had been informed of the gunner's commission. At length, on the 11th, Sir Hudson Lowe came to the grand marshal's house, and told him, with an air of extreme embarrassment, that a statuary in Leghorn had made a bad bust of the son of the Archduchess Maria-Louisa, and had sent it to St Helena by the ship Baring, accompanied by a letter in which he states that the bust has been already paid for, but that he hopes the Emperor's generosity will lead him to send in addition 100 Louis-d'ors; a claim which in his, Sir H. Lowe's judgment, appeared exorbitant-so exorbitant, he added, as to be a sufficient reason for not accepting the bust as it was evidently a shameful speculation of some inferior Tuscan sculptor. The grand marshal did not suffer himself to be imposed upon by the cunning governor, and assured him that the Emperor was all eagerness and joy at the hope of seeing again the features of his son, and he begged him earnestly to send it that evening to Longwood. He did not, however, receive it till the next day. So much cunning and malevolence of purpose cruelly wounded the Emperor. He dictated the following letter to the grand marshal, to be sent to the gunner of the Baring: 66 MR RADWICK, Sir, I have received the marble bust of the young Napoleon, and given it to his father. Its reception has given him the most lively satisfaction. I regret that it is not in your power to come and see us, and communicate to us details which would have the greatest interest for a father, and especially for one placed in such circumstances as he is. According to the letters forwarded to us, the artist values his work at £100 sterling. The Emperor has commanded me to put into your hands the sum of £300 sterling; the overplus is intended to indemnify you for the losses to which you have been exposed in the sale of your merchandise, by not having been allowed to send your goods on shore, and for the prejudice which that event may have raised against you, but which will secure you the esteem of every gallant man. Have the goodness to transmit to the persons who have paid him this obliging attention, the Emperor's best thanks. I have the honour to be, &c., COUNT BERTRAND. P.S.-I beg you to acknowledge the receipt of the enclosed letter of credit.'' FACILITIES FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT. Never was there an age when the wide field of human misery was so accurately measured, and so fully explored, as the present; and consequently there never was a time when the obligation of the Christian church to bring out all its divine resources and remedies, was so binding and so great. Never was there an age when science attempted so much and promised so largely, challenging the gospel, in effect, to run with it a race of philanthropy; and consequently, never was there a time when it so much con wind that blows? Say, why is it that Britain and her religious ally, America, should divide the seas-should hold the keys of the world? Oh, were we but awake to the designs of God and to our own responsibility, we should hear him say, I have put you in possession of the seas; put the world in possession of my gospel;' and every ship we sent out would be a missionary church-like the ark of the deluge, a floating testimony for God, and bearing in its bosom the seeds of a new creation. Christians, ours is in- || deed a post of responsibility and of honour! On us have accumulated all the advantages of the past; and on us lies the great stress of the present. The world is waiting, breathless, on our movements; the voice of all heaven is urging us on. Oh, for celestial wisdom to act in harmony with the high appointments of Providence-to seize the crisis which has come for blessing the world!-Dr Harris. SONNE T. SOLITUDE. Oh! for to wander on some hoary height, Where not an insect's hum is heard abroad; Is borne away upon celestial wings Where love unchanging and for ever springs- For that more glorious land from whence it had its birth! THE ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL. The preaching of the cross of Christ is a remedy for the miseries of the fall, which has been tested by the experience of eighteen hundred years, and has never in a single instance failed. Its efficacy has been proved by human beings of all ages, from the lisping infant to the sinner a hundred years old. All climates have witnessed its power. From the ice-bound cliffs of Greenland to the banks of the voluptuous Ganges, the simple story of Christ crucified has turned men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Its effect has been the same with men of the most dissimilar conditions; from the abandoned inhabitant of Newgate, to the dweller in the palaces of kings. It has been equally sovereign amidst the scattered inhabitants of the forest, and the crowded population of the densest metropolis. Every where, and at all times, it has been the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.'