During the summer, numerous gun-brigs and other vessels from Ostend and Dunkirk crept along the shore; their final rendezvous was the harbour of Boulogne. The British larger vessels could scarcely come near enough to land, so as to make a decisive attack. Many, however, were from time to time driven a-ground and dispersed. In one attempt, not less than fifty of the vessels were consumed and destroyed, and a great part of the town was burnt by rockets.

Lord Nelson had long been in pursuit of the French fleet; and, on the 19th of August, information was communicated by the watching frigates, that the enemy had put to sea. Concluding that their destined object was the Mediterranean, he instantly, with his squadron of twenty-seven ships, bore away to the entrance of the Straits, which he soon learned had not been passed. On Monday the 21st of October, in the vicinity of Cape Trafalgar, the French and Spaniards offering a line of thirty-three ships, appeared in sight. Lord Nelson, to free himself from the inconvenience and delays usually attending the formation of a line of battle, and to render the repetition of numerous signals unnecessary, had, long previously to action, determined on a novel method of attack. As the English fleet bore down, the enemy's squadron extended itself in the shape of a crescent. Lord Nelson was in the Victory, and Admiral Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign. The Commander-inchief had determined, in the present action, to engage the Santissima Trinidada, with which he had fought in 1797, off Cape St. Vincent; the Victory was, accordingly, ordered to carry him along-side her. Each ship as it followed, broke separately, in all parts, through the adverse line, and opened their fire at the very muzzle of the guns of the enemy. The contest was severe, but the victory was complete. At three in the afternoon, the Spanish Admiral stood towards Cadiz; many of the French and Spanish ships had by this time struck their colours, and their whole line was in the most complete disorder. Nineteen ships of the line submitted to British valour: two of these, the Santissima Trinidada and the Santa Anna, were first-rates, and three

flag officers were taken. The Achille, a French seventyfour, after she had surrendered, through the carelessness or mismanagement of her own crew, caught fire and blew up, but more than two hundred of her men were saved by our tenders. The English ship, Temeraire, during the action, was boarded by a French ship on one side, and by a Spaniard on the other, at the same moment; but the spirit of British sailors proved invincible. The contest, while it lasted, was indeed vigorous, but the combined ensigns were at length torn away, and the British hoisted in their place. The glorious victory of Trafalgar was dearly purchased: Lord Nelson, about the middle of the action, received a musketball in his left breast. The wound was fatal, and his Lordship expired at half past four o'clock in the afternoon.

Lord Nelson, who may be considered as, perhaps, the most brilliant star in the grand constellation of British naval heroes, was the fourth son of the Rev. Edmund Nelson, of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk; where, on Michaelmas-day 1758, he was born. At the age of twelve, on the rumour of a Spanish war, having seen, in a newspaper, that his maternal uncle, Captain Suckling, was appointed to the Raisonable, of 64 guns, he entreated to serve under him. Accordingly, this was the first ship he entered; but, as the expected hostilities did not take place, he was judiciously sent a voyage tó the West Indies. On his return, July 1772, he was received by his uncle, on board the Triumph guardship, at Chatham; and in June 1773, taken by Captain Lutwidge, in the Carcass, on the famous expedition to the North Pole; where he demonstrated such uncommon naval skill, fortitude, resolution, and perseverance, as excited general admiration. He next went, as a Midshipman, in the Sea-Horse, to the East Indies; where he lost the use of his limbs, for some time, by the influence of the climate.

In 1777, he was made Lieutenant of the Lowestoffe ; in 1778, Post-Captain of the Hinchinbroke; and, in 1781, the Albemarle, of 28 guns, which he commanded till the peace of 1783; having distinguished himself as

one of the ablest, bravest, and most active commanders ever known. In 1784 he went in the Boreas, of 28 guns, to the Leeward Islands; and on the 11th of March, 1787, married at Nevis the widow of Dr. Nisbet. He returned to England in June, and retired to Burnham Thorpe.

In 1793, on the war with France, he was appointed to the Agamemnon, of 64 guns. His services, while in this ship, would alone fill a volume; in the meantime, he assisted occasionally on land; particularly, at the sieges of Bastia and Calvi, the latter of which cost him the sight of his right eye. In 1796, having been appointed to the Captain, of 74 guns, he was raised, by Sir John Jervis, to the rank of Commodore: a favour soon nobly repaid, in the famous battle of February 14, 1797; which so deservedly gave Sir John Jervis the title of Earl St. Vincent, though Nelson's share in the victory made him largely participate the glory. He had been made Rear-Admiral, and was now created a Knight of the Bath; but, in an attempt to take Santa Cruz, he lost his right arm, and was obliged to go to England, where he received every token of general admiration and regard. These were not a little increased by the list of services, in the memorial required on the grant of his pension of 1000l. a year; stating, "that he had, during the war, been in four actions with the fleets of the enemy; in three actions with frigates; in six engagements against batteries; in ten actions in boats. employed in cutting out of harbours, in destroying vessels, and in taking three towns; that he had also served on shore, with the army, four months; assisted at the capture of seven sail of the line, six frigates, four corvettes, and eleven privateers; taken and destroyed near fifty sail of merchant vessels; and, in short, actually been engaged against the enemy upwards of one hundred and twenty times!"

These brilliant exploits were only to be eclipsed by his three following great victories; the important accounts of which will for ever occupy many of the proudest pages of our national history: the battle of the Nile, August 1, 1798; the battle of Copenhagen, April 2, 1801; and the last, battle of Trafalgar.