should have an inclination to go to sea, he would get him a berth." Accordingly an opportunity presented itself, of which the lad accepted, and he began his naval career in the humble capacity of a cabin-boy, a situation the most common in the ship, and not much calculated to afford vent to the expansion of genius. But he contrived to exercise his abilities to such good purposes, and discovered such acuteness of understanding, that he was, in a very short time, introduced

among the midshipmen; in which rank his behaviour was so conciliating and prudent, that further advancement followed. Since that time he became so signally conspicuous, both for his skill and bravery, that he gradually, or rather hastily, continued to be promoted, until he reached that honorable station in which he lost his life. Had he survived the battle, his seniority of appointment would have obtained him an admiral's flag; but, alas! human expectations end in the grave.

Military Cowardice and Clerical Courage. In the year 1745, his Majesty's ship the Lion, of 58 guns, Captain Butt, fell in with two French ships, which, after a desperate engagement, she compelled to sheer off. After the conflict, Capt. Butt confined his Captain of marines for cowardice. He had called upon him several times during the action, but he could not be found. At last some of the midshipmen pulled him out from under a large bag of hay, with one of his corporals with him. The Rev. Mr. Leach, chaplain of the ship, when the Capt. of marines deserted his charge, and meanly hid himself behind the hay, bravely put himself at the head of the corps, rallied them thrice on the poop of the ship, and encouraged them to behave like English men, till at length he was shot dead on the spot.

Admiral Boscawen acquired the name of Old Dreadnought by the following circumstance:-When Captain of the Glory frigate, cruising off Madeira, he singly met two Spanish and one French ships, the latter of more than equal force. Captain B. was asleep, when his lieutenant went down to awake him, it being in the close of the evening, and asked him what he must do?

"Do! O damn ye, fight them to be sure!" The Captain came immediately upon deck in his shirt, in which situation he fought near two glasses: when the enemy finding they must be taken if they continued the contest, sheered off under cover of the night.

Admiral Boscawen was afterwards laying off Gibraltar, to intercept a French fleet that was in the Mediterranean; he wrote to Captain Barton, who at that time commanded the Litchfield, that the enemy was near, and at the same time enclosed a list of the French fleet, but took particular notice of a new 74 gun ship which they had, and added, " Barton, may I be eternally damn'd if I do not take that ship, and insure to you the command of her!" She was the first he took in that engagement, and he procured the command of her for Captain Barton.-Such was the intrepid spirit of that brave man, and the punctual exactness wherewith he kept his promises.

During the funeral procession of Lord Neson, a lady of the name of Bayne, related to Capt. Bayne was killed in the West Indie Lord Rodney, was so affect scene that she fell into hyste died in a few minutes after.

If we've troubles at sea boys, we've pleasures ashore.

Whiffling Tom still of mischief or fun in the middle,

Through life in all weathers at random would jog,

He'd dance, and he'd sing, and he'd play on the fiddle,

And swig with an air his allowance of grog: Long side of a Don, in the Terrible frigate, As yard-arm and yard-arm, we lay off the shore,

In and out whiffling Tom did so caper and jig it,

That his head was shut off, and we ne'er saw him more,

But grieving's a folly, &c,

Bonny Ben was to each jolly mesmate a brother,

He was manly and honest, good natur'd and free;

If ever one Tar was more true than another, To his friends and his duty, that sailor was he:

One day with the davie to heave the cadge anchor,

Ben went in a boat on a bold craggy shore,

WHEN I have seen thy snowy wing
O'er the blue wave at evening spring,
And give those scales of silver white,
So gaily to the eye of light,

As if thy frame were form'd to rise
And live amid the glorious skies:
Oh! it has made me proudly feel
How like thy wing's impatient zeal
Is the poor soul, that scorns to rest
Upon the world's ignoble breast;
But takes the plume that God has given,
And rises into light and heaven!

