THIS officer was born in December, 1775; and, being intended for the naval service, was placed at an early age under his uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, with whom he served as midshipman and lieutenant, in the West Indies, the Bay of Biscay, and on the home station. He was afterwards appointed commander of the Speedy, a brig of fourteen guns; and, while stationed off Barcelona, he boarded and took a Spanish sloop-of-war, called El Gamo, the force of which, at least doubled that of his own vessel. During the same year, he made several captures; and blew up the tower of Alcanenara; but was at length compelled to surrender by a French squadron.

For his conduct in the action with El Gamo, he was made a post-captain, and commissioned to the Pallas, of thirty-two guns, with which he took, off the Western Islands, an immense number of prizes. Being off the Bay of Biscay, in April, 1806, he detached ninety men, in boats, to cut out an enemy's corvette, lying in the mouth of the river Gironde. During the progress of this exploit, he perceived three vessels approaching him, carrying together sixty-four guns, which he chased, and drove on shore, where they were wrecked.

In May, 1806, he disembarked his crew on the French coast, and destroyed all the signal-posts stationed to give notice of British cruisers. On the 14th of the same month, he had a smart encounter, off L'Isle d'Aix, with a frigate and three brigs, whilst his vessel, the Pallas, was working to windward among shoals, under the fire of a battery. He succeeded in disabling one of the brigs, and, though his own ship was much shattered, continued the action until two other frigates were sent against him, when he retired, to repair in the offing. Having completed a most successful cruise, he returned to Plymouth, and soon after offered himself as a candidate to the electors of Honiton. He failed in his first attempt; but, at the general election

soon after the death of Pitt, he obtained his return. On the decease of Fox, another dissolution took place, and Lord Cochrane being put in nomination as a candidate for the city of Westminster, was elected second on the poll to Sir Francis Burdett, obtaining a majority of more than one thousand over Sheridan. He was soon after appointed to the Imperieuse, of thirtyeight guns; and, returning to the Bay of Biscay, stormed, and laid in ruins, a fort, and brought out and burnt fifteen sail of vessels, laden with merchandize, from the basin of Arcasson.

Lord Cochrane subsequently served under Admiral Collingwood, at the blockade of Cadiz. On the 31st of July, 1808, he attacked, and took possession of, the castle of Mongal, an important post held by the French, commanding the road between Barcelona and Gerona. He kept the coast of Languedoc in a state of constant alarm; destroyed some newly-constructed telegraphs, at six different places on the coast of France, besides three telegraphic houses, fourteen barracks of the gens d'armes, one battery, and the strong tower on the lake of Frontignan. In November, he defended the castle of La Trinité, near Rosas, which he blew up, on the surrender of the latter place to the French. In the January following, he brought out, from the port of Caldajuon, two small armed vessels, and eleven sail of victuallers, intended for the relief of the French garrison at Barcelona.

On his return from the coast of Spain, he joined the squadron in the British channel, commanded by Lord Gambier; and having received orders to lead the intended attack of the French fleets then lying in the Basque Roads, he caused about one thousand five hundred barrels of gunpowder to be started into puncheons, upon the tops of which were placed between three and four hundred shells, charged with fusees; and, among these, were between two and three thousand hand-grenades. In this explosion-ship, Lord Cochrane

committed himself, with only one lieutenant and four seamen, and proceeded towards the enemy's line. At this moment, the batteries on shore were provided with furnaces to fire red-hot shot, which added greatly to his lordship's danger. After having conducted this instrument of destruction as near as was possible to the enemy, he ordered his crew into the boat, and followed them, after setting fire to the fusee, which was calculated to give them fifteen minutes to get out of the reach of the explosion. However, in consequence of the wind getting very high, the fusee burnt so quickly, that, with the most violent exertion, against wind and tide, this intrepid little party was six minutes nearer than they calculated to be, at the time of the explosion. Fortunately, the boat reached, by unparalleled exertion, only just beyond the extent of destruction; but the lieutenant died, partly under fatigue, and partly drowned by the waves, which continually broke over them. Two of the four sailors were also so nearly exhausted, that their recovery was, for a long time, doubtful. The enemy, immediately crowding all sail, ran before wind and tide so fast, that the fireships, though at first very near, could not afterwards overtake them. The explosion of the engine of destruction intrusted to his lordship, had but little effect upon the adverse fleet, and a similar fate attended the other fireships, many of which, in the darkness of the night, missed their way.