-Rev. F. Wayland. DAMASCUS. cerned the church to vindicate her character as the true angel of mercy to the world; and to show that not by The streets of Damascus are clean and tolerably paved. might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of God, the wounds of the world must be healed. Never was there a time when The houses have externally a very mean appearance, prethe elements of universal society exhibited so much rest-senting only a dead wall of sun-burnt brick towards the lessness and change-when the ancient superstitions exhibited so many signs of dotage and approaching death when the field of the world was so extensively broken up and ready for cultivation-broken up, not by the ordinary ploughshare of human instrumentality, but by strange convulsions from beneath, and by bolts from an invisible hand above; and, consequently, never was there a time which so loudly called on the Christian sower to go forth And never was there a land blessed with such and sow. peculiar facilities as Britain for acting as a witness for Christ to the world. Why is it that the gospel is at this time in trust with a people whose ships cover the seas, who are the merchants of the world? Has he who drew the boundaries of Judea with his own finger, who selected the precise spot for the temple, who did everything for the Jewish church with design, abandoned the Christian church to accident? And, if not-if he has placed the gospel here with design-what can the nature of that design be, but that it should be borne to the world on the wings of every street, with one or two windows stuck at one corner of the building, sometimes at another, and generally covered with windows, and the cold air is excluded at night by a sliding a thick lattice-work of wooden bars. There are no glass shutter fastened by a wooden bolt of a curious construction. In wet weather, the streets are dreadfully muddy from the heavy rains which wash down the earthen walls. These would in fact be quickly consumed did they not take care to thatch them with bushes and straw to throw off the wet.-Charles G. Addison. Printed and published by JAMES HOGG, 122 Nicolson Street, The INSTRUCTOR' being printed from Stereotype Plates, the hatred to the followers of the Koran. His son Govind, the tenth and last of the gurus, ruled in the same spirit, but the power of the Great Mogul, under Aurengzebe, opposed the rise of a political dominion. With his writings, the Granth or holy book, begun by Nanac and continued by his successors, was completed. THE Seikhs are not so much a nation or political confederation as a religious sect. Their origin does not date very far back; their founder, Nanac Schah, or Baba Nanac, having been born in the year 1469, at Talvandi, now named Rajapur, on the river Beas. His descendants are named Before his time the Seikhs had carried weapons, as is Nanac Putra, or the sons of Nanac, a title of honour, whilst permitted to most of the higher castes of the Hindoos, but his followers are called Seikhs, from a Sanscrit word, mean- chiefly for self-defence. Guru Govind took up the doctrine ing a disciple or scholar. Nanac, even as a child, was re- of Nanac, 'that all castes are equal before God,' and showed markable for his piety; and when he grew up spent much that even the lowest and most unwarlike caste might bear of his time in pilgrimages, according to the custom cf the arms as well as the Brahmins. By this doctrine he raised Hindoos. In the year 1527, along with some of his com- up a race of warriors from the lowest mass of the people, panions, he came to the Sultan Baber, whom he endeavoured formerly despised as cowards, and abused as having no to convert; and also to the town of Moultan, which he found means of defence. In this way all distinction of caste was fully stocked with saints, so that he exclaimed, 'I am come abolished among the Seikhs, and complete equality in dress to a land full of pirs (saints), like the holy Ganga when it and other respects established. Each Seikh must, after seeks the sea.' After his wanderings were completed he his initiation (pakul), carry a weapon of steel on his body, returned to the Punjaub, and died at Kirtipur Dehra, on wear a blue garment, allow his hair and beard to grow, the Ravee, where his tomb is still a celebrated place of pil- smoke no tobacco, assume the war-cry, ' Wa guruje ka futgrimage. The design of this singular character seems to tih' (May the guru be vietorious), and change the ploughhave been less to found a new sect than to unite the two share for the sword. Govind also established in Umritsir great religious parties, whose virulent hostility caused so the guru mata, or national council, and gave to the union much misfortune to his native land. This he endeavoured the form of a federative republic. His heart burned with to effect by soft persuasion, and by proclaiming the doc-hatred of the Moslems, and he extended the influence of the trine of the one God, with which he thought to oppose the confederation over the high country in the neighbourhood. mad bigotry and deep-rooted superstition that then pre- In the history of his wars, he has said that under him the vailed. His influence was inherited not by his sons, but bow of the Seikhs was victorious over the sabre of the by certain of his disciples named Guru by the Seikhs. His Mahomedans, and the teaching of the Granth over the first successor was Lehana, who was followed by Amera cowardly doctrines of the Vedas and Shastres. He had no Das, whose office, during Nanac's lifetime, had been to bring successor whose authority was generally recognised, and water from the distant Beas and wash his master's feet. each of the chiefs or sirdars was henceforth equal. The third in order of these gurus had already added some worldly power to the spiritual influence he had inherited. As is