e of the Heavenly grace, to pour out the
public expression of their thanksgiving to their almighty Preserver. The
scene was deeply impressive; and it is earnestly to be hoped that many a
poor fellow who listened, perhaps for the first time in his life, with
unquestionable sincerity and humility to the voice of instruction, will
be found steadily prosecuting, in the strength of God, the good
resolutions that he may on that solemn occasion have formed, until he be
able to say, as one of the greatest generals of antiquity did, that "it
was good for him to have been afflicted; for before he was afflicted he
went astray, but that afterwards he was not ashamed to keep God's word."

In the course of a few days the private passengers and most of the
sailors of our party were dispersed in various directions; and the
troops, after having incurred to the excellent inhabitants of Falmouth,
and the adjacent towns, a debt of gratitude which none of them can ever
hope to repay, were embarked for Chatham.

I think you must be already sensible that the circumstances of our
situation on board the _Kent_ did not enable us conscientiously to save
a single article, either of public or private property, from the flames;
indeed, the only thing I preserved--with the exception of forty or fifty
sovereigns, which I hastily tied up in my pocket handkerchief, and put
into my wife's hands, at the moment she was lifted into the boat, as a
provision for herself and her companions against the temporary want to
which they might be exposed on some foreign shore--was the pocket
compass, which you yourself presented to me.[16]

But I would have you to be assured, that the total abandonment of
individual interests on the part of the officers of the ship, and of the
31st regiment, was occasioned by no want of self-possession, nor even,
in all cases, of opportunities to attend to them; but to a sincere
desire to avoid even the appearance of selfishness, at moments when the
valuable lives of their sailors and soldiers were at stake. And this
observation applies with still greater force to the senior officers in
both services, whose cabins being upon the upper deck were accessible
during the whole day; and where many portable articles of value were
deposited, which could have been very easily carried off, had those
officers been disposed to devote to their own concerns even a portion of
that precious time, and of those active exertions, which they
unremittin