1828.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



301 



that noble fellow, Collingwood, takes his 

 ship into action. How I envy him.". 

 While Collingwood's observation was 

 knowing his friend well " What would 

 Nelson give to be here?" By the fall 

 of Nelson, he was left commander-in-chief ; 

 and at the head of the fleet he continued 

 till his own death, about four years and a half 

 from that period cruizing the whole time 

 now in the Mediterranean, and now off 

 Cadiz sometimes protecting Sicily some- 

 times acting with Russia and against Tur- 

 key, and now again aiding the Spaniards, 

 and finally capturing the Ionian Islands. 

 Literally worn down by hard labour, and 

 long continuance at sea, his death occurred 

 in March, 1810. From the battle of Tra- 

 falgar his labours were incessant, his cor- 

 respondence was overwhelming, embracing 

 the affairs of the Spaniards, Turks, Alba- 

 nians, Egyptians, Sicilians, and the Bar- 

 bary States, and left him no moment for 

 repose. In the whole of these services 

 many of them new to a naval man, he 

 seems to have shewn himself equal to all 

 emergencies, however sudden or delicate. 

 The sound judgment of the man on politi- 

 cal matters is very remarkable, considering 

 how little had been his intercourse with the 

 rulers of mankind ; and the censures he ex- 

 presses for our union with the Russians 

 against the Turks, are of the most manly 

 and appropriate character. This period of 

 his life presents one of the most melancholy 

 conditions we can well imagine for months 

 and months never entering a port, and once 

 for nearly two years never dropping anchor, 

 cut off from his family, rarely learning any 

 news of them, nailed to his writing desk 

 from morning to night, scarcely able to 

 s.natch a few minutes for a scanty repast, or 

 to catch the fresh breeze in the evening 

 his health wasting, his hopes vanishing, his 

 efforts baffled often with little intercourse 

 from without, and none within ; under all 

 these depressing circumstances, when soli- 

 citing his recal, and panting for home, and 

 told that the Government knew not where 

 to find a successor, he submitted in silence 

 his life, he said, was his country's. The 

 correspondence of this period will be sure to 

 attract the public interest. 



Collingwood was born for a commander 

 under orders at home that is, a man for 

 keeping things in perfect order, and in an 

 available state an executive man not 

 a dasher like Nelson ; he did not, like him, 

 force admiration by unexpected successes ; 

 but then he did not like him plunge into 

 positions, which went nigh to wreck his 

 well-earned reputation. The universal feel- 

 ing towards him was that of respect. There 

 was nothing of fanfaronade about him 

 steady as old time, as sure as fate with 

 qualities as much to be calculated upon as 

 die laws of motion, or the properties of arith- 

 metic. His mind was always made up to 

 his duties : his rules and principles im- 

 mutable, and no feelings of the mortal shook 



him in the execution. With all this steady 

 and inflexible resolution, however, he was 

 a man of the kindliest nature; he dis- 

 couraged flogging, generally (substituting 

 privations for cruelties, and was always dis- 

 posed to attribute irregularities to his own 

 mismanagement, rather than to the bad 

 qualities of the offenders. He was no cour- 

 tier, and as he himself never solicited per- 

 sonal favours, so his contempt for such as 

 succeeded in the service by influence was 

 unbounded, and rarely concealed. The con- 

 sequence was, that though so long at the 

 head of the largest fleet England ever pos- 

 sessed, he could rarely serve his friends 

 that is, those who deserved preferment un- 

 der his command ; his influence was con- 

 fined to the filling up of vacancies occasioned 

 by death. 



A large portion of the volume is taken 

 up with his correspondence with his wife 

 and children full of anxiety always for 

 their happiness and welfare, and of his long- 

 ings to rejoin them. Amiable as they shew 

 the man, there is too much of this it is 

 querulous, at times, even to weariness. In 

 his letters to his daughters, the good man 

 is urgent they should read no novels, no- 

 thing but history, history as if he thought 

 history, history, was itself, by far the greater 

 part of it, any thing but fable. But arith- 

 metic and geometry are the prime favourites, 

 affording amusement so delightful and il- 

 limitable, that he apparently seems con- 

 vinced, if cards had not unhappily got pos- 

 session of society, they would have become 

 the established sources of recreation at even- 

 ing parties. 



De Lisle, or the Distrustful Man. 3 

 vols. 12mo. ; 1827 This is a very able 

 performance, deserving of a much more at- 

 tentive examination nay of the closest ana- 

 lysis than we have space to give it. It is 

 manifestly the production of a person of 

 resources not easily exhausted, liberally and 

 even profusely as he has poured forth from 

 the fountain of imagination, and the trea- 

 sures of experience. It presents a richer 

 abundance of circumstances and sentiments 

 than we can readily recal in any recent 

 writer equalling the author of De Vere in 

 the latter, and excelling him infinitely in 

 the former. The general tone and turn 

 indeed of the writing reminds us of Mr. 

 Ward, though doubtless the subject is not 

 one that he would have chosen to delineate, 

 and the absence of religious reflection, or 

 at least of religious teaching, must convince 

 us it is not his. 



De Lisle is introduced as a youth of 

 family and fortune, of high abilities and 

 extensive attainments early assuming a 

 superiority over his fellows, indisposed to 

 confidence, and ever ready to fling contempt 

 upon opponents doing any thing rather 

 than seeking others, or appearing to seek 

 them, and shocked at the thought of being 

 controlled at home or abroad. His mother 