usually the case, the reform of Nanac, instead of uniting the old sects, only added a new one to the number, and soon drew on his followers the hatred and persecution of the Mahomedans. This encouraged Har Govind, a warlike guru, to endeavour to give a firmer basis to the sect, in order to enable it to resist with more effect their Mahomedan tyrants. He went about with two swords in his girdle, one, he said, to avenge the death of his father, the other to destroy the lying miracles of Mohamed. Through his influence and institutions, the Seikhs, from a sect of peaceful enthusiasts, were changed into a band of zealous warriors. He died in 1661, but his successor, Tegh Behadur, continuing his policy, elevated the persecuted Seikhs to a brave and warlike nation, struggling for fame, honour, and property, with their former tyrants. The devotee now never laid aside the sword, but swore eternal war and The decline and dissolution of the empire of the Great Mogul at Delhi, the weakness of the authorities in the Punjaub, and the frequent incursions of the Affghans, produced a complete anarchy in the land, where nabobs, rajahs, and princes, religious sects, associations, and chiefs, were all struggling together in the endeavour to appropriate new dominions. The Seikhs no longer needed to keep their confederation secret, but broke out openly in dharwis, or robber-bands, alluring the young and adventurous to their standard by the hope of plunder. The chiefs now maintained their plundering encampments without concealment, and sought fame and reputation by opposing their former rulers. The indolent governors at Lahore were content to repel the danger without striking at its root. In this manner Umritsir and its vicinity became the asylum and refuge of the Seikhs, and soon the centre-point of their authority. Some transitory persecutions by Affghan armies, who defeated them in two severe battles, executed many of the Seikhs, and compelled others to cut off their long hair, served only, as the invaders continually retired across the Indus, to increase the hostility of the Seikhs against the Moslems. The Seikhs regarded those who were slain as martyrs, and resolved to strengthen their yet unconquered fortress, Umritsir. After their second great defeat in 1747, they erected new fortifications of earth at this city, which were named Ram Runi, and, when subsequently enlarged, Ram Gurh. So long as the Mahrattas had a great share in these feuds of the Punjaub, a check was put to the rising power of the Seikhs; but when the former were driven wholly back into the Deccan by the battle of Paniput, in 1761, the Seikhs had full room for action. Next year, however, they were again defeated by the Affghans, near Umritsir, and their holy temple desecrated and destroyed; but immediately on the enemy retiring to Cabul, they returned to the Punjaub with fanatic determination. They attacked the Affghan governor in Sirhind, and destroyed that place to the foundation, because in it the wife and child of Guru Govind had been put to death; and even yet it is thought a meritorious action in a Seikh to pull down three stones from the walls of Sirhind and throw them into the Sutlej. In 1764 they attacked Lahore, which soon yielded to their enthusiastic courage, and took possession of the whole Punjaub, which they have ever since retained. The sirdars then dispersed themselves over its territories, and even to the cast of the Sutlej, with their troops, named misuls, their relations, supporters, and dependants. At that time there were twelve of these misu!s, each with its own name, and which had collected a force of 70,000 horsemen. These are the twelve misuls, or confederated warlike republics of the Seikhs. Each had one or more chiefs or sirdars at its head, the most of them raised by fortunate circumstances from being Jat peasants, mechanics, or herdsmen, to be leaders of robber-bands, and then commanders of armies, with fixed property in land, which they were always ready to maintain by arms, either against their enemies from without, or their own brethren in the faith from within. Most of them could raise only from two to five thousand cavalry, one ten thousand, and two twelve thousand. The twelfth, the Sukur Chukea Misul, was one of the smallest, with only 2500 horsemen, led by the warlike Churut Sing, the grandfather of the well-known Maha Rajah Runjeet Sing. The only source of union among these confederates was their religion, and the assembly of their chiefs twice every year at Umritsir, for certain religious observances and mutual consultation. In these meetings they planned their plundering excursions, which were undertaken either alone or in concert. After the expedition, the land and plunder were divided according to the number of horsemen cach chief had brought with him, which gave occasion to frequent quarrels. In all other respects the misuls were wholly independent, and as it was a point of honour not to give up any offender of their tribe, either for robbery or murder, to another, the custom of private defence and revenge was universal. In the villages, each proprietor surrounded his possessions with a wall and ditch, and built a tower for protection; in the towns, each house was a fortified castle. To such a length was this carried, that many of the fortresses were divided by walls and ditches to defend those who lived in one part from their