ble. For the present, adieu! Believe me most sincerely interested in your lordship's welfare, and in the success of those valuable officers and men under your lordship's command. I remain ever, my dear lord, yours, unalterably,

"WILLIAM."

This kind of correspondence evinces on the part of his Royal Highness an attention to his friends, an attachment to his profession, and to those who belonged to it; and a love for his country, which nothing extant regarding any of his royal brothers can exhibit. The son alluded to above, in the letter to Lord Collingwood, went down with Sir Thomas Trowbridge in the Blenheim, it is supposed off the island of Madagascar, when every soul on board perished. Lord Collingwood says, in a letter to his family, "I have the kindest letter from the Duke of Clarence, I do not know him personally, but my brother Wilford was intimate with his Royal Highness, and I believe he likes me for Wilford's sake." This exhibits the Duke in a very favourable point of view in respect to the strength of his attachment. Captain Wilford Collingwood died in Antigua in 1787, when the Duke was in the West Indies with Nelson, and they were endeavouring to reform certain abuses there in the naval department on shore. A letter of Nelson's to Lord Collingwood alludes to this brother. It is dated an board the Boreas, in the West Indies.

Nevis, May 3, 1787.

"MY DEAR COLLINGWOOD, "To be the messenger of bad news is my misfortune; but still it is a tribute we owe each other. I have lost my friend -you an affectionate brother; too great a zeal in the service of his country has hastened his end. The greatest consolation the survivor, can receive is, a thorough knowledge of a life spent with honour to himself, and of service to his country. If the tribute of tears be valuable, my friend had it. The esteem he stood in with his Royal Highness was great. to me on his death is the strongest testimony of it. I send you an extract of it:-Collingwood, poor fellow, is no more.

His letter

I have cried for him; and most sincerely do I condole with you on his loss. In him his Majesty has lost a faithful servant, and the service of a most excellent officer.' A testimony of regard so honourable is more to be coveted than any thing this world could afford, and must be a balm to his surviving friends."

The eldest son of the Duke of Clarence was in the army, and served in Spain, at Russia, and Vimiera. Another son was with the old friend of his father, Sir Richard Keats, at sea in the Superb, when Sir Richard embarked Romana's army from Jutland, and took it to Spain. The number of the duke's sons by Mrs. Jordan was five.

His Royal Highness lost his friend, Lord Falkland, in a duel at Chalk Farm, in 1809, and was much effected at the circumstance. Sir Alan Gardner, who was with Lord Rodney when his Royal Highness served under that great officer as a midshipman, died the same year. Gardner was noted in the navy for saying to his seamen, on going into battle on the 4th of June, 1794, "Now, no firing, my lads till you are near enough to singe the Frenchmen's beards !"

On the disgraceful affair of the Duke of York and his chere amie, Mrs. Clarke, the Duke of Clarence never spoke a word in or out of the house of peers; a proof of his Royal Highness' good sense and correct feeling. He kept up his correspondence with Lord Collingwood, who, in writing to the Duke, gave him the details of his combats and skirmishes with the enemy. His lordship's health was very much injured by his services, and such was the jealousy among ministers at home, that they could not agree of a successor to his place, and suffered that great and gallant officer to die by inches, rather than send out some one to supersede him. A letter from Collingwood to his Royal Highness, containing an account of his operations, drew forth the following reply from the duke—

"Bushey House, December 7, 1809.

"MY DEAR LORD,

"Your Lordship's agreeable letter of November 3d, from

off Cape St. Sebastian has reached me, and I congratulate you sincerely on the event of Admiral Martin having destroyed the ships of the line, and Captain Hallowell having made an end of the convoy. I am only to lament that the enemy did not give your lordship and the British fleet an opportunity of doing more; and I trust, from the bottom of my heart, that the next letter which you will have occasion to write will bring the news of the Toulon squadron being in your lordship's power. It is odd that the enemy should have selected the 21st of October for sailing; and extraordinary, also, that the French should build such fine ships, and handle them so ill. I am glad that your lordship is satisfied with the conduct of our officers and men on this occasion; and am clearly of opinion, that the lieutenants deserve, and ought, to be promoted. I am for liberal rewards. The gallant Keith, of course, comes within my ideas of promotions and gratuities. I have ever been, and ever shall be, of opinion, that zeal and bravery ought to be the sole causes of promotion. Your former favourite, the Empress Catherine, knew well this secret of state; and your lordship's observation is quite correct, that her imperial majesty carried the same notions even into her private amusements: None but the brave,' my dear Lord. I am glad that Sprainger has done his duty, in taking four out of the seven islands, and hope the remainder will soon fall. The enemy must feel very awkward without them, and cannot fail to be interrupted in attempting the Morea. My best wishes attend you Lordship, publicly and privately and believe me ever, my dear Lord, yours most, sincerely,

" WILLLAM."

