THE ÆGIS, &c. &c. WARMED with an honest zeal for the glory of the British arms, as it has been maintained and extended throughout a protracted warfare, displaying in its course every variety of naval and military contention; and excited by the brilliant and peculiar eloquence with which its heroes have received through parliament the public praise; as well as impressed with a peculiar call to regard the best interests of those whose ordinary cares have been so extensively confided to him; the writer has long contemplated his present work. Under such impressions, it was not likely that difficulties would present themselves to his contemplation; and indeed how Æg. A so little was were they to be expected in any case where s apparently left to the compiler? Such was the native grace of these flowers of martial eloquence, that an artless hand seemed best fitted to form them into never dying wreaths. In the progress of their collection, however, embarrassment has arisen from the ordinary caution of officers, and the almost insuperable modesty of merit ; as well as the diversity of topics that seemed naturally to arise out of the occasion of every particular address. The assurance of authenticity in respect to the one, and the necessary discrimination amid the other, were thus greatly impeded. This embarrassment, however, is not mentioned as indicative of disappointment in so agreeable a pursuit; nor to claim merit in subduing it; but to 1 As for instance, in the outset, where it is essential to preserve the series complete, the writer is, for the present, obliged to content himself with the motion and its result; in many instances he could hardly prevent himself from being carried away by frequent bursts of honorable mention in parliament, and also in the public dispatches of naval and military commanders, which would, had he but ordinarily admitted them, have swelled the present volume infinitely beyond its purpose. prepare the reader that while he may justly expect a display of the highest excellence in the eloquent subjects themselves, he must hence abate something in regard to perfection in their arrangement. It will be but little necessary to speak of the origin of the war out of which the triumphs connected with the subject of this work have arisen. If Englishmen were disposed to indulge in the turgid language of our great and constant enemies the French, we might say, that exclusive of ordinary conflicts, it has been necessary ever since our existence as a civilized state, once in a century at least to inflict a signal chastisement on France ! The last and most singular of all, owes its rise to the immense consolidation of power created by a revolution of that ancient monarchy, which giving to a haughty and warlike people all the advantages of a youthful state, led them with new force of principle and action, to the |