of Great Britain was menaced with exclusion from the Baltic. To counteract the injurious consequences of this combination, a fleet of 54 ships was equipped by the English ministry, which sailed from Yarmouth Roads, on the 12th of March, 1801, with Admiral Sir Hyde Parker as the chief, and Lord Nelson as the second commander. The admirals reached the Cattegat on the 29th of the same month, and immediately addressed a letter to the Governor of Cronberg Castle, in which, after alluding to the hostile disposition evinced by Denmark, it was demanded whether a free passage would be allowed by the fortress. The answer stated that the British could not be allowed to approach the guns of the castle, and Sir Hyde Parker impetuously declared that he regarded the notice as a declaration of war. Arrangements were immediately made to pursue this intimation to violence, and accordingly, the passage of the Sound was forced on the 30th, notwithstanding a resolute fire from the Danes. After reconnoitring the nature of the defences, which were eminently powerful, an attack upon Copenhagen was entrusted to the care of Lord Nelson. The 2d of April was chosen for the enterprise; and, at ten o'clock on the morning of that day, the firing commenced. The Danes opposed our advance with extreme spirit, and the battle raged fiercely for four uninterrupted hours. During this time the English vaunted that seventeen sail of the defensive fleet were either sunk, burnt, or taken; but their principal batteries, and all the ships in the inner harbour were still untouched; while the injury done to the besiegers * Two Captains, Moss and Riou, fell in this attack, and have been together honoured with a monument, which is placed in a recess under the East window of the North Transept in St. Paul's Cathedral. It was executed by C. Rossi, R. A., and consists of a double sarcophagus, to which are attached medallions of the deceased, supported by two statues, which are insignificant enough to all appearances, but are styled Victory and Fame by the guides. The inscriptions are neatly expressed in the following order:— The Services and Death of two valiant and distinguished officers, was unexpectedly heavy. It was, therefore, deemed prudent to try the effect of negociation, and a flag of truce was sent are commemorated by this Monument, JAMES ROBERT MOSSE was born in 1746: he served as Lieutenant several years under Lord Howe, and was promoted to the rank of Post-Captain in 1790. TO EDWARD RIOU, who was born in 1762: an extraordinary occasion was presented to signalise his intrepidity and presence of mind, which were combined with the most anxious solicitude for the lives of those under his command, and a magnanimous disregard of his own. When his ship, the Guardian, struck upon he neither to desert the vessel, gave himself up to despair, nor relaxed his exertions; whereby, after ten weeks of the most perilous navigation, receiving this high reward of fortitude and perseverance on whose protection he relied. To this epitaph a short illustration seems desirable: the voyage in which Riou evinced suchbrave resignation, was one in which he was commissioned to convey stores from the Cape of Good Hope to our infant colony at Botany Bay. The greater part of the crew deserted him in his extremity, but he never once entertained a thought of any other course but that of steering the ship by Lord Nelson to the Prince Royal of Denmark, which, after some complimentary letters and conferences, brought about an armistice between the contending parties, and, ultimately, a negotiation with Sweden, by the terms of which that power and Denmark united to remove all restrictions from the British trade in the Baltic. Before these difficulties were composed, Sir Hyde Parker was recalled from active duty, and Lord Nelson succeeded to the chief command of the northern fleet. But little, however, was now left for him to execute on this station: the death of the Emperor Paul of Russia extinguished the northern confederacy; the fatigues of the service impaired his health, and he received permission from the Admiralty to resign his authority. Arrived in England, his presence was again hailed by the applause of his countrymen; both Houses of Parliament presented him with a vote of thanks, and the King advanced him to the dignity of a Viscount. On the 30th of July, however, he again hoisted his flag on board the Leyden; but after the lapse of a few days shifted it to the Medusa, and set sail for the coast of France with an armament of forty sail, consisting of two men-of-war, fifteen frigates, gun-brigs, fire-ships, &c. &c. His object being the destruction of a French flotilla, moored off Boulogne, he stood in for the harbour of that town on the 4th of August, and made a vigorous but unsuccessful attack upon the shipping. On the following morning he passed over to Margate, but returned on the 15th, and gave orders for a more formidable assault, which took place at midnight, but failed, like the former one, to effect all that was safely into harbour. This he at last accomplished, and upon his return to England was promoted to a Captaincy. In 1794 he was made a Post Captain, and appointed to the Beaulieu, in which he sailed to the West Indies. About this period the delicacy of his health incapacitated him from active service, and he was soon after honoured with the easy command of the Princess Augusta yacht. Recovering