THE FUNERAL. His Lordship, during his life time, had always expressed a wish to be buried in the most private manner possible, without the least display; and in this, as in every other particular, the Right Honourable Lady De Saumarez, his amiable relict, has scrupulously attended to his Lordship's injunctions; and that there should be neither pomp nor ostentation, she respectfully declined accepting the honours which were proferred on this mournful occasion by the civil and military authorities of the island, who, notwithstanding, deemed it indispensable to the gratification of the public feeling, to show their respect to the memory of the deceased, in the manner they thought the least ostentatious. The mortal remains of his lordship were deposited in an oaken coffin, and the only ornament about it was contained on a breast-plate with the following modest inscription: ADMIRAL THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JAMES LORD DE SAUMAREZ, BART., G. C. B., AND K. S., GENERAL OF MARINES. BORN THE 11th OF MARCH, 1757. DIED THE 9th OF OCTOBER, 1836. A few minutes after twelve o'clock, at noon, on Thursday, the 13th of October, the cortège left his Lordship's country seat, Câtel parish. The following was the order of the procession: The Very Reverend the Dean, the Reverend J. W. Chepmell, and the Reverend Havilland Durand. Mr. C. Ozanne, clerk of the Câtel, and Mr. Armstrong, clerk of St. James's Church. Mr. J. Chaseau, jun. Then came the coffin, borne by six men on their shoulders. Captain Saumarez, Mr. Herries, Reverend T. Brock, Saumarez Dobrée, esq., Colonel Mr. W. H. Brock, Mann, Captain Lihou, R. N. Six servants of his Lordship's family. Lieutenant-Colonel S. Brock, Major Lacy, Major De Havilland, Captain Chepmell, Mr. John De Saumarez, Mr. James De Saumarez, Mr. H. De Saumarez, Lieutenant-Colonel De Havilland, Mr. G. Lefebvre, His Majesty's late Mr. N. Lefebvre, Sheriff, Mr. John Le Marchant, Mr. Thomas Carey, Rozel, Mr. C. Lefebvre, as Trustee, Lieutenant Andros, Lieutenant Gosselin, and Lieutenant Mansell. Doctors Brock, Hoskins, Scott, and Le Mesurier. His Lordship's tradesmen : Messrs. John Chaseau, sen., John Mollet, Michael Falla, William Randell, Richard Dale, (Forest Lane.) Two servants of Sir Thomas Saumarez. The above were followed by a long train of gentlemen, natives and residents, who, of their own free will and accord, attended the cortège in order to manifest their respect for departed worth. Then came about fifty seamen and boatmen preceded by Captain N. W. Moullin, and Captain Le Page (of the Horatio,) of the merchant service ;-the former had served as a midshipman with his Lordship in the Orion, and the latter as a seaman in the Orion and the Crescent,-they carried a Union Jack hoisted half staff high, to shew their respect for their late gallant commander. About ten minutes before one o'clock the mortal remains of the illustrious deceased were carried into the Câtel church, and placed before the altar. The Reverend H. Durand, rector of the parish, ascended the reading desk and read the thirty-ninth and ninetieth Psalms, together with the fifteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, after which the corpse was removed from the church and carried into the church-yard, when, after the performance of the burial service by the Rev. H. Durand, it was deposited in the family vault, there to await the final restoration of all things, when the earth and the sea shall give up their dead and every thing that is in them. The close of the funeral was in perfect keeping with the commencement-the company retiring to their respective homes after the obsequies was over. By order of his Excellency Major-General Ross, our worthy Lieutenant Governor, minute guns were fired from Castle Cornet from twelve till a quarter to one o'clock, and from Fort George from a quarter to one till the close of the ceremony. The regret for the loss of such a distinguished character was evinced by all classes of society, and that very deservedly. Nearly all the shops in town were closed during the day, in order to manifest the estimation in which they held the memory of his Lordship. We suppose, upon a fair calculation, that about one thousand persons were present in the church-yard, when his Lordship was buried. The head of the clergy in this island ordered the bells to be muffled and tolled in all the parish churches during the continuance of the funeral. ADDENDA. Captain Philip and Captain Thomas de Saumarez, the uncles of his lordship, were in the expedition to the South Seas, under the orders of Lord Anson. The former was made captain of the Galleon, and afterwards commanded the Nottingham, of sixty guns, subsequently to which he captured the Mars, of sixty-four guns, in a single action: he distinguished