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it appeared likely that the negotiations and final arrangements would occupy some days, the commander-in-chief then dispersed his squadron, and left Captain Spencer to conclude the treaty with the Dey; which he performed to the perfect satisfaction of Government. The last year of the Naiad's service was passed on the shores of Greece and the Archipelago, employed in the protection of our commerce, and occasionally in political negotiation with the commander of the Turkish forces in the Morea, and with the Greek chiefs.

On the Naiad being ordered home, Sir Harry Neale addressed a very complimentary letter to Captain Spencer, expressing his sense of Captain Spencer's services. The Naiad was paid off at Portsmouth, in the autumn of 1826. The high state of perfection to which the gunnery was carried, and the admirable system of discipline established on board that frigate, during the period of Captain Spencer's command, is said "never to have been exceeded."

In August, 1827, Captain Spencer was appointed Private Secretary to his Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral, his present Majesty William IV.; and in that situation he assisted in effecting many useful reforms in the naval department. He was a great advocate for that system of inspection which, at the time, gave much satisfaction to the service, but which has since been discontinued. To his pen is attributed the ingenious catechism which gained the name of the Ninety-nine Questions, and which, though not acted on (it is believed on account of the Lord High Admiral's resignation), became known to the service, and was productive of many advantageous results.

If by some it has been thought that, whilst in this arduous situation, Sir Robert Spencer drew the strings of authority too tight, it must be recollected that to such an accusation all public officers are liable; and, where so much real worth is acknowledged, a little occasional bluntness and shortness of manner, unfortunately incident to the profession of a seaman and the habits of command, may surely be excused. During the illness of Sir William Hoste, Captain Spencer

took the command of the Royal Sovereign yacht, when his Royal Highness made his second visitation to the Dockyards, in 1828. Exemplary in all his conduct, he thought it right to read to the ship's company the service of the church; and his Royal Highness remarked, that he had never heard it performed with more impressive eloquence than on that

occasion.

Captain Spencer continued to fill his important office until the royal Duke's retirement, in 1828. His Royal Highness, as a mark of his approval and esteem, had appointed him, on the 24th of August, one of the Grooms of his Bedchamber; in October of the same year he was nominated a Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order: he was knighted at Windsor on the 24th of the following month.

On the resignation of his Royal Highness, employment again became immediately the object of this zealous and indefatigable officer; and in September, 1828, he was appointed to the Madagascar, a frigate of 46 guns, on the Mediterranean station. On his brother, Lord Althorp, becoming a member of the present administration, Sir Robert Spencer was selected to represent the Navy at the Ordnance Board, as Surveyor-general of that department; and his ship was ordered home. He was not destined, however, to revisit his native country; an inflammation of the bowels having seized him at Alexandria, and in two days terminated his valuable life. He died on the 4th of November, 1830.

Throughout life, all the energies of Sir Robert Spencer's active mind were unremittingly employed in the science of his profession, and in its discipline; and these great acquirements, united with his native gallantry and tried spirit, made him an early and bright example to the British Navy, rich as it is in the display of nautical skill and bravery. So happily did the firmness of his mind combine with the benevolence of his heart, that the attachment and devotion with which he inspired the officers and men with whom he sailed, can be understood only by those who witnessed the result; for they saw the affectionate confidence which was reposed in his

fatherly protection, and the instantaneous obedience which was given to his masterly commands. It is also difficult to describe the unequalled delight of his society. The playfulness and gaiety of his disposition, the tenderness of his heart, the good sense, the deep feeling, and the entire absence of all selfishness, which peculiarly belonged to his conversation, gave to his social intercourse a charm, which no one who ever partook of it in his familiar hours can recollect without the deepest sorrow for his loss.

For the foregoing memoir, with the exception of a few paragraphs, we are indebted to Marshall's Royal Naval Biography.

10

No. II.

HENRY MACKENZIE, ESQ.

HENRY MACKENZIE was born at Edinburgh, in August, 1745. His father was Dr. Joshua Mackenzie, an eminent physician of Edinburgh, who had himself been distinguished in the world of letters as the author of a volume of Medical and Literary Essays; his mother was Margaret, the eldest daughter of Mr. Rose of Kilravock, of a very ancient family in Nairnshire.

After being educated at the High School and University of Edinburgh, Mr. Mackenzie, by the advice of some friends. of his father, was articled to Mr. Inglis of Redhall, in order to acquire a knowledge of the business of the Exchequer; a law department in which he was likely to have fewer competitors than in any other in Scotland.

To this, although not perfectly compatible with that literary taste which he very early displayed, he applied with due diligence; and, in 1765, went to London to study the modes of English Exchequer practice, which, as well as the constitution of the courts, are similar in both countries. While there, his talents induced a friend to solicit his remaining in London, and qualifying himself for the English bar. But the anxious wishes of his family that he should reside with them, and the moderation of an unambitious mind, decided his return to Edinburgh; and there he became, first partner, and afterwards successor to Mr. Inglis, in the office of Attorney for the Crown.

His professional labour, however, did not prevent his attachment to literary pursuits. When in London, he sketched some part of his first and very popular work, The

Man of Feeling, which was published anonymously in 1771; and was so much a favourite with the public, as to become, a few years after, the occasion of a remarkable fraud. A Mr. Eccles of Bath, observing that the book was accompanied by no author's name, laid claim to it, transcribed the whole in his own hand, with blottings, interlineations, and corrections, and maintained his right with such plausible pertinacity, that Messrs. Cadell and Strahan (Mr. Mackenzie's publishers) found it necessary to undeceive the public by a formal contradiction.

In a few years after this Mr. Mackenzie published his Man of the World, which seems to be intended as a second part to The Man of Feeling. It breathes the same tone of exquisite moral delicacy, and of refined sensibility. In his former fiction, he imagined a hero constantly obedient to every emotion of his moral sense. In The Man of the World he exhibited, on the contrary, a person rushing headlong into vice and ruin, and spreading misery all around him, by pursuing a happiness which he expected to obtain in defiance of the moral sense.

His next production was Julia de Roubigné, a novel in a series of letters. The fable is very interesting, and the letters are written with great elegance and propriety of style.

In 1777 or 1778, a society of gentlemen in Edinburgh, mostly of the legal profession, who used to meet occasionally for convivial conversation at a tavern kept by M. Bayll, a Frenchman, projected the publication of a series of papers on morals, manners, taste, and literature, similar to those of the Spectator. This society, originally designated The Tabernacle, but afterwards The Mirror Club, consisted of Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Craig, Mr. Cullen, Mr. Bannatine, Mr. Macleod, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. Solicitor-General Blair, Mr. George Horne, and Mr. George Ogilvie; several of whom afterwards became judges in the supreme Courts of Scotland. Of these, Mr. (now Sir William) Bannatine, a venerable and accomplished gentleman of the old school, is, at present, the only survivor. Their scheme was speedily carried into effect; and the papers

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