for some hours with all the tumult and agitation of mind that such a suspense could not fail to produce, they had the mortification to find the gale totally die away, so that the vessel was becalmed at two miles distant; they did not, however, suffer long by this accident, for in a few minutes they saw the boat put out from the ship's stern, and row towards them full manned, and with vigorous dispatch. As they had been twice before confident of deliverance, and disappointed, and as they still considered themselves tottering on the verge of eternity, the conflict between their hopes and fears during the approach of the boat, may easily be conceived by a reader of imagination. At length, however, she came alongside; but the appearance of the crew was so ghastly, that the men rested upon their oars, and with looks of inconceivable astonishment, asked what they were. Being at length satisfied, they came on board, and begged the people to use the utmost expedition in quitting their wreck, lest they should be overtaken by a gale of wind, that would prevent their getting back to their ship.

The captain being unable to stir, they lifted him out of his cabin, and let him down into the boat by ropes, and his people followed him, with poor Flat still raving, and they were just putting off, when one of them observed that the mate was wanting; he was immediately called to, and the can of joy had just left him power to crawl to the gunwale with a look of idiot astonishment, having, to all appearance, forgot everything that had happened.

Having with some difficulty got the poor drunken creature on board, they rowed away, and in about an hour reached the ship. She was the Susannah of London, in the Virginia trade, commanded by Captain Thomas Evers, and was returning from Virginia to London. The captain received them with the greatest tenderness and humanity, promised to lie by the wreck till the next morning, that he might, if possible, save some of Captain Harrison's clothes; the wind, however, blowing very hard before night, he was obliged to quit her, and she probably with her cargo went to the bottom before morning.

The Susannah, proceeded on her voyage, and though she was herself in a shattered condition, and so short of provisions as to be obliged to reduce her people to short allowance, she reached the Land's End about the 2d of March; from the Land's End she proceeded to the Downs, and Captain Harrison, a day or two afterwards, proceeded to London by land.

The mate, James Doud, who shot the negro, and one Warner, a seaman, died during the passage; Lemuel Ashley, Samuel Wentworth, and David Flat, that was to have been shot for food, arrived alive; Flat continued mad during the voyage, and whether he afterwards recovered we are not told. When Captain Harrison came on shore, he made the proper attestation of the facts related in this narrative upon oath, in order to secure his insurers. The whole is so authenticated, that it would be folly to doubt of its truth; and we may look upon it as one of the most affecting stories of the dangers of the sea which have ever been given to the public.

ADMIRAL BYNG.

JOHN BYNG, born in 1704, was the fourth son of a very distinguished naval officer, who, in consequence of his services, rose from being a private gentleman in Kent, to the title of Viscount Torrington, which he transmitted to his descendants. The subject of this memoir, entering the navy at the age of thirteen, was promoted through various steps till he reached the high rank of admiral of the blue. In 1742, he was appointed and acted for a time as governor of Newfoundland; a few years later, he commanded a fleet in concert with the military measures by which the rebellion was put down in Scotland. No brilliant transaction is recorded as having graced his life, but his whole career was that of a respectable officer. In

1755, Lord Anson gave a strong testimonial to his merits, recommending him for an important service as one whose head and heart would never fail him.

When the seven years' war with France broke out, one of the first moves of that power against Britain was to send a powerful expedition to take possession of Minorca. The English ministry, headed at that time by the Duke of Newcastle, had intelligence of this design of France, and they prepared a fleet to sail to the island, with a view to saving it, as also to protect Gibraltar, giving the command of the enterprise to Admiral Byng. But this fleet was prepared too late, and, when it was prepared, it was too weak for the purpose. Thirteen vessels of the line and five frigates, all in very bad order, and destitute of several accompaniments required in such an expedition, formed the fleet intrusted to Byng, and by various delays, entirely chargeable to the ministry, he was not enabled to sail from St Helen's till the 6th of April 1756, being only four days before the French government despatched from Toulon an armament of 15,000 or 16,000 men, for the purpose of taking possession of the island. It was of course impossible for Byng to save Minorca. Excepting Fort St Philip, which contained a garrison, the island was taken possession of without resistance, on the 18th of April, being only twelve days after Byng had set sail.