neighbours in another. Much of the landed property was at the same time held by a kind of feudal tenure from the sirdars, whom the proprietor was bound to follow in time of war. Such was the unsettled and ill-connected condition of the Seikh government when Runjeet Sing rose to the supremacy. He was born on the 2d November, 1782, his father, Maha Sing, being sirdar of one of the misuls noticed above. Maha Sing was so distinguished for his bravery and cunning, that many of the Seikhs joined his standard, in order to share the plunder of his marauding expeditions. Already three of the other misuls were partially dependent on him when he died, only twenty-seven years old, leaving his authority to Runjeet Sing, then only twelve years of age, and blind of one eye from the small-pox. The young sirdar first freed himself from the troublesome authority of his mother by poisoning her when in his seventeenth year, and soon after expelled the confidential vizier and ruled himself. He was wholly uneducated, could neither read nor write, and gave way to every passion. In the years 1795-98, the Affghan army of Schah Zuman fell upon the Punjaub, and the Seikhs, too weak to resist, retired to the mountains. Runjeet Sing followed this course the first two years, but on the third crossed the Sutlej, and levied contributions on the cities there. When the Affghans crossed the Indus, he returned and took possession of Lahore, then governed by three weak sirdars. He then sent some cannon to Schah Zuman, which he had left behind on his retreat, and in return was appointed by him governor of Lahore, which secured the obedience of the Moslem population, whilst his decision and energy restrained the murmurs or subdued the opposition of his brother sirdars. From this influential position, he continued to extend his power over the chiefs whose mutual hostility prevented them making any effectual resistance. In 1805, the power of the British having reached the Sutlej, he entered into a treaty with them, and in 1809, this was renewed at Umritsir, of which he had taken possession. Being fully convinced of the superiority of the British troops, he resigned all pretensions to the country cast of the Sutlej, and, trusting to their honour, withdrew his garrisons from the fortresses there, to employ them in other quarters. The dissensions among the Affghans, caused by various pretenders to the throne of Cabul, greatly favoured his plans; and when one of the claimants, Schah Shuja, fled to him for protection in 1810 with his treasures, he did not scruple to rob him of the last of his jewels. Among them was the Kohinur, or mountain of light, a diamond of pure water, half as large as an egg, and weighing three and a half rupees. In this unprincipled manner, he continued to extend his authority, subdued Moultan in 1818, and in the following year added Kaschmir also to his dominions. He was now acknowledged as the maha rajah, or supreme ruler of the Punjaub, and set himself to confirm the power he had acquired. His troops were trained by French officers, and other military improvements introduced. He continued his military operations almost to the end of his life, extending his empire principally to the west of the Indus, against the fanatical Mahomedans, who made numerous incursions into his territory. His revenue was estimated at two and a half millions sterling, and his army at upwards of eighty thousand men, with an extensive artillery. Since his death, a few years ago, his dominions have fallen into complete anarchy and confusion. The revolutions in the court of Lahore have been more than usually numerous, even in the annals of eastern despotism, and distinguished by more than the common amount of bloodshed, cruelty, and treachery. The chiefs have encouraged the soldiers in license and rebellion, till, unable any longer to restrain them, they have been compelled, for self-preservation, to lead their infuriated followers against the British empire. The results of this attack are too recent or too little known to find a place here, and we shall only add some account of the aspect and character of this singular people, whose history we have now shortly sketched. Travellers describe the Seikhs as a strong and healthy race, rather slenderly made, but with athletic sinewy limbs. Their temper and habits are formed for a military life, and their disposition is wild and fanatical. Few of them can read or write, and most of the chiefs intrust their accounts and correspondence to Hindoos or Mahomedans, who live among them and learn sufficient Persian for this purpose. Many of them understand the written dialect of the Punjaub, but entertain an unconquerable aversion to the Persian or Arabic; hatred to everything Mahomedan having been implanted in them from their youth. Most of their transactions are verbal, their memory is good, and their customs preserved by tradition. Captain Murray, who had frequent intercourse with them, gives a very unfavourable picture of their character. Falsehood, deceit, and perjury prevail in all their transactions; for money, fear, or favour, they will swear any false oath; and are engaged in constant disputes and quarrels with each other about the division of their land or property. In such cases the accused often appeal to the judgment of God, when the victor must dip his hand in boiling oil, or carry a red-hot ploughshare fifty or a