worth his notice. These bursts, however, were but occasional. Sir Joseph Yorke had nothing of gloominess, or despondency, or ill-humour, in his character; he was for the most part cheerful and full of pleasantry. We were in fact a merry Board-room group: Sir George Warrender and Sir Joseph Yorke were of themselves a host of fun, and Croker and I did our best to keep it up. Yorke abounded in odd expressions, borrowed or spoken at random. To Warrender he would say, "Because thy name is George I'll call thee Peter." When he gave up his seat at the Board he told the House of Commons he had turned his stern to the Admiralty: and he once gravely commenced a speech with, "Mr. Speaker, it has long been a disputed point among philosophers which is the greatest of two evils, a smoking chimney or a scolding wife.'" But one of the best off-hand things he said was at the expense of poor Sir Robert Seppings: this officer had been on the water one very cold day, and was seized with so violent a tooth-ache as to cause him to land on Tower Hill, and run into the first toothdrawer's shop that he met with; but the clumsy operator not only eased him of his tooth, but carried with it a slice of the jaw. The poor fellow, having wrapped up his head, was walking in a deplorable state over Tower Hill, when he met Sir Joseph Yorke, who hailed him with "Well, Bob, what's the matter with you?" On hearing his pitiful story, Yorke said, "Why, Bob, knowing that your jaw was but a weak stick of timber, why didn't you take the precaution of clapping on one of your diagonal braces to strengthen it?" Seppings could not forbear laughing in the midst of his torment at the oddity of the association. Mr. Yorke was an excellent classic. I frequently on a Sunday visit found him with a copy of Homer on the table, and sometimes with a Greek Testament open, and an English Testament by it. The first time I noticed this, he said to me, "You must not suppose I am refreshing my Greek, or learning it. I have often suspected that certain passages in our English translation are improperly rendered, and when these occur I always compare them with the original, and generally find them, to say the least, loosely translated." He was fond of studying ancient and modern history, and read most of the publications of the day. He was well versed in the historical parts of the Old Testament; and told me he once made an attempt to study the Hebrew language, with a view of reading the Bible in the original, but found it was too late in life to master it, and therefore gave it up. He asked me one day if I had looked at the extraordinary adventures of Sir Edward Seaward, by Miss Jane Porter, who professes to have possessed the original manuscript. I said I had not; but that as he praised it, and thought it a true and curious narrative, I would look into it; the next time I paid my usual visit I told him it was a mere romance, in imitation of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and neither more nor less than unmingled fiction, from first to last, sprinkled with many pious reflections, and assuming a solemn and sacred character. Mr. Yorke said, "If it is a fiction, I, and many others more sagacious than myself, have been taken in." I told him, that as a date has been given when the extraordinary events are said to have Y happened (from 1733 to 1749), it was easy to prove that no such events ever had taken place; that no names mentioned, not even that of the titled narrator himself, ever had existence; that there neither was, nor is, any village named Awbrey within twenty miles of Bristol, of which Mr. Seaward and his wife (Goldsmith) are said to be natives; that no such bankers were in London as are mentioned; no such hotel as that where he and Lady Seaward lodged; nay more, that there is not and never was an island at or near the spot (fortunately the latitude and longitude are given) where he was shipwrecked, and where he lived à la mode de Crusoe; and there can be but little doubt that Miss Jane Porter, who says she received the manuscript from the representative of the respected writer, is the sole founder and representative of the family of the Seawards. Mr. Yorke said he wished I would go more into detail; my reply was, I will prove to you all and more than I have now advanced in the next number of the Quarterly Review.* If Miss Jane Porter had not in so solemn a manner pledged herself to have received the manuscript from a friend of Sir Edward Seaward (no such knight having ever existed), she would have gained unqualified praise for her ingenuity of invention, for the moral and religious sentiments in which the narrative abounds, and for the beautiful and affecting language in which they are expressed. Mr. Yorke, towards the end of his life, lived much in retirement, but was at all times pleased to receive the visits of a few old friends. *Quarterly Review,' vol. xlviii. p. 480-Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative, &c. Mr. Yorke was fully satisfied that I had proved it to be a mere fiction. SECTION VI. ROBERT, LORD VISCOUNT MELVILLE. March 25, 1812-April 30, 1827. Admiral G. JOHNSTONE HOPE.....First Naval Lord. On the retirement of Mr. Charles Yorke, the Viscount Melville, who had succeeded to the title on the death of his father, the preceding year, was nominated to the high station of First Lord of the Admiralty on the 25th of March, 1812; the Earl of Liverpool being appointed Prime Minister, in the vacancy occasioned by the atrocious assassination of the Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, in May, 1812, in the lobby of the House of Commons. During the persecution of his Lordship's father, carried on as it was with all the rancour and bitterness of party hostility, the conduct of the son was viewed by all, political foes as well as by friends, with approbation and applause and he continued, during the long period he remained in the office of Admiralty, to sustain the character of a steady, well-conducted, right-judging man, of whom it may truly be said, "He never made an enemy, or lost a friend." In the year following that of his appointment, Lord Melville, perceiving that one great source of naval expenditure was in the dockyards, of which the Admiralty had but an imperfect knowledge, derived from the general heads of the estimates, and from the Navy Board, by whom they were made up, determined to make annual visitations to the yards, in order to get information on the spot of the details of expense, and generally how it was incurred. He therefore, in the year 1813, made his first visit to each of the dockyards; a proceeding which had been discontinued (with the single exception of one by Lord St. Vincent) since the administration of Lord Sandwich. All the reductions that were made during Lord Melville's and the Lord High Admiral's administrations were in fact made in consequence of these visitations; and not always in accordance with the opinion of the civil authorities of the Navy. Yet these reductions, though carried to a great extent, were made without infringing on the quantity or the quality of the works to be performed. On each of these visitations I accompanied his Lordship, and some of the Board, and made such a number of notes and remarks, that the visitation-book is among the most voluminous in the records of the Admiralty. Lord Melville continued to execute the office of First Lord of the Admiralty for a period of more than twice the number of years of any other First Lord on record, except Lord Sandwich, whose two administrations amounted to twelve years; whereas the two of Lord Melville were equal to seventeen years. He first came in on the eve of one of the most eventful, busy, and brilliant periods of the Revolutionary War, as far as regarded the continental operations of the army, under the Duke of Wellington, who, after a series of splendid battles and as many victories, drove the French armies |