as in his first
frigate, is a lesson for all in authority. Nor will his personal
qualities be less admired: the honourable independence which he
maintained as an officer and a peer, and the moral excellence which
marked his life, and was finally proved on his death-bed.

And here I may relate an anecdote, as the praise it gives is only for
the subject of the biography, and for which I am indebted to
Vice-Admiral Sir Fleetwood Pellew. Soon after the first appearance of
this work, one of the first officers in the French navy, Vice-Admiral
Bergeret, whose name appears more than once in the following pages,
presented a copy to a young relative he was sending to sea, and bade him
to learn from the example it afforded to become all that his friends and
his country could desire.

Lord Exmouth's attack on Algiers, the most memorable occasion on which
men-of-war have attacked fortifications, is peculiarly instructive now.
The immediate destruction of the enemy's works opposed to the _Queen
Charlotte_, and the comparative impunity she thus obtained, shows the
wisdom of laying the ships as close as possible, where the concentrated
fire of her batteries may overwhelm the enemy, and destroy the few guns
which alone can be opposed to her; whereas, by anchoring at a distance,
the enemy's guns from a great extent of the works may be trained to bear
on her, while her own shot strike with uncertain aim and diminished
effect. The results of this latter course may be learnt from the fate of
the floating batteries at the siege of Gibraltar, and from the
_Impregnable_ at Algiers; the ships having anchored at too great a
distance, were exposed to a destructive fire, while their own attack was
comparatively harmless.

This biography of Lord Exmouth was written at the desire and under the
eye of his eldest brother; in youth his second father, and through life
his confidential friend. Every incident relating to points of service
was supplied or corrected by officers personally engaged; and the whole
was finally revised by four officers who were the most constantly and
intimately acquainted with the Admiral--Mr. Gaze, master of the fleet in
the Mediterranean and at Algiers, and who sailed with him in every ship
from 1793 to the last day of his command; Sir Christopher Cole and
Captain Crease, his intimate friends; and his only surviving sailor son,
Captain, now Vice-Admiral Sir Fleetwood Pellew.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

FAMILY HISTOR