But when I see that wing so bright,
Grow languid with a moment's flight,
Attempt the paths of air in vain,
And sink into the waves again,
Alas! the flattering pride is o'er:
Like thee, awhile, the soul may soar,
But erring man must blush to think.
Like thee, again, the soul may sink!

Oh Virtue! when thy clime I seek,
Let not my spirit's flight be weak:
Let me not like this feeble thing,
With brine still dropping from its wing,
Just sparkle in the solar glow,
And plunge again to depths below:
But, when I leave the grosser throng,
With whom my soul hath dwelt so long;
Let me, in that aspiring day,
Cast every lingering stain away;
And panting for thy purer air,
Fly up at once and fix me there!

There are people in the world so constitutionally fortunate that, do what they will, they always fall upon their legs like cats. Without one grain of talent, without any ability whatever, without any exertion on their part, and almost against their will, they succeed in whatever they undertake; indeed, in some cases, without undertaking any thing, fortune is, as it were, forced upon them. Captain was one of

these; he had none of the advantages either of manners, appearance, or education; he had got on by sheer good fortune and shrewd common sense; he was brave from ignorance of fear, and kind and benevo. lent from natural goodness of heart. He had prevented his friends from bestowing on him any of the advantages of education in early life, by rnnning away from them; and had indulged his aquatic propensities by commencing his career on board a coal barge. Of course he was lost to his family for some time; for who could have imagined that any [No. 27.

human being, in the rank of a gentleman, could have selected such a profession from choice?

did not do things like any body else, and God knows to what honors he might have risen in the coal trade, had he not been accidently discovered by his friends.

On

It so happened that two of his sisters were on a visit to a family which resided on the coast of Kent, and the whole party were very much alarmed one evening by a prodigious uproar in the kitchen. hastily proceeding in a body to learn the cause of this disturbance, the sisters to their great astonishment, found their long lost brother established on the fat cook's lap, with a can of ale in his hand, roaring out "Tom Bowling," or some favorite sea song. It may easily be imagined they did not suffer him to return to his collier, but did all they possibly could to inspire him with better taste, and make him forego his low propensities. But all in vain; Will had will of his own,

which no persuasion could overcome, an obstinacy of purpose which lasted all his life, and, on this occasion, prompted him to set off again; so that it was long ere his family heard anything of him, indeed they had almost given him up.

The first accounts they received were from the Cape of Good Hope, they informed them that he had been pressed into H. M. ship L from an Indiaman, on board of which he was serving in the honorable and lucrative capacity of cook's mate. He was now in the way to be made a gentleman in spite of himself; for his family, exerting themselves in his behalf, got him rated a midshipman on board the ship into which he was pressed, and his career in the service was as fortunate as his forced entry into it had been extraordinary.

The service was not then quite the same as it is now; naval officers were not such fine gentlemen as they are at present; but I should doubt if they had such honorable devotion to their country's welfare. Be that as it may, the I proceeded to the East Indies, and Will underwent the usual routine of a midshipman's life. The season happened to have been unusually sickly, and there was a great want of officers on the station, so that Will, before his time was served, was appointed acting lieutenant of the , a small

brig, mounting sixteen nine-pounders, then under orders for the Cape station. Here his usual good fortune followed him; for he had not been long at the Cape of Good Hope before the first lieutenant was taken ill, and obliged to go into the hospital, so that he became commanding-officer whenever the Cap

tain was absent; and in this state the proceeded to, I forget the name of the Bay, where a number of Indiamen were at anchor, to protect them from attack.

