engaged in a very fharp fight; and that her majefty's fhips of the faid admiral's divifion had likewife fpent the greatest part of their powder and hot; fo that they had not above ten rounds left, which would not ferve above an hour's fight.

The reverend Dr. Stanhope, in his thankf giving fermon before her majefty at St. Paul'son the twenty-feventh of June, 1706, very justly fays of the taking of Gibraltar, and of this fea-fight, That we were foon inftructed in the mighty concernment of the firft, by the feasonable refreshments our fleets found there, after a battle fought, on our fide, with great inequality of force, but with what refolution and fuccefs, we need no other evidences than the difability of making any formidable figure at fea, which the French have manifeftly lain under ever fince.

The Whigs, who had now entirely engroffed the management of affairs, were extremely alarmed; and they took fo much pains to hinder Sir George from receiving the compliments ufual upon fuch fucceffes, that it became vifible he must either give way, or a change very speedily happen in the adminiftration. There fore, that the affairs of the nation might not receive any obstruction or disturbance upon his account, he refolved to retire from public, bufinefs; and paffed the remainder of his days as a private gentlemen, and for the most part at his feat in Kent. A private feal was offered

him for patling his accounts; but he refufed it, and made them up in the ordinary way, with all the exactness imaginable.

The gout, which had, for many years, greatly afflicted him, brought him at laft to his grave. He died, on the twenty-fourth day of January, 1708-9, in the fifty-eighth year of his age.

He was thrice married; firft, to a daughter of Sir Thomas Howe, of Cold-Berwick, in Wiltshire, baronet; next, to a daughter of colonel Francis Lutterell, of Dunfter castle, in Somersetshire, who died in child bed of her first child, George Rook, efq. the fole heir of his father's fortune; laftly, to a daughter of Sir Knatchbull, of Merfham-Hatch, in Kent, baronet

Sir George's zeal for the church, and his adherence to that fort of men who, in his time, were known by that ever mutuable and varying name of Tories, made him the darling of one party, and expofed him no less to the averfion of the other. This is the caufe that an hiftorian finds it difficult to obtain his true character from the writings of those who flourifhed in the fame periods of time. The ingenious and impartial Dr. Campbell, in his Lives of the Admirals, infinitely the best naval history extant, has drawn fo masterly and just a character of him, that we cannot more properly conclude this life than with a tranfcript of it.

"He

"He was certainly an officer of great me. rit, if either conduct or courage could entitle him to that character. The former appeared in his behaviour on the Irish station, in his wife and prudent management when he preferved fo great a part of the Smyrna fleet, and particularly in the taking of Gibraltar, which was a project conceived and executed in lefs than a week. Of his courage he gave abundant teftimonies, especially in burning the French fhips at La Hogue, and in the battle of Malaga, where he behaved with all the refolution of a British admiral; and, as he was firft in command, was firft alfo in danger. In party-matters he was perhaps too warm and eager; for all men have their failings, even the greatest and beft; but in action he was perfectly cool and temperate; gave his orders with the utmost ferenity; and, as he was careful in marking the conduct of his officers, fo his candour and juftice were always confpicuous in the accounts he gave of them to his fuperiors; he there knew no party, no private confiderations, but commended merit when ever it appeared. He had a fortitude of mind that enabled him to behave with dignity upon all occafions, in the day of examination as well as in the day of battle; and, though he was more than once called to the bar of the houfe of commons, yet he always escaped cenfure; as he likewife did before the lords; not by shifting the fault upon others, or meanly com

plying with the temper of the times; but by maintaining fteadily what he thought right, and fpeaking his fentiments with that freedom which becomes an Englishman, whenever his conduct in his country's fervice is brought in queftion. In a word, he was equally fuperior to popular clamour and popular applaufe; but, above all, he had a noble contempt for foreign interefts when incompatible with our own; and knew not what it was to feek the favour of the great but by performing fuch actions as deferved it. In his private life, he was a good husband and kind mafter; lived hofpitably towards his neighbours, and left behind him a moderate fortune; fo moderate, that, when he came to make his will, it furprised those who were prefent; but Sir George affigned the reafon in a few words. I do not leave much,' faid he, but what I leave was honeftly gotten; it never cost a failor a tear, or the nation a farthing."

END OF THE EIGHTH VOLUME.