It is with much pleasure that we lay before our readers the following brief, but authentic memoir, of a gallant and much respected officer.

The name of Buller has been justly celebrated, not only in the navy, but in the church, and in the law; as the characters of the late Bishop of Exeter, uncle to Captain Buller, and the late Sir Francis Buller, Bart, his cousin, who was successively one of the Judges of the Court of King's Bench and of the Common Pleas, very amply testify. They are indeed too well known to require any panegyric from us.

The Buller family is of ancient standing, and has mostly resided in the counties of Devon and Cornwall, where its respective branches have long been in possession of considerable landed estates.

Captain Edward Buller, the subject of this memoir, is the son of the late Mr. John Buller, who was, for many years, the second lord of the admiralty, and afterwards one of the lords of the treasury.

He was born on the 24th of December, 1764; and he received his education at Westminster school. At the age of twelve, he commenced his naval career, as midshipman, under the particular auspices and protection of that able and meritorious, officer, the late Lord Mulgrave.

Captain william henry jervis (formerly Ricketts), the son of William Henry and Mary Ricketts, was born November 4, 1764, in Park-street, Grovesnor-square. At the age of eight, he was placed at the grammar school at Odiham, under the tuition of the Reverend Thomas Webb. From this school he was removed to Winchester college (of which the celebrated Dr. Worton was then master), and placed under the instruction of the excellent and learned Mr. Huntingford (the present Bishop of Gloucester). There he derived every advantage which an active and industrious mind so rapidly acquires from the erudition of an intelligent master.

In reviewing this period of life, the dawnings of intellectual ability and intrinsic merit are never hidden from us. We may always trace the expanding genius of youth with confidence, when the natural disposition is generous and open. Such was particularly the case with the subject of this memoir, who, very early fired by an ardent inclination to enter that walk of life which had been trodden by so many with honour to themselves, and benefit to their country, imbibed a desire for the sea service. His excellent and indulgent parents, solicitous to cherish the growing zeal of their son, and having the happy opportunity of placing him under an officer so highly distinguished as his maternal uncle, Captain Jervis (now Earl St. Vincent), determined to accede to his wishes; and, in 1781, he embarked in the Foudroyant.

The great and lively interest which every true born Englishman cherishes for the glorious contest in which the Spaniards are engaged, and the general attention which has so liberally been paid by our government, and our honourable merchants, to the support of these high-minded patriots; has justified our dedicating this volume of the Chronicle, containing many events connected with their proceedings, to these brave Opposers of Napoleon the Destroyer, and his powerful band of plunderers and oppressors.

It is painful to observe, even in this early state of the struggle, which the Spaniards are making with the long experienced and veteran soldiers of the French tyrant, a disposition in our Country immediately to despond, whenever even reports prevail respecting a retreat, or a temporary check of the Spanish patriots. On the contrary, it is astonishing, that the raw, and, one would have thought, undisciplined troops of Spain, should have already made the resistance they have done; and, when the Corsican has hurried, in a great alarm, to command his soldiers in person: when such an overwhelming multitude, has been marched, and still continues marching to the Spanish frontier. It is not ten defeats that will overcome the Spaniards: and it should be remembered, that what may be lost by them in the field, may be recovered by them in their mountains.

Whatever is presented to the public on a subject connected with our nautical concerns, cannot fail to be interesting. The proud pre-eminence to which our navy has now attained, deservedly ranks it with our first considerations: our very existence depends upon its welfare; and while the spirit and heroism which actuate its members shall continue, we can have nothing to fear from the united power of our enemies. Under the impression of such sentiments, we anticipate a favourable reception to some account of the life and services of the late gallant and unfortunate Captain Lydiard, who was wrecked in the Anson frigate, and drowned on the Cornish coast, during the tremendous storm on Tuesday the 29th of December, 1807.

In enumerating the various services of this lamented character, we shall not dwell upon those in which he distinguished himself as a junior officer; it will be sufficient to say, that from his entrance into the service, his conduct shed a lustre on his name, which, while it obtained for him the respect and approbation of his superior officers, endeared him to the hearts of his companions in the path of glory.

