192 COMMISSIONER 



This brought me in frequent jDersonal communication 

 with the excellent officer Avho so long held the office of 

 Commissioner, and performed all its duties with a dignity 

 that sometimes astonished the subordinates, but at the 

 same time with solid advantage to the country. 



His religious views were not quite consonant with the 

 doctrines of the talented and truly orthodox preacher 

 who occupied the pulpit in the dockyard chapel ; and 

 their dispositions were neither of them sufficiently pliable 

 to prevent now and then an outbreak or unseemly alter- 

 cation, which, to the best of my belief, terminated in the 

 resignation of the reverend gentleman. 



It was many years after this, when, accompanied on the 

 box by a minister of the Crown, and a near relative of the 

 distinguished officer I have been speaking of, that the 

 conversation turning on nautical subjects, I named 

 many officers of high rank and distinction, and my right 

 honourable companion asked me if I had ever been 

 acquainted with the Commissioner of Portsmouth dock- 

 yard, and requested to hear what I knew of him. 



I stated, in reply, that I had known him many years ; 

 and described him as in person of a very commanding 

 appearance, remarkably upright in his carriage — which 

 is not very common with those of the most aristocratic 

 birth, who have spent their youth on board ship — with 

 rather an austere expression of countenance. I said tliat 

 his manner to those who did not know him would be, 

 indeed was, set down as haughty in the extreme ; and 

 that though I always found him affiible and polite, it was 

 reported that he carried a brace of loaded j)istols about 

 with him, in his breast pocket. 



