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Mr Stanier Clarke had not long issued his proposals before he discovered that Dr. M'Arthur had obtained possession of a different series of documents, and it was soon announced that a union of both collections had been arranged. Of Dr. McArthur the publick knew little or nothing; but as no co-operator could injure the performance of his colleague, it was reasonably to be supposed that any one would improve it. Accordingly the work contains nothing about Noah's ark, it does not even go back to the origin of the British navy; quotations are not dealt out in it by the yard, neither are there any fabulous stories introduced, though they might be as entertaining as if they were true. Still as a composition it is grievously defective; it is ill proportioned, confused, unsatisfactory in some of the most important parts, and so imperfect that a supplement is hinted at, though it is the bulkiest work of its kind that has been seen in modern times.

In general, criticks may be said to deal out their strictures by dry measure. This, however, is so ponderous a concern, that it may more fitly be estimated by avoirdupois weight. We have weighed it in the balance, and a score weight kicks the beam. This is calculating not merely upon an appetite in the publick, but upon an obsolute bulimia. Is it to be supposed that they can possibly digest one and twenty pounds of biography, even when Nelson is the subject?

"O scrittor di tomi immensi
Sai tu come il saggio pensi?
Misurare un libro suole
Dal valor, non dalla mole."

This has been occasioned by an attempt at combining two incompatible objects. The editors had obtained an immense mass of documents, private and official. Either a Life of Nelson should have been

compiled from them, or the documents themselves should have been arranged and printed, as materials for history, under the title of the Nelson Papers. They have professed to form a narrative, but the main part of the book consists of extracts from these papers, so that it is rather a work of reference than a biographical composition. Hence its enormous bulk. One volume was promised, two have been produced; and so ill had the extent of the materials been calculated, and their arrangement preconcerted, that the account of the funeral, and even the Will of Nelson are omitted. They are " unavoidably postponed," we are told; that is, there was no room left for them. Yet these things could not have amounted to an additional ounce, and when the commodity exceeds a score that might have been thrown in as a feather in the scale.

Something must be said of the manner in which this work is adorned. Mr. Stanier Clarke well understands this branch of art; his edition of Falconer's Shipwreck is more appropriately embellished than any book which has been produced in the present age of ornamental literature. Some of the prints are fine; the subjects are not, however, all well chosen. The great naval actions must of course be utterly uninteresting to any but seamen. For all useful purposes the plans which are annexed are better, and surely such prints have nothing but their utility to recommend them. No disrespect is intended towards the artist; we are fully convinced of his skill in subjects of this description. Our objection is not to the instance, but to the kind. Such representations affect us infinitely less than a narrative of the same events. Far from heightening the images which present themselves to the reader's imagination, they diminish and deaden them, and produce a bathos visible from the effect of "

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which it requires an effort to recover. The only way in which such subjects can be so treated as to impress the beholder, is by taking just so much of the scene, as is within the scope of the picturesque, and in which human action and human passions may be exhibited. But when whole fleets are to be shown upon the seas, the scale to which they must be diminished, brings forcibly into contrast the greatness of nature and the littleness of our greatest works. No art can overcome this difficulty, and the proud-, est vessel that ever rode the wave, and thundered upon its foe, becomes as mean an object as the ship of an eight day clock, keeping time with its motions to the click of the pendulum.

Two prints might have been spared. That of stepping into the boat to board the American is one. The writers did well to record the circumstance, because it had been erroneously stated in other publications, so as most undeservedly to affect the reputation of another officer, and this errour they have with due feeling rectified. But there is nothing extraordinary in it. Yet this, subject, trivial as it is, has been selected for the artist, both in this official life, and in Mr. Bowyer's publication. The other is the frontispiece. Its subject is the immortality of Nelson; for the design of which we refer to the work. p. 37. Profusely as Mr. Stanier Clarke has there strowed the flowers of his rhetorick, it is not all his style ornate which can conceal the absurdities of the composition. In the right hand corner of the piece is a dolphin's head, and over the dolphin is a hand belonging to we know not what, and over the hand is the head of a triton or sea devil; and over him is a horse's head, and over the horse are boys and girls, sons and daughters of the union, we are told “ preparing the mournful sable," &c. &c. The famous situation of Dr. Bur

ney with his harpsichord in the Thames, appears perfectly reasonable and convenient, when compared with this accumulation of incongruities. Why will painters thus wantonly abuse their prerogative? There will come a time, we trust, when such gross allegories will be deemed as repugnant to true taste, as the anthropomorphism of catholick church-picture, is to true religion. The invisible world is not within the artist's province.

We have thus previously stated all which it was requisite to observe upon the book, that dismissing all other thoughts, we might enter upon its subject with the feeling which it requires. The best eulogium of Nelson is the history of his actions; the best history that which shall relate them most perspicuously.

