Occasionally. Suspecting that the object was to decoy us within reach of some larger vessel, we singled out one of them and made at her, the others, however, supporting her so well that, some of our rigging being shot away, we made off shore to repair, the gunboats following. Having thus got them to some distance, and repaired damages, we set all sail, and again ran in shore, in the hope of getting between them and the land, so as to cut off some of their number. Perceiving our intention, they all made for the port as before, keeping up a smart fight, in which our foretopgallant-yard was so much injured, that we had to shift it, and were thus left astern. The remainder of the day was employed in repairing damages, and the gun-boats not venturing out again, at 9 P.M. we again made off shore. Convinced that something more than ordinary had actuated the gun-boats to decoy us, just before daylight on the 6th, we again ran in for Barcelona, when the trap manifested itself in the form of a large ship running under the land, and bearing E.S.E. On hauling towards her, she changed her course in chace of us, and was shortly made out to be a Spanish xebec frigate. As some of my officers had expressed dissatisfaction at not having been permitted to attack the frigate fallen in with on the 21st of December, after her suspicions had been lulled by our device of hoisting Danish colours, &c., I told them they should now have a fair fight, notwithstanding that, by manning the two prizes sent to Mahon, our numbers had been reduced to fifty-four-officers and boys included. Orders were then given to pipe all hands, and prepare for action. Accordingly we made towards the frigate, which was now coming down under steering-sails. At 9-30 A.M., she fired a gun, and hoisted Spanish colours, which the Speedy acknowledged by hoisting American colours, our object being, as we were now exposed to her full broadside, to puzzle her, till we got on the other tack, when we ran up the English ensign, and immediately afterwards encountered her broadside without damage. Shortly afterwards she gave us another broadside, also without effect. My orders were, not to fire a gun till we were close to her; when, running under her lee, we locked our yards amongst her rigging, and in VOL. CII.

this position returned our broadside, such as it was. To have fired our popgun 4-pounders at a distance would have been to have thrown away the ammunition; but the guns being doubly, and, as I afterwards learned, trebly shotted, and being elevated, they told admirably upon her main deck; the first discharge, as was subsequently ascertained, killing the Spanish captain and the boatswain. My reason for locking our small craft in the enemy's rigging was the one upon which I mainly relied for victory, namely, that from the height of the frigate out of the water, the whole of her shot must necessarily go over our heads, whilst our guns being elevated, would blow up her main deck. The Spaniards speedily found out the disadvantage under which they were fighting, and gave the order to board the Speedy. But as this order was as distinctly heard by us as by them, we avoided it at the moment of execution by sheering off sufficiently to prevent the movement, giving them a volley of musketry and a broadside before they could recover themselves. Twice was this manoeuvre repeated, and twice thus averted. The Spaniards finding that they were only punishing themselves, gave up further attempts to board, and stood to their guns, which were cutting up our rigging from stem to stern, but doing little further damage; for after the lapse of an hour the loss to the Speedy was only two men killed and four wounded. This kind of combat, however, could not last. Our rigging being cut up and the Speedy's sails riddled with shot, I told the men that they must either take the frigate or be themselves taken, in which case the Spaniards would give no quarter-whilst a few minutes energetically employed on their part would decide the matter in their own favour. The doctor, Mr. Guthrie, who, I am happy to say, is still living to peruse this record of his gallantry, volunteered to take the helm ; leaving him therefore for the time both commander and crew of the Speedy, the order was given to board, and in a few seconds every man was on the enemy's deck-a feat rendered the more easy as the doctor placed the Speedy close alongside with admirable skill. For a moment the Spaniards seemed taken by surprise, as though unwilling to believe that so small a crew would have E E

the audacity to board them; but soon recovering themselves, they made a rush to the waist of the frigate, where the fight was for some minutes gallantly carried on. Observing the enemy's colours still flying, I directed one of our men immediately to haul them down, when the Spanish crew, without pausing to consider by whose orders the colours had been struck, and naturally believ ing it the act of their own officers, gave in, and we were in possession of the Gamo, frigate, of thirty-two heavy guns and 319 men, who, an hour and a half before, had looked upon us as a certain if not an easy prey. Our loss in boarding was Lieutenant Parker, severely wounded in several places, one seaman killed and three wounded, which, with those previously killed and wounded, gave a total of three seamen killed, and one officer and seventeen men wounded. The Gamo's loss was Captain de Torres, the boatswain, and thirteen seamen killed, together with forty-one wounded; her casualties thus exceeding the whole number of officers and crew on board the Speedy."

