the menaces of a severe siege. Unfurling his flag on board the Victory, he entered the Streights of the Mediterranean with thirty-four sail of the line, on the 11th of October. This force, though formidable, as the nature of the service required, was yet inferior to the combined armaments of France and Spain, which amounted to 46 sail of the line, and lay.before the British to dispute their entrance into the bay. Howe lost no time in hastening the completion of an object, upon the issue of which the interests of his country were so imminently at stake, and therefore, on the very day of his arrival, made an effectual dis position of his fleet. He directed one small squadron to run the store ships directly under the guns of the fortress, while with the remaining force he diverted the strength of the enemy by a series of the boldest manœuvres. Never was an object completed with a more masterly facility: the French were baffled in every attempt, and dared in vain to battle; the different squadrons were safely detached to their important destinations, and the hopes of England were most happily fulfilled. Returned in glory from this expedition, Howe landed at Portsmouth in the following month of November, and, in January 1783, was ap pointed a Lord of the Admiralty; an honour which he resigned to Lord Keppel in the April ensuing, but again resumed in the December of the same year. In 1787 he was made Admiral of the White, and in the year after quitted his station at the Ad

frigates, and then towed his prizes into Portsmouth, full in the teeth of his adversary, whom he honoured with a running fight the whole way. Preferred to the Royal George in the spring of 1782, he sailed on a cruise after the French West India Fleet, as second-in-command to Admiral Barrington, and had a share in the honours of capturing two line of battle ships and four transports. As soon as preparations were made for the relief of Gibraltar, the Royal George was ordered upon the Mediterranean station, but being somewhat leaky, it was determined to caulk her as she lay at anchor. Accordingly, of the 29th of August, the weather being fair, and the wind moderate, she was heeled on her side, until the workmen reached the leak. Their labours were nearly finished, when a squall took the uplifted side, while the crew were at dinner, and the lower deck holes to leeward having been unaccountably left open, they sucked in the sea in torrents, and in less than eight minutes, the noblest vessel in the fleet was sunk. So rapid was her descent, that not a signal of distress was made; of 1200 persons who hap pened to be on board, 900 perished, and two smaller vessels were swallowed

up in the immense vortex thus created.

miralty for the last time. He was then created an Earl of Great Britain, with which title he lived in domestic quiet until hostilities again broke out, and war was declared against the French Republic in 1793.

At this important moment, the arduous distinction of commanding the Channel fleet was allotted to his lordship, and powers more ample than it had been at all common to bestow upon any commander, were committed to the trust of his prudence. A period soon arrived which was to prove his talents by exploits still more dazzling, and crown his titles with still greater fame. Sailing off Torbay in the month of May, 1794, he received intelligence that the Republican fleet had put to sea, and immediately commencing a pursuit, he discovered them on the morning lying to the windward, at a distance of about 170 leagues off Ushant. As soon as the British were perceived, the enemy bore down upon them, and began to form in order of battle; and accordingly Howe hoisted the signal for a general engagement. Day, however, had nearly closed, when Admiral Pasley, in the Bellerophon, came in contact with a three-decker of the enemy, and commenced a resolute attack upon her, which was returned with a vigour so firm, that he was soon obliged to fall to the leeward disabled. The Audacious, however, sailed up at the moment, and continued the fight, until the enemy's mizen mast fell overboard, and her lower yards and topsails were shot away, when, putting before the wind, she was suffered to escape without opposition, in consequence of the injury the Audacious had received.

The morning of the 29th dawned upon the two fleets, and Howe made a signal to pass through the French line. This notice, however, did not appear to be perfectly understood by his foremost ships; and impatient to close, he determined to break through the French himself. Next to his own ship, which was the Queen Charlotte, the Bellerophon tacked, and, after some fruitless endeavours to follow the example, at last nobly penetrated through, sweeping down the top-masts and lower yards of her opponent's ship with a broadside, on one side, while, at the same moment, she also raked another to the leeward. Similar movements were unsuccessfully attempted by the Leviathan and other ships, when a fog set in, which lasted until the

31st instant, and prevented all farther engagement during that interval.

At five o'clock on the morning of the 1st of June, both fleets appeared to each other drawn up in battle array; the signals to bear down were given at half-past seven, and in a short time the action became general. The French awaited the attack with marked

• One commanding officer fell in this action, and two others died of the wounds they received while it endured :-These were Captains Montague, Harvey, and Hutt. They are all three commemorated in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey: Montague by himself, but Harvey and Hutt conjointly. The former memorial adjoins the great western entrance, and introduces a large statue of the Captain leaning on his sword, with a figure of Victory weaving a wreath of laurel above his head. The pedestal is a truncated column, wrought into alto-relievo, with a representation of the fight in front, and a groupage of prisoners behind. It is guarded by two lions -stretched at their ease in the full size of life, but is heavily executed, and offers little in the design to attract the attention. The inscription is as follows:

Erected at the Public Expense

To the Memory of

JAMES MONTAGU,

Who was killed on board the Montagu,
Which he gallantly commanded
In the Memorable Victory over
The French off Brest,

On the 1st of June, 1794,
In the forty-second year of his age,
And twenty-eighth of his service.

The other monument is placed high up, in the recess of a window. It is composed of two large figures, Britannia and Fame, reclining round an ura, upon which are engraved profiles of the deceased captains, subscribed with their names. It is the work of Bacon, junior, but reflects no credit upon his art, for the design is stupid and the labour ungracious. The epitaph is briefly this:

Sacred
To

J. HARVEY,

And J. HUTT,

Captains of the Brunswick and the Queen,