As soon as Lord Cochrane reached his ship, the Imperieuse, he proceeded to attack the French vessels, and sustained their fire for more than an hour before any other of the ships of war entered the harbour. On the morning of the 12th, he headed an attack made by small vessels on seven of the enemy's ships, whose situation on shore afforded an opportunity of destroying them. A fire was opened on the Calcutta, of fifty-six guns, which immediately surrendered; and, afterwards, two ships of the line were obliged to follow their example; all of which were set on fire and destroyed, their crews having been first taken prisoners. In the course of this enterprise, Lord Cochrane displayed his humanity as signally and nobly as his courage,

though not with the same success. The captain of one of the French seventyfours, when delivering up his sword to our hero, lamented that all he had in the world was about to be destroyed by the conflagration of his ship: upon hearing this, his lordship got into the boat, and pushed off to assist the prisoner in retrieving his loss; but, as they passed a French ship, which was on fire, her guns went off, and a shot from one of them killed the French captain by Lord Cochrane's side, and so damaged the boat that she filled with water, and the rest of the party were nearly drowned. In bringing away the people of the Ville de Varsovie, his lordship, hearing that a dog had been left on board, was determined it should not be abandoned, but returned for it, and brought it off in his arms.

For his splendid exploits in the Basque Roads, he was created a knight of the Bath, and acquired a great degree of popularity. He returned to Plymouth with the English fleet, and from thence proceeded to London. Owing to the insinuations thrown out by Lord Cochrane, charging Lord Gambier with a neglect of his duty in the Basque Roads, a court-martial was demanded by the latter nobleman, who obtained an honourable acquittal.

Cochrane was, not long after, deprived of all his honours, in consequence of being mixed up in a transaction, having for its object the raising of the public funds. It appears that, in February, 1814, a person proceeded from Dover with false news of Buonaparte's death, and that he went with all possible haste to London, spreading everywhere the same report. At the moment the intelligence reached the Stock Exchange, two other pretended messengers arrived, and their corroboration supported the rise that had just taken place. The imposition was soon detected; those in the secret having, however, been considerable gainers.

The circumstances soon became known to the Stock Exchange committee, and the result was the arraignment of all the parties for a conspiracy. On the 8th of June, 1814, Lord Cochrane, Mr. Butt, Random de Berenger, the Honourable Cochrane Johnstone, and six others, were tried upon an indict

ment charging them with circulating false news to raise the price of the funds. The amount of stock sold on the occasion amounted to nearly one million; and, but for this plan, the persons implicated must have been defaulters to the extent of £160,000, and nearly ruined by their speculations. It was proved that De Berenger, the messenger, had been allowed to change his dress at the house of Lord Cochrane, who was accordingly found guilty, and sentenced to a fine of £1,000; to be imprisoned for twelve months in the King's Bench; and to be exposed for an hour, opposite the Royal Exchange, in the pillory.

He made several vain attempts to gain a new trial, and, on the 5th of July, a motion for his expulsion from the house of commons was carried by a large majority. He attended the house on the occasion, and declared his innocence of the conspiracy with which he had been charged. On the 16th of the same month, he was unanimously reelected for Westminster; and, in three days after, Lord Castlereagh informed the house of commons, that that part of Lord Cochrane's sentence which required him to be placed in the pillory had been remitted. It was soon after agreed, at a chapter of the order of the Bath, that his lordship should cease to be a member; and the king at arms, being duly authorised, proceeded to Henry the Seventh's chapel, removed the ensignia of the order from Lord Cochrane's stall, and kicked his banner down the steps of the chapel. He was likewise deprived of his rank in the

navy.

Having been for some time in the King's Bench, he escaped, on the 15th of March, 1815, and proceeded to take the oath, as member for Westminster, in the house of commons. Whilst he was in the house, Mr. Jones, the warden of the prison, accompanied by several police officers, entered, and forcibly took him back, and placed him in the strong room; but his health having suffered by confinement, he was subsequently allowed the free use of the interior of the prison. The term of Lord Cochrane's imprisonment having, at length, expired, he went, on the very day of his liberation, to the house of commons, and was just in time to

defeat, by his single vote, an intended increase of £6,000 a year to the income of the Duke of Cumberland. The fine imposed upon his lordship was raised by a subscription of a penny from each of his constituents. The thousand pound note with which Lord Cochrane paid the fine, is, we believe, still preserved at the Bank of England, and has this indorsement:-" My health having suffered by long and close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive me of my property or life, I submit to robbery to prevent myself from murder, in the hope that I may live, yet to bring the delinquents to justice.-COCHRANE."

