1829.] Life and Sermces of Captain Phdip Beaver. 33 



action, he retired to a cottage in England, at the end of the war, scarcely 

 richer than he was when it began : — 



" In a letter from Malta, he thus sums up the account of his proceeclings : 

 ' My last cruize during the war, from which I had every reason to expect 

 something handsome, terminated in nothing. It commenced the very day 

 that the prelinwnary articles of peace were signed, and an embargo which 

 immediately followed on the enemies' vessels, till the cessation of hostilities, 

 precluded all chance of my taking any thing. On arriving at Minorca, 1 

 learned that I had lost eleven hundred pounds, freight monej', by a new 

 government order, which stops all payments on public monies ; that sum 

 having been left unpaid, in consequence of the death of poor Motz, the com- 

 missary-general. Then, on coming to jMalta, I found that all my plate, with 

 every thing else necessary for house-keeping, had been sent from England in 

 the Utile ; and that vessel has never been heard of since her departure. 

 These accumulated losses have left me ' poor indeed.' " 



" The Determinee was now ordered to Portsmouth, and paid off on the 

 19th of May 1802. After passing a few weeks in town, the captain pur- 

 chased a house at Watford, in Hertfordshire, where he proved that the busy 

 scenes of former years had not disqualified him for domestic qiuet ; and 

 though ' bounded in a nutshell,' he found his time fully occupied v.'ith his 

 family, his books, his cottage, and his half an acre of garden. His mind, 

 however, still veered towards Bulama, his ' little paradise ;' and, from an 

 ■official communication with the Under Secretary of State, the command of 

 two or three vessels, for African colonization, appeared to be within his reach, 

 when the renewal of war closed the scheme. 



" This event caused him to regret having declined a frigate, which was 

 offered to him, after his return to England; but his reason was judicious — 

 an absolute inability, in time of peace, to maintain a family at home, and also 

 support the expenses of a table afloat. As a private individual, his habits 

 were far from expensive, and he lived happy and contented under very mode- 

 rate circumstances ; but as a captain in the Royal Navy, which he esteemed 

 as one of the first ranks in society, he felt it due to the service, that his esta- 

 blishment shoidd be on a proportionate scale of expense. Indeed there was, 

 in the contrast between his public and private character, a marked antithesis — 

 for though totally devoid of all personal, he had a good deal of professional 

 pride; and to acquit himself well in his duties, seen or unseen, was the pre- 

 dominant principle of his conduct. Perhaps this is a national characteristic : — 

 no people love the glory of their country more than the French ; it is a public 

 stock, of which eacii individual boasts his proportion ; — in England, it is also 

 a puldic fund, but we uidiesitatingly contribute to it our fortune, our talents, 

 our labour, and our lives. 



The threatened invasion by Buonaparte, which, ridiculous as it was, 

 excited very general fears in this country, induced the government to 

 form companies of yeomanry fencibles on such parts of the coast as were 

 thought to be most exposed. Captain Beaver was appointed to command 

 those on tlie coast of Essex. The good will with which he assumed a 

 post far inferior to that which his rank in the navy entitled him to hold, 

 was remarkably displayed in his answer to a communication, which 

 stated, " It is conceived you are to act as volunteers, subject to the 

 command of juniors, but freely offering advice to those not so well 

 informed as yourselves." Beaver replied : — 



" From what you say of our rank while serving here, we shall hold no 

 very enviable situation : however, on the present occasion, as the tocsin is 

 sounded, 1 would even serve before the mast, rather tlian be out of the way, 

 in a time of public danger ; but on affairs of less moment, I woukl refuse a 

 command, sooner than resign luy right. I shall, therefore, since it is deemed 



M.M. New Scries.-yoj..\lll. No. 43. F ' » ' 



