The town of Algiers is built on the declivity of a hill fronting to the eastward. It is of a triangular form, having for its base the sea-front, which is about a mile in length, and rises directly from the water. It is strongly fortified on the land side, and the sea defences are most formidable, as well from the great thickness of the walls, as the number of heavy guns.
The harbour is artificial. A broad straight pier, three hundred yards in length, and upon which the storehouses were built, projects from a point about a quarter of a mile from the north extremity of the town. A mole is carried from the end of this pier, which bends in a south-westerly direction towards the town, forming nearly a quarter of a circle. Opposite the mole-head is a small insulated pier, which leaves the entrance to the harbour about a hundred and twenty yards wide. The rock upon which the mole is built extends about two hundred yards to the N.E. beyond the angle at which the pier joins it. The shores recede considerably from the base of the pier, forming a small bay on either side of it.
All the works around the harbour were covered with the strongest fortifications. Immediately beyond the pier-head stood the Lighthouse battery, a large circular fort, mounting between sixty and seventy guns, in three tiers. At the extremity of the point of rock beyond the lighthouse was avery heavy battery, of two tiers, mounting thirty guns and seven mortars in the upper. The mole itself was filled with cannon, like the side of a line-of-battle ship, mostly disposed in a double tier, with ports below, and embrasures above; but the eastern batteries, next the light-house, had an inner fortification, with a third tier of guns, making sixty-six in these batteries alone. All these batteries had together above two hundred and twenty guns—eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty-two pounders; besides two, at least sixty-eight pounders, and upwards of twenty feet long. On the sea wall of the town were nine batteries; two at the southern extremity; then the Fish-market battery in three tiers, bearing three hundred yards west of the molehead; three between the Fish-market and the gate leading to the mole; one over this gate; and two on the wall beyond it. Along the shore, within twelve hundred yards south of the town, were three batteries, and a very heavy fort. Another large fort, and six batteries, commanded the bay to the N.W. Many guns in other parts of the fortifications of the town, and in forts and batteries on the hills around it, were in situations which enabled them to fire upon ships. Altogether, the approaches by sea were defended by scarcely less than five hundred guns.
The Admiralty were greatly surprised when Lord Exmouth proposed to attack these works with five sail of the line. Many naval officers who were consulted by the Board considered them unassailable. Nelson, in a conversation with Captain Brisbane, had named twenty-five line-of-battle ships as the force which would be required to attack them. The opinion was not founded upon his own observation, and he was evidently misled by the errors in the received plans; for that number of ships could not have been placed before the town; but it marks his sense of the great danger in attacking powerful batteries with ships, and of the tremendous strength of Algiers. Lord Exmouth was offered any force he required, but he adhered to his first demand;for he had satisfied himself that five ships could destroy the fortifications on the Mole as effectually as a greater number, and with far more safety to themselves. After he had fully explained his plans, and marked the position which every ship was to occupy, the Admiralty allowed him to act upon his own judgment; though they found it not easy to believe that the force was equal to the service; nor were persons wanting to remark that he had at length involved himself in a difficulty, from which he would not escape with credit. His own confidence never wavered. "All will go well," he wrote, "as far at least as it depends on me." As he was going down Channel, he said to his brother, who accompanied him as far as Falmouth, "If they open their fire when the ships are coming up, and cripple them in the masts, the difficulty and loss will be greater; but if they allow us to take our stations, I am sure of them; for I know that nothing can resist a line-of-battle ship's fire." He wrote to the Admiralty before he left England, declaring himself fully satisfied with all the arrangements, and taking on himself the responsibility of the result.
He was scarcely appointed, when officers came forward in crowds to offer their services. On the 29th of June, only six days after he arrived in the Channel, he writes—"Government has taken a very proper view of the subject, and has determined to send out a proper force. I immediately said, it was my duty to finish that which I had begun, and that I should cheerfully go. My offer is accepted, and I embark in theQueen Charlotte, withImpregnable, and others. The only delay will be want of men; but I hope they will be induced by the offers made, to volunteer for the service, to be rewarded after it." On the 4th of July, he says, "I have refused Israel, Pownoll, Fleetwood, Harward, and both Admiral and Captain Halsted,[12]volunteers. Even Lord Spencer brought his son, and a hundred others."
With very few exceptions, the officers were selected by the Admiralty. It was understood that Sir Charles Penrose would be the second in command, his appointment at that time as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean entitling him to the preference. He was very highly valued by Lord Exmouth, under whom he had served with theCleopatrain the western squadron. It was intended that despatches should be sent in time to enable him to join the expedition; but greatly to the disappointment of both officers, the information was received too late.
Lord Exmouth persisted in refusing all his relations. The motive of duty, which was imperative on himself, applied to none of them; and all were anxious to go. For himself, he might well trust that the Providence which had shielded him forty years, for so long was it since he had fought theCarletonon Lake Champlain, would guard him in the approaching battle; or, if he were doomed to fall in what might truly be deemed a holy war, he had a better confidence than the pride of a hero, or even the self-devotedness of a patriot. Before he sailed, he made every arrangement which his death would render necessary; and among others, wrote a letter for his eldest son, chiefly on the subject of the duties which would devolve upon him as a British nobleman, and which he designed for his last injunctions. The existence of this letter was not known until some time after his death, when it was found among his papers.
The Admiralty would not send back the squadron which had just returned from the Mediterranean, probably thinking it right that ships going expressly to fight a severe battle should be manned with volunteers. This decision greatly increased his difficulties. Naval officers seldom think a ship effective until she has been some time in commission. Within two months, Lord Exmouth commissioned, fitted, and manned a fleet, and fought the battle.
As soon as he had completed his first arrangements at the Admiralty, he hastened to Portsmouth, where theBoyne, hisflag-ship, was lying with her consorts. He went on board as soon as he arrived, and there was not a little excitement when the Admiral was seen coming alongside at a very early hour in the morning. He mustered the ship's company on deck, and having read to them the Admiralty letter, invited them to join him; but at that time scarcely a man came forward. They were unwilling to enter for a new service until they had enjoyed some liberty on shore; but after they had been paid off, and spent their money, numbers of them volunteered, and many more would probably have done so, but for the very short time in which the crews were completed. No difficulty was experienced in manning the fleet. The whole ship's company of theLeander, then on the point of sailing as the flag-ship on the North American station, volunteered to go, and accordingly her destination was changed for the time. Rear-Admiral Milne, for whom she had been fitted, obtained permission to go out with her; and as Sir Charles Penrose did not join at Gibraltar, he hoisted his flag in theImpregnable, as second in command. Among other volunteers were a number of smugglers, who had been taken on the western coast, and sentenced to five years' service in the navy. They were sent to the eastward as prisoners in a cutter in which Mr. Pellew had taken a passage to make a parting visit to his brother, and they implored his intercession on their behalf. He advised them to enter for theQueen Charlotte, and gain a title to the indulgence they sought by their good conduct in the battle. They all did so: no serious casualty occurred among them, and they behaved so well that Lord Exmouth applied to the Admiralty, and obtained their discharge.
Lord Exmouth's marine officer in theArethusa, the late Sir Richard Williams, then commanded the marine artillery, and Lord Exmouth wrote to request that he would aid him to the best of his abilities, by selecting officers and men from his corps. Sir Richard displayed on this occasion all the activity and judgment to be expected from his character,and Lord Exmouth acknowledged his services after the glorious result of the expedition, in the following words:—"I should be very ungrateful, my dear friend, if I neglected to thank you for the care and pains you took in selecting, for the service I was ordered upon, the best officers and men I ever saw during my service. I assure you that all the officers did you full justice: they not only knew their duty well, but they performed it well."