The gallant Keith was soon after promoted to the rank of post-captain; but died in the prime of manhood, at Aberdeen, in 1816. It was not long after he had been thus distinguished that he saw the death of his patron, Lord Collingwood. The admiral was worn out by fatigue and hard service, having been scarcely out of his ship from the battle of Trafalgar to the

hour he expired. He had again and again vainly applied to be relieved he had been nearly five years on the ocean at one spell; a disorder, to which he had been long subject, at last attacked him severely, when on board the Ville de Paris on his way home, May 7th, 1810. Being asked if the swell of the sea, which ran high, did not disturb him, he said to the captain, "No, Thomas, I am now in a state in which nothing can disturb me more. I am dying; and I am sure it must be consolatory to you and all who love me to see how comfortably I am going to my end." He was interred near Nelson in St. Paul's Cathedral. The widow, Lady Collingwood, having sent a mourning ring to the Duke of Clarence, his Royal Highness acknowledged the receipt in the following letter:

“ MADA M

Bushy House, Saturday night. "I this morning received a mourning ring in memory of the deceased Lord Collingwood, which, of course, I owe to your ladyship's politeness and attention. No one can regret the melancholy event of the death of his lordship more sincerely than I do; and I feel great concern in having been prevented from attending the funeral. I was informed the interment was to be quite private, or else I should have made a point of attending the remains of my departed friend to the grave. No one could have had a more sincere regard for the public character and abilities of Lord Collingwood than myself: indeed with me it is enough to have been the friend of Nelson, to possess my estimation. The hero of the Nile, who fell at Trafalgar, was a man of a great mind, but self-taught; Lord Collingwood, the old companion in arms of the immortal Nelson, was equally great in judgment and abilities, and had also the advantage of an excellent education. Pardon me, madam, for having said so much on this melancholy occasion; but my feelings as a brother officer, and my admiration of the late Lord Collingwood, have dictated this expression of my sentiments. I will now conclude, and shall place on the same finger the ring which your ladyship bas sent me, with a gold bust of Lord Nelson. Lord Collingwood's must ever be prized by me, as coming from

his family: the bust of Lord Nelson I received from an unknown hand, on the day the event of his death reached this country. To me the two rings are invaluable; and the sight of them must ever give me sensations of grief and admiration. I remain ever madam,

"Your Ladyship's obedient and most humble servant,

"WILLIAM.'

Lord Collingwood's ill state of health was well known to his Royal Highness, and again and again he mentioned it to the King, and urged his Majesty to allow him to go out and relieve that brave officer, by hoisting his flag in the Mediterranean fleet. The Duke had before addressed a letter to Commodore Owen, who commanded a squadron in the Channel, in which he alludes to his own ardent desire of employment, and the wish he felt to share in the dangers of the war, and to accompany the brave men who were gathering laurels from the enemy. "When I shall have the honour to hoist my flag, I cannot be certain; but I am very much inclined to think that eventually I shall have the honour and happiness of commanding those fine fellows whom I saw in the spring, in the Downs and at Portsmouth. My short stay at Admiral Campbell's had impressed me with very favourable ideas of the improved state of the navy; but my residence at Portsmouth had afforded me ample opportunity of examining, and consequently of having a perfect judgment of the high and correct discipline now established in the King's service."

The neglect of his Royal Highness by the Government, and his non-employment in the earlier part of his life, may be accounted for by his attachmeent to his elder brother, and his junction with the opponents of the ministers and his father at the period. There was a good deal of prejudice felt against him by many of the planters on the West India slave question. The excess of dissipation, gambling, reckless profligacy, and intercourse with the softer sex, which were so conspicuous in