of the wished for ships was descried; she was called the Nostra Senhora de Cabadonga, and mounted 40 guns; and the treasure in silver specie and ingots, with the other effects on board, amointed, to £313,000. sterling. The Centurion, though she mounted 60 guns, had but 227 men on board; and the Spaniard was full manned. An engagement ensued, in which the bravery and skill of the English prevailed against superiority of numbers: after having 67 men killed and 84 wounded, the commander of the galleon struck his colours, and surrendered thém himself into commodore Anson's hands, who lost only two men, and only one lieutenant and 16 private seamen wounded. He returned with his rich prize to Canton, where he put the treasure on board the Centurion, sold the Spanish hulk, and set sail for England.

On his arrival at Spithead, in June 1744, after near four years absence, he found that the hand of Providence seemed still to protect him, having sailed in a fog, through the midst of a French fleet, then cruising in the channel. In short, through the whole of this remarkable voyage, he experienced the truth of that saying of Teucer, which he afterwards chose for his motto, "Nil est desperandum."

Soon after his return he was appointed rear-admiral of the blue, and one of the Lords of the admiralty. In April 1745, he was made rear admiral of the white; and in July, 1746, vice admiral of the blue. He was also chosen member of parliament for Heydon in Yorkshire. That winter he commanded the channel squadron; and had not the duke d'Anville's fleet, returning with disgrace from North America, been accidentally apprized of his station, his long and tempestuous cruise would then have been attended with his usual success. However, in the ensuing summer, he was once more crowned with wealth and conquest. Being then on board the Prince George, of ninety guns, in company with rear-admiral Warren, and twelve ships more, cruising off cape Finisterre, on the third of May, 1747, they intercepted a powerful fleet, bound from France to the East and West Indies; and after a sharp engagement, in which the French behaved with uncommon bravery, but were obliged to yield to superiority of numbers, our admirals took the whole fleet, consisting of four men of war, and four East Indiamen. The speech of the French admiral, M. de la Jonquiere,

on presenting his sword to the conqueror, deserves to be recorded: "Monsieur, vous avez vaincu l'Invincible, et la Glorie vous suit,” pointing to the two ships so named.

For these repeated sevices, the late king rewarded him with a peerage, on the 13th of June, by the title of lord Anson, baron of Soberton in Hants. On the 15th of July, in the same year, he was appointed vice-admiral of the red; and on the death of sir John Norris, he was made vice admiral of England.

In April 1748, his lordship, married the honorable Miss Yorke (eldest danghter of the late earl of Hardwicke, then lord-highchancellor) who died in 1760, without issue.

In May 1748, he was appointed Admiral of the Blue; in which year he commanded the squadron that conveyed the late king to and from Holland; and from this time as long as he lived he constantly attended his majesty on his going abroad, and on his return to England.

In June, 1751, his lordship was appointed first lord of the admiralty; in which post he continued (with a very short intermission) till his death,

In 1752, he was appointed one of the lords justices during the absence of the king, and again in 1754. That year, on the rupture with France, so active and spirited were his measures, that a fleet superior to the enemy, was equipped and manned with amazing expedition.

In 1758, being then admiral of the white, having hoisted his flag on board the royal George of one hundred guns, he sailed from Spithead on the 1st of June, with a formidable fleet, sir Edward Hawke commanding under him; and by cruising continually before Brest, he covered the descents that were made that summer at St. Maloes, Cherbourg, &c, After this he was appointed admiral and commander in chief of his majesty's fleets.

The last service his lordship performed at sea was the convoying to England our present queen; for which purpose he sailed from Harwich in the Charlotte yacht, on the 7th of August, 1761; and that day month, after a long and tempestuous voyage, landed the princess at the same place.

At length, having been some time in a languishing state of health, he was advised to the Bath-waters, from which he was

thought to have received great benefit on former occasions; there he remained during the winter of 1761, and part of the spring of 1762; but finding himself greatly exhausted, and unable to bear the fatigue of company, he retired to his seat at Moor-Park, in Hertfordshire, where he died suddenly on the 6th of June, upon his return from walking in his garden.

His lordship was remarkably distinguished for resolution, perse." verance, and a calm, even temper, most excellent qualifications for a commander-in-chief. But at home he lessened his great reputation by a foolish attachment to gaming; and having seen little of the polite world, he easily became the dupe of sharpers in high life, who eased him of a considerable share of his wealth; and the ridicule which he incurred upon these occasions, it is thought, affected his spirits, and contributed not a little to bring on that decline which shortened his days.