In addition to the five line-of-battle ships, two of which were three-deckers, the force included three heavy frigates, and two smaller ones; four bomb vessels, and five gun-brigs. Four of the line-of-battle ships were to destroy the fortifications on the Mole; while the fifth covered them from the batteries south of the town, and the heavy frigates, from those on the town wall. The bomb-vessels were to fire on the arsenal and town, assisted by a flotilla of the ships' launches, &c., fitted as gun, rocket, and mortar-boats. The smaller frigates and the brigs were to assist as circumstances might require.
The fleet left Portsmouth on the 25th of July. On the 28th it sailed from Plymouth Sound, and the same afternoon was off Falmouth. Twenty three years before, Lord Exmouth had gone from the house of his brother, who now took leave of him, and sailed to fight the first battle of the war from the port whence he was proceeding on the service which was to close and crown it. From this place theMinded, 74, was sent on to Gibraltar, that the necessary supplies might be ready when the fleet arrived. Through all the passage the utmost care was taken to train the crews. Every day, Sunday excepted, they were exercised at the guns; and on Tuesdays and Fridays the fleet cleared for action, when each ship fired six broadsides. On board theQueen Charlottea twelve-pounder was secured at the after part of the quarter-deck, with which the first and second captains of the guns practised daily at a small target, hung at the fore topmast studding-sail boom. The target was a frame of laths, threefeet square, crossed with rope-yarns so close that a twelve-pound shot could not go through without cutting one, and with a piece of wood, the size and shape of a bottle, for a bull's-eye. After a few days' practice, the target was never missed, and on an average ten or twelve bottles were hit every day. Thus kept in constant preparation for the battle, and daily gaining new confidence in themselves, the crews were in the highest degree elated. Officers and men felt they were going to an assured victory, and that to obtain complete success the plans of their chief required only the exertions which every one resolved to make. As a consequence of this enthusiasm, which never had a check, for the excitement of preparation was followed by the flush of victory, their health and vigour were beyond all parallel. Scarcely a man came on the sick-list; and when theQueen Charlottewas paid off on her return, only one had died, except from the casualties of battle, out of nearly a thousand who had joined her more than three months before.
On the 9th of August, the fleet reached Gibraltar, where theMindenhad arrived only the preceding night. Here they found a Dutch squadron of five frigates and a corvette, commanded by Vice-Admiral the Baron Von de Capellan, who, on learning the object of the expedition, solicited and obtained leave to co-operate. The ships, having completed their ordnance stores and provisions, were ready to sail on the 12th; but the strong easterly wind prevented them from moving for two days. On the 13th, every ship received a plan of the fortifications, with full instructions respecting the position she was to occupy. A general order to this effect had been issued on the 6th, but the co-operation of the Dutch squadron had made some change in the arrangements necessary. To this squadron was assigned the duty of attacking the fort and batteries south of the town, a service previously intended for theMindenandHebrus, which were now to take a position among their consorts in front of the Mole.
The fleet sailed next day, and on the 16th was within two hundred miles of its destination, when the wind again shifted to the eastward. That evening the ship-sloopPrometheus, Captain Dashwood, joined direct from Algiers, with information that the Algerines were making every preparation to meet the attack. All the former defences had been made completely effective, and new works had been added; forty thousand troops had been assembled; all the Janizaries called in from distant garrisons; and the whole naval force of the regency, four frigates, five large corvettes, and thirty-seven gun-boats, were collected in the harbour. ThePrometheusbrought the wife, daughter, and infant child of Mr. M'Donell, the British consul. The two former had succeeded in getting off, disguised as midshipmen; but the infant, which had been carefully concealed in a basket, after a composing medicine had been given to it by the surgeon of thePrometheus, awoke, and cried as it was passing the gateway, and thus led to the arrest of all the party then on shore. The child was sent off next morning by the Dey, and, "as a solitary instance of his humanity," said Lord Exmouth, "it ought to be recorded by me;" but the consul was confined in irons at his house, and the surgeon, three midshipmen, and fourteen seamen of thePrometheus, were detained as prisoners; nor could the most urgent remonstrances of Captain Dashwood induce the Dey to release them.
The fleet continued beating against a head wind until midnight on the 24th, when the wind shifted to south-west. On Monday the 20th, at noon, they made Cape Cazzina, the northern point of the Bay of Algiers, and about twenty miles from the town. Next morning at daybreak, Algiers itself was in sight As the ships lay nearly becalmed, Lord Exmouth sent away Lieutenant Burgess in one of theQueen Charlotte'sboats, under a flag of truce, with the terms dictated by the Prince Regent, and a demand for the immediate liberation of the consul, and the people of thePrometheus. TheSevernwas directed to tow the boat, but as she madevery little way, the boat was ordered by signal to cast off, and proceed alone to the shore. At eleven o'clock, she was met outside the mole by the captain of the port, who received the communication, and promised an answer in two hours. In the mean time, a breeze springing up from the sea, the fleet stood into the bay, and lay to about a mile from the town.
At two o'clock the boat was seen returning, with the signal that no answer had been given. TheQueen Charlotteimmediately telegraphed to the fleet, "Are you ready?" Immediately the affirmative was displayed from every ship, and all bore up to their appointed stations.
TheQueen Charlotteled to the attack. It was Lord Exmouth's intention not to reply to the enemy's fire in bearing down, unless it should become galling. In that case, the middle and main-deck guns, thirty long 24-pounders, were to have opened; keeping the upper deck for shortening sail, and the lower for working the cables. The guns on these decks were not primed until the ship had anchored. But the Algerines reserved their fire, confident in the strength of their defences, and expecting to carry the flagship by boarding her from the gun-boats, which were all filled with men. Steered by the master of the fleet, Mr. Gaze, who had sailed with Lord Exmouth in every ship he commanded from the beginning of the war, theQueen Charlotteproceeded silently to her position. At half-past two, she anchored by the stern, just half a cable's length from the Mole-head, and was lashed by a hawser to the mainmast of an Algerine brig, which lay at the entrance of the harbour. Her starboard broadside flanked all the batteries from the Mole-head to the Light-house. The Mole was crowded with troops, many of whom got upon the parapet to look at the ship; and Lord Exmouth, observing them as he stood upon the poop, waved to them to move away. As soon as the ship was fairly placed, and her cables stoppered, the crew gave three hearty cheers, such as Englishmenonly can give. Scarcely had the sound of the last died away, when a gun was fired from the upper tier of the eastern battery; and a second, and a third followed in quick succession. One of the shots struck theSuperb. At the first flash, Lord Exmouth gave the order, "Stand by!" at the second. "Fire!" The report of the third gun was drowned in the thunder ofQueen Charlotte'sbroadside.
The enemy now opened from all their batteries, theQueen CharlotteandLeanderbeing the only ships which had yet reached their stations. Preparations had been previously made in all, to avoid the necessity of exposing the men aloft when shortening sail. Following the flag-ship, theSuperbanchored about two hundred and fifty yards astern of her, and theMindenat about her own length from theSuperb. TheAlbioncame to astern of theMinded, which passed her stream cable out of the larboard gun-room port to theAlbion'sbow, and brought the two ships together. TheImpregnablewas anchored astern of theAlbion.