himself in every service on which he was employed, and was reported one of the best officers in his Majesty's navy. Captain Thomas Saumarez was nominated commander of the Antelope, of fifty guns, and was stationed at Bristol, when information was conveyed to him that a French sixty-four was in the Bristol channel. He immediately slipt his cable, and went in quest of her. On the ensuing morning, both ships met. The French bore down on the Antelope, and, on receiving a few shot, struck her colours, and proved to be the Belliqueux, of sixty-four guns. She was one of the ships that had made their escape from Quebec, and had got into the Bristol channel by mistake. When the French captain came on board the Antelope, he exclaimed that he had been driven into that situation by stress of weather, and hoped the loyalty of the English captain would either furnish him with the means of getting out, or of returning on board his ship, in order to fight the Antelope. Captain Saumarez, however, deemed it more prudent to return to Bristol with his prize. In Rodney's action, the Russell gave the huge Ville de Paris two raking broadsides, and Count de Grasse acknowledged to Captain Saumarez, some days after the action, that he suffered very severely from his fire. At the close of this well contested day, the gallant commander of the Russell was in chase of a crippled ship, a seventy-four, that was making off under a crowd of sail, and would have been engaged in twenty minutes, had not his victorious career been checked by a signal for the fleet to bring to, the commander-in-chief judging it prudent to secure the ships that were the trophies of so hard-earned a victory. Whatever reluctance Captain Saumarez might feel in relinquishing the opportunity of adding another laurel to those which he had gained on this arduous day, a sense of duty prevented a moment's hesitation: the Russell, however, who, by her station in the line was one of the first in action, so, from the zeal of her commander, she was one of the last that hove to. Nothing can indicate more strongly the high opinion Lord St. Vincent had already formed of Sir James's abilities, than the confidence he reposed in him. During the absence of Sir Horatio Nelson, Sir James Saumarez was entrusted with the command of the inner squadron, consisting of five sail of the line that were anchored within a short distance from the mouth of the harbour of Cadiz, to watch the motions of, and annoy, the enemy. It was owing to signals from the Orion, that Captain Martin, of the Irresistible, (one of Sir James's squadron,) was induced to pursue and capture the Nimfa and Elena, two Spanish frigates, of thirty-six guns each. As a proof of the moral influence exercised by Lord de Saumarez over his crews, it may be remarked that, when the mutiny of the Nore broke, the Orion escaped it altogether, owing to the subordination of the men and the attachment which they felt for their worthy commander, with whom the greatest part had served from the commencement of the war. It was from a knowledge of that loyalty of spirit in which he confided, that he consented to receive, in hope to reform, one of the worst of the mutineers, a most excellent seaman and ship-carpenter, who was to be tried for his life. The seasonable admonition of Sir James, and his paternal attention to the man's feelings, plainly worked so thorough a change that, from the most obdurate of rebels, he became one of the most faithful of his sailors. A few days after he got on board, the signal was made for the boats of each ship to be manned and armed to witness the execution of four mutineers on board of one of the mutinous ships. This was the last effort employed to work a full conversion in this man. Sir James sent for him into his cabin, and after expostulating with him on the heinousness of the crime which it was notoriously known he had committed, he assured him that he would save him the anguish he must endure of beholding his companions in guilt suffer for a crime of which he had probably been the guilty cause. This exhortation had the desired effect. His rebellious spirit was subdued: he fell upon his knees, bathed in tears, expressing the strongest protestations of loyalty to his king, and attachment to his humane commander. The man was true to his word, and his exertions were commensurate to his promises. He was captain of a gun at the battle of the Nile, where he greatly distinguished himself, and was very instrumental after the action in preserving the "Peuple Souverain" from foundering. On account of his known intrepidity as a seaman and ability as a carpenter, he was slung for several days over the side, employed in watching the rollings of the ship, and stopping the shot holes under water. The bay of Algesiras was defended by various