LORD NELSON. REAR-ADMIRAL, now Lord, Nelfon, to whom his country is fo much indebted for his brilliant fervices, is the fourth fon of the Rev. Mr. Nelfon, late rector of Burnham-Thorpe in the county of Norfolk, in the parfonagehoufe of which parish his lordship was born, September 29th, 1758. His father's family came originally from Hilborough in the fame county; where they poffeffed a fmall patrimony, and the patronage of the living. His mother was Mifs Suckling, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Suckling, of Suffolk; grand-daughter of the late Sir Charles Turner, of Warham, of this county, by his lady, the fifter of Sir Robert Walpole. Captain Suckling, his maternal uncle, was his lordship's early and very valuable friend in life. He was an officer in the fea-fervice; in which he first commanded the Raifonable of fixty-four guns; then the Triumph; and laftly died comptroller of the navy. This gentleman married a fifter of the present Lord Walpole, and was, of courfe, much in Norfolk., He took young Nelfon, at twelve years of age, from North Walsham-fchool, in the fame county, and entered, him as Midshipman on board the Raifonable. Here the nephew ferved fome time, with the valuable officer who now commands that ship off the Mauritius; and with Capt. Charles Boyles, his friend, and neighbour in the country, then alfo a midshipman; and from this ship they both removed with Captain Suckling into the Triumph, when he obtained the command of her. On April the 10th, 1777, Mr. Neifon was made a lieutenant, and fent out by his uncle to Sir Peter Parker, in Jamaica, who then commanded upon that station. He was was by Sir Peter fhortly afterwards made mafter and commander. On the 11th of June, 1779, he was appointed post captain, and at the conclufion of the American war, returned home. Capt. Nelfon was next fent out in the Boreas frigate, to the leeward ifland ftation; and had under him, his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, who commanded the Pegafus. Here the captain is faid to have rendered a signal service to his Royal Highness, for which he afterwards honoured him with his friendship. It was upon this ftation, and we believe about this period, that his lordship formed a matrimonial alliance with his prefent lady, Mrs. Nefbit of Nevis ; widow of Dr. Nefbit, physician, and niece to the governor of the island: and, when the marriage ceremony was performed, the Duke of Clarence, it is faid, gave away the bride. And here it would be unjuft not to mention a report, which does credit to the captain's integrity, and nice fense of honour; Mr. Herbert, governor of the island, was extremely rich, and had an only child; a daughter, who was to have inherited her father's fortune. By marrying without his confent, fhe had forfeited his efteem, and was upon the point of being difinherited in favour of his niece; when the admiral generously interfered; and had the pleasure, before his marriage, of restoring the daughter to her parents' affection, and the fortune to its natural channel. While his lordship continued upon this station, he had under him a small fquadron of frigates; and was particularly active in fuppreffing smuggling, a practice but too prevalent in thofe feas. This vigilance was acceptable to all parties, except the fmugglers, and their friends; who threatened, and would actually have involved him in expenfive litigations, had not the admiralty interpofed to refcue him from their malice. Upon Upon quitting the station, he returned to his native country, and, as there was no immediate call for his fervices, retired with Mrs. Nelfon to the parfon age-house at Burnham; which his father gave up to him, preferring a refidence in the neighbourhood. In this retreat, his lordship led a quiet, domeftic life for fome years; like Gil Blas, at Llyrias, inclined to write over the door of his cottage: "Inveni portum. Spes & Fortuna valete Sat me lufiftis: ludite nunc alios." and, like him, inclined to return into the world, when more active scenes demanded his attendance. By his lady, the admiral has no family; but there is a fon of Lady Nelfon, by her first marriage, (Mr. Nesbit,) who is a post-captain, and has ferved under his lordship during the whole period of the prefent war. Befides his wife and her fon, Lord Nelfon has now living of his near relations, firft, his father, who refides near Ipswich; next, his eldest brother Maurice, a clerk in the navy; two brothers, clergymen, William, Rector of Hilborough, Suckling, Rector of Burnham-Thorpe ; and two fifters, both married. Upon the breaking out of the prefent war, his lordship was early appointed to the command of the Agamemnon of fixty four guns. Of this fhip's company, a considerable part was raised in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk; and not a few in his own neighbourhood. The general opinion of his conduct and abilities, as an officer, was fuch, that feveral gentlemen were defirous to place their fons under his command; and fome of confiderable refpectability folicited, and obtained this favour; in particu lar, lar, the Rev. Mr. Bolton, his lordship's relation, and the Rev. Mr. Hofte and Wetherhead, his friends, entered their fons as midshipmen on board the Agamemnon: and, it must be owned, that if they wished to give them a just knowledge of their profeffion, founded on a valuable body of experience, they could not have felected a better master. Poor Wetherhead fell nobly at Santa Cruz, the others ftill continue with his lordship, and have merited his esteem and affection. From the commencement of the war, to the present moment, the public are in poffeffion of the general out-lines of his lordship's life. During a confiderable part of the time that he commanded the Agamemnon in the Mediterranean, fcarcely a gazette appeared, but it contained an account of fome fervice performed, or of fome enterprize undertaken. If a merchantman was to be cut out of harbour, a battery to be difmounted, a town to be attacked; -the commodore generally placed himself in "the hotteft battle," and expofed his perfon to the fame danger as the meanest feaman. Such voluntary conte.apt of danger, although it is not always prudent in the commander, is certainly generous, and often leads to fuccefs. Men will do more, and with greater pleasure, when they find that nothing is required on one hand, but what is fubmitted to on the other; and great examples will justify great expecta tions. In a profeffion like the fea-service, calculated to raise heroes, by inuring the mind to difficulty and enterprize, it would be unjuft to extol one character at the expence of others; yet in the triumph of that glorious day, when lord St. Vincent, with a far inferior force, beat the Spanifh fleet off cape St. Vincent, and captured four of their B b large large fhips, no inconfiderable share belongs to Nelfon. The San Jofeph, and the San Nicholas, both veffels of superior force, ftruck to him. The fword of the Spanish Admira1, which he received upon quarter-deck; and which the Spaniard refused to deliver to any but his lordship, he prefented to the corporation of Norwich; as he has done lately that of the French Admiral Blanquet, to the corporation of London. Upon the occafion of the action off Cape St. Vincent, his lordship was created knight of the Bath; and, about the fame time, Rear Admiral of the Blue. In eftimating Lord Nelfon's fervices, it is not an individual atchievement we have to admire, in which, perhaps, good fortune, had at least as much share as good conduct; but it is a feries of fucceffes, for the most part planned with judgment, and executed with fpirit. "Some men,' fays Lord Bacon, "follow fortune, others lead her." The admiral appears to be of the last description. The glorious battle of the Nile, for which he has recently been rewarded with a peerage, has engaged fo much attention, and has already been fo minutely defcribed, that it is unneceffary to enlarge here on the fubject. It will ftand upon record, as one proof, among many, of what British failors, commanded by able officers, can effect in her arduous enterprizes. The celebrity of Lord Nelfon's name, has added another laurel to the honours of a county, already diftinguished for the eminent characters it has produced§. We learn from the hiftory of Norfolk, that at the little village of Cockthorpe, not far from Burnham, three feamen of great celebrity were born: namely, Sir John Narborough, § While the politician regards the late battle with an eye that includes all Europe, the ruftics of Burnham obferve, that it was fought on "Burnham fair-day ;" and confider this as not the leaft valuable circumftance attached to the event, |