The large frigates, and the Dutch squadron, particularly theMelampus, their flag-ship, went into action under a very heavy fire, and with a gallantry that never was surpassed. TheLeanderhad placed herself on theQueen Charlotte'slarboard bow, at the entrance of the harbour; her starboard broadside bearing upon the Algerine gun-boats with the after guns, and upon the Fishmarket battery with the others. TheSevernlay ahead of theLeander, with all her starboard broadside bearing upon the Fishmarket battery. Beyond her theGlasgowfired upon the town batteries with her larboard guns. The Dutch squadron took the assigned position, before the works to the southward of the town. It was their Admiral's intention to place theMelampusin the centre; but his second ahead, theDiana, having anchored too far to the southward to allow this, he pushed theMelampuspast her, and anchored close astern of theGlasgow.
The two smaller frigates, theHebrusandGranicus, were left to take part in the battle wherever they might find anopening. Eager to gain a position, in the line, theHebruspressed forward to place herself next the flag-ship, till, becalmed by the cannonade, she was obliged to anchor on theQueen Charlotte'slarboard quarter. Captain Wise, of theGranicus, waited until all the ships had taken their stations. Then, setting topgallant-sails and courses, he steered for where Lord Exmouth's flag was seen towering above the smoke; and with a seamanship equalled only by his intrepidity, anchored in the open space between theQueen CharlotteandSuperb; thus, with a small-class frigate, taking a position, of which, said Lord Exmouth, a three-decker might be justly proud.
Eastward of the Lighthouse, at the distance of two thousand yards, were placed the bomb-vessels; whose shells were thrown with admirable precision by the Marine Artillery. The smaller vessels, except theMutine, which anchored, continued under sail, firing occasionally wherever they saw opportunity. The flotilla of gun, rocket, and mortar boats, directed, by Captain Michell, were distributed at the openings between the line-of-battle ships, and at the entrance to the Mole.
Thus the ships commanded the strongest of the enemy's defences, while they were exposed to the weakest part of his fire. The officers and men felt new confidence when they saw the power derived from the admirable disposition of their force. All behaved most nobly; and it was not long before the state of the Algerine batteries gave proof that their courage was fully equalled by their skill.
In a few minutes, indeed before the battle had become general, theQueen Charlottehad ruined the fortifications on the Mole-head. She then sprang her broadside towards the northward, to bear upon the batteries over the gate which leads to the Mole, and upon the upper works of the Lighthouse. Her shot struck with the most fatal accuracy, crumbling the tower of the Lighthouse to ruins, and bringing down gun after gun from the batteries. The last ofthese guns was dismounted just as the artillerymen were in the act of discharging it; when an Algerine chief was seen to spring upon the ruins of the parapet, and with impotent rage, to shake his scimitar against the ship. Her men proved themselves as expert amidst the realities of war, as they had before shown themselves in exercise; and some of them were detected amusing themselves, in the wantonness of their skill, by firing at the Algerine flag-staffs.
Soon after the battle began, the enemy's flotilla of gun-boats advanced, with a daring which deserved a better fate, to board theQueen CharlotteandLeander. The smoke covered them at first, but as soon as they were seen, a few guns, chiefly from theLeander, sent thirty-three out of thirty-seven to the bottom.
At four o'clock, when a general and heavy fire had been maintained for more than an hour without producing any appearance of submission, Lord Exmouth determined to destroy the Algerine ships. Accordingly, theLeanderhaving first been ordered to cease firing, the flag-ship's barge, directed by Lieutenant Peter Richards, with Major Gossett, of the Miners, Lieutenant Wolrige, of the Marines, and Mr. M'Clintock, a midshipman, boarded the nearest frigate, and fired her so effectually with the laboratory torches, and a carcass-shell placed on the main deck, that she was completely in flames almost before the barge's crew were over her side. The crew of a rocket-boat belonging to theHebruswere prompted by a natural, but unfortunate ardour, to follow the barge, though forbidden; but the boat pulling heavily, she became exposed to a fire of musketry, which killed an officer and three men, and wounded several others. Lord Exmouth stood watching the barge from the gangway, delighted with the gallantry and promptitude with which his orders were executed. When the frigate burst into a flame, he telegraphed to the fleet the animating signal, "Infallible!" and as the barge was returning, heordered those around him to welcome her alongside with three cheers.
It was hoped that the flames would communicate from this frigate to the rest of the Algerine shipping; but she burnt from her moorings, and passing clear of her consorts, drifted along the broadsides of theQueen CharlotteandLeander, and grounded a-head of the latter, under the wall of the town. The gun-boats, and theQueen Charlotte'slaunch, then opened with carcass-shells upon the largest frigate, which was moored in the centre of the other ships, too far within the Mole to be attempted safely by boarding. They soon set her on fire, and notwithstanding the exertions of the Algerines, she was completely in flames by six o'clock. From her the fire communicated, first to all the other vessels in the port, except a brig and a schooner, moored in the upper part of it, and afterwards to the storehouses and arsenal. At a little past seven, she came drifting out of the harbour, and passed so close to the flag-ship as nearly to involve her in the same destruction.
About sunset, a message was received from Rear-Admiral Milne, requesting that a frigate might be sent to divert from theImpregnablesome of the fire under which she was suffering. She had anchored more to the northward than was intended, and consequently became exposed to the heavy battery on the point of rock beyond the lighthouse, and which was covered from the fire of the rest of the fleet. TheGlasgowweighed immediately, but the wind had been driven away by the cannonade, and she was only able, after three-quarters of an hour's exertion, to reach a new position between theSevernandLeander; a better for annoying the enemy, but where she was herself more exposed, and suffered in proportion. As it was found impossible to assist theImpregnable, Lord Exmouth sent on board Mr. Triscott, one of his aides-de-camp, with permission to haul off. TheImpregnablewas then dreadfully cut up; 150 men had beenalready killed and wounded, a full third of them by an explosion, and the shot were still coming in fast; but her brave crew, guided and encouraged by the Rear-Admiral and Captain Brace, two of the most distinguished and successful officers in the service, would not allow her to go thus out of battle; and she kept her station, maintaining an animated fire to the last. To relieve her in some degree, an ordnance sloop, which had been fitted at Gibraltar as an explosion-vessel, with 143 barrels of powder, was placed at the disposal of the Rear-Admiral. She had been intended for the destruction of the Algerine fleet, but this service had already been effected by other means. Conducted by Lieutenant Fleming, who had been commanding a gun-boat near theQueen Charlotte, with Major Reed, of the Engineers, and Captain Herbert Powell, a volunteer on board theImpregnable, the explosion-vessel was run on shore under the battery which had annoyed her, where, at nine o'clock, she blew up.
The fleet slackened their fire towards night, as the guns of the enemy became silenced, and the ships began to feel the necessity for husbanding their ammunition. Their expenditure had been beyond all parallel. They fired nearly 118 tons of powder, and 50,000 shot, weighing more than 500 tons of iron; besides 960 thirteen and ten-inch shells thrown by the bomb-vessels, and the shells and rockets from the flotilla. Such a fire, close, concentrated, and well-directed as it was, nothing could resist; and the sea-defences of Algiers, with great part of the town itself, were shattered and crumbled to ruins.
