MONTHLY MIRROR,

FOR

NOVEMBER, 1805.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF

LORD VISCOUNT NELSON.

(With a Portrait.)

LORD NELSON was the third son of the Rev. Edmond Nelson, rector of Burnham Thorpe, in the county of Norfolk; he was born in the parsonage house of that parish, September 29, 1758. The honour of educating him was shared by the high school of Norwich, and a seminary at North Walsham, in the same county. A man whose piety was so exalted at the close of life may be supposed to have been brought up with strong religious impressions. His father indeed could give him little else than a good education, strictness of honour, a large and enlightened morality in his conduct towards men, and an unpresuming confidence ABOVE.† This was his only patrimony, and this he improved.

In the year 1770, at the age of twelve, he entered on board the Raisonable, 64 guns, under the command of Captain Suckling, his maternal uncle. At this time hostilities between the courts of England and Spain, relative to the Falkland Islands, were threatened, but not commenced. The matter was compromised with some abatement of English honour, and young Nelson‡ made a voyage to the West Indies with a merchant ship, and returned with sufficient improvement

is family came originally from Hillborough, in the same county, where, for many years, they possessed a small patrimony, and the patronage of the living. His father married, 11th May, 1749, Catherine Suckling, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Maurice Suckling, prebendary of Westminster, and grand-daughter of the late Sir Charles Turner, of Warham, in Norfolk, by Mary, daughter of Robert Walpole, Esq. of Haughton, and sister to Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford, and of Horatio, the first Lord Walpole; whose next sister, Dorothy, was married to Charles, the second Viscount Townshend. His maternal ancestors, the Sucklings, have been seated at Wotton, in Norfolk, near three centuries.

"My great and good son went into the world without fortune, but with a heart replete with every moral and religious virtue." Vide Rev. Mr. Nelson's Letter to his friend, hereafter quoted at length.

It is reported that the ministers mean to recommend to parliament to purchase an estate for the Nelson Family, and call it Trafalgar, and to grant a pension of 20001. to his heirs for ever,

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improvement in nautical knowledge to be received and rated on board his uncle's ship, the Triumph, in 1772.

Young Nelson conceived, at this time, a disgust for the service of the Royal Navy, which Captain Suckling found great difficulty in removing. It was held out to him, as a reward, that if he attended well to his duty, he should be permitted to go in the cutter and decked longboat, which was attached to the commanding officer's ship at Chatham: this operated on the mind of young Nelson as was expected; and by degrees he became an excellent pilot for vessels of that class, which sailed from Chatham to the Tower of London; and also down the Swin Channel, and to the North Foreland. In each subsequent trial of navigating difficult passages, or dangerous coasts, he thus became gradually sensible of his own ability; and created that confidence within himself which essentially forms and establishes the undaunted mind.

In April, 1773, a voyage of discovery was undertaken by Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, towards the North Pole. On this occasion instructions were issued that no boys should be received on board; but the enterprising Horatio was so anxious to be of the party, that he solicited to be appointed cockswain to Captain Lutwidge; and his request was granted. In this expedition he behaved with that peculiar intrepidity which was the character of his life. If any thing was in extremes, it was his courage; indeed, with him, courage was not a passion, but a principle; he could make even an excess virtuous and graceful, and exalt rashness into fortitude. At this early period the eager character of his mind displayed itself. He procured a sort of a boat to move either on or off the ice, to explore channels; and a pleasing anecdote is told of the youth at this time. He was missing one night from the ship; search was made for him in all directions--it was imagined he was lost. As the day broke he was discovered at a distance on the ice, with a musket, in pursuit of an immense bear, which he had followed the whole night, in hopes of killing. The lock of the piece having been injured, it would not go off; he had therefore pursued the animal in hopes of tiring him, and at length effected his purpose with the butt end. On his return Captain Lutwidge demanded what motive could have induced him to quit the ship at such an hour, and in such a season. The young hero, with great simplicity, replied, "I wished, Sir, to get the skin for my father."

Returning to England, he obtained a birth in the Sea Horse, of twenty guns, and sailed in it with a squadron to the East Indies.

In this ship Mr. Nelson was stationed to watch in the fore-top, and afterwards he was placed on the quarter deck. In this vessel he visited almost every part of the East Indies, from Bengal to Bussora. A series of ill health, however, rendered it expedient for him to return to England; in consequence of which the captain caused him to be conveyed hither.

On the eighth of April, 1777, he received his commission as a lieutenant, and was appointed second in command to the Lowestoffe frigate; and, during his continuance in this ship, an incident occurred which deserves notice, as explaining his character at this early time of life. In a strong gale of wind, and a heavy sea, the Lowestoffe captured an American letter of marque. The captain ordered his first lieutenant to board her, but he was unable to effect it from the tremendous burst of sca. On his return to the ship, Captain Locker exclaimed, “Have I No officer who can board this prize?" On hearing this, the master immediately ran to the gangway, when lieutenant Nelson suddenly interposed, saying, "It is my turn now; if I come back it will be your's."

Soon after the arrival of Rear Admiral Sir Peter Parker, at Jamaica, in the year 1778, he appointed Lieutenant Nelson third of the Bristol, his flag ship; from which, by rotation, he became the first; and under Sir Peter Parker's flag in the Bristol, concluded his services in the rank of a lieutenant. On the eighth of December, during the above year, he was appointed on that station commander of the Badger brig; in which he protected the Mosquito shore, and the Bay of Honduras, from the depredations of American pri

vateers.

