eighteen, and Spaniards fifteen ships. In order to save the delay of forming a regular line, Nelson ordered his fleet to bear up in two columns, of which he led the weather side in person, and appointed Admiral Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, to head the lee. The combined armament drew themselves closely up into the figure of a crescent, and awaited the attack with marked compo. sure. The action became general at twelve o'clock, when almost every ship throughout the lines was engaged muzzle to muzzle. The enemy displayed an honourable vigour, and the conflict raged for some time with equal severity; but the fury of the assault was irresistible. By three o'clock their colours began to strike in numbers, the order of their array was completely broken, and several detached squadrons tried to tack and stand aloof to the wind. In the result, one ship of 64 guns blew up, and nineteen sail were left in our possession, amongst which were three first rate ships, with the following flag officers on board :-Admiral Villeneuve, commander-in-chief; Don Ignatio Maria D'Aliva, vice-admiral; and Rear-admiral Don Baltazor Hidalgo Cisneros. The fate of Nelson is now to be recorded. About the middle of the battle the Victory fell aboard the Redoubtable, and a slaugh mander. Nothing worth recording seems to have occurred to him until the mutiny at Plymouth, where he arrived just before its troubles began, with two French frigates, captured by him in the La Nymphe frigate, accompanied by Sir H. B. Neale, in the San Fiorenzo. By the insurgent crews he was particularly marked out for accusation, and subjected to treatment highly offensive to the feelings of an officer. No violence, however, was offered to him; he was sent on shore, invited back, and again sent on shore with disgust. Previous to his appointment under Lord Nelson, in 1805, he held several commands, but they were all unimportant. In the battle of Trafalgar the sufferings of his ship were great, and his conduct the most exemplary. Mistaken for a flag ship, she was surrounded by three of the enemy, and subjected to tremendous injuries. The men fell so fast, that he repeatedly ordered them below decks; and when an attempt was made to board, he repulsed several of the enemy with his own hand, and ran an officer through, who had the temerity to leap upon the ship. Being at last left with only a lieutenant on his deck, and advised to remove his epaulettes, he exclaimed-" No! I see my situation, but will die like a man." A few moments passed, and two balls pierced his breast. He fell, desired to be left still a moment, enjoined the lieutenant never to strike, and then quietly expired. tering struggle took place. But the superiority of the English ship was evident; the crew of her adversary were swept away from their decks; she was at the last extremity of resistance, when a musket-ball from her mizen-top struck Nelson in the left breast. He fell on the instant, and was quickly removed down to the cockpit. When the surgeon approached, he complained of acute pain in the back, and frequently declared that the bone was shot through. His extremities soon became cold; he lost all sense of bodily motion, and confessed that death was fast approaching. In the course of an hour his pulse grew indistinct; by degrees they receded from the arm, and then his forehead became cold. To the last moment his faculties were undepressed, and the energy of his mind remained conspicuous. To every cheer given by his crew he listened with lively interest, and earnestly enquired after the state of the battle, and the number of captures. When told that only twelve ships could be counted with their colours down, he expressed surprise, and affirmed, that by his own calculation, at least twenty ought to be seized—a conjecture which was ultimately realised. Far from expressing any concern at his fall, he declared the day to be the happiest of his life, and rejoiced greatly when assured that his anticipations of a decisive victory were fulfilled. As his feelings grew more torpid, he said he could have wished to have survived a little longer, and seen the fleet safe; but as that was impossible, he gave God thanks that he had outlived the victory, and done his duty to Great Britain. In this manner he lingered on for about two hours, and expired without a struggle at five o'clock. Of no man was the loss ever more deeply deplored by a country, or the memory more enthusiastically honoured, than of Lord Nelson. There was no way in which grief could be declared, that was not pursued upon this melancholy occasion; and there was