At a little before ten, the objects of the attack having been effected, theQueen Charlotte'sbower-cable was cut, and her head hauled round to seaward. She continued, however, to engage with all the guns abaft the mainmast, sometimes on both sides. Warps were run out to gain an offing, but many of them were cut by shot from the batteries southward of the town, which had been very partiallyengaged, and also from forts on the hills out of reach of the ships' guns. A very light air was felt about half-past ten, and sail was made; but the ship, after cutting from her remaining warps and anchors, was manageable only by the aid of her boats towing, and then the only point gained was keeping her head from the land. At eleven she began to draw out from the batteries, and at twenty-five minutes past she ceased to fire. The breeze freshened, and a tremendous storm of thunder and lightning came on, with torrents of rain; while the flaming ships and storehouses illuminated all the ruins, and increased the grandeur of the scene. In about three hours the storm subsided, and as soon as the ship was made snug, Lord Exmouth assembled in his cabin all the wounded who could be moved with safety, that they might unite with him and his officers in offering thanksgiving to God for their victory and preservation.
The two Admirals came on board theQueen Charlotteas soon as they could leave their ships, and spoke their feelings of admiration and gratitude to Lord Exmouth with all the warmth of language and expression. The Dutch Admiral, who, with his squadron, had most nobly emulated the conduct of his British allies, declared himself in terms of the highest eulogy of theQueen Charlotte, which, he said, by her commanding position and the effect of her fire, had saved five hundred men to the fleet. Perhaps there was no exaggeration in the praise; for the destruction occasioned by her first broadside, as she lay flanking the Mole, must have contributed much to protect the ships which had not yet reached their stations; and the havoc she inflicted by a cannonade of nine hours must have been great indeed, since her fire could destroy the fortifications on the Mole-head in a few minutes.
In no former general action had the casualties been so great in proportion to the force employed. One hundred and twenty-eight were killed, and six hundred and ninety wounded, in the British ships, and thirteen killed and fifty-two wounded in the Dutch squadron. Yet, except theImpregnable, which had fifty men killed, no ship suffered so much as is usual in a severe engagement. Generally, in fleet actions, the brunt of the battle, and the chief amount of losses, fall upon a few; but here every ship had her allotted duty, and was closely engaged throughout. After theImpregnable, the frigates suffered the most, particularly theGranicus, which took a line-of-battle ship's station; and theLeander, which was much cut up by the Fish-market and other batteries, and as late as seven o'clock was obliged to carry out a hawser tothe Severn, to enable her to bear her broadside upon one which annoyed her. The loss in the other line-of-battle ships was remarkably small. They had together but twenty-six killed, including the casualties in their respective boats.
Lord Exmouth escaped most narrowly. He was struck in three places; and a cannon-shot tore away the skirts of his coat. A button was afterwards found in the signal locker; and the shot broke one of the glasses and bulged the rim of the spectacles in his pocket. He gave the spectacles to his valued friend, the late gallant Sir Richard Keats, who caused their history to be engraven on them, and directed, that when he died, they should be restored to Lord Exmouth's family, to be kept as a memorial of his extraordinary preservation.
On the 28th, at daylight, Lieutenant Burgess was sent on shore with a flag of truce, and the demands of the preceding morning; the bomb-vessels at the same time resuming their positions. The captain of one of the destroyed frigates met the boat, and declared that an answer had been sent on the day before, but that no boat was at hand to receive it. Shortly after, the captain of the port came off, accompanied by the Swedish consul, and informed Lord Exmouth that all his demands would be submitted to. On the morning of the 29th, the captain of the port came off again, being now accompanied by the British consul; upon which CaptainBrisbane, of the flag-ship, went on shore, and had a conference with the Dey. Sir Charles Penrose, whom the Admiral had expected to the last, arrived this day in theIsterfrigate, from Malta, where he had waited for his expected orders, until he heard that Lord Exmouth was in the Mediterranean. Lord Exmouth committed to him the management of the negotiations, the only compliment he could now offer. Where nothing remained but submission for the vanquished, the arrangements were soon concluded, and next day the final result was officially communicated to the fleet.
"Queen Charlotte, Algiers Bay, August 30, 1816."General Memorandum."The Commander-in-Chief is happy to inform the fleet of the final termination of their strenuous exertions, by the signature of peace, confirmed under a salute of twenty-one guns, on the following conditions, dictated by His Royal Highness the Prince Regent of England."I. The abolition of Christian slavery for ever."II. The delivery to my flag of all slaves in the dominions of the Dey, to whatever nation they may belong, at noon to-morrow."III. To deliver also to my flag all money received by him for the redemption of slaves since the commencement of this year—at noon also to-morrow."IV. Reparation has been made to the British consul for all losses he has sustained in consequence of his confinement."V. The Dey has made a public apology, in presence of his ministers and officers, and begged pardon of the consul in terms dictated by the captain of theQueen Charlotte."The Commander-in-Chief takes this opportunity of again returning his public thanks to the Admirals, Captains, Officers, Seamen, Marines, Royal Sappers and Miners, Royal Marine Artillery, and the Royal Rocket Corps, forthe noble support he has received from them throughout the whole of this arduous service; and he is pleased to direct that on Sunday next a public thanksgiving shall be offered up to Almighty God, for the signal interposition of his Divine Providence during the conflict which took place on the 27th, between his Majesty's fleet and the ferocious enemies of mankind.It is requested that this memorandum may be read to the ship's company."To the Admirals, Captains, Officers, Seamen, Marines, Royal Sappers and Miners, Royal Marine Artillery, and the Royal Rocket Corps."
"Queen Charlotte, Algiers Bay, August 30, 1816.
"General Memorandum.
"The Commander-in-Chief is happy to inform the fleet of the final termination of their strenuous exertions, by the signature of peace, confirmed under a salute of twenty-one guns, on the following conditions, dictated by His Royal Highness the Prince Regent of England.
"I. The abolition of Christian slavery for ever.
"II. The delivery to my flag of all slaves in the dominions of the Dey, to whatever nation they may belong, at noon to-morrow.
"III. To deliver also to my flag all money received by him for the redemption of slaves since the commencement of this year—at noon also to-morrow.
"IV. Reparation has been made to the British consul for all losses he has sustained in consequence of his confinement.
"V. The Dey has made a public apology, in presence of his ministers and officers, and begged pardon of the consul in terms dictated by the captain of theQueen Charlotte.
"The Commander-in-Chief takes this opportunity of again returning his public thanks to the Admirals, Captains, Officers, Seamen, Marines, Royal Sappers and Miners, Royal Marine Artillery, and the Royal Rocket Corps, forthe noble support he has received from them throughout the whole of this arduous service; and he is pleased to direct that on Sunday next a public thanksgiving shall be offered up to Almighty God, for the signal interposition of his Divine Providence during the conflict which took place on the 27th, between his Majesty's fleet and the ferocious enemies of mankind.
It is requested that this memorandum may be read to the ship's company.
"To the Admirals, Captains, Officers, Seamen, Marines, Royal Sappers and Miners, Royal Marine Artillery, and the Royal Rocket Corps."
"To the Admirals, Captains, Officers, Seamen, Marines, Royal Sappers and Miners, Royal Marine Artillery, and the Royal Rocket Corps."
Above twelve hundred slaves were embarked on the 31st, making, with those liberated a few weeks before, more than three thousand, whom, by address or force, Lord Exmouth had delivered from slavery.[13]Having sent them to their respective countries, and leaving a ship to receive a few who had yet to come up from the interior, he sailed on the 3rd of September for England. On the 8th, when on his way to Gibraltar, he wrote an account of the battle to his brother, to whom he had previously sent a very laconic communication, stating merely the result.
