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manner in which you have done me the favour to communicate the same.

I have the honour to be, with the most perfect respect and esteem, Sir, your most obedient and faithful humble servant,

The Right Hon.

DUNCAN.

Henry Addington, &c. &c.

We have spoken of the talents for seamanship of every character required in the accomplishment of this victory; its characteristics peculiarly marked the Admiral whose biographical course is the subject of the present notice, and he retained them to the end of his life.

Adam Duncan, in 1755 Lieutenant of the navy, and four years after Commander, became in 1761, Captain of the Valiant 74, Admiral Keppel's flag-ship in the expedition against Belleisle, in which he continued till the close of that war.

There is no account of his services after, till, having married the daughter of the Lord President of the Court of Session, Dundas, in 1777, in 1778 he appears in the Monarch 74 on the home station, and in the following year member of the Court Martial on Admirals Keppel and Sir Hugh Palliser. Ordered to Gibraltar with Sir George Rodney, he suffered in the

running fight with

Don Juan de Langara, and quitting the Monarch on his return to England, was out of commission till 1782.

Thus, agreeably to his disposition, has Fame been almost silent upon him. Appointed this year to the Blenheim, he was under Lord Howe in the Channel and at Gibraltar, and on the peace had the Edgar 74, guardship at Portsmouth. At the close of the ordinary period of this service, 1787, he became Rear Admiral of the Blue, but had the pleasure of this first promotion from Captaincy qualified by the death of his son Henry at Edinburgh.

Proceeding through the ordinary gradations to Admiral of the Blue, he nevertheless held no command till June 1795, when he was appointed to that of the squadron in the North Sea, hoisted his flag in the Venerable 74, and there remained, to the destruction of the Dutch trade and its national spirit, till the present occasion.

Notwithstanding the peculiar circumstances of the British force on this station, the judgment of Admiral de Winter seems to have kept his force restrained till French influence, and the evil genius of his national counsels, compelled him unwillingly to put to sea, when Admiral Duncan immediately shut him out from his port, and seized upon the Admiral, Vice Admiral, and seven other ships of the line. By this act he became in rank enobled, though from his disposition it can scarcely be considered as elevation. Indeed his estimation of his own services will be best shewn by his despatch on this very occasion.

Venerable, off Coast of Holland, Oct. 12, (by log 1!) 3 p. m. Camperdyne E. S. E. wind N. by E.

"Sir,

I have the pleasure to acquaint you, for the information of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that at 9 o'clock this morning I got sight of the Dutch fleet; at half past twelve I passed through their line, and the action commenced which has been very severe. The Admiral's ship is dismasted, and has struck, as have several others, and one is on fire. I shall send Captain Fairfax with particulars the moment I can spare him.

ADAM DUNCAN."

I am, Many agreeable and singular anecdotes in possession and within reach of the editor, might swell the present pages; but Lord Duncan's fame requires no support, his very peculiarities were honourable to himself.

*

BATTLE OF THE NILE, SIR HORATIO, (afterwards Lord) NELSON-AUGUST 1, 1798.

Of the battle of the Nile, on which poetry and eloquence have exhausted all their powers,

and then imagined new,

what can be now said more than to quote the pious and terse expression of the victor, that "Almighty God blessed his Majesty's arms with a great victory!"

To the heroic Nelson and to his country it was, in its progress and consequences, more than victory; for the one called into action all the qualities requisite to a great commander, and the other produced a memorable crisis of the war. It was the first step to arresting that career of revolutionary ambition, which, parting from subjugated Europe, like the satiated Alexander, sighed for new worlds to conquer, and preserved to the land army the first opportunity of meeting French troops on a grand scale.

But who shall briefly recount that to which splendid histories are devoted?— how vain to speak of that which is recorded in every mind.

Perhaps in this record of the triumphs of British arnis, it may, however, be proper to show, that disappointment and doubt have long accompanied those destined to the highest glories, though ultimately overcome by true heroism and perseverance; since it is here to be found that the man who finally destroyed a fleet which having experienced the utmost success, had placed itself in a situation next to impregnable, had, notwithstanding, after 120 actions with the enemy, found himself progressively in all the storms of adversity, till Providence alone placed him in the situation to evince his genius in this splendid success...

The following are the answers, character

istically terse, which the great Nelson returned to his first award of Parliamentary honors.

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