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UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE.

No. XXII.-VOL. IV.] For SEPTEMBER, 1805.

[NEW SERIES.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE RIGHT with armed men, into our citadel, and HON. JOHN EARL OF ST. VINCENT, putting us, like the Trojans of old, to ADMIRAL OF THE WHITE SQUADRON, the sword, or carrying us away cap &c. &c. WITH A PORTRAIT.

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HE nobleman, whose memoirs It has been both said and sung, that form this article of our miscellany, our state pilot has weathered the is a highly proper subject for co-tempo- storm." Woe to the governors of our rary biography. To display the worth isle if they think so! Woe to the peoand talents of a man who has so con- ple of it under such an infatuation.spicuously served his country, cannot We have read, however, of boisterous be thought in the smallest degree to par- winds being bottled up or confined in take of adulation. It is easy for such a caverns, and of their bursting forth to character to know what posterity will the great danger of those who least exsay of him. There is nothing doubtful pected the explosion. We have, it is in his conduct: it is for no display of but too shrewdly feared, a navigation words-for no promises made, and still still to make through straits as dangeunperformed, that we extol him. Ora- rous as the Cyclades were to Eneas; tors have their admirers, and those who and cool heads and strong hands are inmake declarations are not without their dispensibly necessary to guide us over believers it is, however, upon deeds the shallows, and through the deeps of alone that we would erect a statue to the voyage. To adopt, then, less of the memory of one who has deserved metaphor, and more of plain reasoning: well of his country. His escutcheon is we are engaged in an arduous and exfully emblazoned with zealous and he- pensive war: we want at once force and roic acts, and to adopt his own motto, it economy to resist the power of the is thus-"That the sons of Britain enemy, and wear out his rage. Such may be sure of an enrolment among the as Lord St. Vincent, therefore, are the great men which its soil has given birth men to whom we should direct our eyes for the supply of that skill, and His sovereign, or with equal pro- that prudence, which united, bid fairest priety, the senate, has taken care that for bringing the tempest-tost bark of something more than posthumous re- England to a safe and proud anchorward shall await him: a pension, there- age. fore, as well as an earldom and barony, John Jervis, now Lord St. Vincent, has been conferred on him. In all ages, is the descendant of a very respectable, and in all countries, this laudable prac- and truly ancient family in Staffordtice has been adopted in some shape or shire, which is traced from James Jerother; for whether it were with coro- vis, of Chatkill, in the above-named nets of gold, or with wreaths of oak- county, so long ago as the time of leaves, still it was a mark of public ap- Henry VIII. This James had one of probation and esteem, and it equally his sons settled at Ollerton, in Shrop ennobled the possessor in the eyes of his fellow-citizens.

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shire, the ancestor of that branch of which our hero is the fruit. His elder Perhaps the legislature can in no in- brother was a short time since living at stance better display its patriotism and Meaford, in the county of Stafford.discernment, than in looking stedfastly Their mother was Elizabeth, daughter for occasions to reward this class of of George Parker, esq. of Palk-hall, in the worthies, on whom it may be said the parish of Caverswale, Stafford, and salvation of England in a great measure sister to Sir Thomas Parker, Chief depends. On them ought we chiefly to Baron of the Exchequer. On the 5th confide for preventing our implacable of June, 1753, our hero, then Captain foe introducing his wooden horse, filled Jervis, espoused his cousin Miss Martha, Vol. IV.

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daughter to the above-named Sir Tho- tinued in the Gosport till the end of the mas Parker, by whom he has no issue. war, a period but little distinguished by His father, Swynfen Jervis, esq. was a the nature of the maritime service perbarrister at law, and sometime counsel formed. Having remained some time to the board of admiralty, and auditor of on the home station, the captain was Greenwich hospital. ordered to the Mediterranean: returnThe son of whom we are speaking ing thence after the ratification of the was, at one time, designed by his pa- treaty of peace, his ship was paid off, rents for the father's profession; but and he held no command from that time the offices held by that parent, naturally till the year 1769, when he was again introducing his son to gentleinen con- ordered to his Mediterranean station, in nected with nautical altairs, it is no the Alarm frigate, of 32 guns. In Auwonder that he contracted a penchant gust, the next year, he entertained the for a sailor's life. His first service at Duke de Chablais, brother to the King sea was on board the Gloucester, of 50 of Sardinia, on board his ship, at Villaguns, sent on the Jamaica station with Franca, who felt himself so gratified and the broad pendant of the Hon. George pleased at the notice and respect that Townshend. His entrance as a mid- had been paid to him by this officer of shipman was about the end of the year the King of Great Britain, that he made 1746, a year, as well as several others presents, such as became his rank, to which followed it, of profound peace; every officer and seaman on board. His and on the 19th of February, 1755, he Royal Highness had heard of Captain was raised to the rank of lieutenant, in Jervis's adroitness in preserving the which capacity he had shortly after the Alarm from destruction after she had good fortune to serve under that excel- parted her cables and was bulged on the lent officer Sir Charles Saunders. He rocks of Meroielles, and was no doubt accompanied this able commander in agreeably surprised to find the most pothe expedition sent against Quebec at lished behaviour not incompatible with the commencement of the seven years the sincerity and frankness of a British war. This was a service, calculated by sailor. its difficulties and disappointments, to A short time after Captain Jervis re try the spirits and courage of a young turned again to England, in 1774, he scaman. He acquitted himself so much was promoted to the Foudroyant, an to the satisfaction of the commander, 84 gun ship, originally belonging to the that he was at no great distance of time French, but taken from them by the appointed to the Porcupine sloop; and Monmouth, 64, in 1754. It has this appointment was in due course of always been an object of desire, and time confirmed by the admiralty.- often of great interest, to obtain the About two years previously to his being command of a captured French ship; made a commander, he was, upon the for it is allowed by all Europe that the indisposition of Sir John Strachan, sent naval architecture of that nation is equal, as acting captain on board that officer's if not superior, to any in the world. ship, the Experiment, a post ship. This The Foudroyant, then, being reckoned occurred under Sir Charles Saunders, one of the finest two-decked ships in who, in 1760, proceeded as second in our navy, it must necessarily follow comman i on the Mediterranean station, that the captain's services were rated and a fortunate promotion it turned out peculiarly high, to have the command to be; for falling in with a xebec under of her conferred upon him. With so Moorish colours, though her crew were marked, so distinguished a preference suspected to be chiefly French, he had of this officer, it may seem extraordian opportunity to display his skill and nary that he should be sent in the intrepidity. Captain Jervis, after his Foudroyant to a station apparently bereturn to England, was directed to take low his merit, rank, and standing, viz. the command of the Unicorn, till the to cruise as he did for so long a time in 13th of October, 1708, when he was the Bay of Biscay. But the contest with promoted to the rank of post-captain by our American colonies was commenced, commission, and given the cominand of and the number of frigates and sloops the Gosport, of 40 guns. He was at it had been thought expedient, to emthe re-taking of St. John's, Newfound- ploy in watching their coasts, obliged land, from the French, and conveyed Lord Sandwich, then first lord of the the trade home from Virginia. He con- admiralty, to employ ships of the line

