desperate fire was opened upon the defenceless boats as they advanced to the shore, while a violent attack was made upon the soldiery, then only intent upon escaping. The carnage was dreadful, and the greatest resolution was necessary to support the sailors in their attempts to reach the land, and preserve the troops in order upon it. In the midst of this scene Howe ordered his own barge, in which he stood erect, to be rowed through the thickest of the cannonade; and, thus conspicuous, exhorted the men, by his voice and attitude. Time after time his barge was seen to touch the land, at the greatest peril and risk, and receive as many as could possibly be contained in it, while the havoc continued with a power so fatal, that of the little crews, twenty în number, appointed to man each boat, no less than ten, twelve, and in some cases sixteen, fell dead, at a venture, from their oars. In this undertaking the fleet suffered most; the military were conveyed on board with a loss comparatively trifling, after which the season of the year compelled a return to England.

The gallant death of his brother, whose fate supplied the matter of the preceding note, left the subject of this sketch heir to the family title of Lord Viscount Howe, with which he was appointed Colonel of the Chatham Division of Marines, in 1760. Thus fully possessed of the confidence of the ministry, and the approbation of the public, employment on board the fleet, and official engagements at home, fully show that as his merit was appreciated, so was it rewarded. For some succeeding years the opportunities of brilliant or active enterprise were, therefore, scanty in the extreme, and a detail of Lord Howe's naval career during the interval, can only be dry and valueless. His appointments on shore, however, were of greater importance at this period, for we find him elevated to a seat at the board of the Admiralty, in August, 1763, and only removed from it after a lapse of two years, in order to fill the more advantageous post of Treasurer to the Navy. His promotion to the Rear-admiralship of the Blue, in 1770, compelled him to resign this situation, as well as his colonelcy of Marines, after which he sailed into the Mediterranean with the rank of Commander-in-chief of that station. But the peaceful circumstances of the time made the service merely honorary. Returning to England, in 1775, his Lordship was advanced to the rank of Rear-admiral of the White,

and elected Member of Parliament for Dartmouth, and, before the year closed, appointed Vice-admiral of the Blue.

Soon after this promotion, Lord Howe was appointed to a service more critical and important than any he had hitherto filled. This was the command of his Majesty's ships on the American station, when the war on that continent broke out in 1776. Arrived at Halifax, with his flag hoisted on board the Eagle, of 64 guns, the operations of the fleet became subordinate, and consequently uninteresting: thus all enumeration of the transactions that ensued is omitted, inasmuch as nothing striking can be added to the brief record that the reduction of New York, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, &c. were convincing proofs that the military were warmly supported by the navy, and that the zeal and activity of the Admiral were eminently conducive to every success that was obtained. In the year 1778, France became a party to the hostilities, and dispatched the Count d'Estaing with a considerable force of battle ships, admirably equipped, and most powerfully manned, to assist the hostile operations of the revolutionists. Howe was but ill prepared to contend with such an enemy; his vessels had been long at sea, and were much shat. tered by service; his men were greatly reduced in numbers and strength, as well by the chances as the toils of their profession; and above all, no one ship under his flag was equal in tonnage or size to those of his adversary. Yet, such was the irresolution of the Frenchman, such his consciousness of the celebrity which Howe possessed, or so great his terror of the British navy in general, that, notwithstanding advantages palpably superior, he remained for several days inactive, and when he did begin to act, was unable to discompose the defensive arrangements so judiciously made by his opponent. The campaign proceeded, but no engagement took place between the fleets, and the conduct of Lord Howe was thenceforward exclusively directed to the study of baffling the designs of the French admiral, a task which, considering the vexatious obstacles under which he laboured, he must be admitted to have effected with decided credit. As the season drew towards a close, Admiral Byron arrived from England with reinforcements, and Lord Howe resigning to him the chief command, returned to England and struck his flag.

Political movements now interfered to cut off this able commander from the service of his country, and thus he lived in retirement, in consequence of the conflict of state parties, until the spring of 1782, when his merits were properly acknowledged by his elevation to the peerage of England, with the title of Viscount Howe, of Langor, in the county of Nottingham. Immediately after this distinction, he received his appointment to the head of the channel fleet, which was destined to relieve Gibraltar* from