In the year 1818, he resigned his parliamentary duties. Having left England, he arrived at Valparaiso in the year 1819, where he went for the purpose of taking command of a squadron that had been fitted out by the government of Chili. In his new occupation, in the beginning of the succeeding year, he had annihilated the commerce and naval power of Spain on the Peruvian coast; and distinguished himself by the capture of the strongly fortified town of Valdivia. The invasion of Peru being intended, he started, on the 20th of August, with an expedition under the command of himself and General San Martin, and soon after their arrival, the whole coast of Peru was declared in a state of blockade. The Chilian government rewarded his services with a present of twenty thousand acres of valuable land. In the following year, several places were taken on the coast of Peru; but Callao had capitulated to San Martin, with whom Cochrane was offended for having concluded the treaty without his participation. The crews of the fleet disappointed in their expectation of booty, shared in the disgust felt by the admiral; who, in order to appease their indignation, distributed among them a portion of the money contained in the military chest, which was kept on board his own vessel, and sent back the remainder to Chili. Martin having assumed the supreme power in Peru, Lord Cochrane broke off all communication with him, and ordered a portion of his fleet to return to Valparaiso, whilst he proceeded with the remainder in search of two Spanish frigates, understood to be richly laden

San

with bullion. While engaged in the expedition against Peru, he entered the outer ports of Callao with a part of his squadron, and proceeding at midnight, with fourteen boats. and two hundred and forty men, came near to the Esmeralda, a large forty-gun frigate, moored under the guns, with a semicircle of fourteen gun-boats, and a boom made of spars chained together. Having passed the boom, Lord Cochrane, who was leading, rowed alongside the first gun-boat, and taking the officer by surprise, proposed to him, with a pistol in his hand, the alternative of "silence or death!" No reply was made; the boats pushed on unobserved, and his lordship, mounting the side of the Esmeralda, was the first to give the signal. The sentinel on the gangway fired, but was instantly cut down by the coxswain, and Lord Cochrane, though wounded in the thigh, stepped on the deck, and at the same time the frigate was boarded on the other side by some of his lordship's party. The enemy made a gallant stand in different parts of the ship, and Cochrane, at the head of a party of marines, beat them from one of their positions. Before one o'clock, the vessel was captured, and steered out of the harbour under the fire of the whole north face of the castle.

In the house of commons, Sir James Mackintosh, on the 21st of June, 1824, eulogized this splendid service in the highest terms, and concluded by expressing a hope that the crown might be advised to restore Lord Cochrane to the service. The speech of Sir James was followed by cheers from both sides, showing that the feeling in favour of his lordship was very general. Lord Cochrane, in 1823, entered the service of the Emperor of Brazils, with the consent of the Chilian government, but had only a small squadron under his command. The Portuguese force consisted of thirteen ships of war, besides numerous armed merchantmen; and though this armament was too strong for his lordship to attack, he watched and followed the enemy, and by skilful manœuvres, succeeded in making several captures. In the following year, a dispute arose between himself and the Brazilian court, respecting the proceeds of certain prizes, which was, however, amicably settled, and he

retained the command of Don Pedro's fleet. Soon after, he blockaded Pernambuco, and offered the insurgents very liberal terms of surrender; which being refused, he bombarded the place, and the republicans were driven into the town. In the course of the year 1824, he was created Marquess of Maranham, and had other titles of nobility bestowed upon him.

In June, 1825, on board the Peranga, a frigate, belonging to the Emperor of Brazils, he arrived, to repair, at Portsmouth, and anchored at Spithead, where, on landing, he was cheered three times by the populace. In the following year, he agreed to take the command of the Greek fleet; and, in the year 1827, having been made naval commander-in-chief in Greece, he formed a plan for raising the siege of Athens. In consequence of the Greeks mistaking the time for advancing, the plan was rendered abortive, and they were obliged to retire with great loss. Cochrane was so closely pressed, that he jumped into the sea, in order to regain his vessel. Subsequently, he appeared in the service of Greece, on the coast of Egypt. Lord Cochrane, not long after these events, returned to London, where he has taken a house in the Regent's Park, as a permanent residence.

