500 
from the uncertainty of winds; the possibility 
of adhering to such a plan was by no means 
to be relied on. (This part of his remark 
was pretty strongly verified in last war, when 
the trench squadron got out of Brest, and 
Janded troops in Ireland.) He thought it 
was much better to let the ficet lie ready in 
some sheltered situation, whence it might 
proceed to sea with almost any wind whatso- 
ever: and he asserted, that the place he had 
deséribed was ‘Torbay. The writer of the 
foregoing sentences is perfectly unqualified 
for entering into any dispute on the subject ; 
he barely reports the professional opinion of 
so established a character for naval know- 
ledge, as Earl Howe. Let us now proceed 
to the history of our admiral’s movements 
with his fleet in 1793. Hoisting the union 
fiag at the main, he began his cruize off 
Brest, and in the bay, July 14th. Near a 
month after, he got sight of the French fleet, 
and chased them into Brest. He then re- 
turned into the Channel Angust 10th, and 
anchored in Torbay. On November. 18th, 
while cruizing in the bay, he sawa squadron, 
to which chase was given, but they effected 
their escape. What was there in all this, ,to 
impeach the well-grounded high reputation 
of a veteran officer? Yet censure grew loud: 
he had anchored too much in Torbay. Surely 
he knew his own business, better than such 
wise land-men could teach it him. Yes, he 
wanted not knowledge, but heartiness. Good 
fortune had damped his spirit, or it was worn 
out. This was talking idly indeed. At no 
time of his life could he have been properly 
styled, brave through necessity. His income 
was always superior to his wants, as.a single 
man; and when he married, he married an 
heiress; and anteriorly to that heroical in- 
stance of his cool intrepidity displayed at the | 
shore of St. Cas, his faynily estate had. fallen 
tohim. If in his G&th year a youthful ar- 
dency miglit be deemed to have abated, the 
manly firmness of his soul was the more es- 
tablished in proportion. Whoever suspected 
him of backwardness, must have known Iit- 
tle of the individual; bis intimates saw to de- 
monstration, that the most effectual perform- 
~ ance of his duty was the ruling passion of his 
heart. 
utpon Britons, an excrescence from the front 
of their liberty, but by no means 
* Einse recidendum :—ne pars sincera trahatur. 
Oy. Met. J. v.91. 
We shall see the foul eruption strike in 
again; even though ministers nourished the 
growth of it—by their silence. They could 
say, after the memorable first of June, that 
they had always confided in their admiral ; 
but they chose not to say sonow. ‘This isno 
reflection of my own: they are the words of 
Earl Howe that I repeat. He had experienc- 
ed the skulking principles of the same abet- 
tors in 1788.” ; 
With the same feeling he comments 
upon their depriving him of the garter. 
This tumour of slander_is a bloteh 
BIOGRAPHY. 
. & Public report asserted, that, etreediends 
to this visit, his Majesty of his own free wi 
had offered his victorious admiral a vacant 
blue ribband, or order of the garter ; and that 
this offer so graciously made, had been as 
thankfully accepted. For this 1 quote only 
report, because I never heard it in terms di+ 
rect from the victor’s own mouth. Jt was 
not the practice of Lord Howe, to divulge 
what had been imparted to him by his royal 
master. Yet neither did he contradict the 
report; and what he really said relative to the 
niinister’s behaviour on the occasion, to my 
own apprehension absolutely confirms. it. 
The minister, it seems (unknown to his ma- 
jesty) had already disposed of the vacant gar- 
ter elsewhere.” 
Mr. Mason is indeed no friend to the 
late minister. After sketching with no 
friendly hand the character of Mr. Fox, 
he thus proceeds to delineate the man 
who, to the disgrace of England, has ri- 
valled him in the struggle of power, 
and to the misfortune of the world, has 
succeeded in that rivalry: 
«* The other competitor for the prize has 
given remarkable proofs of his intimate ac- : 
quaintance with the grand outlines of the 
British constitution. ‘This he has manifest- 
ly evinced on the most trying occasions. He 
has zealously maintained the doctrines of our 
established government against its potent 
enemics—whether designing or declared.— 
That he has equallyadhered to sueh doctrines 
in his.own ministerial p-actice, is more than 
ahermit's slight social habitude with men 
enables him to vouch fer. The writcr must 
observe atetal silence with regard to the defe- 
rence peculiarly due from this exalted charac- 
ter to the prescriptive rights, and known re- 
eulations of the elected body of legislature A. 
he can say nothing at all of the constitutional 
probity with which this duty has been per- 
formed. But for the same person’s rhetorical 
abilities, he seems to have manifested them, 
not only ina different manner from that of 
his rival, but diflerent too from what has been, 
and is conspicuous in the most eloquent 
speakers of very modern date. Eis natal ge- 
nius did not endow him with that reach of 
imagination, which beamed so surprisingly 
on the auditors of Mr. Powis, afterwards 
Lord Lilford; and which still shines forth 
with but little inferiority of lustre in the ele- 
gant orations of Mr. Wyndham. Nor is he 
in any degree a match fot the singular poig- 
nancy of Mr. Sheridan (if we may argue from 
the only printed copies of his speeches which 
are given to the sablie). Nor does he equal 
one much younger than himself, (Lord 
Hawkesbury,) in clear details of facets, con- 
veyed in an unvitiated style. “But by spin- 
ning the thread of discourse to an almost im-. 
measurable length without absolutely lulling 
to satiety the patient attention of an audience, 
by thus making a declamation serve the pur-~ 