hundred steps in his bare hand. Charms and imprecations have a great influence on the fancy and actions both of the chiefs and people, and many diseases and misfortunes are ascribed to the influence of the evil eye.' As in our ancient trials for witchcraft, it is thought sufficient proof of guilt to find in the house of the accused an image of wax, coloured threads, small bones, or such things. They are also great observers of fortunate or unfortunate days, and draw omens of success or failure from the appearance of particular animals. This general prevalence of the same superstitions in the most distant parts of the earth, is a very singular fact in the history of human nature. The care of justice, if we can give it this name, is in the hands of the sirdars or chiefs, who must be paid for everything. The losing party in any process has to pay a fine as a punishment; the winning party must give a present as a token of gratitude. Such payments constitute the chief income of the under officials, and, as may be expected, they often look more to them than to the true merits of the case. For crimes, the punishment was rarely capital; mostly fines, imprisonment, or mutilation by cutting off the ears or nose. Punishment did not dishonour a person, and criminals were not uncommonly taken from prison to fill some post of authority. When anything was stolen, the zemindar of the district had to make it good, it being taken for granted that he was the concealer of the thief. The uncertain laws for the transmission of property gave occasion to many lawsuits and impositions. Everything was in a manner left to the caprice of the sirdars, who could levy taxes on the people at their pleasure. Commerce suffered from the same cause, the chiefs laying any impost they chose on goods passing through their territories. The descendants of Nanac were alone in some measure free from these extortions, out of reverence for their ancestor, and merchants were in the habit of putting their caravans under the charge of one of these favoured individuals, who conveyed them to their destination. Even in their family relations, the Seikhs are not distinguished by greater virtue or regularity. Marriages take place very early, and are often managed by the parents for the most selfish and mercenary considerations. Some promise their daughters to two, three, or more suitors, receiving money and presents from each, and if they belong to a different chief no recourse can be had. Hence arise innumerable feuds, and the women who have been thus bartered away without their own consent, are, as might be expected, not remarkable for fidelity or chastity. Indeed all feelings of honour or modesty are wholly wanting on both sides. Charity, given from motives of compassion to the suffering, is never heard of among them. It is altogether a matter of religion to support the fakirs belonging to the various sects. Each of these sects has its temple, with fields and villages attached, to which the various offerings in corn or money are given. At some places of pilgrimage there are charity-boxes, from the receipts of which strangers are supported for a certain number of days gratis. Each temple has its servants to collect these gifts. Many of the public charitable institutions of the Mahomedans, supported by the Mogul government on a large scale, have fallen into complete decay under the Seikhs. They have, at the same time, retained several of the most barharous customs of the Hindoos, as the suttees, or burning of widows with their husband's body. This does not often happen, but is forbidden by no law, and when once the resolution is expressed the unfortunate victim is not allowed to draw back. The mob surround her person and dwelling, and by shouts, tumult, and persuasion, leave her no time for reflection till her resolution is put in execution and their victim hurried into the flames. Some parts of their holy book have been translated, and show a spirit of piety and devotion very inconsistent with these cruel and barbarous customs. One part contains Nanac's hymn of praise to the Deity, from which the following are a few verses :—-- Thy gates, how wonderful are they! thy palace, how wonderful, in which thou rulest and reignest over all! Numberless and infinite are the voices that proclaim thy praise; how many are the Peris who honour thee with song and shout! Iswara, Brahma, Devi praise thee; they praise thy majesty in thy gates. The righteous man praises thee in his inmost thoughts, the pious proclaims thy honour aloud. Thou art, thou art the Lord of truth, faithful and just. Thou art, thou wast, thou passest not away, thou the supporter of all that exists. Thon doest what seems good unto thee; no other being comes nigh to thee.' In Moultan, Burnes visited one of their temples, where the priest opened the holy book and touched it with his forehead, all the Seikhs present bowing to the ground. He then read the first paragraph and explained it: Ye have all sinned; purify yourselves, lest evil come upon you;' a great truth, expressed with much simplicity, and not unlike same passages of the gospel. Such teaching might be expected to produce a good effect on the minds of the hearers, but the hearts on which it falls are harder than stone. ADMIRAL SIR PHILIP DURHAM. ADMIRAL SIR PHILIP DURHAM will be ever remembered as one of the most conspicuous actors in the last great war