It was while the fleet was mustering for this important service, at Spithead, that the Royal George, of 120 guns, was upset, and sunk by a squall, in which her commander, ADMIRAL KempenfeLT, with the majority of her crew, were drowned. The fate of the Admiral is commemorated by a tablet in the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist, in Westminster Abbey, on which Bacon, the Royal Academician, has sketched a ship sinking, and the figure of a man ascending to an angel in heaven: some notice of his life is therefore necessary.-Richard Kempenfelt, Rear-admiral of the Blue, was born at Westminster, in October, 1718. His father, a native of Sweden, held the rank of Lieutenant-governor of Jersey, during the reign of George the I. and is entitled to more particular memory as the original of Addison's "Captain Sentry,' in the second number of the Spectator. Young Kempenfelt became a midshipman in the tenth year of his age, received a Lieutenant's commission on the 14th of January, 1741, and was made a master and commander in 1756. During the following year, he was appointed to the Eliza, of 64 guns, in which he distinguished himself greatly in the East Indies, first during the action which took place between Commodore Steevens and the Count D'Achè, in 1758, and soon after in convoying, with marked prudence and complete success, some troops to the relief of Madras, when besieged by the French under Count Lally. Upon the death of Commodore Steevens, he became Admiral's Captain to his successor, Sir Charles Cornish, and usurped a signal part at the well-known siege of Manilla, for which he received a local promotion from Sir William Draper. After several unimportant changes from ship to ship, he was nominated to the charge of a squadron, which was ordered to intercept a French fleet, sailing out of Brest in 1781 to reinforce the Count de Grasse, in the West Indies. Unfortunately, however, for his first hopes, the French were discovered to be so much his superiors, not only in the number, but in the weight of their ships, that he dared place no confidence on the issue of a regular battle. Taking advantage, therefore, of the weather-gage, he sailed along the enemy in line of battle abreast, until their van, by a lucky chance, happened to shoot considerably a-head of their rear, and expose a large convoy to faint protection. At that conjuncture, Kempenfelt bore up a-head in full order of battle, cut off the whole convoy, amounting to fifteen vessels, sunk four

the menaces of a severe siege. Unfurling his flag on board the Victory, he entered the Streights of the Mediterranean with thirty-four sail of the line, on the 11th of October. This force, though formidable, as the nature of the service required, was yet inferior to the combined armaments of France and Spain, which amounted to 46 sail of the line, and lay before the British to dispute their entrance into the bay. Howe lost no time in hastening the completion of an object, upon the issue of which the interests of his country were so imminently at stake, and therefore, on the very day of his arrival, made an effectual disposition of his fleet. He directed one small squadron to run the store ships directly under the guns of the fortress, while with the remaining force he diverted the strength of the enemy by a series of the boldest manœuvres. Never was an object completed with a more masterly facility: the French were baffled in every attempt, and dared in vain to battle; the different squadrons were safely detached to their important destinations, and the hopes of England were most happily fulfilled. Returned in glory from this expedition, Howe landed at Portsmouth in the following month of November, and, in January 1783, was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty; an honour which he resigned to Lord Keppel in the April ensuing, but again resumed in the December of the same year. In 1787 he was made Admiral of the White, and in the year after quitted his station at the Ad

frigates, and then towed his prizes into Portsmouth, full in the teeth of his adversary, whom he honoured with a running fight the whole way. Preferred to the Royal George in the spring of 1782, he sailed on a cruise after the French West India Fleet, as second-in-command to Admiral Barrington, and had a share in the honours of capturing two line of battle ships and four transports. As soon as preparations were made for the relief of Gibraltar, the Royal George was ordered upon the Mediterranean station, but being somewhat leaky, it was determined to caulk her as she lay at anchor. Accordingly, on the 29th of August, the weather being fair, and the wind moderate, she was heeled on her side, until the workmen reached the leak. Their labours were nearly finished, when a squall took the uplifted side, while the crew were at dinner, and the lower deck holes to leeward having been unaccountably left open, they sucked in the sea in torrents, and in less than eight minutes, the noblest vessel in the fleet was sunk. So rapid was her descent, that not a signal of distress was made; of 1200 persons who hap pened to be on board, 900 perished, and two smaller vessels were swallowed up in the immense vortex thus created.

miralty for the last time. He was then created an Earl of Great Britain, with which title he lived in domestic quiet until hostilities again broke out, and war was declared against the French Republic in 1798.

At this important moment, the arduous distinction of commanding the Channel fleet was allotted to his lordship, and powers more ample than it had been at all common to bestow upon any commander, were committed to the trust of his prudence. A period soon arrived which was to prove his talents by exploits still more dazzling, and crown his titles with still greater fame. Sailing off Torbay in the month of May, 1794, he received intelligence that the Republican fleet had put to sea, and immediately commencing a pursuit, he discovered them on the morning lying to the windward, at a distance of about 170 leagues off Ushant. As soon as the British were perceived, the enemy bore down upon them, and began to form in order of battle; and accordingly Howe hoisted the signal for a general engagement. Day, however, had nearly closed, when Admiral Pasley, in the Bellerophon, came in contact with a three-decker of the enemy, and commenced a resolute attack upon her, which was returned with a vigour so firm, that he was soon obliged to fall to the leeward disabled. The Audacious, however, sailed up at the moment, and continued the fight, until the enemy's mizen mast fell overboard, and her lower yards and topsails were shot away, when, putting before the wind, she was suffered to escape without opposition, in consequence of the injury the Audacious had received.

The morning of the 29th dawned upon the two fleets, and Howe made a signal to pass through the French line. This notice, however, did not appear to be perfectly understood by his foremost ships; and impatient to close, he determined to break through the French himself. Next to his own ship, which was the Queen Charlotte, the Bellerophon tacked, and, after some fruitless endeavours to follow the example, at last nobly penetrated through, sweeping down the top-masts and lower yards of her opponent's ship with a broadside, on one side, while, at the same moment, she also raked another to the leeward. Similar movements were unsuccessfully attempted by the Leviathan and other ships, when a fog set in, which lasted until the