OUR Biographical Memoir of this eminent officer, pledged us, on some future occasion, to give an account of his distinguished services to the Russian Government, in forming their Marine. We have collected every original document that remained respecting so important a part of The Admiral's life:–the alliance which our country in this day of its supremacy, has formed with a Navy, that thus arose from the skill, and experience, of a British Seaman, must give considerable addition of interest to the following relation.

In the month of October 1770, Admiral Knowles having previously solicited his Majesty's permission, through Lord Rochford, to enter into the Russian Service, received a most flattering message from the King, allowing him to enter into the Navy of the Empress; at the same time expressing his Majesty's high opinion of this officer's past services, and of the abilities he possessed, to execute the employment thus undertaken, with credit to his Country, and to himself.

The chief object which induced Sir Charles Knowles to leave Great Britain for the dreary and uncultivated wastes of Russia, was to enjoy an opportunity of exerting his talents; avoiding, what his ardent mind dreaded beyond any thing, the being destitute of active employ.

To preserve the laurel which Fame had planted around the tomb of the naval hero, is a duty, whose importance is very sensibly impressed on our minds. We are anxious not only to relate the brilliant achievements of the present age; but, as it were, to renovate those splendid actions that have been dimmed by the political atmosphere in which they appeared, and whose glory was shorn of its beams by the envious and calumniating spirit of the day.

Admiral Sir Charles Knowles was the son of an Earl of Bambury, and a French gentlewoman of rank and uncommon beauty. She was much noticed by Lady Wallingford, and also enjoyed in a considerable degree the friendship of the Duchess of Dorset.

The Earl of Bambury, father to Mr. Knowles, appears to have been ill calculated for a consort so amiable and accomplished. Having dissipated about 20,000l. abroad in fashionable vices, and acquired that knowledge of the world which is esteemed so essential a finish to a liberal education; he left his son to form himself for the future service of his Country in the school of adversity, which gradually established the firmness of his character, and produced an habitual patience under fatigue or disappointment.

Progress of Navigation slow and interrupted. Peculiar Dangers of the Grecian Seas. History of the Grecian Navy; their Men of War considered in detail. First invention of the Anchor. Ptolemy Philopater's Ship.–Hiero's Ship. Review of the different ranks in the Grecian Navy. Etymology of the term Admiral. Consideration of the knowledge which the Ancients are said to have possessed of The Compass. Greek Launch.–Order of sailing observed by their Fleets. Order of Battle.–Conduct after Victory.

NAVIGATION and Ship-building, as Dr. Robertson well observes, are arts so nice and complicated, that they require the ingenuity, as well as experience of many successive ages, to bring them to any degree of perfection. When the different powers of Greece had formed themselves, from a vain spirit of independence, into separate states, they each displayed a distinct Marine Force: yet neither in The Heroic Age, as it is styled, nor even at a more advanced period during The Persian War, must we look for any of that nautical skill, or daring manœuvre, which so much distinguish the exploits of the British Navy.

IT was well remarked by an eminent and successful periodical writer, that all considerate Lords of the Soil will, for good reasons, not only continue in possession a Tenant, who holds merely at pleasure, so long as he duly performs Suit and Service, but will also allow him proportionable advantages, if, through his industry, and enquiries of skilful persons, he shall improve the premises. – A relation somewhat like this, Mr. Urban of venerable memory, always considered as subsisting between himself, and the Public. As an hitherto favoured Tenant, we therefore again come forward on concluding our second volume, with our respectful thanks; and at the same time embrace the opportunity of reviewing the contents, and progress of our Work.

Under the head of Biographical Memoirs we have rendered an essential service to our Country, by placing in a more extensive, and correct point of view, some of the first Characters of the British Navy; and also, by rendering others the object of public attention, whose exertions, though highly beneficial to the period in which they appeared, are at present by no means sufficiently remembered: our Memoirs of Lord Hood; of the late Admiral Sir Charles Knowles's services in Russia, and of the late Captain Alms, were particularly published on the above principles.

WHEN the future Historian shall impartially consider the brilliant Naval Achievements of the present war, The Subduer of Corsica, who first shook the ensanguined power of The Mad Destroyer, will attain that elevation which is due to superior merit.