Young Lydiard entered the royal navy as a midshipman, in the year 1780, in the flag-ship of Admiral Darby, who then commanded the Channel fleet, and from that time served as a midshipman under several commanders, on various stations, both abroad and at home, during thirteen years.

It is not a little remarkable, that the late Sir Charles Hardy, his father, and his grandfather, were all in the navy; and that each of them had the honour of being knighted, for his respective services.

His grandfather, Sir Thomas Hardy, was a native of the island of Guernsey. He entered into the navy, under the patronage of Admiral Churchill, whom he had served in the capacity of clerk, and who procured for him a lieutenant's commission. He was made commander in the Charles fire-ship, on the 6th of January, 1693; and, in the, month of May following, he was removed into the Swallow prize, a small frigate, of 18 guns, which was stationed off Guernsey, to protect the trade of that island from the depredations of French privateers.—He is believed to have attained to the command of a ship of the line, very soon after his entrance into the service, and is thought to have been never unemployed; but the only mention which is made of him, during the reign of King William, is, that in October, 1696, when captain of the Pendennis, of 48 guns, he was employed to convoy the mast ships from Norway.

In presenting the public with a memoir of the public services of Sir Charles Brisbane, the gallant captor of the island of Curaçoa, we perform a very grateful duty. The “plain unvarnished tale” will, in various instances, furnish substantial proofs of the superiority of British seamen to those of any other nation in the world.

Sir Charles is the fourth but eldest surviving son of the late John Brisbane, Esq. admiral of the red squadron.—He is descended from a very ancient family, who were settled at Bishopton, in the shire of Renfrew, in Scotland, as far back as the reign of King Robert II.

Of the professional life of the late Admiral Brisbane, before we proceed with our main subject, we shall relate a few particulars.

With that gentleman's earlier services we are unacquainted. On the 5th of August, 1757, he obtained a lieutenant's commission; and, according to Charnock, without passing through the intermediate rank of commander, was made post, on the 24th of September, 1761.

The gentleman, to whom the following particulars relate, was the father of Sir Hyde Parker, Knt. whose services are recorded in the fifth volume of the Naval Chronicle; and who, having attained the rank of admiral of the red squadron, died on the 16th of March, 1807.

Mr. Parker was the descendant of an ancient and highly respectable family, which is understood to have settled at Hoberton, in Devonshire, early in the fifteenth century. He was the second son of the Rev. Hyde Parker, rector of Tredington, in Worcestershire, who married the daughter of a Mr. Reeves; and grandson of Sir Henry Parker, Bart. by Margaret, the daughter of Dr. Alexander Hyde, bishop of Salisbury.

His earlier services are unrecorded; but, on the 16th of Jan. 1744-5, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. The time of his holding the intermediate rank of commander must have been short; as, on the 24th of March, 1747-8, he was made post, in the Lively frigate. It was on board the Lively, that his son first entered the service.

Captain joseph ellison, the worthy officer whose services to his country we have now the satisfaction of commencing our NINETEENTH volume with, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the year 1753. He was the only son of Joseph Ellison, Esq. a descendant of a very respectable family in that part of the country. Unfortunately, he lost his father when he was only six months old; in consequence of which he was adopted by an aunt, who had no children of her own, and was removed by her into the neighbourhood of Portsmouth.

We must trace, with a rapid hand, his early professional progress. In his ninth year, he went to sea with Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, in the Royal George, which was at that time commanded by Captain Kennett. In the year 1763, he was removed into the Rippon, of 60 guns, Captain (now Admiral) Thompson; from which he went on board the Arrogant, commanded by the late Admiral M'Kenzie. In 1767, he joined the Glory, Captain Chad; in which he remained till 1769, when he was removed into the Aldborough, Captain Hawke; in 1770, he served in the Boyne, Captain Bennet; in 1773, he went into the Ocean, Captain Oury; and, in 1776, into the Somerset, Captain Le Cras.

