1751. She was rather short and high than agreeing with the rules of proportion at present laid down, yet so good a sailer, that she has had more flags on board than any vessel in the service. Lord Anson, Admiral Boscawen, Lord Rodney, and several other principal officers, had repeatedly commanded in her. Lord Hawke commanded the squadron in her which fought the French under Conflans, when the Superbe of seventy guns was sunk by her cannon, and the Soleil Royal, of eighty-four, driven on shore and burned. She carried the tallest masts and squarest canvas of any English-built ship in the navy, and originally the heaviest metal-namely, fifty-two, forty, and twenty-eight pounders; but they were lately changed, on account of her age, to forty, thirty-two, and eighteen pounders.'

Before the Royal George could sail, it was deemed necessary, on account of the age and unsoundness of her timbers, that she should receive a careening-namely, an inspection, and repair of the parts usually under water. If time had not pressed, she would have been towed for this purpose into dock. As the case stood, it was resolved that she should be laid over on her side, as usual when a slight careening is required, in calm weather and in smooth water. So little difficulty or danger was apprehended, that the admiral, captain, officers, and crew-amounting to about 900 persons-continued on board; neither guns, stores, water, nor provisions were removed; and fully 300 women and children, mostly relatives of the seamen, were on board from the neighbouring harbour.

Early in the morning of the 29th August, the work was commenced by a gang of carpenters. The vessel received what is called a parliament heel, or, in ordinary language, was caused to incline in the water, so as to expose her lower timbers. It was afterwards stated, that the workmen, finding it necessary to strip off more of the sheathing than was expected, in order to come at a certain leak, heeled her a little more over than was intended, and than possibly the commanders knew. About ten in the morning, while Admiral Kempenfelt was writing in

his cabin, and the larger number of the people were between decks, no one dreading any harm, a sudden and unexpected squall threw the vessel entirely over on her side, when, her port-holes being open, she filled and sunk so very quickly, that, as one of the survivors declared, he had only time to cry to his brother that she was going down, when down she went! A victualler, which lay alongside, was swallowed up in the whirlpool which the sudden plunge of so vast a body occasioned, and several small craft, though at a considerable distance, were in imminent danger of sharing the same fate.

The admiral, with a number of brave officers, and most of those who were between decks, perished. The guard, and most of the other people upon deck, were more fortunate, being picked up by the boats of the fleet. About 300 in all, chiefly persons belonging to the ship's company, were saved; while from 900 to 1000 were drowned. The captain (Waghorne) was picked up in a much injured condition; but his son, a lieutenant, having been below, perished. The whole of the women and children, having been between decks at the moment of the accident, were lost.

This incident was universally bewailed, not so much for the loss of an aged vessel, as for the destruction of life which attended it. Admiral Kempenfelt, though seventy years of age, was peculiarly lamented. He was held,' says a contemporary record,' to be, in point of professional science, knowledge, and judgment, one of the first naval officers in the world: particularly in the art of manœuvring a fleet, he was considered by our greatest commanders as unrivalled, and his excellent qualities as a man at least equalled his professional merits as an officer. His father was a Swedish gentleman, who, coming early into the English service, generously followed the fortunes of his master, James II. Being recalled by Queen Anne, after the death of that unfortunate monarch, and serving with distinction in her wars, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was, at the time of his death, lieutenant-governor of the island of Jersey. That

gentleman's character was so admirable, as to be depicted and immortalised by Addison in the Spectator, under the well-known appellation of Captain Sentry?'

The same authority adds, that a large sum of money was immediately raised, by subscription, in London, for the relief of the widows, children, and other depending relations, of those who had perished by this accident. A court-martial was held, a few days after, on Captain Waghorne, who was honourably acquitted.

The diving-bell, the improvements of which were then recent, was brought into operation for the recovery of property in the Royal George, which was the more practicable, as she had not sunk in deep water. In the ensuing November, by this means sixteen guns and some cordage were fished up, and brought into Portsmouth. In the ensuing summer, by the same means, the beer-hoy, which sunk with the Royal George, was brought up. An endeavour was made, by great cables round the body of the Royal George, to draw her up also; but every effort failed, in consequence of the snapping of the cables. In the summer of 1784, the anchor was recovered-an immense mass of iron, weighing nearly five tons. Since then, by the employment of the diving-bell at various times, other articles have been raised from the lost vessel, and some of the guns which had lain several years in the water, and become curiously oxydated, are shewn to the public in London. On investigation, some years ago, the mass of the vessel was found to be nearly buried in sludge. Portions of it have since been raised.

SAMUEL WINGRAVE, THE TOBACCONIST.

ONE important cause of breach of trust in servants and others is rarely adverted to-want of sufficient vigilance and superintendence in masters. A young person, of unestablished principles, put into a situation of trust, where the conduct of his employer shews plainly that there is scarce a possibility of his being detected if he should make a trespass, is not done justice to; and his error, if he do err, is in large part to be ascribed to his superior. Not that we would have the culprit too easily excused, but that we would have masters do their duty in watchfulness, do we make this remark. The master is bound in duty to exercise a proper degree of care over his concerns, in order that all hope of safe criminality may be forbidden in his subordinates; and if he fails in this duty, we hold that he is himself guilty of a very great offence against society-that of leading its members into temptation, and perilling their best interests, in a business from which he is to be the chief profiter. Some years ago, there occurred a singular case of this nature, which we shall detail, in the hope of impressing the more forcibly the principle here laid down.

Mr Samuel Wingrave was a respectable tobacconist in a large town, the name of which need not be specified. He had advanced to middle life, and had been in business for considerably more than thirty years, when an important incident signalised his career. For the greater period of his shop-keeping life, he had in his employment but one person, who had grown as necessary to him as his daily food, and who was, in fact, the chief manager of the business. Mr Wingrave himself was decidedly an industrious man, but, from constitutional indolence, and early defects of training, he was incapable of conducting his affairs in that systematic way which is almost indispens able to success. All the system which the tobacconist's

establishment displayed was ascribable to the trusty shopman, Richard or Dick Jackson, as his master styled him, though Dick was scarcely a younger man than his superior.

'Dick,' said Mr Wingrave one day to his shopman, in the confidential way in which he was always wont to treat the latter-Dick, I am growing old, and I begin to have uneasy thoughts that didn't use to trouble me before. What is the reason, think you, that I have never been able to lay up money like my neighbours?' Mr Jackson appeared posed by this question, but, after a pause, he replied: 'You have brought up a pretty large family. True,' said the tobacconist, but so have some of my neighbours, who have not appeared to do more business than I, and yet they have laid up money, although living more expensively than I have ever done. Ah, Dick, I have been too indolent and heedless-that, I suppose, is the true state of the case. And now I am getting old, without having made a purse for any of my boys and girls.' So ended this conversation, but the feeling expressed was not so easily removed from Mr Wingrave's mind.

Mr Wingrave and his shopman Jackson had long managed the business alone, and of course, during the master's necessary terms of absence, the other had been left by himself in the shop. But on attaining a fit age, the tobacconist's eldest boy was taken in as a sharer in the toils of tobacco-selling, and by this means the shop was seldom left to the sole management of either master or man. The boy in question, as it chanced, was intelligent, active, and quick-eyed; and shortly after the occurrence of the brief dialogue just recorded, he noticed an incident which forcibly struck and surprised his youthful perceptions. Having received a crown-piece of a new coinage, or at least fresh from the Mint, he examined it attentively ere he deposited it in the till. On returning soon after from some call of duty, he again felt a desire to look at the glittering piece, and sought it for this purpose. To his great surprise, it was not to be