The victor carried his prize and his prisoners safely into Port Mahon. Cochrane's next remarkable exploit was the attack, under Captain Pulling, of the Kangaroo, on the fort of Oropesa, the armed vessels, gun-boats, and troops therein. After a long-continued action, in which both vessels expended nearly all their ammunition, the fort was carried, the vessels sunk, captured, or destroyed. On Cochrane's return to Port Mahon, he was destined to a deep mortification. He had not been awarded the promotion he had so nobly won. The Admiralty had not only refused to purchase his splendid prize into the service, but had actually sold her to the Dey of Algiers! and Cochrane, instead of commanding the efficient vessel his own valour had won, was sent to sea again in his little tub. Nor was this all. His superiors seemed afraid that he should do too much, and ordered him to convoy a mail-boat to Gibraltar. Nor was even this all. This luckless mission was to reverse the tables-the capturer was to become the captive. Cochrane had contrived to do a little business dehors the strict line of his duty. He sighted some Spanish vessels, which he chased ashore near Alicante. He had been forbidden to communicate with the shore, but he had not been

The

forbidden to set fire to ships ashore; so he set them on fire. The light attracted three French line-of-battle ships. Cochrane, who never imagined that anything could take him, thought they were galleons, and gave chase. On discovering his mistake, he used his utmost efforts to baffle his pursuers, and dared, for several hours, the shot of the liners as he attempted to run through them. At length the Dessaiz got the brig within musket-shot, and at that distance discharged her whole broadside. Speedy ought to have been annihilated, but she escaped without any other injury than such as rendered it impossible that she could get away, and the colours were hauled down. Thus ended the cruise of the Speedy, which, in thirteen months, had captured upwards of fifty vessels, with 122 guns, and 534 prisonThe French officers treated Cochrane with distinguished honour. While a prisoner on board the Dessaix, Cochrane was an involuntary witness of the defeat of Sir J. Saumarez's squadron at Algesiraz, and the capture of the Hannibal. The officers and crews of the captured vessels were soon after exchanged; Lord Cochrane was permitted to go to Gibraltar on parole, and was finally exchanged for the second captain of the San Antonio, taken in the subsequent action of Sir J. Saumarez with a French and Spanish squadron.

ers.

It was not until the 8th of August that Lord Cochrane received the promotion due not merely by merit, but by the rules of the service, for his splendid exploit; and then he was placed at the bottom of the list, below those who had received rank subsequent to the capture of El Gamo.

Lord Cochrane had requested promotion for his lieutenant, Parker, who had been severely wounded in boarding the Spaniard. This request was refused altogether, on two grounds, either of which cause a blush to rise on the perusal-first, that it was not usual to promote two officers for such a service; secondly, that the small number of men killed on board the Speedy did not warrant the application!

Lord Cochrane's persistence in advocating his own just claims and those of his officers were fatal to his prospects. He became an abhorrence to the Admiralty, and was refused further employment. Indeed, we can well conceive the disturbance of the official hive

when an officer of the navy ventured to demand promotion for himself and followers, employment, and the opportunity of exceeding his past deeds! Blind even in their generation, his requests were refused. They had done wisely for themselves had they secured their peace by sending their troublesome officer where he would have been out of harm's way to them, and only pernicious to the enemy. The navy at that time was one vast sink of abuses; and the restless and ill-used officer probably stirred up the vile mess in a most unpleasant manner. What results to himself and to the nation his energy might have effected remain undeveloped; for, finding that he had no chance of employment, Cochrane remembered his defective education, and with a modesty and soundness of judgment that cannot be too highly appreciated, he put himself to school! He entered himself at the College of Edinburgh, and at that institution, then ruled by professors of the highest eminence-Dugald Stewart among themhe devoted himself to intense study. The progress an intellect so acute, so judicial, aided by a will so strong, could make in a short time, cannot be measured. It is probable that his practical faculties were strengthened a hundredfold by the assimilation of that moral and scientific learning which study offered to his apprehension.

This course of study was broken by the rupture of the peace of Amiens in 1803. Cochrane asked for a ship. Things had not much mended at the Admiralty. Earl St. Vincent was now at its head. He was an upright man, but he was offended at the dictatorial manner in which Cochrane, and, still more, Cochrane's friends, pressed his claims; and old foes remained. It was only after a keen contest that Cochrane was informed that he was appointed to the Arab. Full of hope, and picturing to himself a "courser of waters," he hastened to take the command. To his astonishment he was shown an old collier, recently purchased into the service, stripped to her ribs! She was completed for the most part with old timber from broken-up vessels. In this disgraceful embarcation Cochrane was sent to watch the Boulogne flotilla. The Speedy had belied her name, but she could sail a little; the Arab could not sail at all. With the wind abaft she