It so happened that a French frigate, of forty-four guns, had been

long cruising off the coast; and coming into the Bay, disguised as an Indiaman, in hopes of taking a few prizes, she anchored in the midst of them, without being aware that there was a man-of-war in the roadsted. Will, who had a sort of instinct for discovering an enemy, and could tell a Frenchman under any disguise, determined, with a very unusual exertion of prudence, to wait until it was dark before he commenced his operations against the intruder. By a still more strange coincidence, he was left on this occasion entirely to his own resources, for the Captain was on shore, and the surf ran so tremendously high, that it was quite impossible to com municate with, still more so to have got off, bad he known what was the matter.-Will quietly prepared for action, harangued his mes whose numbers were greatly re duced by sickness, and, as soon as it was dark, slipped his cable without the least noise; and getting athwar hawse of the frigate, within pistel shot, opened a most destructive fire of grape and cannister on the unfort nate Frenchman, who was quite unprepared for such an attack. I have said before, that Will was as brave as a lion, and it required no small exertion of bravery to engage so very superior an enemy; but taking advantage of his first success, he kept up such an incessant fire on the frigate as left her no time to deliberate, when a report was made to him that the cartridges nearly all expended. Here again his good fortune interposed; and what would have been any other body's ruin proved his advantage; for, by some accident, Will had a good woman on board, a sort of pie-bald half caste mixture, who turned out a perfect Amazon at this pinch, and relieved her gentle offcer's difficulties by converting the stockings on board into cart

were

all

ridges, which she unremittingly filled with powder, with her own fair hands. Will, delighted with this new

expedient, looked down, with admiring approbation, on his fair coadjutoress, seated with a barrel of gunpowder on one side, and a pile of stockings on the other, filling them as fast as she could; while he ran about the deck encouraging his men, rubbing his hands, and calling out "more stockings Nan; I say, Nan, you

more stockings!"

The fire was kept up with such spirit and success, that it was quite impossible for the Frenchman to resist; the first broadside killed a number of his men, as it raked the raked the ship "fore and aft;" and several of the officers, who were seated at supper in the gun-room, were swept off before the cloth was removed. Perceiving that the brig had judiciously kept at a sufficient distance to prevent boarding, there was nothing left but to cut and run, and "La Preneuse," of 44 guns, was obliged fairly to make off from our little brig of 16 long nines, with a terrible loss in killed and wounded.

The noise of the guns brought the Captain and the Governor-General of the Cape, who happened at that time to be there, to witness the action; and nothing could exceed the admiration of the one, and the vexation of the other, at not being on board to fight his own ship; although he generously allowed that he could not have done it better himself. So little did Will think he had done any thing at all out of the way, that, in the simplicity and singleness of his heart, he was not even going to write to the Admiralty, when his messmates and the master and surgeon actually wrote for him and made him sign it. This exploit excited so much admiration at home, that orders came out to make Will a Commander as soon as his time should be expired, and this proved his first stepping-stone to fortune. It also gained him the friendship of Governor Dundas, who never failed to show him every attention, and invited him to all his parties, a favor which Will would

very readily have dispensed with, as he had an invincible objection to wearing braces, and I dare say very much preferred Nan's company to Lady Dundas's.

Honors, they say, change manners, but Will's remained incorruptibly the same: he was ever constant to Nan as long as he continued on the station and observing that his brother officers occasionally sent home the produce of the East as presents to their friends, he thought he could not do better than send a little specimen of himself, which proved his connection was not entirely platonic. entirely platonic. Accordingly he despatched a little yellow pelted boy and girl to his sisters, with one of the very few letters he was ever known to have written in his life, informing them that he had sent them two natural curiosities, excellent specimens," in which he must have adopted the phraseology he heard on all sides, as he was not much given to be facetious. If I recollect right, these little animals were placed at some cheap seminary in Yorkshire, until they could be put apprentice to some trade that would enable them to get their own living. A much wiser method than that which generally falls to the lot of the unfortunate offspring of such amours, who, are either deserted at their birth, or pampered for a few years, and taken out of their station, until the caprice or economy of their fathers, prompts them to some alteration in their intentions, when they are turned adrift without a sufficiency to support the false ideas that have been instilled into them, or left to perish under an accumulated weight of misery and neglect.

Fortune, however, continued to follow our young captain wherever he went, and after various acts of bravery, he was actually made postcaptain into a line of battle-ship by mistake; and after an absenc less than ten years, he ret England in the command