"It has pleased God to give me again the opportunity of writing you, and it has also pleased Him to give success to our efforts against these hordes of barbarians. I never, however, saw any set of men more obstinate at their guns, and it was superior fire only that could keep them back. To be sure, nothing could stand before theQueen Charlotte'sbroadside. Everything fell before it; and the Swedish consul assures me we killed above five hundred at the very first fire, from the crowded way in which troops were drawn up, four deep above the gun boats, which were also full of men. I had myself beckoned to many around the guns close to us to move away, previous to giving the order to fire; and I believe they are within bounds, when they state their loss at seven thousand men. Our old friend John Gaze was as steady as a rock; and it was a glorious sight to see theCharlottetake her anchorage, and to see her flag towering on high, when she appeared to be in the flames of the Mole itself; and never was a ship nearer burnt; it almost scorched me off the poop; we were obliged to haul in the ensign, or it would have caught fire. Everybody behaved uncommonly well. Admiral Milne came on board at two o'clock in the morning, and kissed my hand fifty times before the people, as did the Dutch Admiral, Von Capellan. I was but slightly touched in the thigh, face, and fingers—my glass cut in my hand, and the skirts of my coat torn off by a large shot; but as I bled a good deal, itlooked as if I was badly hurt, and it was gratifying to see and hear how it was received even in the cockpit, which was then pretty full. My thigh is not quite skinned over, but I am perfectly well, and hope to reach Portsmouth by the 10th of October. Ferdinand has sent me a diamond star. Wise behaved most nobly, and took up a line-of-battle ship's station; but all behaved nobly. I never saw such enthusiasm in all my service. Not a wretch shrunk any where; and I assure you it was a very arduous task, but I had formed a very correct judgment of all I saw, and was confident, if supported, I should succeed. I could not wait for an offshore wind to attack; the season was too far advanced, and the land-winds become light and calmy. I was forced to attack at once with a lee-shore, or perhaps wait a week for a precarious wind along shore; and I was quite sure I should have a breeze off the land about one or two in the morning, and equally sure we could hold out to that time. Blessed be God! it came, and a dreadful night with it, of thunder, lightning, and rain, as heavy as I ever saw. Several ships had expended all their powder, and been supplied from the brigs. I had latterly husbanded, and only fired when they fired on us; and we expended 350 barrels, and 5,420 shot, weighing above 65 tons of iron. Such a state of ruin of fortifications and houses was never seen, and it is the opinion of all the consuls, that two hours more fire would have levelled the town; the walls are all so cracked. Even the aqueducts were broken up, and the people famishing for water. The sea-defences, to be made effective, must be rebuilt from the foundation. The fire all round the Mole looked like Pandemonium. I never saw anything so grand and so terrific, for I was not on velvet, for fear they would drive on board us. The copper-bottoms floated full of fiery hot charcoal, and were red hot above the surface, so that we could not hook on our fire-grapnels to put the boats on, and could do nothing but push fire-booms, and spring the ship off by our warps, as occasion required."
"It has pleased God to give me again the opportunity of writing you, and it has also pleased Him to give success to our efforts against these hordes of barbarians. I never, however, saw any set of men more obstinate at their guns, and it was superior fire only that could keep them back. To be sure, nothing could stand before theQueen Charlotte'sbroadside. Everything fell before it; and the Swedish consul assures me we killed above five hundred at the very first fire, from the crowded way in which troops were drawn up, four deep above the gun boats, which were also full of men. I had myself beckoned to many around the guns close to us to move away, previous to giving the order to fire; and I believe they are within bounds, when they state their loss at seven thousand men. Our old friend John Gaze was as steady as a rock; and it was a glorious sight to see theCharlottetake her anchorage, and to see her flag towering on high, when she appeared to be in the flames of the Mole itself; and never was a ship nearer burnt; it almost scorched me off the poop; we were obliged to haul in the ensign, or it would have caught fire. Everybody behaved uncommonly well. Admiral Milne came on board at two o'clock in the morning, and kissed my hand fifty times before the people, as did the Dutch Admiral, Von Capellan. I was but slightly touched in the thigh, face, and fingers—my glass cut in my hand, and the skirts of my coat torn off by a large shot; but as I bled a good deal, itlooked as if I was badly hurt, and it was gratifying to see and hear how it was received even in the cockpit, which was then pretty full. My thigh is not quite skinned over, but I am perfectly well, and hope to reach Portsmouth by the 10th of October. Ferdinand has sent me a diamond star. Wise behaved most nobly, and took up a line-of-battle ship's station; but all behaved nobly. I never saw such enthusiasm in all my service. Not a wretch shrunk any where; and I assure you it was a very arduous task, but I had formed a very correct judgment of all I saw, and was confident, if supported, I should succeed. I could not wait for an offshore wind to attack; the season was too far advanced, and the land-winds become light and calmy. I was forced to attack at once with a lee-shore, or perhaps wait a week for a precarious wind along shore; and I was quite sure I should have a breeze off the land about one or two in the morning, and equally sure we could hold out to that time. Blessed be God! it came, and a dreadful night with it, of thunder, lightning, and rain, as heavy as I ever saw. Several ships had expended all their powder, and been supplied from the brigs. I had latterly husbanded, and only fired when they fired on us; and we expended 350 barrels, and 5,420 shot, weighing above 65 tons of iron. Such a state of ruin of fortifications and houses was never seen, and it is the opinion of all the consuls, that two hours more fire would have levelled the town; the walls are all so cracked. Even the aqueducts were broken up, and the people famishing for water. The sea-defences, to be made effective, must be rebuilt from the foundation. The fire all round the Mole looked like Pandemonium. I never saw anything so grand and so terrific, for I was not on velvet, for fear they would drive on board us. The copper-bottoms floated full of fiery hot charcoal, and were red hot above the surface, so that we could not hook on our fire-grapnels to put the boats on, and could do nothing but push fire-booms, and spring the ship off by our warps, as occasion required."
The battle of Algiers forms a class by itself among naval victories. It was a new thing to place a fleet in a position surrounded by such formidable batteries. Bold and original in the conception, it was most brilliant and complete in execution. Nor was it more splendid for the honour, than happy in the fruits. It broke the chains of thousands; it gave security to millions;—it delivered Christendom from a scourge and a disgrace. To complete the happiness of the achievement, a nation co-operated, the natural ally of England, and the truest of her friends; bound to her by the proudest recollections of patriotism, and the dearest ties of religion; and which, if it should be required once more to strike down the power of whatever evil principle may desolate Europe, will again be found at her side, strong in virtue as in courage, to emulate her prowess, and to share the triumph.
FOOTNOTES:[12]Sir Israel, his brother; Captains Pownoll and Fleetwood, his sons; Captain Harward, and Sir Lawrence Halsted, his sons-in-law.[13]Slaves liberated by Admiral Lord Exmouth:—At Algiers.Neapolitans and Sicilians1,110Sardinians and Genoese62Piedmontaise6Romans174Tuscans6Spaniards226Portuguese1Greeks7Dutch28English18French2Austrians2—1,642At Tunis.Neapolitans and Sicilians524Sardinians and Genoese257——781At Tripoli.Neapolitans and Sicilians422Sardinians and Genoese144Romans10Hamburghers4——580———3003
[12]Sir Israel, his brother; Captains Pownoll and Fleetwood, his sons; Captain Harward, and Sir Lawrence Halsted, his sons-in-law.
[12]Sir Israel, his brother; Captains Pownoll and Fleetwood, his sons; Captain Harward, and Sir Lawrence Halsted, his sons-in-law.
[13]Slaves liberated by Admiral Lord Exmouth:—At Algiers.Neapolitans and Sicilians1,110Sardinians and Genoese62Piedmontaise6Romans174Tuscans6Spaniards226Portuguese1Greeks7Dutch28English18French2Austrians2—1,642At Tunis.Neapolitans and Sicilians524Sardinians and Genoese257——781At Tripoli.Neapolitans and Sicilians422Sardinians and Genoese144Romans10Hamburghers4——580———3003
[13]Slaves liberated by Admiral Lord Exmouth:—
At Algiers.