The account of lord Anson's Voyage round the world is a work too well known to require more than barely to mention, that the first publication from journals, and other documents given by hist lordship to the editor, whose compilation he revised before it went to press, was received with unusual avidity by the public; and no less than four large impressions were sold within the year. It was likewise translated into most of the modern languages; and it is at present a proper companion to Hawksworth's and the other modern voyages to the same quarter of the globe,

700000

THE LIFE OF

PHILIP YORKE,

EARL OF HARDWICKE, LORD CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.

[A. D. 1691, to 1764.]

THIS able lawyer and statesman, who had the misfortune not to be so well esteemed in the latter as in his first capacity, was born at London, in the year 1691. His family we are told, held a genteel rank in life, but were not opulent: this is all the account we have of them.

Mr. Yorke was designed for an attorney, and with that view served his clerkship with a very eminent gentleman of that profession; but his genius not permitting him to rest contented with the mère drudgery of the law, he entered himself of the Society of Lincoln's Inn, and commenced barrister. It is not ascertained at what time he was called to the bar; but it is well known, that in a very few years, and while he was a very young man, he acquired very great reputation as a pleader; and in the year 1720, his great merit raised him to the office of solicitor general to king George I. In 1723, he was promoted to that of attorney-general; and in this station, which confers a privilege of being the first pleader in every cause that officer is engaged in, he displayed such amazing powers of eloquence, and such a masterly knowledge of the laws of England, that he was pronounced to be one of the greatest lawyers that had appeared at the English bar in the present century. With such abilities, it is no wonder that his promotion should be rapid. In 1733, being then only in the 424 year of his age, he was constituted chief justice of the court of king's bench; and in 1737, he attained the highest honors of the law, being made lord-high-chancellor of England, and of course speaker of the house of lords. At the same time, he was made a peer of the realm, by the title of baron Hardwicke.

No man in the kingdom was so clearly intitled to this dignity as Mr. Yorke, from his theoretical knowledge, and his extensive practise in the courts of law and equity; and therefore his advancement was considered, by the gentlemen of the profession, as a great acquisition to the court over which he was appointed to preside.

his

In this high station, his assiduity, his steady, even temper, great sagacity, and his impartial administration of justice, were equally conspicuous and admired. The year 1746 furnished him with a fresh opportunity of exercising the powers of eloquence. He was constituted lord-high-stewart of England for the trial of the rebel lords; and his speech delivered upon passing sentence a gainst lord Lovat is reckoned one of the finest specimens of modern oratory extant in the English language. In 1749, he was elected high-stewart of the university at Cambridge.

His lordship held the seals till the year 1756, when he found

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himself obliged to resign, upon Mr. Pitt's coming into administration, that able statesman having full intelligence that the chancellor had too great an influence in the cabinet; and even his friends always confessed, that he was a weak politician, too apt to be swayed by partial views and interests; especially in soliciting great employments under the government for persons ill-qualified to execute them, to which he paid no regard, provided their promotion could in any respect strengthen his own interest, or advance the fortune of his family. His lordship, before he retired, obtained an accession of dignity, being created earl of Hardwicke in 1754. He had the satisfaction of seeing all his children most successfully estab lished in life; and in the year 1764, he paid the debt of nature, leaving the character of a most eloquent speaker, a most able lawyer, and a good moral man. On his death-bed he declared that he never wronged any man to increase his fortune; nor acquired a single acre of land which he could not in his last moments think upon with tranquillity. But the highest encomium on his great abilities and integrity in the seat of equity is, that though he held the seals near twenty years, during which time many appeals from his decrees were carried up to the bar of the house of lords, not one of them was reversed.

In his political capacity, the earl of Hardwicke was unfortunate and unpopular; his eagerness to provide for his own family, to which he was stimulated by the selfish disposition of his lady, made him a continual petitioner to the throne for partial favours, instead of employing his interest with the king for patriotic and benevolent purposes. His late majesty was so sensible of this, that a short time before he went out of office, having asked for some place for one of his distant relations, he gave him this severe check: My lord, you have been a frequent solicitor; but I have observed, that it has always been for some of your family, or within the circle of your relations."

His political principles favored aristocracy too much, and tended to the oppression of the commons. On this ground he opposed the militia-bill, representing the great danger that might arise from putting arms into the hands of the people, and disciplining them for war, by which they would be ripe for civil commotions; and upon some favorable occasion, when they thought themselves in