in which our country was involved. All the qualities necessary for success in the profession he had adopted, seem to have met in his person. Kind, generous, and openhearted, he was the very beau ideal of the British sailor; and while these qualities secured him the esteem of his inferiors, his natural sharpness of intellect, undaunted courage, and persevering application to the details of a sea-faring life, were such as to win the confidence of those placed in authority over him, and at length to raise him to the first rank in his profession. We deplore the necessity which called such spirits from the quiet pursuit of useful and productive occupations to waste their energies in the service of the god of war; but, on the other hand, we have reason for gratulation in the circumstance, that when the emergency occurs, our country can at all times send forth its heroes with abilities equal to the occasion. The memoir of Sir Philip Durham, by his nephew, which we quote below, is an ably drawn up and business-like book, and from it we propose making a few extracts. Philip Charles Durham was the descendant of an ancient Scottish family. He was born in the year 1763, and had only attained his fourteenth year when he was entered midshipman on board the Trident war-ship of 64 guns. One of the first pieces of service which he was called on to perform, gave occasion for the display of that kindness and considerateness, which, during his long and arduous career, never seemed to fail him. The master of his ship had pressed some men from an East India merchant vessel, and it became Mr Durham's duty to bring them off to his ship. 'One of the pressed men had brought a small venture with him from China, which in the confusion he forgot to bring off. He requested Mr Durham's permission to fetch it, which was granted, and the boat put back for that purpose. Two years afterwards, the young midshipman was with his ship in the West Indies, and it having accidentally taken fire, Mr Durham was necessitated to ask a passage home in some of the vessels lying at the station - The first he applied to was the Isis, of fifty guns, but was refused; he then tried the Snake sloop of war, commanded by Captain (afterwards Admiral) Douglas, who also de • Memoir of the Naval Life and Services of Admiral Sir Philip C. H. C. Durham, G C.B. By his nephew, Captain A. MURRAY. London: Murray. 1816. clined taking him on board for want of room, having a number of invalids from the fleet. Mr Durham was again getting into his boat, much disappointed, when the gunner, who was fishing the anchor, looked at him and said, 'Were you midshipman of the Trident in the Downs in 1777?' Mr Durham replied that he was. Do you remember being sent to bring off the men that were pressed from the Royal Henry East Indiaman, and putting back when one of them told you he had forgotten his little venture he had brought from China? Yes.' Well, I am that man; I am now gunner of this ship, and have a large cabin, and if the captain will let you come on board, you shall live in it and be no encumbrance to him.' Mr Durham gladly accepted the offer, got the captain's leave, and sailed for England.' 6 'Mr Durham was picked up by another boat, and, together with Mr Williams, the carpenter, was carried on board Lord Howe's flag-ship, the Victory, and was immediately put to bed. Mr Williams died a few hours afterwards, but Mr Durham soon recovered. It is a curious fact that the body of the marine who clung to Mr Durham was washed on shore about a fortnight afterwards, with the waistcoat firmly twisted round his arm; a pencil-case bearing Mr Durham's initials was found in the pocket, and restored to its owner. Another interesting relic of the wreck was recovered during Colonel Pasley's operations, in 1841, and which Sir Philip Durham identified as having been his property: it was a stamp he employed for marking his books, linen, &c. The types were in a perfect state of preservation, though they had been in the great deep for nearly sixty years.' ship to be heeled more. The captain then ordered the ship to be righted, and I called the drummer and made him beat to quarters, that the starboard guns might be run out. The guns were begun to be run out on the weather side, when the ship took a sally, or tremulous motion. Looking up aloft, I saw that the masts continued to fall over, and just then I observed the captain trying to open the door of the admiral's cabin, but in consequence of the vessel being so much heeled, he was unable to do so. She was evidently going over, and I heard Lieutenant Richardson from the poop exclaim, ‘It's all over, but I must try and save this coat.' It was the first time he had put on his lieutenant's uniform, and he immediately jumped overboard, with the coat under his arm. Following his example, I pulled off my coat and leapt overboard. I soon got hold of a hamOn arriving in London, Mr Durham learned that the mock that had floated off the deck. At this moment I was Edgar was fitting out at Woolwich, under the orders of twice carried down by a marine, whom I shook off by tearhis old captain (Elliot). Proceeding thither, his services | ing the waistcoat loose by which he clung. I then by were gladly accepted, and in January, 1780, he sailed in throwing my arms about got hold of a spar, and was carthe squadron commanded by Sir George Rodney. In a few ried into the wake of