batteries of heavy guns. placed on an island about a quarter of a mile from the shore, and also by works to the north and south of the town, the fire from which, crossing before the harbour, intersected in front the situation chosen for the French ships, and was enabled to take in flank any assailant that might approach them. The anchorage was also extremely dangerous, the whole harbour and island being surrounded by reefs of sunken rocks: it had, hitherto, been supposed that, had there not been even a single man-of-war in the harbour, no hostile ship would have had the boldness to approach, or expose itself to the dangerous obstructions which both nature and art had provided for the security of the place, and of the ships which it contained; but no danger could appal or discourage our intrepid tars and the gallant Saumarez, when an enemy was within their reach. As the exertions that were made on board the squadron in general, and the Cæsar in particular, have been considered the most extraordinary in the history of naval affairs, and a lasting standard for imitation, it may be proper to detail the damages she repaired from the evening of the 6th, when she went into the Mole, to the noon of the 12th, when she sailed for the purpose of fighting the enemy. In that short space of time she shifted her main-mast, fished and secured her fore-mast shot through in several places, knotted and spliced the rigging cut to pieces, and bent new sails, plugged the shot holes between wind and water, and completed stores of all kinds, anchors and cables, powder and shot, and provision for four months. Such was the ardour manifested by all, that, as soon as it was known on shore that the squadron were to pursue the enemy, a boat came off to the Cæsar with several wounded men, who, on hearing that the ship was warping out of the Mole, escaped from the hospital, and forgetting their recent sufferings, determined, if possible, to share in the new danger that awaited their shipmates. They were received on board, and went to quarters. The following piece of Poetry appeared in one of the London Magazines for September, 1801. STANZAS ON THE LATE VICTORY OF ADMIRAL SIR JAMES SAUMAREZ. Was it for this, insulting foe, Thou bad'st the world thy valour gaze, And Victory! and Victory! Tear from thy front the withered wreath, We wake the strings to songs of praise; Oft have been heard the poet's lays. Haply from this majestic oak, Whose trunk the northern storm defies, Some nymph whose lineage claims the skies. The wreaths assigned by Britain's vow,— He, whom united navies fear, Shall gird thy foliage round his honoured brow. Him shall an after age admire ! So be our England ever seen, And while from yon despotic lands S. BARBET, PRINTER, NEW-STREET, GUERNSEY. THE GUERNSEY & JERSEY MAGAZINE. DECEMBER, 1836. ON THE FUNDS FOR PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. It is the policy and duty of every government to provide for the national education of the people, and train up the youth of the country in the principles of morality and religion. To effect this object, it is necessary that a distinct order of men should devote their whole time and study to the purposes of public instruction, and, as "the labourer is worthy of his hire," it is essential that some fund should exist to secure them a maintenance, and an adequate remuneration for their services. To accomplish this end, tithes were originally instituted, when the clergy were the instructors both of youths and adults, as well as the dispensers of parochial relief. It is not the design of this article to institute any comparison between the compulsory and voluntary principles, for that would lead us to the threshold of controversial divinity, on which subject this Magazine will ever observe a profound silence. Our present object will be, to give a succinct historical account of the funds for public instruction, their origin,-the changes they have undergone,—and their present condition: and, afterwards, to offer some remarks on their future prospects; the whole having reference to the duties and privileges of the clergy, as public instructors only, leaving entirely out of view the character and quality of the matter they may teach. The clergy are indebted to the Emperor Charlemagne for the institution of tithes; but the manner in which they are at present distributed, differs most materially from the original form of appropriation. Charlemagne divided the tithes into four portions: he gave one fourth to the bishop of the diocese, one fourth for the repair of the churches, one fourth for the maintenance of the poor, and the remaining quarter to the officiating priest.* According to the learned Selden, tithes were intro* Esprit des Lois, tome 3, p. 151, liv. 31, c. 12. Vol. II.-No. 6. 21 |