(vulgo, a fifth wheel in a coach), I had the heartfelt gratification of being the first Englishman, that was not in the battle, who shook hands with him before he got off his horse, and of drinking his health at his table-a supper I shall no more forget than I can the dinner at Neuilly, when Fouché came out to arrange the quiet entry into Paris without more bloodshed; or the banquet the Duke considerately and kindly gave to the Knights of the Bath when I received at his hands the second rank of the order of the Bath."* This banquet took place on the 29th of December, 1815, in celebration of the investiture of Sir Sidney as Knight Commander of the Bath.

Our story is nearly told. It would scarcely interest the reader if we dwelt on the latter events of Sir Sidney's career, which, towards its close, was not without a vein of absurd Quixotism. Owing to his carelessness in money matters, an unthrift which took no account of the actual limit of his income, he was compelled to escape the pressure of his creditors by a prolonged residence in Paris. There he become a member of the "Order of the Temple," of which he was made Regent in 1838, when he was seventy-four years old. Of the exact privileges and powers which appertain to that distinguished rank we confess ourselves ignorant, but it seems to have gratified the romantic element of Sir Sidney's character. In the same year that he obtained this shadowy distinction he received the better-understood and more real honour of the Grand Cross of the Bath. In the early part of 1840 his faculties, both mental and physical, began perceptibly to decline, and on the 9th of May he received a stroke of apoplexy, which was followed by paralysis. With this fatal cloud overhanging him he lingered until the 21st, when he passed away peacefully, in the seventysixth of his age.

year

J. BARROW, Life and Correspondence of Sir Sidney Smith, ii. 394, 395.

Bishop Luscombe, in preaching his funeral sermon, alluded to the hero's career and character in terms not less accurate than graceful. He spoke of his "long life of glorious and hardy enterprise," through every scene of which he was distinguished not more by deeds of heroism than by mercy and forbearance to the vanquished-generous in victory and intrepid until he obtained it. He referred to the numerous and amiable qualities which in private life had endeared him to all, to the warmth and sincerity of his friendship, his entire freedom from cold and selfish feelings, his even lavish bounty to all who solicited and whom he believed to deserve support and assistance, his ardent zeal in promoting every humane and charitable institution, his honest enthusiasm in any generous undertaking, his singleness of heart, his genius, and his activity. De mortuis nil nisi bonum; and forgetting the defects of his disposition and temperament, we may well accept the eulogism embodied in these words. Sir Sidney Smith was not a great man, but he was a brave and good man; he cannot be placed in the front rank of naval commanders, but he was a skilful seaman and capable officer; and England has just cause to be proud of the romantic enterprise and chivalrous daring of "the hero of Acre."

VICE-ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD.

1750-1810.

CUTHBERT COLLINGWOOD came of an ancient and reputable family in Northumberland. He was born on the 26th of September, 1750, and at an early age was sent to a school at Newcastle, where among his comrades were the two Scotts, afterwards so distinguished in the legal profession as Lord Stowell and the Earl of Eldon. He was sent to sea when only eleven years old, under the care of his cousin, Captain, afterwards Admiral, Brathwaite; and in later life used to relate how, when weeping bitterly at his separation from home, the first lieutenant observed and cheered him with kindly words, and how, in the gratitude of his heart, he seized the sympathetic officer's hand, took him to his box, and pressed upon him a large piece of plum-cake, which was one of his chief treasures (A.D. 1761).

Under the tuition of his kinsman he made excellent progress in a knowledge of his profession. He served with him for many years, and afterwards with Admiral Roddam. In 1774 he went to North America with Admiral Graves, who, in the following year, promoted him to a lieutenancy in acknowledgment of his services with a party of seamen at the battle of Bunker's Hill. In 1776 he went to Jamaica in the Hornet sloop; and it was there that a previous acquaintance with Nelson, then lieutenant of the Lowestoffe, ripened into a

firm and lasting friendship. Both the friends were known to the Admiral, Sir Peter Parker, and hence, whenever Nelson got a step in rank, Collingwood succeeded him, first in the Lowestoffe, then in the Badger, of which ship Collingwood was made commander in 1779, and afterwards in the Hinchinbroke frigate, in which both Nelson and Collingwood were made post-captains.

"The Hinchinbroke," writes Collingwood, "was, in the spring of 1780, employed on an expedition to the Spanish main, where it was proposed to pass into the South Sea by a navigation of boats along the river San Juan and the lakes Nicaragua and Leon. The plan was formed without a sufficient knowledge of the country, which presented difficulties not to be surmounted by human skill or perseverance. It was dangerous to proceed on the river, from the rapidity of the current and the numerous falls over rocks which interrupted the navigation; the climate, too, was deadly, and no constitution could resist its effects. At San Juan I joined the Hinchinbroke, and succeeded Lord Nelson, who was promoted to a larger ship; but he had received the infection of the climate before he went from the port, and had a fever, from which he could not recover until he quitted his ship and went to England. My constitution resisted many attacks, and I survived most of my ship's company, having buried in four months 180 of the 200 who composed it."

Collingwood was removed from this painful scene in August, 1780, and in the following December was appointed to the command of the 24-gun frigate Pelican.

In August, 1781, the Pelican was wrecked in a severe storm on the rocks of the Morant Keys. The next day her crew contrived to reach the shore on rafts made of the small and broken yards; and on these sandy islets they remained for ten days, with but little food, until a boat could be sent to Jamaica,

and the Diamond frigate came to their rescue and carried them to Kingston.

The Samson, a 64-gun ship, was Collingwood's next command. At the peace of 1783 she was paid off, and he was appointed to the Mediator, in which he served for nearly three years on the West Indian station. Nelson was on the same station in the Boreas; and the two friends enjoyed abundantly their opportunities of intercourse. Collingwood admired Nelson's genius, fervour, electrical energy; Nelson appreciated Collingwood's firmness of purpose and integrity of motive. Both, moreover, were thorough patriots and skilful seamen. The two friends were alike, yet with many points of difference; so that there was no imitation of the one by the other, but the two, taken together, represented or made up a perfect wholetoti teretes que in se ipsis.

Returning to England in 1786, Collingwood enjoyed a lengthened residence at home, of which he had seen and known but little since his boyhood. In 1790 he married Miss Sarah Blackett, of Newcastle, a lady worthy of all the affection he bestowed upon her. She bore to him two daughters-Sarah in May, 1792, and Mary Patience in 1793.

Of most of our naval heroes we have to gather their views and judgments of life and men from the anecdotes preserved by their biographers, or the estimates formed by their friends. But in Collingwood's case we have the advantage of his admirable letters, in which the purity and loftiness of his mind and his high sense of duty are strikingly illustrated. Here is one which he wrote to a young officer in 1787 :—

"It gives me great pleasure to find by your letter that your situation is agreeable to you, and I hope it will always be so. You may depend on it that it is more in your own power than in any one else's to promote both your comfort and advance