more important to the country, they will not be refused. Sir, I shall not detain the House longer than to re-assert all that I have pledged myself to prove, and to stake every thing that is valuable to man on the issue. If the minutes are produced, I shall expose such a scene as will, perhaps, make my country tremble for its safety. I entreat the House well to consider, that there is a tribunal to which it is answerable that of

posterity, which will try our actions, and judge impartially." When the House divided, there appeared for the amendment proposed by Mr. Perceval, 171; against it, 19; so that Lord Cochrane's motion was lost by a majority of 152.

As soon as this business was disposed of, the Chancellor of the Exchequer concluded a speech, in which he highly eulogised the conduct of Lord Gambier, by proposing a vote of thanks; the first clause of which was in the following terms: -"That the thanks of this House be given to Admiral the Right Hon. Lord Gambier, for the zeal, judgment, ability, and anxious attention to the welfare of his Majesty's service, which marked his Lordship's conduct as Commander-in-Chief of the fleet in Basque Roads, by which the French fleet, which had taken refuge under the protection of their own batteries, were driven on shore and disabled, and a considerable part of them destroyed, on the 11th and 12th of April, 1809." This motion was opposed by Lord Cochrane and Sir Francis Burdett, but was carried by a large majority; there appearing for it, 161; against it, only 39.

A similar motion was agreed to in the House of Lords. In communicating it to Lord Gambier, the Lord Chancellor passed a high encomium on the character and services of the noble Admiral.

Lord Gambier retained the command of the Channel fleet until 1811, when he was required to resign it by the expiration of the three years to which its tenure is limited.

On the 30th of July, 1814, Lord Gambier was placed at the head of the Commissioners for concluding a peace with the United States of America; the first meeting for which took place at Ghent, on the 8th of August; the preliminaries

were signed at the same place, on the 24th of December, and ratified at Washington, February 17th, 1815. His Lordship was nominated a Grand Cross of the Bath on the 7th of June following. At the accession of his present Majesty, he was, with the late Admiral Peere Williams, advanced to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet. His Lordship's death took place on the 19th of April, 1833, at his house at Iver, near Uxbridge.

Lord Gambier was characterised by feelings of great piety and benevolence. He was President of the Church Missionary Society, and a Vice-President of the Naval Charitable, Marine, and other Societies; and also of the Lock Hospital, the Asylum, and the African and Benevolent Institutions.

His Lordship married, in July, 1788, Louisa, second daughter of Daniel Mathew, of Felix Hall, in Essex, Esq., and sister to Jane, the wife of Samuel Gambier, Esq., his Lordship's elder brother. Lady Gambier survives, having had no family; and the peerage has consequently become extinct.

Lord Gambier's will and three codicils have been proved at Doctors' Commons, and the personal property sworn to be under the value of 30,000l. His Lordship's nephews, Charles Samuel Gambier and Edward John Gambier, Esqs., are appointed executors. Lady Gambier, his Lordship's widow, becomes possessed of the greater part of the property during her life, and, upon her decease, it is bequeathed to the nephews and nieces, eight in number. His Lordship bequeaths 2007. to the Foreign Bible Society; and directs that his picture, representing the action between the British and French fleets, on the 25th and 26th of January, 1782, be hung in the Painted Hall of Greenwich Hospital. He also bequeaths to his friend Commander Henry Boys, 50l.; and to the Hon. Francis Monckton, 10007.

Principally, from Marshall's "Royal Naval Biography," and "The Gentleman's Magazine.”

242

No. XV.

SIR JOHN ANDREW STEVENSON, Mus. Doc.

He who attains a distinguished rank in his own times as a musical composer earns a considerable share of immortality. His memory is preserved while the sounds which he melodised are admired and repeated, or as long as the science which he improved is cultivated. Compositions which are wedded to poetry endure to a much more extended time than others which are deprived of that additional charm; and hence we find that the works of lyrical composers are more favoured by succeeding generations than those productions which are intended to be performed by instruments alone. Amongst the successful composers of recent times, Sir John Stevenson has not been the least fortunate; he has earned the wreath awarded to the successful votaries of both the sacred and the profane muses; his fame will be long preserved in the echoes of the vaulted choirs, and in the light songs of the bower - in the solemnity of the sacred chaunt, and in the sprightly strains which enliven our merely social hours. He was fortunate, too, in living at a time when a national poet conceived the idea of uniting the sweet melodies of his country to poetry" worthy of their energy and tenderness;" and he performed the service of enwreathing them together with such skill and taste, as will ensure the poet and the accompanying minstrel a commensurate fame.