Horatio Nelson was born on Michaelmas day 1758, in the parsonage house of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk. Edmund, his father, was rector of that parish, his mother was descended from the Walpole family. He was first sent to the High School at Norwich, then to North Walsham. During the Christmas holidays of the year 1770, he read in the newspaper that his mother's brother, captain Maurice Suckling, was appointed to the Raisonable of 64 guns. Young as he was, he knew that eight children were a heavier burthen than his father's income could well support, and had often expressed a wish to remove his part of the weight. It was the thought of providing for himself which now actuated him." Do, brother William," said he, "write to my father, and tell him I should like to go to sea with uncle Maurice." Mr. Nelson, who was then at Bath, understood the generous nature of the boy's feelings, but did not oppose his resolution. Accordingly he wrote to his brother-in-law. Captain Suckling had promised to provide for one of the children in his own

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profession; but this was not the one which he would have chosen, because of the delicacy of his constitution. "What," said he, in his answer, "has poor Horace done, who is so weak, that he, above all the rest, should be sent to rough it out at sea? But let him come, and the first time we go into action, a cannon ball may knock off his head and provide for him at once." Yet Horace had already given such indica tions of a noble spirit, that had the uncle known them, he would have perceived the boy was choosing the course in which his heart and temper qualified him to run a glorious

career.

In the spring of 1771, his father sent him to join the ship, then lying in the Medway. At the end of the journey he was put down with the other passengers, and left to find his way how he could. After wandering about in the cold, he was at last observed by an officer, who asked him a few questions, and happening to know his uncle, took him home and gave him some refreshments. When he got on board, captain Suckling had not joined, and he paced the deck the remainder of the day without being noticed by any one. The pain which is felt when we are first transplanted from our native soil, when the living branch is cut from the parent tree, is one of the most poignant that we have to endure through life. There are after-griefs which wound more deeply, which leave behind them scars never to be effaced, which bruise the spirit, and sometimes break the heart; but never do we feel so poignantly the want of love, the necessity of being loved, the sense of utter desertion, as when we first leave the haven of home, and are, as it were, pushed off upon the stream of life. Added to this, the sea-boy has to endure physical hardships, the privation of every comfort, even of sleep. Nelson had a feeble body and an affectionate

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heart, and he remembered through life his first days of wretchedness in the service.

The Raisonable did not remain long in commission. Our dispute with Spain respecting the Falkland Islands being adjusted, she was paid off, and captain Suckling was appointed to a guard ship in the Medway. This he considered as too inactive a life for his nephew, and therefore sent him in a merchant ship to the West Indies, under a Mr. Rathbone, who had formerly been master's mate with him in the Dreadnought. "I came back," says Nelson," a practical seaman, with a horrour of the royal navy, and with a saying then constant with the seamen, aft the most honour, forward the better man." So strongly was he possessed with this prejudice, that when on his return captain Suckling received him on board, it was many weeks before he was in the least reconciled to a man of war. His uncle, who perceived this, and who seems also to have rightly appreciated the boy's character, held out to him as his reward, that if he attended well to navigation, he should go in the cutter and decked long boat, which was attached to the commanding officer's ship; and thus he became a good pilot from Chatham to the Tower of London, down the Swin, and the North Foreland, and confident of himself among rocks and sands, which he said, afterwards, was of great comfort to him.

In the ensuing year, an expedition of discovery towards the north pole was sent out under captain Phipps, in consequence of an application from the Royal Society; and though, on account of the severity of the service, effective men were entered instead of the usual number of boys, Horatio used all his influence to go with captain Lutwidge in the Carcass as his cockswain. One night when the ice was all round them, the young cockswain, and a shipmate of his own standing, stole from the

ship to hunt a bear. It was not long before they were missed. A thick fog had come on, and captain Lutwidge was exceedingly anxious for their safety. Between three and four in the morning the mist cleared off, and they were seen at a considerable distance, in pursuit of their game. -The signal was made for their return, but Nelson was too intent upon his object to obey it. A chasm in the ice luckily separated him from the beast; his musket flashed in the pan. "Never mind," said he, "do but let me get a blow at this devil with the but-end, and we shall have him." A gun from the ship terrified the animal, and Nelson was obliged to return disappointed, and expecting a reprimand. Captain Lutwidge reproved him somewhat sternly, and asked him what reason he could have for hunting a bear. "Sir," he replied, pouting his lip, as he was wont to do when agitated, "I wished to get the skin for my father."