the ship, where I got hold of the sigweeks it was his fortune to be engaged in the celebrated nal halyards (a curious circumstance, as I was signal action off Cape St Vincent, and immediately afterwards officer). I continued to hang by them until one of the seato see the first gun fired at the great siege of Gibraltar, in men swam up and said, Give me hold of these halyards, which he was employed during its continuance. In the next and I will tow you up.' This he did, and I sat on the year, Midshipman Durham was promoted to be acting mast-head for near an hour; the boats being busied in lieutenant and aide-de-camp to the brave old Admiral picking up people who were in more imminent danger. I Kempenfelt in the Victory. He afterwards served in the now observed the captain hanging to the weather mizensame capacity in the Royal George, at the sinking of top-sail yard-arm, supported by a seaman, and I desired which Mr Durham made one of the many singular escapes the first boat that came towards me to pick him up first, of his eventful life. This magnificent vessel was under which was done.' orders to sail for the relief of Gibraltar. During her last cruise she had made rather more water than usual, and after a strict survey the carpenters discovered a leak, and stopped it. It was likewise observed that the pipe which admitted the water into the hold for cleansing the ship, was out of repair. This pipe is usually placed about three feet below the surface of the water; to remove the old pipe, therefore, and to insert a new one, it became necessary to heel the Royal George on one side, so as to raise the mouth of the pipe out of the water. This operation brought the larboard port-hole sills even with the water. A lighter came on the lower side of the ship and put her cargo of rum on board, the weight of which, with that of the men engaged in hoisting in the casks, caused the Royal George to heel considerably more, and brought the lower deck port-holes under the water, which now dashed in in such quantities to her hold, that she began gradually to settle down. The carpenter twice warned the first lieutenant (Sanders) of the danger the ship was in, but he would not listen to him, and delayed giving the order to right the ship till it was too late; and a slight breeze springing up, heeled her completely on her broadside, when guns, shot, and everything moveable fell to leeward, and rendered it an impossibility to right her. She sank almost immediately. The watch on deck, consisting of two hundred and thirty men, were saved by running up the rigging, and were taken off by the boats which came to their assistance, and which likewise succeeded in picking up about seventy who had escaped by swimming; amongst the latter were the Captain (Waghorn) and two acting lieutenants (Durham and Richardson). By this calamity about 900 persons met with a watery grave, among whom was the brave old admiral, Kempenfelt, who at the time was sitting writing in his cabin. He was in the seventieth year of his age.' Mr Durham's own relation of this lamentable event is too interesting to be omitted:'I was walking the quarterdeck with the captain (Waghorn), and had frequent communications with the men who were boring the hole in the side of the ship. The carpenter then came up, and said that the ship was taking in a great deal of water at her lee-ports, and that he thought it was time to right her. The first lieutenant and the carpenter immediately quitted the deck. Two or three minutes afterwards I heard the men who were over the side boring the hole for the stop-cock, call out avast, avast heeling, she is high enough. The ship is rising out of the water. Up to that moment they had been calling for the After several arrangements for the accommodation of Lieutenant Durham, he was ultimately transferred to the Union as acting lieutenant, and sailed in 1782 to the relief of Gibraltar. Here his vessel had a severe engagement with the Santissima Trinidad, of 112 guns, in which Lieutenant Durham was honourably distinguished. In 1784, Mr Durham was appointed to the Unicorn frigate, then lying at Plymouth, and bound for the coast of Africa, but before she sailed he fell into bad health and was obliged to go to the hospital. After his recovery, he thought it time to go and see his father and mother, from whom he had been absent seven years, and knowing them to be at Bath, he proceeded there without apprising them of his intention. In the morning he walked into the pumproom, and soon recognised his father. He went up to him and said, I suppose you are from the north, sir?' He answered that he was. They then got into a general sort of conversation. At last his father said, 'I must wish you good morning, sir, I am going home to breakfast.' Mr Durham said, 'Won't you take me with you?' His father looked hard at him, and exclaimed, 'Good God, you are my son Philip! when you left home you were a white-headed laddie-how you are changed. Come, your mother will be delighted to see you.' He accompanied his father and mother to Scotland, where he soon entered into all the country amusements their place afforded, but he soon tired and resolved to go abroad." After a visit to France of some eighteen months, Mr Durham grew tired of inaction, and returned to England for fresh employment. He was not long idle, as, immediately on his arrival, he found his old commander, Elliot, |