Unlike many of his equally distinguished countrymen, Sir John Stevenson passed the whole of his long life in his native city, enlivening, almost to the last hour of his existence, the circles in which he first became remarkable, and establishing, by his changeless fidelity to his former associations, his claim to that constancy, which, in too many instances afforded by

others, has been sacrificed to ambition.

The genealogical

particulars of his origin are somewhat obscured by the ominous silence which he was in the habit of preserving in reference to it; but his fame is independent alike of its elevation or of its lowliness; his talents and acquirements enabled him to attain a station which it is not in the gift of princes to bestow, nor within the power of mere fortune to achieve.

Those who knew Sir John Stevenson in his years of boyhood say, that he was the son of a professor of music, who was settled in Dublin, about the middle of the last century.' At that time the Irish metropolis was celebrated for its musical amusements; and, in the public orchestras, Mr. Stevenson is said to have performed one of the subordinate violin parts; but, dying of a fever, which, at the same time carried off his wife, he left two sons quite unprovided for. Fortunately for his subsequent success in the world, John Andrew, the elder, was kindly protected by Mr. Gibson, then of the firm of Gibson and Woffington, of Grafton Street, musical instrument makers; who, perhaps, discerning some indications of musical talent in the boy, interested himself in his fortunes, and ultimately succeeded in getting him received as a pupil in the choir school of Christ Church cathedral, in the year 1771, he being, at that time, about ten years of age. His younger brother was placed on board a vessel in the foreign trade, but was supposed to have perished at sea shortly after.

At the time young Stevenson was admitted to the establishment of Christ Church, it had been the custom to exclude the sons of Irish parents from the benefit which it afforded, and, until the time of his admission, this ungenerous system had been generally practised towards the natives of Ireland. His friend Mr. Gibson, however, had sufficient influence to have an exception made in his favour, and from that time thenceforward the former rule was gradually departed from; until at length the boys were admitted, as they are at present, after a public examination, which supersedes the partiality of patronage, and

We believe that Sir John Stevenson was of Scottish parents and birth -ED.

the prejudice of national distinctions. At the time that young Stevenson was received, the establishment was under the care of Doctor Woodward, who was an eminent musical theorist; and under his direction he imbibed the first rudiments of that science which in after-times he was destined to enrich by his compositions. The other branches of learning taught in the establishment were not so extended as they are at present. Classics were not then considered necessary for the education of the vicars choral; an English master was the only one, besides the musical professor, which the school contained. Mr. Sharman, author of the geography which bears his name, was at that time the master of the English and arithmetical classes, under whose care Sir John received the limited education which the chapter bestowed upon its pupils.

During the seven years of probation which he passed in the establishment, he displayed a great natural talent for music, and a disposition for composition; and although the latter was not encouraged by his preceptors, yet he found frequent opportunities to indulge it in his leisure hours. His probation expired in the year 1778, and he had then to enter the world with little else than his musical education to depend on for subsistence which, considering the state of music at that time, and the emolument likely to be derived from the profession, did not present a prospect to him calculated to afford much encouragement. Here again the disadvantage of his nationality stood in the way of his success; but, fortunately, the private influence which enabled him to succeed in entering the choir of Christ Church cathedral, procured him a stipendiary appointment to the choir of St. Patrick's.

The internal constitutions of the chapters were somewhat different. In Christ Church cathedral the Bishop of Kildare was Dean, ex officio, and the vacancies, as they occurred, were filled up by the suffrage of the chapter; but, in that of Saint Patrick's, the sole patronage rested with the Dean of that cathedral. The chapter of the former was chiefly composed of persons who had been brought from England and admitted to the various offices in the choir; and, with a constituency