The situation of the ships became so alarming, that captain Phipps thought it necessary to prepare the boats for going away. They were accordingly hoisted out and hauled over the ice; and Nelson had the command of a four oared cutter with twelve men. This was at his own solicitation, and he says he prided himself in fancying he could navigate her better than any other boat in the ship. Soon after his return, his uncle recommended him to captain Farmer of the Sea-Horse, 20 guns, then going out to India, in the squadron under sir Edward Hughes. He was stationed in the foretop at watch and watch. The. master (now captain Surridge) soon perceived how desirous he was to make himself acquainted with the minutest part of a seaman's duty, and therefore particularly recommended him to the captain, who accordingly placed him on the quarter deck, and rated him as midshipman. The service which he went through had

strengthened his constitution, his countenance at this time was florid,, and he seemed rather stout and athletick; but in India he caught one of the malignant diseases of that climate so fatal to European habits; it totally deprived him for a time of the use of his limbs, and nearly brought him to the grave. In consequence of this, he returned to Europe with captain Pigot in the Dolphin [1776] in so perilous a state of weakness, that he attributed the preservation of his life to that offcer's kind attentions. During this voyage, his mind was heavily depressed. He had formed acquaintance with the present sir Charles Pole, sir Thomas Troubridge, and other distinguished officers, then, like himself, beginning their career; he had left them pursuing it in full enjoyment of health and hope, and was now returning with a body broken down by sickness, and spirits that had sunk with his strength. Long afterwards when the fame of Nelson was known as widely as that of England itself, he spoke of the feelings which he at that time endured. "I felt impressed," said he, "with an idea that I should never rise in my profession. My mind was staggered with a view of the difficulties I had to surmount, and the little interest I possessed. I could discover no means of reaching the object of my ambition. After a long and gloomy reverie, in which I almost wished myself overboard, a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled within me, and presented my king and country as my patrons. Well then,' I exclaimed, I will be a hero, and confiding in Providence I will brave. every danger." From that hour, as he often declared to captain Hardy, a radiant orb was suspended before his mind's eye, which urged him onward to renown. No person has ever looked to the attainment of any great and worthy object without experiencing similar fluctuations. Nel

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"The light which led him on Was light from Heaven." The previous fits of dejection were altogether causeless. His prospects were fair, and his progress almost as rapid as it could be. When he reached England, he found his uncle comptroller of the navy and was immediately appointed to act as fourth lieutenant of the Worcester, 64 guns, capt. Mark Robinson, then on the point of sailing to Gibraltar. His age might have been a sufficient cause for not intrusting him with the charge of a watch, yet the captain used to say he felt as easy when he was upon deck, as any other officer in the ship. On the 8th of April 1777, he past his examination. Capt. Suckling sat at the head of the table, and when it had ended in a manner highly honourable to him, introduced him as his nephew. The examining captains expressed their surprise that he had not told them of this relationship before. "No," replied the comptroller, "I did not wish the younker to be favoured. I felt convinced that he would pass a good examination, and you see I have not been disappointed." On the following day, Nelson received his commission as second lieutenant of the Lowestoffe frigate, captain William Locker, then fitting out for Jamaica. After a year's active service, he was removed to the Bristol, the flag-ship of sir Peter Parker, to whom captain Locker had warmly recommended him. The present lord Collingwood who succeeded to the command so many years afterwards, upon his glorious death, succeeded him now in the Lowestoffe, and again in the flag ship, when on the 8th of De cember, the same year, he was made commander into the Badger brig, at the age of one and twenty. Six months afterwards, he acquired the last step, being made post into the Hinchinbrook, 28 guns.

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A plan had been formed by general Dalling, and approved by the government at home, for taking fort San Juan, upon the river of the same name, which flows from lake Nicaragua to the Atlantick. The force appointed for this expedition, amounting to about 500 men, were convoyed by Nelson from Jamaica to the Spanish main; and here his services were to have ended. But there wa was not a man in the whole party who had ever been up the river San Juan; he therefore manned the Mosquito shore craft, and two of the Hinchinbrook's boats, and resolved to carry the soldiers up himself. Of all the services in which he had been engaged, this was the most perilous. It was the latter end of the dry season; the river was low, full of shoals and sandy beaches, and the men were often obliged to quit the boats and drag them through shallow channels, which the Indians went before them to explore. This labour and that of forcing their way up the rapids, was chiefly sustained by the sailors; men accustomed at all times to rely upon their own exertions, and at all times sure to do their duty. Seven or eight hours during the day they were exposed to a burning sun, rendered more intolerable by being reflected from dry shoals of white sand; at night they suffered equally from heavy dews. On the ninth of April they arrived at a small island called St. Bartholomew, which commanded the river in a rapid and difficult part, and was defended by a battery mounting nine or ten swivels. Nelson, according to his own phrase, best expressive of a seaman's feeling, resolved to board this out-post. Putting himself at the head of a few sailors, he leaped upon the beach. Captain Despard, since so unhappily notorious, gallantly supported him, and they stormed the battery. Two days. afterwards they came in sight of the castle of San Juan, and began to besiege it on the 13th. It surren

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