also in the establishment and support of its charitable
institutions.

CHAPTER VII.

1807.

Sir James is called into active service.--Joins the Channel
Fleet as second in command.--Shifts his Flag from the San Josef
to the Prince of Wales.--His decisive conduct.--Anecdote of the
Prince of Wales' Men.--Change of Ministry.--Sir James leaves
the Channel Fleet, and returns to Guernsey.--Is offered the
Command in the East Indies.--Letter on that occasion.

Early in the year 1807 Sir James was called into more active service.
The enemy's fleet at Brest had again become formidable. Earl St.
Vincent was appointed to command the Channel fleet, and immediately
applied for Sir James to be second in command. To make him eligible
for this, he was promoted to the rank of Vice-admiral; and on the 7th
of January he received orders to hoist his flag, blue at the fore, on
board the San Josef, of 112 guns. As the noble Earl was unable from
ill health to keep the sea in the Hibernia, his flag-ship, the whole
responsibility fell on Sir James.

The San Josef, one of the finest ships in the navy, had been taken in
the battle of the 14th of February 1797; and, having since that
period been almost constantly employed, was in need of a thorough
repair. In February she became so leaky, that Sir James was obliged to
shift his flag into the Prince of Wales, Captain Bedford, and send the
San Josef into Plymouth to be repaired; and, it being ascertained that
it would take more than a year before she could be ready, the officers
and men were turned over to the Ville de Paris, which was ordered to
fit for his flag.

Sir James's activity in blockading the enemy was unremitting. The
fleet consisted of twenty-seven sail of the line, nine of which were
three-deckers. It was his custom, every day that the weather
permitted, to stand towards the Black Rocks in a line of battle, and
off in a line of bearing, always communicating with the in-shore
squadron.

On one occasion, while the weather had been thick for several days,
the signal was made from the Hibernia for the enemy's fleet to
leeward. The English fleet bore up in chase; and, although the Prince
of Wales was the worst-sailing ship in the fleet, by carrying a great
press of sail she became the headmost. The wind was from the west, and
the fleet was standing in for Brest, the French coast being a lee
shore. Captain Bedford, who was not so well acquainted