At Tunis.
At Tripoli.
Lord Exmouth's services were acknowledged as became such a victory. He was advanced to the dignity of a Viscount, and received an honourable augmentation of his arms. In the centre of the shield a triumphal crown was placed by the civic wreath; below was a lion rampant, and above them a ship, lying at the Mole-head of Algiers, and surmounted with the star of victory. The former supporters were exchanged for a lion on the one side, and a Christian slave, holding aloft the cross, and dropping his broken fetters, on the other. The name "Algiers" was given for an additional motto. The kings of Holland, Spain, and Sardinia, conferred upon him orders of knighthood. The Pope sent him a valuable cameo. The city of London voted him its freedom, and a sword, ornamented with diamonds, which was presented by the Lord Mayor at a banquet, appropriately given by the Ironmongers' Company, as trustees of a considerable estate left for ransoming Christian slaves in Barbary by Mr. Betton, a member of the company, who had himself endured the miseries of slavery. He received the freedom of the city of Oxford, and the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the University. A society for promoting the liberation of Christian slaves, lately formed at Paris, chiefly by the exertions of Sir Sidney Smith, caused a medal to bestruck to commemorate the victory. It presents a well-executed profile of the Admiral, with a suitable inscription on the reverse.
In general, every disposition was shown in France to do justice to Lord Exmouth's merit on this occasion. Yet it was to be expected that the feelings so natural under the circumstances of their recent defeat, and the present occupation of their territory, would lead many to detract from the honours of the nation which had so severely humbled them. Some illiberal reflections which appeared in the French journals, prompted the following lines by the late Lord Grenville:—
"These hands toil-worn, these limbs by fetters galled,These bodies, scarred by many a servile blow,These spirits, wasted by disease and woe,These Christian souls, by miscreant rage enthralled,What band of heroes now recalls to life?—Gives us again to hail our native shores,And to each fond, despairing heart, restoresThe long-lost parent, the long-widowed wife?O Britain! still to lawless power a foe,'Gainst faithless pirate armed, or blood-stained Gaul!Vain is the taunt which mocks thy lavish cost,Thy thankless toil, thy blood poured out for all,Thy laurels, gained in fight, in treaty lost—Heaven still shall bless the hand which lays the oppressor low!"
"These hands toil-worn, these limbs by fetters galled,These bodies, scarred by many a servile blow,These spirits, wasted by disease and woe,These Christian souls, by miscreant rage enthralled,What band of heroes now recalls to life?—Gives us again to hail our native shores,And to each fond, despairing heart, restoresThe long-lost parent, the long-widowed wife?O Britain! still to lawless power a foe,'Gainst faithless pirate armed, or blood-stained Gaul!Vain is the taunt which mocks thy lavish cost,Thy thankless toil, thy blood poured out for all,Thy laurels, gained in fight, in treaty lost—Heaven still shall bless the hand which lays the oppressor low!"
"These hands toil-worn, these limbs by fetters galled,
These bodies, scarred by many a servile blow,
These spirits, wasted by disease and woe,
These Christian souls, by miscreant rage enthralled,
What band of heroes now recalls to life?—
Gives us again to hail our native shores,
And to each fond, despairing heart, restores
The long-lost parent, the long-widowed wife?
O Britain! still to lawless power a foe,
'Gainst faithless pirate armed, or blood-stained Gaul!
Vain is the taunt which mocks thy lavish cost,
Thy thankless toil, thy blood poured out for all,
Thy laurels, gained in fight, in treaty lost—
Heaven still shall bless the hand which lays the oppressor low!"
A medal, most appropriate in the devices, and of the most exquisite workmanship, was executed by command of his late Majesty George IV., then Prince Regent. The medals are of gold. Only four were struck, one of which was presented to Lord Exmouth, and remains in the possession of his eldest surviving son. The officers of the squadron presented to their commander a magnificent piece of plate, of 1,400 guineas value, representing the Mole of Algiers, with its fortifications. The subscription exceeded the cost; andthe surplus was paid to the Naval Charitable Society, of which Lord Exmouth was a vice-president.[14]
His venerable and excellent friend, Admiral Schank, under whose command he had fought his first action, went to Teignmouth to receive him, when he came home from this, the last of his triumphs. The day of his return was made a general festival, and the inhabitants went out to meet him with all the arrangement and display which could manifest admiration and attachment.
The promotion which followed the victory was to have been on the usual scale, but Lord Exmouth succeeded in obtaining some extension of it; for he considered it inadequate to the merits of the junior officers, who had enjoyed unusual opportunities for distinguishing themselves. The flotilla of armed boats, which had behaved most gallantly, and afforded essential service, was commanded chiefly by mates and midshipmen, and he pressed their claims upon theAdmiralty with much perseverance. He urged that commissions should be given to all who had passed their examinations; and submitted a list of the officers whom he thought entitled to promotion, drawn up in such a form as to be readily examined and referred to, and in which their respective services and claims were enforced in a manner which marked at once his discrimination of their merits, and the warm interest he took in their welfare.
The victory was prominently noticed in the royal speech, and on the 3rd of February received the thanks of Parliament. The First Lord of the Admiralty, who introduced the motion to the House of Lords, expatiated at length on the circumstances which enhanced the merit of the commander:—"When the expedition against Algiers was determined on, it became necessary to collect men from different guard-ships, and to call for the services of volunteers for this particular enterprise. He mentioned this circumstance, because those who knew the value which naval officers attach to a crew long accustomed to act together, would be the better enabled to appreciate the skill and exertions of Lord Exmouth, and the difficulties he had to contend with, in rendering crews, collected as he had stated, efficient for his purpose. To that object Lord Exmouth devoted his daily, his hourly attention, and accomplished it in a manner which reflected the highest credit on his judgment and ability. He then proceeded with his squadron on the appointed service. He proposed certain terms to the Dey of Algiers, according to his instructions, and no satisfactory reply being given, the ships took their positions. It was due to Lord Exmouth here to state a circumstance not generally known. An opinion had prevailed in many quarters that accident and the elements had been very favourable to Lord Exmouth in the execution of the enterprise: but the fact was, that when Government had determined on the undertaking, many persons, and among them several naval officers, were of opinion that the defences were sostrong that the attack could not succeed. Not so Lord Exmouth, though he was perfectly aware of the difficulties with which he had to contend. He had himself formed the plan of his operations, and gave it as his opinion that the object might be accomplished, not from any idle confidence, but founded on the reasons which he stated and the plan which he had formed. He had in this plan settled the position which every ship was to take, and when the despatches came, he (Lord Melville) had noticed that the positions actually taken were exactly those which had been before settled. The whole scheme of attack was before prepared by him, and exactly followed; and the whole transaction reflected the highest credit upon Lord Exmouth as a naval officer, as well as upon his perseverance and gallantry." After describing the battle and its result, and descanting upon the enthusiasm which animated every officer and man, and the gallantry they displayed, Lord Melville alluded to the co-operation and effectual assistance afforded by the Dutch squadron, to which also he moved the thanks of the House. "The flag of the Netherlands had long been distinguished in Europe, and the officers and seamen had acquired a high renown for skill and valour. In this enterprise that flag had again appeared, and a noble emulation prevailed between the two squadrons as to which of them should most strenuously exert itself to accomplish the common object."