in the ignoble office of cruisers. This the Foudroyant, got into her own stawas with the view of preventing all in- tion between three and four o'clock, tercourse the revolted colonies night and never left it till four the next mornbe desirous of keeping up with the ing: she was closely engaged a great French, with whom they were tam- part of the time, and though she was pering, and from whom they hoped, considerably disabled in her rigging, had ere long, to receive that succour which but five men killed, and eighteen woundwas in the end afforded them by those ed. He continued attached to the home insidious rivals. or channel fleet under the successive commanders, Sir Charles Hardy, Admirals Geary and Darby.

secretary of the board, he speaks of his conduct in the handsomest way: he says, "At the close of the evening, seven of our ships had got a good distance a-head of me, the Foudroyant, Captain Jervis, the foremost; and in the night, it coming to blow strong, with hazy weather, after having lost sight of his companions, at fortyseven minutes after twelve, he brought the Pegase, of 74 guns, and 700 men, to a close action, which continued three quarters of an hour, when the Foudroyant having laid her on board on the larboard quarter, the Frenchman struck. My pen is not equal to the praise that is due to the good conduct, bravery, and discipline of Captain Jervis, his officers and seamen, on this occasion: let his own modest narrative, which I herewith inclose, speak for itself."— The following is his narrative :

It is a circumstance deserving notice, that during two years vigilant duty in this tempestuous and much-frequented In April, 1782, the ministry had inbay, Captain Jervis made but one cap- telligence that a French armament, conture, and that of little value; as if in- sisting of four or five ships of war, and dignant fortune took that way to ex- several transports, were ready for sea press her dissatisfaction at the employ- at Brest, and destined for the East Ininent of so valuable a ship and officer in dies. A suitable squadron was ordered a service fitter for a sloop, with a master out on the occasion, under the comand commander. Admiral Keppel was mand of Vice-admiral Barrington, in now appointed to the command of the the design of intercepting them : the Channel fleet, and the Foudroyant was success of that measure was greatly owordered to join it. The merit of Captain ing to the activity and judgment of the Jervis was not unknown to that veteran, captain. In the admiral's letter to the who chose him for one of his captains; and in this situation he had an opportunity of cultivating a friendship which he steadily manifested on the extraordinary trial which Sir Hugh Palliser was the occasion of instituting against him. The evidence he gave on that trial was greatly noticed, by the whole court and auditory, for its impartiality and display of nautical science. Upon the question being put to him, at the instance of the accused, whether from his station, being nearest the admiral during the pursuit of the enemy, and after the action, which gave him an opportunity of observing his conduct, and of seeing objects in the same point of view with him, he saw or knew of any part of such conduct in which the admiral negligently performed his duty on the 27th or 28th of July. He said "I feel myself bound to answer that question, believing it to be consonant "Near sun-set on the 20th, I was to the general practice of sea courts- near enough to discover that the enemy martial. I cannot boast of a long ac- consisted of three or four ships of war, quaintance with Admiral Keppel-I two of them at least of the line, with never had the honour of serving under seventeen or eighteen sail under their him before; but I am happy in this convoy, and that the latter dispersed by opportunity to declare to this court, signal. At half past nine, l'observed and to the world, that during the whole the smallest of the ships of war to speak time the English fleet was in sight of with the headmost, and then bear the French fleet, he displayed the At a quarter past ten, the sternmost greatest naval skill and ability, as well line of battle ship perceiving we came as the boldest enterprize, upon the 27th up with her very fast, bore up also. of July: which, with the promptitude I pursued, and at forty-seven minutes of Sir Robert Harland, will be subjects after twelve, brought her to close action, of my admiration and imitation as long which continued three quarters of an as I live." Captain Jervis's own ship, hour, when having laid her on board

away.

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