Calms and contrary winds made the voyage of the English fleet to Gibraltar twenty-eight days, by which time the primary object of the expedition was defeated. The foulness of the ships, the want of proper means of repairing them, and the difficulty of getting proper supplies of water, caused a further delay at Gibraltar, where Byng asked for a small reinforcement from the garrison, but was refused by the governor, General Fowke, for which Fowke was afterwards tried by a courtmartial and condemned. He then proceeded to Minorca, and had arrived within three miles of Fort St Philip, and was preparing to open a communication with the besieged garrison, when the French fleet drew near,

consisting of twelve ships of the line and five frigates. Next day, May 20, the two fleets approached, and commenced action, but in a partial manner, and at too great a distance to do each other much injury. One English vessel, the Intrepid, having its foremast shot away, became an impediment to some of the other vessels (including the admiral's) in closing, and before the difficulty was overcome, the French withdrew, being already satisfied with the damage they had done to the English vessels. The English admiral took every necessary measure, as far as can be ascertained, for following and rendering the action decisive; but the French vessels, being in much better condition for sailing, rendered this purpose ineffectual.

On the ensuing day, the French fleet had disappeared. Admiral Byng might then have approached Fort St Philip, and thrown succours into it; but, in a council of war which he called, it was determined, without a dissentient voice, that it would be better to return in order to protect Gibraltar, and leave the smaller fortress to the fate which seemed inevitable. In an account of the transactions up to this period, which Byng despatched to the government at home, he declares that, in his present condition, it was impossible for him to relieve Fort St Philip. He mentions the great inferiority of his ships to those of the enemy, and that they had the further advantage of being able to refit in Minorca. He expresses a hope, that he should find means of refitting in Gibraltar, and a determination, as soon as he should have done so, to seek the enemy again; but he concludes with an earnest call for a reinforcement, especially as four additional ships were about to sail from Toulon to increase the force of the enemy. Perhaps this line of conduct was not such as a man of the daring character of Nelson would have assumed, and betrays a degree of calculation rather more than is strictly honourable to the leader of a military or naval enterprise, seeing that, in such affairs, the most rash measures are often attended with a success denied to the most prudent; if the unfortunate admiral thus failed in

duty, there is not the less certainty that it was for other reasons that he suffered.

The taking of Minorca had already occasioned a bitter feeling in England, which nothing, perhaps, but a decisive victory over the French fleet, could have softened. In these circumstances, the intelligence of such an action as that just described, could not fail to excite much disappointment. The disposition to blame Byng was taken advantage of by the ministry to cover their own fault, which it was thought would otherwise cost them their places. They had the meanness to publish a copy of his letter, garbled in such a manner as to suit their purpose, taking out all the passages which alluded to the inferiority of his force, the damage done to his fleet, his purpose in going back to Gibraltar, and causing the whole to bear an appearance of imbecility and obscurity in the highest degree unfavourable to the writer. To such minutiæ did they descend in this paltry work, that, from the last sentence, a single word was omitted in order to misrepresent the writer, being that here marked in italic-' I am making the best of my way to cover Gibraltar,' &c.by which, it will be observed, Byng was made to appear as simply making a retreat, instead of pursuing a particular line of policy, which he and his council of war had thought the most advisable in the circumstances. They at the same time sent out a new commander, the celebrated Hawke, to supersede him at Gibraltar, and order his return. He had no sooner landed at Portsmouth, than he was placed under arrest, with a view to his being tried by a court-martial. It may here be noted, that the public feeling against Byng was fomented by intelligence of the surrender of Fort St Philip, on the 27th of June, after a gallant defence of two months, under circumstances involving great hardship and mortality to the garrison.

Addresses poured in from all parts of the country, demanding a vengeance which the ministry were but too willing to inflict. The strongest and most dictatorial was from the city of London, to which the trembling cabinet