Captain Nelson obtained his post rank in June, 1779. The first ship to which he was appointed was the Hinchinbroke, and in the month of January, 1780, he was associated with Major Polson in an expedition against Fort Juan, in the Gulf of Mexico. He superintended the transporting of the troops, in boats, one hundred miles up a river, which none but the Buccaneers had ever navigated.The fortress was reduced, principally by the valour of Nelson; but the fatigues of the service, together with the climate, materially impaired his health, and he was again compelled to return to England.

As a reward for his exertions he was appointed to the Albemarle; but though his situation was improved, his health received another severe check by being confined to a winter station in the North seas for the whole of the ensuing winter.

He was now actively employed till the peace of 1783, when,

with others, he was reduced to half-pay. But his services were required by his country, notwithstanding the war was at an end, and, in the following year, he was appointed to the Boreas, a 28 gun frigate, and was ordered to the Leeward Islands. He was here embroiled in differences of a nature rather civil than military, and compelled to give effect to some restrictions and severities of the Custom-house and Excise. In this disagreeable office he escaped the odium of those whom he was obliged to harass and restrain, and received the thanks of his employers for his vigilance and zeal.

In 1787, Captain Nelson was married to Frances Herbert Nesbitt, widow of Dr. Nesbitt, physician, of the island of Nevis. His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence gave away the bride.

The Boreas frigate was paid off in the year 1787, and the three succeeding years were passed by Captain Nelson in retirement and domestic tranquillity. This short interval was the only one he had ever been able or desirous to snatch from the calls of his country.

In the year 1790, he solicited employment, but his endeavours were ineffectual. On the 30th of January, 1793, he was appointed to the Agamemnon of 64 guns, and placed under the command of Lord Hood, in the Mediterranean. The general opinion of his conduct and abilities as an officer was such, that gentlemen were desirous to place their sons under his command. In all circumstances of danger it was his lot to be put forward; if batteries were to be attacked, troops to be landed, or ships to be cut out of an enemy's port-if any thing was proposed of more than common enterprise and skill, Captain Nelson was the man upon whom all eyes were fixed. At Toulon, at Bastia, and Calvi, Lord Hood bore ample testimony to his services. At Bastia he superintended the landing of troops, and gave repeated proofs of personal intrepidity; at Calvi his exertions were not less. It was at this siege that he lost the sight of his right eye, by a shot from the enemy's fort striking the upper part of the battery which he commanded, and driving some particles of sand against his face.

Captain Nelson was now in perpetual employment; he distinguished himself in the actions with the French fleet on the 13th and 14th of March, and also on the 13th of July, 1795.

At this period Sir John Jervis was appointed to command in the Mediterranean, and Captain Nelson removed from the Agamemnon to the Captain of 74 guns. From the month of April he was constantly employed in the most difficult service,-in the blockade of Leghorn, the taking of Port Ferrajo, and the evacuation of

Bastia. In December, 1796, Commodore Nelson, on board the Minerva frigate, was dispatched to Porto Ferrajo for naval stores, accompanied by the Blanche. On the passage thither, in the night of the 19th of December, 1796, the commodore fell in with two Spanish frigates: he immediately attacked the ship which carried the poop-light, and directed the Blanche to bear down to engage the other: at forty minutes past ten at night, the commodore brought his ship to close action, which continued, without intermission, until half past one, when La Sabina, of 40 guns, 28 eighteen pounders on her main deck, and 286 men, commanded by Captain Don Jacobo Stuart, struck to La Minerve. Captain Preston, in La Blanche, silenced the ship he had engaged, but could not effect possession, owing to three more ships heaving in sight.

Commodore Nelson's letter to Sir John Jervis, respecting the above action, dated December the 20th, 1796, may be considered as a noble example of that generous and modest spirit which animates the minds of great men: he assumes no merit to himself, but gives the whole to Captain Cockburne, his officers and crew.

On the 11th of February, 1797, as he was proceeding in the Minerva to the rendezvous of the grand fleet, Captain Nelson was chased by two line of battle ships, and fell in with the whole Spanish fleet off the mouth of the Straits. He effected his escape, and joined the admiral off Cape St. Vincent, on the 13th of February. He had scarcely shifted his pendant to his own ship the Captain, when the signal was thrown out for the whole British fleet to prepare for action. Every circumstance of this celebrated victory has been sufficiently recorded, and the services of Lord Nelson, on that memorable day, have been duly appreciated.*

In consequence of his eminent services in this action, he was created a Knight of the Bath, and Rear Admiral of the Blue, and was presented with the freedom of the city of London in a gold box.

In estimating the services of Lord Nelson, it is not a single achievement that we admire; but it is a series of successes, for the most part planned with judgment and executed with spirit. "Some men," says Lord Bacon, "follow Fortune, others lead her." The admiral appeared to adopt the last plan, and he acted wisely, because fortune is blind, and wants a guide.

On the 15th of July, he was detached with a small squadron, to make a vigorous attack on the town of Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe.

* For the particulars of Lord St. Vincent's victory, see M. M. Vol. III, p. 131.