self, however, not sustained by his commander, he could not pursue the advantage he had gained without eminent danger of having his communication with the remainder of the fleet entirely cut off. When the commander was exhorted by his captain to bear down upon the enemy, in order to support the ships of the van, admiral Byng coolly replied, that it was his determination to keep the line of battle entire; and that he would avoid the error of admiral Matthews, who, in his engagement with the combined fleets of France and Spain off Toulon, had broke the line by his rashness and exposed himself to a fire he could not sustain.-Under colour, therefore, of - preserving the line of battle entire, in order to fight with the more advantage, it could scarcely be affirmed that he fought at all-the distance at which he engaged being so great that he eceived only some few shots in his hull, and not a single man was killed or wounded on board the admiral's own ship, a noble second rate of ninety guns. The French admiral was well pleased to perceive the British commander so little in earnest, and, having no urgent reasons on his part to wish a continuance of the fight, he bore away under an easy sail towards evening; and, though the British admiral made the signal for chasing, it so happened that the French were overtaken, and next morning, they were entirely out of sight. Three of the principal British ships were found to be much damaged, and about 200 men were killed and wounded in the engagement, and many disabled by sickness. It was now resolved in a council of war, that it was-impracticable to relieve the castle of St. Philip, and that they ought, therefore, to make the best of their way back to Gibraltar to refit and wait for farther orders from England.-Admirals Hawke and Saunders were now commissioned to take the command in the Mediterranean; and, at the same time, orders were given to send home admiral Byng in arrest; and, on his arrival in England, he was committed close prisoner to Greenwich hospital.

The clamors of the people for justice being great, the trial of admiral Byng commenced, December 28, 1756, before a court martial held on board the ship St. George, in the harbour of Portsmouth, and after a long investigation of evidence, the court determined that the admiral, during the engagement on the twentieth of May last, did not do his utmost endeavour to take, seize, and destroy, the ships of the French king; and that he did not exert his utmost power for the relief of the castle of St. Philip they therefore, unanimously agreed,

that he fell under the letter of the 12th article of the naval code, which for this offence, positively prescribes death, without any alternative left to the discretion of the court. But believing his misconduct to arise neither from cowardice nor disaffection, they earnestly recommended him as a proper object of mercy." The admiral heard his doom pronounced without the least alteration of countenance or feature; and, with an obeisance to the court, retired in dignified silence. Great interest was made from various quarters to obtain a remission of the sentence, but without effect; and a warrant was issued by the lords of the admiralty for the execution of the admiral on the 14th of March 1757. During this interval he remained ou board the Monarqne in custody of the marshal of the admiralty, and was at no time perceived to lose his composure or cheerfulness. About noon on the day appointed, the admiral having taken the last farewel of his friends, advanced with a firm step and serene aspect from the great cabin to the quarter deck, where a guard of marines awaited to execute the sentence; and kneeling without any pause or delay, on a cushion provi ded for that purpose, he tied with his own hands a white handkerchief over his eyes, and immediately dropped another as a signal for the executioners, and five balls passed instantly through his body the whole of this striking scene, from his leaving the cabin, being (over, and the admiral deposited on this bier, in the space of about three minutes.

On a general review of this melancholy catastrophe, and of the causes by which it was produced, the fate of admiral Byng must be prenounced beyond all example severe and rigorous. Destined to execute a commission hopeless and impracticable, or at least not to be effected without the most desperate efforts of courage, he suffered his mind to be too strongly impressed with the difficulties of his situation, and though possessed, probably, of a degree of calm resolution which would have se cured his character from imputation upon occasions which acquired no extraordinary exertion, he was doubtless totally and constitutionally incapable of that heroie and ardent enthusiasm which kindles at the view of danger, which is inflamed with the thirst of glory, and which, if it cannot command success, is at least ambitious to convince the world that it has left nothing unessayed in order to deserve it. In a paper which he delivered immediately before his death to the marshal of the admiralty, he declares the satisfaction he felt in the consciousness of having faithfully discharged his duty to the utmost of his judgment and ability; and he styles himself, not without some appearance of reason, "a victim destined to divert the indigmation and resentment of an injured and deluded people."

A

O ye

On the Father of Burns the Poet.

whose cheek the tear of pity stains,

Draw near with pious rev'rence and attend! Here lie the loving husband's dear remains, The tender father, and the gen'rous friend. The pitying heart that felt for human woe; The dauntless heart that fear'd no human pride; The friend of man, to vice alone a foe;

"For ev❜n his failings lean'd to virtue's side."

I believe that my Redeemer liveth,

And that I also shall rise from
The grave.

JONAS HANWAY, ESQ.

Who, trusting in that good providence,
Which so visibly governs the world,

Passed through a variety of fortunes with patience.
Living the greatest part of his days
In foreign lands, ruled by arbitrary power,
He received the deeper impression

Of the happy constitution of his own country;
Whilst

The persuasive laws contained in the
New Testament,

And the consciousness of his own depravity,
Softened his heart to a sense

Of the various wants of his

Fellow creatures.

Reader,

Inquire no further;

The Lord have mercy on his soul and thine!

Apprehensive of the too partial regard of his friends;

and esteeming plain truth above the proudest trophies of monumental flattery; at the age of fifty-one he caused this plate and inscription to be made.

Born at Portsmouth the 12th of August, 1712.
Died 5th Sep. 1796.

On the Cambridge Carrier, who sickened in the time

of his vacancy, being forbid to go to London by reason of the plague,

Here lies old Hobson, death has broke his girt,
And here, alas! hath laid him in the dirt:
Or else, the ways being foul, twenty to one,
He's here stuck in a slough, and overthrown.
'Twas such a shifter, that if truth were known,
Death was half glad when he had got him down;
For he had any time this ten years full,
Dodg'd with him betwixt Cambridge and the Bull.
And surely death could never have prevail'd,
Had not his weekly course of carriage fail'd:
But lately finding him so much at home,
And thinking now his journey's end was come,
And that he had ta'en up his latest inn,

In the kind office of a chamberlain,

Shew'd him his room where he must lodge that night, Pull'd off his boots, and took away the light;

If any ask for him, it shall be said,

Hobson has supt, and's newly gone to bed.

On the same.

Here lieth one who did most truly prove,
That he could never die while he could move.

So hung his destiny, never to rot

While he might still jog on and keep his trot;
Made of sphere-metal, never to decay

Until his revolution was at stay.