would drift across the Channel; she was then anchored until the tide turned. and would then drift back. Cochrane officially informed the Admiralty that his vessel was unfit for the service. He was, in consequence, sent to cruise in the North Sea to protect the fisheries; but on his cruising ground no ships ever fished, and there were no fisheries to protect! He was, in fact, sent out of the way. This blank in Cochrane's life, natural and professional, lasted about fourteen months, and then there was a favourable change. Lord St. Vincent left the Admiralty, and was succeeded by a Scotchman, an able man, Lord Melville. The Duke of Hamilton, a connection of the Cochranes, pressed his gallant countryman's claims. Lord Melville admitted the injustice with which he had been treated, and appointed him to a fine new frigate, the Pallas, of 38 guns; he did more,-he sent the Pallas for a month's cruise off the Western Islands, expressly to give her captain the chance of capturing a few rich prizes to compensate his wretched exile to the North Seas. Cochrane fitted his ship with the utmost speed; but the seamen had been so disheartened by his barren cruise to the North, that they would not join, and for the first and only time in his career Cochrane had recourse to a pressgang. Once at sea, the old enterprise brought back the old luck. He was working up towards his station when he captured a valuable ship from the Havannah to Cadiz-she was part of a convoy; a few hours afterwards another, still richer, was taken; and two days after, a third, the richest of all; the next day a letter-of-marque, with more dollars. The arrival of these prizes at Plymouth created an immense sensation; still greater was the sensation caused by the arrival of the Pallas herself, with three golden candlesticks, each five feet high, surmounting the mast-heads! A less-esteemed part of the prize were some bales of Papal bulls, dispensations, &c.

The dollars that resulted from the captures of ten days, launched the fortunate commander on a new career. When the Pallas followed her prizes into port, the country was on the eve of a general election. Cochrane selected the immaculate borough of Honiton for his constituency. His recent cruise had made him famous, and fame had

exaggerated his spoils to a fabulous sum (the good electors had made no allowance for the evaporating process of the prize courts): a seaman was known to scatter his money in reckless profusion. Here was a catch-a hero, a man with money burning in his pockets, and a seaman! It must be confessed that Cochrane, however vehement his denunciations of Admiralty abuses, and however ultra his Radicalism afterwards, had at this time not the slightest idea of purity of election. He was prepared to come into Parliament by purchase, and selected Honiton as within his price. But when the day of election approached he found he had met his match. His opponent was prepared to bribe higher than himself. He therefore refused to pay anything. His popularity instantly waned; and, although many voted gratis for so popular a man, the majority voted for his opponent, and each received £5. After the election, Cochrane assembled his staunch few, and presented them with £10 each. The deserters hung their heads with shame, and when a short revolving time brought about a new election, they returned to their colours, and Cochrane was elected by a large majo rity. The electors awaited the rewards of virtue, but none came. Cochrane had promised nothing, and paid nothing. Soon after the Admiralty ordered the Pallas to sea. The fiery captain was first doomed to have his patience tried by convoying a fleet of tortoise-like merchant ships to Quebec. On his return he was sent to the French coast. On this cruise Cochrane performed another of those exploits which succeed by their defiance of probability and calculation. While off the Cordovan Light, at the entrance of the Bordeaux river, Cochrane obtained information that several corvettes were in that stream, one of which was stationed as guardship. Cochrane determined to cut her out. The boats of the frigate, with the whole of the crew except forty men, were despatched under Lieut. Halswell on this service. The corvette was found twenty miles up the river, under protection of two batteries. She was carried after a short action, and proved to be the Tapageuse, of 14 guns. Scarcely had the prize been secured, when two other corvettes came to the rescue. Halswell manned the guns of his prize, beat off

his assailants, and carried off his capture. In the meanwhile, a reverse game had been well-nigh carried on at the mouth of the river, and Her Majesty's frigate Pallas had a narrow chance of being captured by French corvettes. Three of these vessels suddenly appeared; but they paused on finding that their enemy was a frigate. Cochrane and his forty men put a bold face on the matter, and got the frigate under weigh. This was enough. The French had no suspicion of the weakness of the foe, and made sail. First one was chased ashore, then another, then the third Two of these, and perhaps the other, were destroyed. Shortly afterwards, Cochrane, by a bold manoeuvre, ran inshore the French guard frigate Minerve, of 40 guns, off the Aix Roads. A desperate action ensued, in which the Minerve was aided by three powerful brigs; but Cochrane had almost subdued his opponent, when two other French frigates came up, and the Pallas, which was much cut up, escaped with difficulty. As in the case of El Gamo, Halswell, the brave lieutenant who had carried the Tapageuse, was not promoted for that gallant service.

