be won; and by rendering in this way such characters less rare, will also render the distinction to which they lead less fatal to its owners: While they cannot fail, we think, to awaken the government to a sense of its own ingratitude to those who have done it the noblest service, and of the necessity of at last adopting some of the suggestions which those great benefactors have so long pressed on its attention.

We have not much concern with the genealogy or early history of Lord Collingwood. He was born in 1750, of an honourable and ancient family of Northumberland, but of slender patrimony; and went to sea, under the care of his relative, Captain, afterwards Admiral Brathwaite, when only eleven years old. He used, himself, to tell, as an instance of his youth and simplicity at this time, "that as he was sitting crying for his separation from home, the first lieutenant observed him; and pitying the tender years of the poor child, spoke to him in terms of much encouragement and kindness; which, as Lord Collingwood said, so won upon his heart, that, taking this officer to his box, he offered him in gratitude a large piece of plumcake which his mother had given him!" Almost from this early period he was the intimate friend and frequent associate of the brave Nelson; and had his full share of the obscure perils and unknown labours which usually form the noviciate of naval eminence. He was made commander in 1779; and being sent to the West Indies after the peace of 1783, was only restored to his family in 1786. He

HIS CHARACTERISTIC ACCOUNT OF 1st JUNE, 1794. 277

married in 1791; and was again summoned upon active service on the breaking out of the war with France in 1793; from which period to the end of his life, in 1810, he was continually in employment, and never permitted to see that happy home, so dear to his heart, and so constantly in his thoughts, except for one short interval of a year, during the peace of Amiens. During almost the whole of this period he was actually afloat; and was frequently, for a year together, and once for the incredible period of twenty-two months, without dropping an anchor. He was in almost all the great actions, and had more than his share of the anxious blockades, which occurred in that memorable time; and signalized himself in all, by that mixture of considerate vigilance and brilliant courage, which may be said to have constituted his professional character. His first great battle was that which ended in Lord Howe's celebrated victory of the 1st of June, 1794; and we cannot resist the temptation of heading our extracts with a part of the account he has given of it, in a letter to his father-in-law, Mr. Blackett-not so much for the purpose of recalling the proud feelings which must ever cling to the memory of our first triumph over triumphant France, as for the sake of that touching mixture it presents, of domestic affection and family recollections, with high professional enthusiasm, and the kindling spirit of war. In this situation he says:

"We cruised for a few days, like disappointed people looking for what they could not find, until the morning of little Sarah's birth-day, between eight and nine o'clock, when the French fleet, of twenty-five sail of the line, was discovered to windward. We chased them, and they bore down within about five miles of us. The night was spent in watching and preparation for the succeeding day; and many a blessing did I send forth to my Sarah, lest I should never bless her more! At dawn, we made our approach on the enemy, then drew up, dressed our ranks, and it was about eight when the Admiral made the signal for each ship to engage her opponent, and bring her to close action, and then down we went under a crowd of sail, and in a manner that would have animated the coldest heart, and struck terror into the most intrepid enemy. The ship we were to engage was two a-head of the French Admiral, so that we had to go through his fire and that of two ships next him, and received all their broadsides two or three times, before we fired a gun. It was then near ten o'clock. I ob