The naval career of Lord Cochrane was marked by a series of useful and honourable actions, in which he invariably acted with calmness and skill, humanity and generosity. No officer, it has been asserted, ever attempted or succeeded in more arduous enterprises, with so little loss. He was ever watchful; and if he intended an adventure, would, before he fired a shot, reconnoitre in person, take soundings and bearings, and pass whole nights under the enemy's batteries, having incessantly in use his lead-line and spyglass. Regarding his generosity, it may be remarked, that while on board the Pallas, he captured a rich prize, called La Fortuna, a Spanish ship, laden with specie to the amount of £150,000, and with other goods of the same value. The captain and supercargo appeared much dejected, as their private property was on board, and was estimated at thirty thousand dollars each. The Spaniards told his lordship

that they had families in Old Spain, and had now lost all their savings of nearly twenty years, when they were returning to their native country to enjoy the fruits of their industry. The captain, in particular, said, he had lost a similar fortune in 1799, on being taken by a British cruiser. Lord Cochrane consulted his officers as to the propriety of returning five thousand dollars a-piece to the two Spaniards, to be paid out of the proportions of the whole crew in the prize; and the men being called on deck, gave three cheers, as a token of their approval of the proposition.

The popularity of his lordship has

been interrupted on one or two occasions. His continued opposition of Lord Gambier was unfortunate and illadvised; it drew upon him a very severe censure from Sir Charles Hamilton, a naval officer of such a character as to lead a great portion of the country with him. After Gambier's acquittal, the whole house took up his cause, and Cochrane found himself supported by a few friends only. As to the affair on the Stock Exchange, while the majority of the people considered his lordship the dupe of other persons, yet there were many, judging from the evidence alone, who considered him guilty.

SIR HARRY BURRARD NEALE, eldest son of William Burrard, Esq. succeeded to a baronetcy, by the death of his uncle, on the 12th of April, 1791; and adopted the name of Neale in 1795, on his marriage with the daughter of the late Robert Neale, Esq., of Shaw House, Wiltshire. Of the earliest stages of his naval career, we have no authentic account; but, in 1793, he was commander of the Nautilus sloop; and, on the 1st of February, of the same year, obtained the rank of post-captain. He, shortly after, assisted in L'Aimable, thirty-two, at the reduction of Bastia; and captured, in May, 1794, the French corvette, La Moselle, eighteen guns, off the Hières islands. In 1795, he commanded the St. Fiorenzo; in which vessel King George the Third frecuently went on short marine excursio:.s from his summer residence at Weymouth.

On the 9th of May, 1797, Sir Harry, being off Brest in this vessel, in company with La Nymphe, discovered two French men-of-war standing in for the land; which, after a short, but very active engagement, were compelled to surrender. Soon after this event, the Fiorenzo was fitted up to carry the Princess of Wirtemberg to Germany; but, previously to her sailing, an ineffectual attempt was made, by the mutineers at the Nore, to seduce her crew from their duty; and being

ordered to anchor close under the stern of Parker's ship, the Sandwich, she contrived to effect her escape; and, getting clear through the mutinous fleet, proceeded to Harwich. On the 8th of October, 1798, Sir Harry entertained the royal family, and a number of the nobility, at a public breakfast, on board of his ship, in commemoration of Nelson's victory at the Nile.

In April, 1799, while the Fiorenzo and Amelia were off Belleisle, just after the main-top-gallant, fore, and mizen masts of the latter had been carried away by a squall, three French frigates bore down on them; when an action ensued, in which the English, by being drawn down to the islands of Houat and Hedie, were exposed to the fire from their batteries. The French vessels, were, however, ultimately compelled to stand in towards the Loire, two of them being in a very shattered condition. When the enemy retreated, the British seamen gave nine hearty cheers; while, it is said, the batteries of the former actually fired on the runaways. Shortly afterwards, the St. Fiorenzo fell in with and captured a French lettre de marque, from Cape François, laden with sugar, coffee, and indigo. In 1801, Sir Harry was appointed to the Centaur, seventy-four; afterwards to the Royal Charlotte yacht; and, in 1804, was made one of the lords of the