no circumstance of pomp, and no cost of money, by which his remains could be distinguished, that was not enthusiastically lavished upon his obsequies. From Gibraltar, whither it was conveyed on the 5th of November, his body was shipped to Greenwich, and there lay in state during the course of December. On the 8th of January, it was brought up the river to Whitehall, with the most formal splendour, and again solemnly exposed in the Admiralty. His public funeral, defrayed by the nation, magnificent beyond all former examples, and attended by the princes of the blood, the various public authorities of the Metropolis, the flower of the nobility, and the pride of the gentry, was celebrated on the morning of the ninth. The coffin was finally deposited under the dome of St. Paul's, where a fine sarcophagus of black marble, which was designed by Cardinal Wolsey for his own interment in St. George's chapel, Windsor, has since been erected to honour the spot. There is scarcely a term in the language of panegyric that has not been applied to Lord Nelson; and it now seems to be the fixed sense of the nation, that no eminent commander can be instanced, in ancient or modern times, who surpassed the great talents and good qualities possessed by the victor of the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar. To undaunted courage he united an insatiable passion for enterprise and glory, and with a most zealous love of his country, evinced a very pleasing spirit of religious devotion. The modesty of his feelings, the brightness of his actions, his piety to Heaven, and his humanity to man, supped the priest, the poet, and the statesman, with a capital theme for the exercise of their different talents; and by each of them were his virtues inculcated or his fame rehearsed with the happiest effect. He has been pronounced the friend and father of all who were fortunate enough to serve under his command; he succeeded to a line of heroes, matchless for every trait of merit and feature of glory; he left them unrivalled in no respect whatever, and therefore his life must always remain the boast and admiration of every countryman who shall rejoice to see the navy of Great Britain invincible upon the surface of the seas. SIR ISAAC NEWTON. THE principal entrance into the choir of Westminster Abbey is decorated with two stately monuments, of which, the one to the left hand commemorates the illustrious Newton. Upon an elevated sarcophagus is placed a recumbent statue, with the right arm supported by four thick volumes, which are inscribed DIVINITY, CHRONOLOGY, OPTICS, PHIL: PRIN: MATH:; and with the left arm pointing to a scroll, which is upheld at his feet by winged cherubs. The back ground is occupied by a lofty pyramid, near the apex of which projects a large globe, traced with the course of a comet, which appeared in 1680. Upon this globe is a figure of Astronomy; and along the front of the sarcophagus below, appears a basso-relievo, emblematical of the various discoveries for which Newton has become celebrated. Among these, a representation of the sun weighed in a steelyard, has been commended for ingenuity by the admirers of a curious idea. A Latin epitaph is cut upon the pedestal, which may be thus translated: * Here is Buried ISAAC NEWTON, Knight, Who, by a strength of mind almost divine, * H. S. E. ISAACUS NEWTON, Eques Auratus, Planetarum Motus, Figuras, Cometarum Semitas, Oceanique Estus, The Paths of Comets, the tides of the Sea, And, what no other scholar had previously imagined, In his expositions of Nature, Antiquity, and the Holy Scriptures, He vindicated by his Philosophy the Majesty of a God mighty and good, And expressed the simplicity of the Evangelist in his manners. Mortals rejoice That there has existed such and so great AN ORNAMENT OF THE HUMAN RACE! He was born on the 25th of December, 1642, and died on the 20th of November, 1726. The manor of Woolsthorpe, in the parish of Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, was the birth-place of Newton. He was an only child his mother had been left a widow about three months before he was born, and subsequently entered into a second marriage; but seems under all circumstances to have discharged her duty to him with exemplary care. Being sent to the grammarschool of Grantham, the pregnancy of his mind and particular bent of his genius soon became conspicuous. He furnished himself Suâ Mathesi faciem præferente, Sedulus, sagax, fidus, Interpres Dei O. M. Majestatem Philosophiâ asseruit, Sibi gratulentur Mortales HUMANI GENERIS DECUS! Nat. XXV. Dec. A.D. MDCXLII. Obiit XX Nov. A.D.MDCCXXVI |