his strength, however, he petitioned for more active service, and in 1799 received the Amazon, a new frigate of 34 guns. In this commission he seems to have met with no opportunities of distinction. At the battle off Copenhagen his fate was extremely hard: no less than three vessels, the Agamemnon, Bellona, and Russell, failed to take up the stations assigned to them, and in consequence of their absence, Riou was exposed to an overwhelming fire, which covered the deck of his ship with carcases, and at last deprived him of life. hoped from the bravery of the men, and the spirit of their com mander. A peace supervened in October, and Nelson struck his flag: he repaired to an estate which he had purchased at Merton, in Surrey, and spent the interval of national quiet in a state of retirement. In 1803, hostilities were renewed, and Lord Nelson's services were engaged to command the squadron in the Mediterranean : his ship was the Victory of 100 guns, and he reached the rock of Gibraltar on the 12th of May. Some time passed before any movements of general interest were made; but by degrees the French assembled a fleet at Toulon, the Spaniards mustered their strength in the harbour of Cadiz, and it became an object of importance to the British to prevent a junction between these two powers. A severe blockade was therefore enforced, yet in this instance the enemy obtained a decided advantage. The French escaped out of Toulon, and, uniting with the Spaniards at Cadiz, made an uninterrupted sail for the West Indies, in March, 1805. Nelson immediately pursued them, and traversed the space of ocean between the continents of Europe and America with incredible rapidity: but he was alert to no purpose; for the allied fleets returned in secrecy, and again took up a station before Cadiz, without meeting with a single obstacle. The disappointment experienced by these movements filled Nelson with deep chagrin: positive intelligence, however, was soon after received in London, that the French and Spanish squadrons were equipping themselves for another excursion; and on the 15th of September, 1805, he left England for the last time, animated with a spirit of the most desperate resolution, and carrying his flag on board the Victory of 100 guns. Apprehending that the enemy might be deterred from putting their design into execution, if the amount of the force under his command became known to them, he stationed the main body of his fleet behind Cape St. Mary, and only posted a smaller detachment in sight of Cadiz. Several manoeuvres were subsequently resorted to for the express purpose of deceiving the enemy, and on the 19th of October, they sailed from Cadiz, to every appearance confident that only an inferior force was opposed to their passage. On Monday, the 21st instant, the two fleets came in sight at a distance of about six leagues from Cape Trafalgar, and that memorable battle ensued which put a period to the career of Lord Nelson. The British had twenty-seven, the French * One captain, whose life was forfeited in the battle of Trafalgar, has been already noticed, and another is here to be mentioned, who, like his comrade, has a monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, which is fixed to the panel above the national memorial to the Marquis Cornwallis. By consequence, the monuments of Captains Deff and Cooke face each other. The latter is an altorelievo by Westmacott, R. A., representing a pitiful figure of Britannia attended by one child, bearing a trident, and another holding a helmet. It is thus inscribed : Erected at the Public Expense To the Memory of Captain JOHN COOKE, who was killed In the forty-fourth year of his Age, John, the second son of Francis Cooke, Esq. a cashier in the navy, became a sailor on board the Greyhound cutter, at the early age of eleven years. After one short voyage, however, he was sent to Braken's naval academy at Greenwich, and there gained a friend for his future life in Hood, Lord Bridport. At the age of thirteen he accompanied Lord Howe to America, in the Eagle, and elicited the approbation of that kind commander for his conduct at the siege of Rhode Island. He passed his examination for a lieutenancy, soon after the return of the Eagle to England, and was next appointed to the Worcester, in which he sailed to the East Indies under Sir Edward Hughes. The services which he was called on to render at the sieges of Trincomalee and Seringapatam, threw him into so precarious a state of health, that he was obliged to return to England, and by this step forfeit his turn of promotion. Three years afterwards he was recalled from France, where he had fixed his residence, for the benefit of a mild climate, and joined the fleet stationed in the West Indies, under Admiral, now Lord Gambier. But an accident again deprived him of the advantages contingent upon meritorious employment, for by a severe fall on board the Europa, he was confined for some time to his hammock, and at last sent home invalided by the surgeons, after the absence of three years. A twelvemonth, however, recruited his constitution; and he then married Miss Hardy, the daughter of the British consul at Cadiz, and soon after joined Lord Bridport, in the London. The first ship which he commanded, was the Incendiary fire-sloop, from which he was shifted by Lord Bridport into the Monarch, and made a post captain, without ever sailing as a com |