governor to furrender, who answered, that and blue; and in the rear, the blue: each he thould defend the place to the lafl. On the 22d the admiral, at break of day, gave the fignal for cannonading the town; which was performed with fuch vigour, that 15,000 hot were fpent in five hours: when the admiral perceiving that the enemy were driven from their fortifications at the fouth Molehead, and that, if we were once poffeffed of thefe, the town must be taken of course, he ordered captain Whitaker to arm all the boats, and attempt to make himself mafter of them. This order was no fooner iffued, than captain Hicks, and captain Jumper, who were nearest the mole, pushed on thore with their pinnaces, and actually feized the fortifications before the reft could come up. The Spaniards feeing this, fprung a mine, by which two lieutenants and forty men were killed, and about fixty more wounded. However, the two captains kept poffeffion of the great platform, till they were fuftained by captain Whitaker, with the feamen under his command, who foon made himself masler of a redoubt between the mole and the town; on which the admiral fent a letter to the governor, who capitulated on the 24th, and the prince of Heffe took poffeffion of the place. After leaving a fufficient garrifon there, the Admiral returned to Tetuan to take in wood and water. On the 9th of Auguft he failed again for Gibraltar, and defcried the French fleet, which he refolved to engage: but perceiving that night they were for getting away, he purfued them in the morning with all the fail he could make. On the 11th one of the enemy's fhips was forced afhore, near Fuengorolo; the crew quitted her, fet her on fire, and fhe blew up immediately. Our fleet continued ftill purfuing the enemy; and, on the 12th, not hearing or feeing any thing of them, the admiral fufpected they might flip between him and the fhore; whereupon he refolved to make the best of his way to Gibraltar: but difcovering them about noon, near Cape Malaga, he and his fquadron made all the fail they could after them, and continued the chafe all night. We here give Sir George Rooke's own ac count. "On Sunday the 13th, in the morning, we were within three leagues of the enemy, who brought to, with their heads to the fouthward, the wind being eafterly, formed their line, and lay to receive us. Their line confifted of fifty-two fhips, and twenty-four gallies; they were very ftrong in the center, and weaker in the van and rear; to fupply which, most of the gallics were divided into thote quarters. In the e utte was Morticur de Toulouf, with the white iquadron; in the val, the white We admiral had his vice and rear admirals. After the English had, in vain, endea voured to renew the fight, they repaired to Gibraltar, where they continued eight days in order to refit; and having fupplied that place to the utmost of their power with ammunition and provifion, it was thought convenient to return to England. On the 24th of Auguft the admiral failed from Gibraltar: on the 25th he gave of ders to Sir John Leake to take upon him the command of the fquadron that was to remain in the Mediterranean during the winter 1781. Hiflaries of Tete-a-Tale, 293 winter, and then failed home with the reft, management, when be preferved fo great where he arrived safely on the 25th of Sep- a part of the Smyrna fleet, and particulartember. Sir George was extremely well ly in the taking of Gibraltar, which was a received by the queen, and the people in project conceived and executed in lefs than general, as appeared by the many addreffes a week. Of his courage he gave abundant prefented to her majefty, in which the cou, teftimonies; but efpecially in burning the rage, conduct, and fortune of Sir George, French fhips at La Hogue, and in the batwere highly extolled. When the parlia- tle of Malaga, where he behaved with all ment came to lit, which was on the 23d of the refolution of a Britif admiral; and, October, the house of commons compli- as he was first in command, was first alfo. mented the queen exprefsly upon the ad- in danger. In party matters he was, per• vantages obtained at fea, under the con. haps, too warm and eager; for all men duct of our admiral. The miniftry, how have their failings, even the greatest and ever, could not bear that fuch high com- beft; but in action he was perfectly cool mendations fhould be beltowed upon a and temperate, gave his orders with the man who was not of their party; and utmost ferenity; and as he was careful in they took fo much pains to prevent Sir marking the conduct of his principal offiGeorge Rooke from receiving the compli- cers, fo his candour and juice were alments ufual upon fuch fucceffes, that it ways confpicuous in the accounts he gave became vifible Le muft either give way, of them to his fuperiors: he there knew or a change happen in the administration. no party, no private confiderations, but Sir George perceiving, that as he role in commended merit wherever it appeared. credit with his country, he lost his inter- He had a fortitude of mind that enabled eft with thofe at the helm, refolved to him to behave with dignity upon all occa retire from public bufinefs, that the affairs fions, in the day of examination as well as of the nation might receive no difturbance in the day of battle: and though he was upon his account. Thus, immediately more than once called to the bar of the after he had rendered fuch important fer houfe of commons, yet he always efcaped vices to his country, as the taking the cenfure; as he likewife did before the fortrefs of Gibraltar, and beating the lords; not by fhifting the fault upon o◄ whole naval force of France in the battle thers, or meanly complying with the tem of Malaga, the laft engagement which, per of the times, but by maintaining teaduring this war, happened between theie dily what he thought right, and fpeaking two nations at fea, he was contrained to his fentiments with that freedom which quit his command. He paffed the remain. becomes an Englishman, whenever his der of his days as a private gentlemau, condu& in his country's fervice is brought chiefly at his feat in Kent. At laft the in question. In a word, he was equally gout, which had for many years greatly fuperior to popular clamour, and popular afflicted him, brought him to his grave on applaufe; but, above all, he had a noble the 24th of January, 1708-9, in the 58th contempt for foreign interetts, when inyear of his age; and he was buried in the compatible with our own, and knew not cathedral church of Canterbury, where