We have introduced but few characters to the notice of the public with so much pleasure and satisfaction as Rear Admiral George Murray, the gentleman whose nautical progress is now the immediate subject of our attention; for these plain, but honest reasons, that few officers of his standing have seen more service, nor can any be more zealously attached to the interests of the navy, or be more cordially beloved by the members of that honourable profession.

Mr. Murray was born at Chichester, where his grandfather, then an officer of marines, first planted himself; and where he married, lived, and died. That gentleman is supposed to have been descended from the same stock as the noble family of Murray, Lord Elibank; whose ancestor was Sir Gideon Murray, knight, whose son was created a baronet by King Charles I. in the year 1628, and a baron in 1643.

The grandfather of Mr. Murray left two sons: John, who lived and died a banker, in London; and Gideon, who was many years a magistrate and alderman of the city of Chichester. To the latter, this officer was indebted for his birth.

THIS gentleman who had the honour of serving under Lord Nelson, is a native of Newbury, in Berkshire, where his father is a Banker. Having when very young shewn a predilection for the British Navy, his father indulged his son's wish, by entering him, in the year 1781, on board the Britannia, of 100 guns, Vice-Admiral Barrington, Captain Benjamin Hill; in which ship he remained nearly two years, and had an early opportunity of seeing service, when the grand fleet under Lord Howe engaged the combined fleet of the enemy, after the memorable siege and relief of Gibraltar.

At the conclusion of the war in 1783, we find him on board the Salisbury, of 50 guns, Vice-Admiral Campbell, Captain James Bradby, on the Newfoundland station; and also during the peace, in the Trimmer sloop, on the coast of Wales; and in the Pegase and Carnatic guard-ships.

Upon the armament taking place against Spain in 1790, Mr. Vincent joined the Prince, of 98 guns, Rear-Admiral Jervis, Captain Josias Rogers; from which ship he was promoted, on November the 3d, in the same year, to the rank of Lieutenant; and was appointed to the Wasp sloop, Captain Thomas Lee, in the Channel.

IT is recorded, on the sepulchral monument of a certain noble family, that “all the brothers were valiant, and all the sisters virtuous.” With the female branches of the Hood family, we have not the honour of being acquainted; but, as far as our knowledge extends, respecting the males, we can with confidence assert them to be all “valiant.”

Already has it been our task to emblazon the virtues and exploits of Sir Samuel Hood's noble relatives, the Lords Hood and Bridport; and to embalm the respected memory of his deceased brother: it now becomes our pleasing duty to exhibit the more prominent traits of his own professional life—a life, of which upwards of thirty years have been spent in the service of his beloved country.

This gentleman, whose nautical career we are about to disclose, was born in the month of November, 1762; and consequently is now in his forty-fifth year. Sir Samuel's grandfather was the Rev. Arthur Hood, of Dawlish, Somersetshire, elder brother of the father of the Lords Hood and Bridport: his father was the late Mr. Samuel Hood, an opulent farmer, of Kingsland, in the parish of Netherby, Dorsetshire.

IN the following memoir of Vice-Admiral Russell, we shall submit to our readers such truly seaman-like traits of character, as cannot fail to obtain their approbation.

This brave officer is descended, on both sides, from respectable and once opulent families. His father, (an Englishman,) went over to Ireland, where he married a lady of that country, and settled. Mr. Russell was born, we believe, about the year 1743. His Christian name, Macnamara, is derived from his paternal grandmother. At the early age of five years he had the misfortune of losing, his father; and, through either the fraud, or mismanagement of his guardians, all the fortune which had been left him was dissipated by the time that he reached fourteen.

Having received such an education as was judged requisite, he entered the naval service at an early period of life. The first account that we have received of him, however, is whilst he was Lieutenant of the Albany, in America, during the war with that country. In this ship, several instances of his intrepidity and skill occurred. The Pilot once ran the Albany upon a rock, at some distance from the land, to the westward of the Bay of Fundy.