in the service of my king and country, to continue to merit praise so truly elevating.

The House has conferred on me a particular gratification, in their commands to signify to Rear Admirals Cochrane and Louis, and to the captains and officers under my command on that day, that applause which must have a similar influence upon their minds as I have experienced from it, and greatly proud shall we all be to hand it down to our posterity: not less forcibly, I am convinced, will it operate upon the minds of the seamen and royal marines, when their captains assure them that the representatives of the nation do approve of, and acknowledge, their gallant services.

I should feel myself highly remiss, was I to be silent, Sir, on the very impressive and handsome terms in which you have conveyed to me the high and proud testimony of approbation the House of Commons have conferred on me, accompanied by your flattering marks of congra

tulation for the part the squadron under my command has been so fortunate to perform, in adding to the list of our naval triumphs; and I beg you to believe, that I shall ever have the honour to feel, with the highest respect, Sir, your most obliged and obedient humble Servant,

J. T. DUCKWORTH.

The Right Hon. Charles Abbot,
Speaker of the House of Commons, &c.

Sir John Thomas Duckworth, like the Hoods and Nelson, was the son of a clergyman. He was born in Devonshire, and commenced his naval career chiefly in the Diamond, Captain Fielding. As early as 1779 he was Lieutenant in the Princess Royal of ninety-eight guns, at that time the flag-ship of Admiral Byron, and consequently shared in the action with Count d'Estaing in the West Indies.

What is not very remarkable otherwise in battle, deserves mention here from the characteristic sensibility of the person to whom it occurred. The head of a black man, named Peter Allen, being shot off by a cannon-ball in this action, was precipitated against the breast of Lieutenant Duckworth, and literally covered him with the

various carnage. To the man who, subsequently, in a long and sickly voyage in the Grafton, would taste none but the ordinary salt provisions and humble beverage, till the sick of his ship were comforted by his fresh provision and wine, this may be conceived to have been a sickening incident.

In 1779 (Aug. 28) he was made master and commander, being appointed to the Rover, in which he cruized off Martinique, looking into Fort Royal every day. The following year, however, Post Captain, he returned to his old ship, which he conducted to Jamaica; and, in the year following, returned to England with a convoy, in 1781, in the Grafton of seventy-four guns.

Peace precluded his farther progress, except in a domestic career, for during this period it is believed he married. In 1793, on the commencement of hostilities, he was first appointed to the Orion, 74, and next to the Queen, in the channel fleet, under Lord Howe, where he was one of those, who, it has been seen in the preceding pages, was distinguished by his Lordship in his dispatch for his conduct on the 1st of June.

Under the same veteran commander, Capt. Duckworth cruized off Brest; and, in 1795, with him escorted the East and West India convoys.

In 1798 he served under Lord St. Vincent in the Mediterranean, with the Leviathan, 74; and was honored by the separate command of a conjunct expedition, with General Stuart, against Minorca; which, after some fighting, in which the seamen served on shore, capitulated.

Rear-Admiral in 1799, he succeeded Lord Hugh Seymour in the command of the Leeward Islands in 1800;

and, on occasion of the northern confederacy, in conjunction with Lieut.-Gen. Sir Thomas Trigge, seized on the Swedish and Danish Islands. For this, as no capture remained from subsequent negociation, Admiral Duckworth received the Order of the Bath.

War ceased for so short a period as hardly to dislocate Sir John from his service; and he was consequently, on the recommencement of hostilities, appointed Commanderin-Chief on the Jamaica station.

Here he conducted an additional service, the negociation of a capitulation with the French General Rochambeau, the hopeless commander of the remnants of a French army at St. Domingo.

In 1804 he was made Vice-Admiral of the Blue, in 1805 Vice-Admiral of the White, and in 1806 performed the service that has just been recited, for which, in addition, he received votes of thanks and brilliant swords from the Assembly at Jamaica and the Corporation of London.

Sir J. T. Duckworth afterwards commanded on the Newfoundland and the Plymouth station.

On his return to England he was appointed to the Royal George of 110 guns; in which, after active employment in the Channel, it is believed he concluded his service.

BATTLE OF MAIDA, UNDER SIR JOHN STUART, 4th JULY, 1806.

This battle it has been the favourite idea of the victor, it is believed, to consider an episode in the military events of this period; it is however of the nature of those solid episodes in epic poetry which pre-eminently support the chief argument, for to it was perhaps greatly owing that return to good sense in respect to the land force of Great Britain, which permitted it again to take its place in Europe.

The misfortunes attending British co-operation with the combined armies of the continent had been much effaced by the successful termination of the war in Egypt; but this again had faded before the brilliant coruscations of the French arms, which with the rapidity of lightning appeared in all parts of the continent, and seemed to electrify every people before whom they appeared.