Similar motions were brought forward in the House of Commons by Lord Castlereagh, who dwelt on the splendid character of the transaction, upon which, he said, there could be but one opinion either in that House or throughout Europe. Alluding to the very conflicting opinions which had prevailed on the subject of attacking Algiers, he eulogized the great ability and judgment of Lord Exmouth, whose perfect accuracy had been so fully proved by the result. "He should not attempt," he said, "to add any thing more to an action so glorious both as to the principlesupon which it was undertaken, and the mode of carrying it into execution, but only observe that he intended to extend the thanks to the officers and seamen of their brave ally, the King of the Netherlands, whose co-operation had been so beneficial. He was sure the House would feel a peculiar gratification in seeing the navy of Holland united with ours for the general liberties of mankind, and be anxious to mark their sense of the services performed by the Dutch Admiral, his brave officers, and sailors."
"So great were Lord Exmouth's professional abilities," said Mr. Law, who seconded the motion, "that whatever he undertook he was sure to succeed in. From the commencement of that series of great operations which arose out of the revolutionary war, success had uniformly marked his long career. With respect to the late brilliant enterprise, too much could not be said of it; and it was gratifying to know that the feelings of the House and the country were the same."
"No one," said Lord Cochrane, "was better acquainted than himself with the power possessed by batteries over a fleet; and he would say that the conduct of Lord Exmouth and the fleet deserved all the praise which that House could bestow. The attack was nobly achieved, in a way that a British fleet always performed such services; and the vote had his most cordial concurrence, for he never knew, or had heard, of anything more gallant than the manner in which Lord Exmouth had laid his ships alongside the Algerine batteries."
Lord Exmouth had now gained everything he could hope for. He was still in the full vigour of life, with the prospect of many years of health. His children had all been spared to him; and he was accustomed to dwell on their conduct with a father's pride and satisfaction. With a liberality not often displayed, he gave them their full portions as they successively left him; and he had the gratification of entrusting to each of his sons one of the many honourabletributes to his worth and services which he had received from different public bodies. His eldest son, who had served many years under his orders, was living near Teignmouth, at the family mansion of Canonteign. He represented Launceston in Parliament, and when he first entered the House had exerted himself, though without success, to obtain for seamen serving on foreign stations the privilege, since granted, of receiving part of their pay abroad. He had been much impressed with the evils of the former system, which his liberality had obviated for his own crews. Lord Exmouth maintained a most unreserved intercourse with him, and often expressed a confidence in the strongest terms, that he would do honour to the rank he was to inherit: hopes never to be realized, for he survived his father only a few months.
It is a memorable illustration of a truth, which all admit, but none entirely feel, till their own experience has taught them the vanity of worldly success, that when the attainment of every object had left him without a wish ungratified, Lord Exmouth would sometimes confess that he had been happier amidst his early difficulties. Indeed, his natural character, and all his habits, were very unfavourable to repose. The command at Plymouth was given him in 1817, on the death of Sir John Duckworth; but this, though it prevented a too abrupt transition to complete retirement, was a life of inactivity, when contrasted with his general pursuits for almost fifty years.
While he held this command he was required to attend in his place in the House of Lords on the trial of the Queen, one of the most lamentable events in modern English history. He had received her then Royal Highness on board his flag-ship in the Mediterranean with all the attentions due to her exalted rank, and his principal officers were assembled to pay their respects to her. But when he was desired to furnish a royal standard, which, it was said, the vessel was entitled to carry, though a foreigner, he repliedthat the standard of England could be carried only by a British man of war. He shared the temporary unpopularity of the noblemen who supported the bill, and the mob at Plymouth and its neighbourhood expressed their feelings towards him with much violence; but this, as far as he was concerned, gave him no disquiet. He had not then to learn how little this kind of hostility is to be regarded, when it is provoked by the faithful discharge of duty. When the storm was at the highest he wrote the following letter:—
"Admiralty House, Plymouth Dock, Nov. 20, 1820."My Dear Brother,—I am much obliged by your kind letter, and wish I could give you in return anything good, or worth detailing. The fact is, the people are mad, and the world is mad; and where it will end, the Lord only knows; but as sure as we live, the days of trouble are very fast approaching, when there will be much contention and much bloodshed, and changes out of all measure and human calculation. You and I have no choice. Loyalty is all our duty, and we shall, no doubt, stick to it. As for myself, you may well think me D.D.,[15]for I am burnt, and kicked, and torn in pieces for many nights; but here I am, quite whole, sound, and merry, in spite of them all, poor fools! In a fortnight they will fain know how to make amends. They have a particular dislike to me, and I am glad of it. We shall live to see it changed."
"Admiralty House, Plymouth Dock, Nov. 20, 1820.
"My Dear Brother,—I am much obliged by your kind letter, and wish I could give you in return anything good, or worth detailing. The fact is, the people are mad, and the world is mad; and where it will end, the Lord only knows; but as sure as we live, the days of trouble are very fast approaching, when there will be much contention and much bloodshed, and changes out of all measure and human calculation. You and I have no choice. Loyalty is all our duty, and we shall, no doubt, stick to it. As for myself, you may well think me D.D.,[15]for I am burnt, and kicked, and torn in pieces for many nights; but here I am, quite whole, sound, and merry, in spite of them all, poor fools! In a fortnight they will fain know how to make amends. They have a particular dislike to me, and I am glad of it. We shall live to see it changed."
With the command at Plymouth, Lord Exmouth's public life may be considered to have ended; for though he shrunk from no duty which his rank and character imposed upon him, he would not submit to become a political partizan. This decision, so happy for his peace, was the result of his habitual judgment and feeling. In a letter before alluded to, which he wrote for his eldest son before he went toAlgiers, he observed, that though not rich, he would be independent, and enjoined him never to entangle himself with party politics. While none more firmly supported the great principles upon which the security and welfare of the country rest, he chose always to keep the high position of an independent British nobleman. The splendid rewards which his services had obtained for him, he received, not as from any particular administration, but from his country; and he felt himself entitled to assert the same independence in the House of Lords, which he had always displayed as a commander. Thus, by a conduct equally prudent and honourable, he secured, through periods of great political excitement, an exemption almost singular, for a man in his position, from the attacks of party.
At the same time, his best services were always at the command of the Government, who frequently availed themselves of his judgment and experience. Few important questions occurred in connection with his own profession, upon which he was not consulted. Most of these were necessarily confidential; but the following may with propriety be noticed. In 1818, when the extreme difficulties of the country demanded the utmost possible retrenchment, it was proposed, among other measures of economy, to destroy Pendennis Castle. Two commissioners, sent to survey and report upon this step, were instructed to communicate first with Lord Exmouth. His opinion decided the preservation of this noble fortress; which is at once so important from its position, and so interesting for its heroic defence, when, in the great rebellion, it obtained the honourable distinction of being the last stronghold of loyalty.
On the question of concessions to the Roman Catholics in 1829, his opinions and conduct were most decided. His eldest son resigned his seat for a borough, which he held unconditionally, under the influence of the Duke of Northumberland, as soon as that nobleman declared his intention to support the claims. The ground of Lord Exmouth'sopposition to the measure has been already given in his words.
