BERRY. 



297 



accompanied her family to America to assist in the 

 novel attempt to establish the performance of Ital- 

 ian operas in that country. At New York, she was 

 married to M. Malibran, an elderly French mer- 

 chant, who soon after failed, and was cast into 

 prison; and Madame Malibran, believing she had 

 been deceived, voluntarily gave into the hands of 

 his creditors her marriage settlement, left her hus- 

 band, and returned to England to seek support from 

 the exercise of her vocal and dramatic talents. 



Her performances in London and Paris excited 

 the most enthusiastic applause. Her reputation 

 soon occupied the attention of the musical society 

 throughout Europe ; and she traversed extraordin- 

 ary distances to fulfil numerous engagements in dif- 

 ferent cities on the continent. Her last engage- 

 ment at Naples was for 80,000 francs and two benefits 

 and a half, for forty nights ; and that upon which 

 she entered at Milan, with Duke Visconti, (the 

 director of La S'ca/a,) was, exclusively of other 

 profitable stipulations, 450,000 francs for 185 per- 

 formances. Her generosity was so unbounded, 

 that, after a few years of her career, during which 

 she had gained immense sums, she had expended so 

 much upon her relatives and to oblige her friends, 

 that she had little or nothing left. 



Her short and singular history was closed at 

 Manchester, where she had been engaged to attend 

 the grand musical festival which was celebrated in 

 that town from the 13th to the 17th September, 

 1836. She arrived after a rapid journey from 

 Paris, on the llth of September, was taken ill on 

 the 13th, the day of the commencement of the 

 public performances, yet she sung on that day, and 

 also on the 14th, with enthusiastic applause, but 

 was too ill to sing more ; and she expired on the 23d. 



A remarkable combination of fine qualities ren- 

 dered her the wonder of all who saw or heard her. 

 Her mental conceptions were of the highest order ; 

 while in the demonstrative and executive parts of 

 her art, in the exercise of faculties of the most rare 

 and exciting nature, she has never been surpassed. 

 She has been heard to sing, in one evening, in six 

 different languages, and with unqualified admiration 

 in all. 



In March, 1836, Madame Malibran, being then 

 in Paris, and freed by the French courts from her 

 union with M. Malibran, was married to M. de 

 Beriot, a Belgian, whose talents as a violinist had 

 placed him in the highest rank in his profession. 

 During her last illness she mentioned that she had 

 known M. de Beriot nine years, and had been seven 

 years married to him, but that she had riot been 

 able to make their marriage known until within 

 the last, two years. 



BERRY, SIE EDWARD, Bart.; a distinguished 

 naval officer, was the son of Edsvard Berry, Esq., 

 a merchant of London, and was born on the 17th 

 of April, 1768. Having evinced an early predi- 

 lection for the sea-service, he was introduced into 

 the royal navy, under the auspices of Lord Mul- 

 grave, on the 5th of February, 1779, when he 

 wanted some months of being eleven years of age ; 

 und made his first voyage to the East Indies in the 

 Burford, of seventy guns. The first recorded cir- 

 cumstance of his professional life was the boarding 

 of a French ship of war ; for which action he was 

 rewarded with a lieutenant's commission. His 

 subsequent conduct in the glorious battle of June 

 1, 1794, also obtained for him the approbation of 

 his superiors. Being first lieutenant of his Ma- 

 jesty's ship Captain, at Porto Ferrajo, Sir Horatio 



Nelson recommended him for promotion for " the 

 masterly style in which he brought that ship to 

 bear on the batteries." Early in 1796, Mr Berry 

 was appointed by Sir John Jervis, under whom he 

 had before served, to the Agamemnon, of sixty-four 

 guns, commanded by Commodore Nelson, to whose 

 favourable notice he soon recommended himself. 

 For his heroic conduct at the battle off Cape St 

 Vincent, he was made a post-captain on the 6th of 

 March, 1797. On the 19th of December follow- 

 ing, he commissioned the Vanguard, of seventy-four 

 guns, fitting for the flag of his friend Nelson, with 

 whom he soon after returned to the Mediterranean 

 station. The proceedings of the squadron detached 

 from the fleet off Cadiz to watch the armament 

 about to sail from Toulon, under General Bona- 

 parte, and which ended in the total defeat of the 

 enemy, on the 1st of August, 1798, are well known. 

 Soon after the termination of the tremendous con- 

 flict in Aboukir Bay, Captain Berry was sent to 

 the commander-in-chief with the rear-admiral's 

 despatches; from which we make the following ex- 

 tract: "The support and assistance I have re- 

 ceived from Captain Berry cannot be sufficiently 

 expressed. I was wounded in the head, and 

 obliged to be carried off the deck; but the service 

 suffered no loss by that event. Captain Berry was 

 fully equal to the important service then going on ; 

 and to him I must beg leave to refer you for every 

 information relative to this victory." On his pas- 

 sage down the Mediterranean in the Leander, of 

 fifty guns, commanded by the late Sir T. B. 

 Thompson, he had the misfortune to be made pri- 

 soner by Le Genereux, a French seventy-four. He 

 also received a severe wound in the desperate ac- 

 tion which took place on that occasion. The 

 enemy, on taking possession of their prize, not only 

 plundered the officers and crew of every thing they 

 possessed, but afterwards, by their cruelty and ne- 

 glect, exposed the sick and wounded to almost 

 certain death, However, Captains Thompson and 

 Berry were permitted to return, on their parole of 

 honour, to England, where he was knighted by his 

 Sovereign, on the 12th of December, 1798; re- 

 ceived a gold medal in common with the other 

 officers who had shared in the late triumph ; and 

 was presented with the freedom of the metropolis 

 in a gold box, value 100 guineas. He also received 

 the thanks of the court-martial held to inquire 

 into the circumstances attending the capture of the 

 Leander, " for the gallant and active zeal he mani- 

 fested, by giving bis assistance in the combat." In 

 the autumn of 1799, Sir Edward Berry repaired 

 once more to the Mediterranean, as captain of 

 Lord Nelson's flagship, the Foudroyant; and early 

 in the following year had the satisfaction of assist- 

 ing at the capture of his old opponent, Le Gene- 

 reux, and of Le Guillaume Tell, a French eighty, 

 the only remaining ship which had escaped from 

 the battle in Aboukir Bay. In this conflict, the 

 Foudroyant expended a hundred and sixty-two bar- 

 rels of gunpowder, and two thousand seven hundred 

 and forty-nine cannon shot of various sizes. A 

 more heroic defence than that made by the Guil- 

 laume Tell is not on record. Her colours were 

 kept flying until she had become an ungovernable 

 log; and she sustained a los? of two hundred men 

 killed and wounded. The Foudroyant's loss was 

 eight men killed, and sixty-one wounded. Durirg 

 the action, Sir Edward Berry was hurt in the foot, 

 hut not so much as to induce him to quit the deck. 

 Some time after ward.s he presented the ensign of 



