the appointment of general Montague to be joint-admiral of the fleet. To Blake alone, however, did the nation and the navy look up for protection and glory; he was one of those highly-favoured men whom Fortune, in her capricious freaks, never forsook; his most daring attempts were sanctioned by her smiles, and his fame continually increased to the last.

Being stationed near the Straits of Gibraltar, he alternately annoyed the shipping and the ports of Spain. His activity was displayed everywhere, and his intelligence enabled him to seize all probable opportunities of glory or of gain. While employed in blocking up the harbour of Cadiz, he learnt that the Spanish plate-fleet had put into the bay of Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe. Determined to attack it, he sailed thither with twenty-five men of war; and on the 20th of April, 1657, arrived off the bay, where he saw nineteen stout ships disposed in the form of a crescent. Near the mouth of the harbour stood a castle, furnished with very heavy ordnance; besides which, the bay was lined by strong forts, and a chain of communication was preserved by files of musketeers. Every other precaution was taken by the Spanish admiral, don Diego Diagues, that military experience could suggest; though rather to prevent a surprise, than in expectation of an open attack.

The captain of a Dutch ship, however, which then lay in the bay, entertained different sentiments in this last respect, and rightly understood the character of Blake. He requested leave to depart; and observed to the admiral, “I am very sure Blake will soon be among you." "Get you gone, if you wish it; let Blake come if he dares," was the reply of the haughty Spaniard.

The English admiral did not want a challenge to fight. Having instantly made preparations for the engagement, a squadron of ships was selected from the whole fleet to make the first onset, headed by captain

Stayner in the Speaker frigate; who no sooner received his orders than he flew with his canvas wings into the bay, and fell upon the Spanish ships, without appearing to regard the heavy fire from the forts. Blake followed him with rapidity; and stationing some of his largest ships to pour broadsides into the castle and forts, these played their part so well, that in a short time the Spaniards found their situation untenable.

Meanwhile the admiral, in conjunction with Stayner, attacked the ships with such impetuosity, that after a contest of a few hours the Spaniards were fairly beaten from them, and they were left to the mercy of the captors. But, with all his exertions, Blake found it impossible to carry them off, and therefore ordered his men to burn them; which was so effectually executed, that they were all reduced to ashes except two, which sunk.

Blake now began to reflect on his own situation. The wind blew so strong into the bay, that many of the best officers despaired of getting out; and as they lay under the fire of the castle and forts, in a few hours more they must have been battered to pieces, and the fortune of the day reversed.

What all the skill and bravery of Blake could not effect, Providence did for him. The wind suddenly shifted to another quarter, and carried them to the open sea, before the Spaniards could recover from their consternation at this daring and decisive action, which is one of the most remarkable ever performed. "It was so miraculous," says lord Clarendon, "that all men who knew the place, wondered how any sober man, with what courage soever endowed, would ever have undertaken it, and they could hardly persuade themselves to believe what they had done; whilst the Spaniards comforted themselves with the reflection, that they were devils, and not men, who had accomplished such things."

No sooner was the news of this signal victory spread

abroad, than a public thanksgiving was ordered on the occasion; and a diamond ring was voted to Blake by Cromwell's parliament, with demonstrations of gratitude and respect to the all fleet..

The admiral resumed his former station on the coast of Spain; but his ships becoming foul from long use, and he himself falling into a dangerous disorder, which was aggravated by a sea life, and the want of those refreshments which are only to be found on shore, he resolved to return home. Finding his constitution rapidly giving way to a complication of the dropsy and scurvy, the love of his native soil seems to have been uppermost in his mind. He hastened his voyage, that he might at least resign his breath in a country which was dear to him by every tie that can bind a good man, and which he had aggrandized by his valour. Ia this wish alone was fortune unpropitious to him. He frequently inquired for land, but he lived to see it only, for he expired as the fleet was-entering Plymouth, on the 17th of August, 1657, in the fifty-eighth year of his age.

Cromwell ordered him a pompous funeral at the public expense; but the tears and regret of his countrymen were the most honourable eulogy on his memory. Never was any man who had devoted himself to an usurper so much respected by those of opposite principles.. Disin terested, generous, and liberal; ambitious only of true glory, and terrible only to the enemies of his country; he forms one of the most perfect characters of that age, and the least stained with any vice or meanness. Clarendon observes, that he was the first man who brought ships to despise castles on shore; which had hitherto been thought very formidable, but were proved by him to be more alarming than really dangerous. He was also the first who infused such resolution into seamen, as to make them attempt whatever was possible; and the first who aught them to fight either in fire or water. In short, he

was the Nelson and the Sidney Smith of his day; and proved that to dare is generally to command success. Few things indeed are impracticable to him who has a wellgrounded confidence in his own powers; and who is not diverted from his object by any seeming difficulties, nor lured from perseverance by the blandishments of ease.

After the Restoration, the remains of Blake were, by the express command of Charles the Second, removed from the vault wherein they had been deposited in Westminister-ahbey, and ignobly thrown with others into a pit in St. Margaret's church-yard; "in which place," says one of his biographers, "they now remain; without any other monument than that reared by his valour, which time itself can hardly efface."

EDWARD HYDE;

EARL OF CLARENDON, AND LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.

Born 1608.Died 1674.

From 5th James I., to 25th Charles II. To preserve integrity of conduct, and consistency of ́principle, amidst public convulsions, when force generally sets equity at defiance; to adhere to what is just and honourable, regardless of what is expedient or profitable; is the character of a great and a good man. How far and in what respects lord chancellor Clarendon deserves

this praise, will be seen from a brief survey of his life.

This celebrated statesman, lawyer, and historiographer, was descended from an ancient family in Cheshire; and was the third son of a gentleman possessed of a small fortune, who resided at Denton, near Hindon, in Wilts, where the future chancellor was born. With no prospects of a patrimony, nor protected by great alliances, he had his fortune to make by his own merit; and in the history of men it may be remarked, that for one who has increased the original honours of his family, and enlarged

his hereditary possessions. thousands have pursued a retrograde course, and diminished what they felt no necessity to advance. Hence the aspiring and virtuous mind, ungifted by fortune, may draw the most favourable arguments for hope and preseverance: and, when it views the elevation which others have reached, may learn to acquiesce in the toil which is requisite to gain the ascent. Edward Hyde received a private education, suitable to the circumstances of his family, under the vicar of the parish in which he was born; but it may be readily concluded that he must have been an apt scholar and displayed early talents, as he was entered of Magdalen-hall, Oxford, when just turned of thirteen. Here he took the degree of bachelor of arts; and having improved his natural endow ments by classical learning, it seems that the height of his ambition at that time was to obtain a fellowship in Exeter college; but being disappointed in his views, he removed to the Middle Temple. How often is Providence as kind in what it denies as in what it grants! Had Hyde become the fellow of a college, it is probable that he might have passed his days in inglorious ease, and left no traces of his name; but having once entered on the profession of the law, he found an opportunity for the exercise of his talents, and the display of his loyalty and patriotism.

He pursued his studies in the Temple for several years with increasing reputation; and when his society deter mined to give a public testimony of their hatred to the indecent principles advanced by Prynne in his work entitled Histriomastix, he was appointed one among the managers of a masque presented on that occasion before king Charles, and his queen at Whitehall, in 1634. But though Hyde was a friend to constitutional royalty, he strenuously opposed every illegal stretch of prerogative; and reprobated the subserviency of the judges to advance the kingly power at the expense of national liberty. A remarkable incident is said to have contributed to fix the