THE ENGLISH NATION. George Ponsonby. BORN A. d. 1755.-died a. D. 1817. MR PONSONBY was the younger son of the Right Honourable John Ponsonby, speaker of the Irish house of commons, and brother of the earl of Desborough, by Lady Elizabeth Cavendish. Called at an early age to the bar, and possessing, for his rank, but a slender fortune, he was appointed counsel to the commissioners of the revenue, with the emoluments of which he was satisfied, spending a considerable portion of his time in rural retirement; but the change of ministry which divested him of his place, roused him into activity, and laid the foundation of his political life. In the same year he became a leading member in the Irish house of commons, and at the bar. His professional practice opened the road to riches, while necessary exertion subdued his constitutional indolence. Always acting in concert with the party of his noble relative, the duke of Devonshire, he was, on the change of administration in 1806, appointed lord-chancellor of Ireland, which office he resigned in 1807; and on Lord Grey's removal to the upper house, he succeeded him as nominal leader of the opposition in the commons. His time having been for the greater part previously spent in Ireland, and his mind occupied with Irish interests, this period may be considered as the commencement of his political career as a British senator. Like the great Lord Chatham, he died in the service of his country,— being seized with a fit a few minutes after he had spoken in debate. He died on the eighth day afterwards. Mr Ponsonby was one of those very estimable characters who fill a private station in the most amiable and exemplary manner, and a public one with propriety and integrity. As the leader of a great political party, no man was ever more free from party spirit; he was, in feeling and principle, the very man contemplated by those who consider a systematic opposition a necessary safeguard to the constitutional rights and liberties of England. The ingenuousness of his mind, the kindness of his heart, and the placability of his manners, conciliated his opponents, and assuaged all those feelings which defeat excites; and if his triumphs were not more numerous, it was because the candour and generosity of his mind disdained to take advantage of his adversaries whenever he thought them right. Where that was the case, all party-feeling van ished before his political integrity; and, on many critical occasions, he gave his adversaries the support of his learning and talents. Nobly disdaining all selfish views, he was here no longer the leader of a party; he showed himself the resolute, fixed, and unalterable friend of constitutional freedom.' Sir John Thomas Duckworth. BORN A. D. 1748.-DIED A. D. 1817. We find him THIS gallant admiral was the son of a clergyman. holding a navy-lieutenant's commission in 1770. In July, 1779, he became commander of a sloop-of-war, and in the following year obtained post-rank. He was present in Lord Howe's action with the Brest fleet. In 1798 he was detached, by Earl St Vincent, with a small squadron against Minorca, in the reduction of which he succeeded jointly with Sir Charles Stewart, who commanded the land-forces. In 1799 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. In March, 1801, in conjunction with General Trigge, he captured the islands of St Bartholomew and St Martin, for which service he was made a knight of the Bath. In 1804 he was appointed vice-admiral of the Blue. On the 6th of February, 1806, he fell in with a French squadron off St Domingo, three of which he captured, and drove two others on shore. For this exploit he was honoured with the thanks of both houses of parliament. In 1807 he performed the hazardous service of forcing the Dardanelles. In his despatches to the admiralty on this occasion, the admiral writes, under date the 21st of February, and from on board the Royal George off Constantinople, "Your lordship will have been informed of my resolution of passing the Dardanelles the first fair wind. A fine wind from the southward permitted me to carry it into effect on the morning of the 19th. Information had been given me by his majesty's minister, Mr Arbuthnot, and Sir Thomas Louis, that the Turkish squadron, consisting of a 64 gun-ship, four frigates, and several corvettes, had been for some time at anchor within the Inner castle; and conceiving it possible they might have remained there, I had given orders to Rear-admiral Sir Sidney Smith, to bring up with the Thunderer, Standard, and Active, and destroy them, should our passage be opposed. At a quarter before nine o'clock, the whole of the squadron had passed the Outer castles, without having returned a shot to their fire, which occasioned but little injury. This forbearance was produced by the desire of his majesty's minister, expressed, to preserve every appearance of amity, that he might negotiate with the strongest proof of the pacific disposition of our sovereign towards the Porte; a second battery on the European side fired also with as little effect. At balf-past nine o'clock, the Canopus, which, on account of Sir Thomas Louis's knowledge of the channel, joined to the steady gallantry, which -- 1 Monthly Magazine. I had before experienced, had been appointed to lead-entered the nar row passage of Sestos and Abydos, and sustained a very heavy cannonade from both castles, within point-blank shot of each. They opened their fire on our ships as they continued to pass in succession, although I was happy in observing that the very spirited return it met with had so considerably diminished its force, that the effect on the sternmost ships could not have been so severe. Immediately to the north-east of the castles, and between them and Point Pesquies, on which a formidable battery had been newly erected, the small squadron which I have already alluded to were at anchor. The van division of our squadron gave them their broadsides as they passed, and Sir Sydney Smith with his division closed into the midst, and the effect of the fire was such, that in half an hour the Turks had all cut their cables to run on shore. The object of the rear-admiral was then to destroy them, which was most rapidly effected; as in less than four hours the whole of them had exploded, except a small corvette and a gun-boat. which it was thought proper to preserve. I enclose to your lordship a statement of their number; and when I add also an account of the loss his majesty's ships have sustained, I cannot help expressing my satisfaction that we have suffered so slightly; as, had any of their stone shotsome of which exceeded 800 weight-made such a breach between wind and water as they have done in our sides, the ship must have sunk; or had they struck a lower mast in the centre, it must evidently have been cut in two. In the rigging too, no accident occurred that was not perfectly arranged in the course of next day. The sprit-sail yard of the Royal George, the gaft of the Canopus, and the main-topsail-yard of the Standard, are the only spars that were injured. . . . . The Sixty-four having run on shore on Pesquies Point, I ordered the Repulse to work up and destroy her, which Captain Legge, in conjunction with the boats of the Pompée, executed with great promptitude and judgment. The battery on the Point, of more than thirty guns, which, had it been completely finished, was in a position to have annoyed the squadron most severely in passing, was taken possession of by the marines and boats' crew of the rear-division, the Turks having retired at their approach, and the guns were immediately spiked, At a quarter past five P. M., the squadron was enabled to make sail; and on the evening of the next day, the 20th, came to an anchor at ten o'clock, near the Prince's Islands, about eight miles from Constantinople, when I despatched Captain Capel, in the Endymion, to anchor near the town, if the wind, which was light, would permit the ship to stem the current, to convey the ambassador's despatches to the Sublime Porte in the morning by a flag of truce; but he found it impracticable to get within four miles, and consequently anchored at half-past eleven P. M." In another despatch, dated from without the Dardanelles, 6th March, Admiral Duckworth explains the circumstances under which he did not deem it prudent to attack Constantinople. Referring to the position of the fleet on the 21st of February, the admiral proceeds to say :-"Had it been then in our power, we should have taken our station off the town immediately; but as that could not be done from the rapidity of the current, I was rather pleased than otherwise with the position we had been forced to take; for in the conferences between Mr Arbuthnot and |