In August, 1806, Lord Cochrane was appointed to a fine frigate, the Imperieuse -a name he made famous in the navy -and sent for a short and active cruise on the French coast. Parliament was dissolved very soon after his return. As it would have been worse than useless to solicit the sweet voices of the Honiton electors after their recent treatment, Cochrane became a candidate for Westminster, in conjunction with Sir Francis Burdett. Their watchwords were-the reform of abuses, and measures not men. The rival candidates were the illustrious Sheridan, Mr. Elliot, and Mr. Paul. Their return was triumphant. "Their election for Westminster," says the Annual Register for the year 1807, "was a complete triumph over aristocratical combination, and all parties and factions whatever.

The blooming virtues of Lord Cochrane, uniting the genius and generous ardour of his family, with the most consummate skill in his profession, and an audacious and fortunate boldness, has classed him for years, though yet a very young man, among the most distinguished heroes of the age. Nor has his political courage and the purity of his views shone forth less conspicuously,

whether in his harangues to the people or his speeches and conduct in Parliament, than his intrepidity did on the bosom of the ocean, or the shores of the enemy."* In his place in Parliament Cochrane fully realized the prophecies of the past. He showed himself as enterprising, as persevering, and as formidable to the Ministry as he had done at sea to the foe. He had brought forward two motions on sinecures and naval abuses, when it was thought necessary to cut short his Parliamentary career. There was but one way to silence the senator, and that was by calling into action his superior duty as an officer. With bitter distaste the Ministry were compelled to send their enemy to reap fresh honours and power. The Imperieuse was sent to cruise in the Mediterranean. The perfidious seizure of the Royal family of Spain and the occupation of their country by the French, had suddenly converted the Spaniards from obsequious allies to deadly foes; and the English were now engaged in liberating the nation they had just before been fighting and plundering. Cochrane's duty was to harass the French on their own coast, and on the coast of Spain, and most effectually did he perform the duty. He swept the sea of their craft; he cleaned out every harbour; he caught innumerable gun-boats; he destroyed batteries, signal-posts, and towers; tens of thousands of soldiers stood to their arms along their shores, and were rendered unavailable for their Emperor's campaigns. On the coast of Spain he relieved beleaguered towns, captured small fortresses, supported the Spanish guerillas, and stopped the march of

The actions of Lord Cochrane throughout his career were 80 conspicuously public that the volumes of the Annual Register afford materials for a biography almost complete. This will make it possible to compress into a few pages the history of a life crowded with surprising incidents; for not only can each heroic deed be read in these volumes in all its particulars, and occupying its proper place in the general theatre of events, but the narratives, being written unconscious of the future, present the most vivid pictures conceivable of the feelings and opinions of the people of that day.

the French armies along the coast roads so effectually, that months of precious time and many valiant lives were expended in constructing new roads inland. One considerable French force was so thoroughly baffled by the fire of the Imperieuse from the sea, and of the guerillas from the hills, that the column, decimated, exhausted, and dispirited, broke and retreated, and the commander, not daring to face his general, blew out his brains. The heroic defence of Fort Trinidad by Cochrane and a party of his marines long retarded the fall of the town and castle of Rosas, and was the cause of great loss to the French. The services of Lord Cochrane on this duty produced the greatest effect on the campaign in the south of Spain, and added fresh lustre to his reputation; but the Ministry and the Admiralty had no praise for their energetic officer. When, after a glorious cruise of eighteen months, his ship was paid off, his reward was the remark that he had "expended more sails, stores, gunpowder, and shot, than had been used by any other captain in the service." The immense effect produced by his single frigate in paralyzing the enemy's force struck him so powerfully, that he thought that were he intrusted with the direction of an adequate squadron of small cruisers, and permitted to take possession of the French islands in the Bay of Biscay, he could keep the French seaboard in such a state of alarm, that the French armies must of necessity stay at home to guard their own towns. He had written to ask permission to come home to lay his plans before the Government, when the Government sent for him for purposes of their own. A great plan had been submitted to them; but though there had been heads capable of conceiving a bold design, none of the naval officers to whom it was proposed had the courage to undertake its execution. A large French fleet, secured by powerful batteries and a boom, lay blockaded in the Basque Roads, and it was thought they might be destroyed were proper means launched by an unshaken hand. Lord Cochrane pronounced the scheme practicable, and readily supplied a plan suggested by his daring spirit, assisted by the scientific and mechanical knowledge acquired by study. But he refused to undertake the task. Lord Gambier,