There are few, if any professions, whose biography has been so little considered as that of the Naval Officers of Great Britain. Where such a complication of important duty rests on the ability of a single individual, as must ever be the case in naval expeditions, and especially where so modest a deportment attends on the most successful undertakings, the public should be in possession of documents, beyond those afforded by the papers of the day, before they attempt to form a final opinion. With an impetuosity peculiar to their nature, our countrymen too frequently are led to decide from the impulse of the moment; forgetting, as Dr. Johnson so justly observes in his Life of Sir Francis Drake, “that a man by nature superior to mean artifices, and bred from his earliest years to the labour and hardships of a sea life, is very little acquainted with policy and intrigue; very little versed in the methods of application to the powerful and great, and unable to obviate the practices of those whom his merit has made his enemies.”

THE biography of living Officers, though a task of considerable difficulty, forms an essential part in a Work, established to assist the Naval Character; by making known what either its unassuming nature would conceal, or its injured delicacy had scorned to advance:–to wait until death closes its career, increases the difficulty of obtaining truth, without deriving any advantage that can weigh against it. Posthumous biography too generally resembles the portrait that is taken after death; all animation, and exact discrimination of character are lost: the source whence alone they could be derived, is no longer to be found.

The character of every one, who has moved in the higher stations of Naval Rank, may experience an undue elevation from the partiality of friends, and some unjust depression through the envy of those, who once were equals. The shades which too much prevail in the character of all men, are eagerly sought after, and sometimes cruelly exhibited: we wish rather to imitate the Bee, who often culls Honey from the plant that has been esteemed loathsome and forbidding.

At a period when the energy of the British nation was affected by an untoward combination of events, and when its maritime power did not possess the proud supremacy of the present day, the skill and exertions of Admiral Rodney counteracted the alarming threats of the enemy, and supported with peculiar glory the naval interests of his Country.

His father was Henry Rodney, Esq. of Walton upon Thames, in the county of Surry, a naval officer who commanded the yacht, in which the King, attended by the Duke of Chandos, used to embark in going to or coming from Hanover, and who in consequence asked leave that his son might be called George Brydges. The royal, and noble godfathers, advised Captain Rodney to educate his boy for his own profession, promising, as we are told, to promote him as rapidly as the merit he should display, and the regulations of the navy would permit. His mother, Mary, was the eldest daughter, and co-heir, of Sir Henry Newton, Knight, envoy extraordinary to Genoa, Tuscany, &c. Mr. George Rodney, the subject of the present Memoir, was their second son, and was born in the month of December 1718.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS,

TO THE EDITOR.

Penzance, Aug. 28th, 1799.

A relation of Dr. W. Borlase, author of the Natural History of Cornwall, but a much nearer one of Captain W. Tremenheere, of the Marines, is desirous of rectifying an error (perhaps of the press) in your valuable publication, The Naval Chronicle, (vol. i. page 474.) giving an account of Penzance.

“Mr. Pennant informs us that the numbers (of pilchards) taken at one shooting of the nets is amazingly great. Dr. Berlase assured him, that on the 5th October, 1767, there were, at one time, enclosed in St. lve's Bay, 7000 hogsheads, each hogshead containing 35,000 fish–in all 245,000,000.”

The fact is, that a hogshead never contains more than 3,500 fish, seldom, indeed, so many; the difference is therefore immense. Yours, J. T.

Page 263, line 21. Lieutenant Parkinson was promoted at the immediate request of the King of Naples. This spirited officer was Lieutenant of the Vanguard, in the action off the Nile. Captain Parkinson was brought up in the school of Lord Hood; he was Lientenant of the Dido in her action with the Minerva, in 1793.

A friend to the Naval Chronicle begs leave to correct an error in the account of the officers employed in the destruction of the arsenal at Toulon; which is, that Captain Richard Gambier Middleton, who now commands in the Mediterranean, was not the officer who was on board the Britannia at that time.

HÆC OLIM MEMINISSE JUVABIT

We have made some slight alteration in the title to this department of our Chronicle, as also in its arrangement, in order to take in a more extensive scope of Naval History, and to be enabled to record every circumstance, however minute, that relates to it. Our first design was to have noticed only the principal actions that had taken place during the War; but on further consideration we have adopted the following plan as more interesting to our readers, especially Professional Men, and also as being more valuable to the future Historian. When we have brought our Memoir to the beginning of the present year, from whence our work commenced, we shall then, if our labours are so long approved, take a retrograde course, and give an account of Naval Transactions, from the beginning of the American War, to the rise of the present. Whatever additions or corrections we receive will meet with immediate notice; and we trust that our Naval Biography, with the Memoirs of Navigation and Commerce, and this Historical Memoir, will in time, as before observed, form an extensive Naval Chronicle.