That moral elevation, not always associated with powerful talent and splendid success, which forms the most admirable part of Lord Exmouth's character, was derived from religion. Young as he was when he first entered the service, and though such principles and feelings could not be supposed then to be very strongly fixed, yet he was guarded in his conduct, and always prompt to check any irreverent allusion to serious subjects. His youth was passed in camps and ships, at a time when a coarse and profane conduct too much prevailed, now happily almost unknown; but he was never deterred by a false shame from setting a proper example. On board his first frigate, theWinchelsea, the duties of the Sundays were regularly observed. He always dressed in full uniform on that day, and, having no chaplain, read the morning service to his crew, whenever the weather permitted them to be assembled. Advancing in his brilliant career, the same feelings were more and more strikingly displayed. It was his practice to have a special and general service of thanksgiving after every signal deliverance, or success. Too often is it found, that with the accession of worldly honours, the man becomes more forgetful of the good Providence from which he received them. From this evil, Lord Exmouth was most happily kept; and additional distinctions only confirmed the unaffected simplicity and benevolence of his character. When he was fitting out his fleet for Algiers, amidst all the anxiety of hurried preparations, he took care that every ship should be properly supplied with the sacred volume. For this purpose, he obtained from the Naval and Military Bible Society, of which he was a Vice President, every copy which could be procured at so short a notice. Finally, after this, the last and greatest of his services, a battle of almost unexampled severity and duration, and fought less for his country than for the world,his gratitude to the Giver of victory was expressed in a manner the most edifying and delightful.
With such principles, he might well have hoped for happiness when he retired from public life. Religion alone can fill and satisfy the most active and capacious mind; but that its power may be felt to calm, strengthen, and support, under whatever circumstances of endurance, or of action, it must govern the character always, and be the supreme controlling principle. For this, the position of a naval officer is not favourable. War has much, in addition to the miseries and evils it directly creates, which only necessity can excuse; and there is too little leisure for reflection amidst the anxiety of early struggles, the full career of success, or the pressure of exciting and important duties.
But when external responsibilities had ceased to divert his attention from himself, his religious principles acquired new strength and exerted a more powerful influence. They guided him to peace; they added dignity to his character: and blessed his declining years with a serenity, at once the best evidence of their truth, and the happiest illustration of their power.
The quiet of domestic life offers little to be recorded; and except when public or private claims might call him for a short time from home, Lord Exmouth passed the remainder of his life at Teignmouth. He had nobly done his duty; and now enjoyed in honourable repose all that the gratitude of his country and the affection of his family could bestow. Though he knew himself liable to an attack which might be almost suddenly fatal, he dwelt on the prospect without alarm, for he rested upon that faith whose privilege it is to rise above present suffering, and to regard death itself as the gate of immortal life.
No man was more free from selfish feeling. His honours and success were valued for the sake of his family. His services and life were for his country. He had a truly English heart, and served her with entire devotedness.Nothing, indeed, could be a finer commentary than his own career upon her free and equal institutions, which, by the force of those qualities they so powerfully tend to create, had enabled him to rise from the condition of an unfriended orphan, to the dignity of the British peerage. Most painful, therefore, were his feelings, when revolt and anarchy in neighbouring countries were held up to be admired and imitated at home, until a praiseworthy desire of improvement had become a rage for destructive innovation. In a letter written at this time, Nov. 12th, 1831, after alluding to his own declining strength, he thus proceeds:—"I am fast approaching that end which we must all come to. My own term I feel is expiring, and happy is the man who does not live to see the destruction of his country, which discontent has brought to the verge of ruin. Hitherto thrice happy England, how art thou torn to pieces by thine own children! Strangers, who a year ago looked up to you as a happy exception in the world, with admiration, at this moment know thee not! Fire, riot, and bloodshed, are roving through the land, and God in his displeasure visits us also with pestilence; and, in fact, in one short year, we seem almost to have reached the climax of misery. One cannot sit down to put one's thoughts to paper, without feeling oppressed by public events, and with vain thought of how and when will the evils terminate.Thatmust be left to God's mercy, for I believe man is at this moment unequal to the task."
He then passes to another subject. It was a trait in his character, that, through all his success, he never forgot his early friends.
"When I sat down, I intended to commence by letting you know that I have heard from —— of the last week's illness and decease of our early, and I believe almost our oldest friend, ——. He states, that he died, by God's mercy, free from pain; that his suffering was not much, and he bore it patiently, with a calm mind, keeping his senses tothe last few hours. That you had paid your old friend a last visit, from which, he says, he appeared to be quite revivified; that his eyes sparkled with inward joy, and that he had asked kindly after me; that he went off at last in a kind of sleep, without a struggle, and had felt all the comfort which could be given him by a sincere old friend. I was very glad to hear that you had given him the comfort of taking leave of him, for I readily believe he ever felt for you unabated friendship, and for myself also. I think we must have known him above three-score years. I am sure you will derive pleasure from having shown him that your friendship could only end by his death."
In the last week of December, 1831, after an extraordinary exemption from such trials in his own family, he lost his youngest daughter. Little more than two months elapsed, when on the 2nd of March the warning was repeated in the almost sudden death of a grandchild, daughter of his eldest son. He communicated this event with the reflection—"We have long been mercifully spared. Death has at length entered our family, and it behoves us all to be watchful."[16]
In the spring of this year he was made Vice-Admiral of England, and was honoured at the same time with a very flattering letter from his Sovereign. This he immediately enclosed to his elder brother, to whom he knew it would give pleasure. Of the appointment itself, he remarked, "I shall have it only for one year." He held it but for a few months.
In May, Sir Israel Pellew was on his death-bed; and Lord Exmouth, though he now travelled with much difficulty and pain, could not refuse himself the melancholy satisfaction of a parting visit to one with whom he had been so closely and affectionately united. Their brother came up from Falmouth on the same errand, and on thispainful occasion they all met for the last time. He then returned to his home, which he never left again.
He cherished a very strong attachment to the Church; and for more than thirty years had been a member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which he joined when the claims of the society were so little appreciated, that only principle could have prompted the step. It might therefore be expected that he would feel deep anxiety when the safety of that Church was threatened. But upon this subject his mind was firm; and in one of the last letters he ever wrote, dated August 28th, he declares his confidence in the most emphatic language. After some personal observations to the friend he was addressing, one of his old officers, he alludes to the cholera, then raging in his neighbourhood; "which," he says, "I am much inclined to consider an infliction of Providence, to show his power to the discontented of the world, who have long been striving against the government of man, and are commencing their attacks on our Church. But they will fail! God will never suffer his Church to fall; and the world will see that his mighty arm is not shortened, nor his power diminished. I put my trust in Him, and not in man; and I bless Him, that He has enabled me to see the difference between improvement and destruction."
Not many days after, he suffered a most violent attack of the illness he had long anticipated. The immediate danger was soon averted; but the extent of the disease left not the smallest hope of recovery. He lingered until the 23rd of January, calmly waiting the event which his gradually increasing weakness convinced him was inevitable. Sustained by the principle which had guided him so long, his death-bed became the scene of his best and noblest triumph. "Every hour of his life is a sermon," said an officer who was often with him; "I have seen him great in battle, but never so great as on his death-bed." Full of hope and peace, he advanced with the confidence of a Christian to his lastconflict, and when nature was at length exhausted, he closed a life of brilliant and important service, with a death more happy, and not less glorious, than if he had fallen in the hour of victory.
Lord Exmouth was buried at Christow, the parish in which are the family mansion and estate of Canonteign. The flag under which he fought at Algiers was used for a pall, and a young oak, to bear his name, was planted near the grave; a suitable memorial for a British seaman.
Two noble line-of-battle ships, theAlgiersand theExmouth, of 91-guns each, and fitted with screw propellers, of which one is just now commissioned and the other just launched, preserve in the navy the memory of his name and victory, and may yet be commanded by officers trained by his care, and formed by his example.