POSTSCRIPT 



An oral or traditional account of any circumstance more 

 properly belonging to history is always subject to error 

 in an autobiography written after the lapse of half a 

 century. And it is more than probable that an impres- 

 sion, however erroneously received at the time, would be 

 grafted on others of a similar nature Avith which it was 

 directlv connected. 



In the first volume of this work it is stated ^ that three 

 courts-martial were to have been held on three of the 

 principal officers of the Fleet, on its return to Spithead 

 from its gallant and successful achievement in Basque 

 Roads. 



Now, it does not appear, either from the " Autobio- 

 graphy of a Seaman," or from the " Memoirs Historical 

 and Personal of Lord Gambler," two recent jDublications, 

 that any trial took place arising out of that affair 

 subsequent to those of Sir Eliab Harvey and Lord 

 Gambler. 



Therefore must the author have confounded the third, 

 which he has stated was held on Lord Cochrane, with 

 that on Lord Gambler, in which the former appeared 

 ostensibly as prosecutor. 



The author has also stated that in his conversation 

 with Sir Eliab Harvey on the coach-box, in answer to 



* Chapter v., page 95. 