a what it was to feek the favour of the great, beautiful monument is erected to his me- but by performing such actions as deferved mory. it. In his private life he was a good hufband and a kind mafter, lived hofpitably towards his neighbours, and left behind him a moderate fortune; fo moderate, that when he came to make his will, it furprifed those who were prefent; but Sir George affigned the reafon in few words: "I do not leave much," faid he, "but what I leave was honefly gotten; it never coft a failor a tear, or the nation a farthing." Sir George's zeal for the church, and his adherence to that fort of men who, in his time, were known by the name of Tories, made him the darling of one party, and expofed him no lefs to the averfion of the other. This is the caufe that an hiftorian finds it difficult to obtain his true Character from the writings of thofe who flourished in the fime period of time. The ingenious and impartial Dr. Campbell, in his lives of the admirals, undoubtedly the beft naval history extant, has drawn fo matterly and just a character of him, that we cannot more properly conclude this life than traulcript of was certainly (fays that candid writer) in officer of great merit, if either conduct or courage could entitle him to that character. The former appeared in his behaviour on the Irish Ration, in his wife and prudent Hiftories of the Tete-a-Tete annexed: or Me moirs of Colonel Witwou'd and the Bird of Paradife. OLONEL Witwou'd is, perhaps, one of the greatest fimile mongers in the three kingdoms. He may literally be faid to live by comparison, and there is great reafon to think his last breath will attempt to articulate a parallel, We thought it requiâte requifite to give this introduction to our hero's character, in order to account for the title bestowed upon him. His father was an officer in the army, and much eftecmed by the late Prince of Wales, through whole intereft our hero obtained a pair of colours at a very early period of life, which introduced him to the world, when his youth would more properly have retained him full at college. To this circumitance may be afcribed his having been fo long a public character, far beyond what his years feem to have admitted him. Naturally inclined to be corpulent, a great affection for the luxuries of the table, and a diftalie for exercise, have now increafed his bulk to a moft unwieldy magnitude. He has, however, comitantly been a man of gallantry, and never failed paying his devoirs to the first rate demireps, who took a pleafure in his company on account of the fingularity of his converfation, accompanied by an extraordinary ftammering, which never failed to create a conftant laugh. We find that fo far back as the time when Mrs. Wolling ton was in the zenith of her glory, as well, in the character of an actress, as a firitrate toast, he was her conftant attendant, never failing to make his appearance behind the fcenes on thofe nights which the performed. How far he was the heureux garçon we will not pretend to determine, but we can aver he never gave up the purfuit till Cæfar came, faw, and conquered. Upon this desertion of the lovely Peggy, he was philofopher fufficient not to hang, drown, or poifon him/elf, but almoft immediately planted the artillery of his fimiles againa Signora Frafi, who was till in her prime; but as that lady had, at this time a great predilection in fivour of captain Br, we have reafon to believe, that the colonel only feated his eyes with ber charms, and his ears with the harmony of her voice, and remained, much againit his inclination, a mere Platonic lover. . Finding fo formidable a rival in the captain, he, like a judicious commander, beat a retreat, and made an attack upon Signora Banti. This lady had just come to a rupture with lord R————————d, with whom the had lived with the greatet intimacy for fome time. The cause of this rupture was varioully reported, it certainly began and ended in mutual reproaches of infidelity, and fome fay their confequences. Aa opera lady, without a cicifNOT E. Colonel Cæfar, with whom the lived All her death. beo, confiders herself as precluded from the ton; that her charins have fubfided, and all influence in the vortex of beauty has entirely vanished: accordingly fhe accepted of the firft offer, and the colonel being the earlicft candidate, he fixed his head-quarters in Dean-treet, Soho. After this tote-a-tete had continued a few months, our hero was extremely ill, and he was adviled by his physicians to repair to Montpelier, for the recovery of his health. His journey to that famous city, celebrated for the repairing of conflitutions, was not accompanied with any remarkable circumitances. After rekding there a fhort time, he found himself perfectly well, and fet off for the capital of France. Upon his arrival at Paris, the colonel met with a number of acquaintance, among it whom were Sir Richard Atkins, Sir Francis Delaval, Mr. Foote, lady Echlin, and Fanny Murray; with this group our hero paffed his time very agreeably, and frequently ferved as an ufeful intru ment or promoting the mirth and raillery of the company. He foon recovered his enbon efprit, which had been much diminithed during his illness, and was, in confequence of his fize, filed in all public company, colonel Roast Beef; a dith, however, which he was very far from being font of, as the delicacies, and not the fubitantial covers of the table, attracted his attention. Foote wou'd fain have perfunded him to take an opera gil of his acquaintance into keeping, alluring the colonel that her fifter, who lived with him, was one of the worthieft females he had ever met with; but our hero would not liften to his advice, faying that Banti had given him a compleat furfeit of Italian opera girls, and he would rather take his chance amongt the Parisian grizettes-for by G-d, faid he, an Italian woman now always reminds me of Mount Etna, or Mount Vefuvius. Upon his return to England, he foom made acquaintance with the celebrated Mrs. Pope, whofe husband had fome time before fold her to a certain juftice, with whom he lived as long as kis finances would fupport her unbounded extrava gance and diflipation. As a proof of her prodigality, Covent Garden was frequently ranfacked for peas at two guineas a pint, and cherries at five guincas a pottle, Such unlimitted luxury would shortly have ruined a nabob; no wonder then her unfortunate gallant could not long fupport her in fuch profution. The colonel was ftruck with her charms, which were doubtlefs extraordinary; but he |