should the enemy be enabled in the course of the present to effect a descent in any part of the united kingdoms, there is no officer on whom this country can rely with more implicit confidence. On June 21, 1801, his majesty was pleased to exhibit a further mark of his approbation, by a patent creating him Baron Grey de Howic, in the county of Northumberland.*

In addition to the many honours conferred upon him by his Sovereign, Lord Grey has received the thanks of both houses of parliament for his exploits in the West Indies. The corporation of London too, always forward to recognise and reward merit, presented the freedom of the city to him and Sir John Jervis (now Lord St. Vincent) on their return, in gold boxes of one hundred guineas value each. On this occasion Mr. Wilkes complimented the admiral and general in the following animated address:

"GENTLEMEN,

"I give you joy, and I feel that my pride as an Englishman, and as chamberlain of this great city, are highly gratified in the honour of communicating to two brave and illustrious commanders in the fleets and armies of my country, the unanimous resolution of thanks from the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council of the city of London, in common council assembled.

"The glory of the British arms has not only been supported by you, gentlemen, both by sea and land, but by your able, gallant, and meritorious conduct in the West Indies you have achieved brilliant conquests, rendered us signal services, and acquired the most signal advantages, at an important and critical æra, and over a powerful and perfidious enemy.

"We reflect with singular satisfaction on those wonderful exer. tions of wisdom and policy, continued during the whole period of your command, by which you preserved between the naval and military forces a happy union and perfect harmony.

"This object you saw to be of the first necessity for the accomplishment of all hazardous enterprises, and to the want of which,

and

Lord Grey has a very numerous family. Of his eldest son Charles we shall give an account hereafter. His second son, Henry-George, is an officer in the army, being lieutenant-colonel of the seventeenth regiment of dragoons, and aid-de-camp to the King.

His third, George, was bred in the royal navy, and served as a lieutenant on board the Quebec, at the commencement of the late war with France; he was made master and commander in 1793, on which occasion he obtained the Vesuvius bomb, soon after which he procured the rank of post captain, on his appointment to the command of the Boyre, under Admiral Sir John Jervis. He followed that distinguished commander into the Victory, and accompanied him to the Mediterranean. Since the commencement of the present war, he has not been employed in active service; but he first obtained the Royal Charlotte yacht, in the room of Sir H. B. Neale,

and the disgrace of some former periods, the recording page of the English history ascribed the failure of bold and grand undertakings. Your excellent conduct and good intelligence, on the contrary, secured a regular co-operation of the whole British force. Victory accordingly followed your standards, and carried along with her a series of successes through an extended variety of attacks of difficulty and danger.

"Permit, gentlemen, the city wreaths to be mixed with the laurels you have fairly won, and which a general applause must more and more endear to you. These sentiments of gratitude pervade the country in which we live, while they animate the metropolis of our empire. They give a full indemnity against the slanderous breath of envy, and the foul calumnies of the envenomed serpent-tongue of malice, which in these latter times has scarcely ceased to detract from, and endeavour to wound superior merit."

who

who was nominated one of the lords of the admiralty, and then succeeded Admiral Coffin as commissioner at Sheerness.

William, the fourth son, like the second brother, has attached himself to military affairs, and is at present a major in the seventeenth regiment of foot, and lieutenant-governor of Chester. There are two other sons, and several daughters, one of the latter of whom is married to Samuel Whitbread, Esq. M. P. for Bedford.

The honourable Charles Grey, the eldest son of Lord Grey de Howic, was born in 1764, and by the influence of his family, and the early promise of his own future talents, was returned a member for the county of Northumberland in 1785. He has sat in three successive parliaments, one with Sir Charles Middleton, and two with Colonel Beaumont, as a colleague.

Mr. Grey was too young for a seat in the house of Commons during the American war; but if we are to reason from analogy, notwithstanding the delicate situation in which he would have been placed, there can be little doubt but that he would have deprccated a contest, in the condemnation of which his political associates, as well as political enemies, have most cordially united. His father, together with Barré and Dunning, was attached to the Marquis of Lansdowne; but he himself appears to have looked up to no patron, although he has pretty uniformly taken the same side in politics, and voted along with Mr. Fox. He is one of that eloquent and intrepid party who maintained that Mr. Pitt had obtained his

first official appointment by singular and unconstitutional means, and he has generally been a strenuous oppositionist during the administration of that minister. The latter gentleman very early discovered an ambition to become a war minister, and his former disputes with Spain, Russia, France, Denmark, &c. fully entitled him to that appellation. In his bloodless contest with the first of these powers, in 1789, his opponents not only condemned his original precipitation, but objected that he had entered into a convention, relative to which he had omitted to lay the necessary documents before the house.

Mr. Grey, in particular, (Monday, Dec. 13, 1790) insisted that in the conduct of the negociation, "circumstances had occurred which required to be explained, as it could certainly never be asserted that the executive power was exempt from such an expla nation, for it would then be a power above controul, and secure from inspection. Upon this principle he had made a motion in the former parliament for the production of papers, and after the process of an expensive armament, and a protracted negociation, such an explanation had become still more necessary. It was proper to enquire whether the dispute had been originally occasioned by the ambition and violence of the court of Spain, or the rashness, ignorance, and presumption of our own ministers? It was likewise proper to enquire, whether the negociation might have been conducted with less expence or delay Whether peace might have been secured upon better terms; or whether the terms that had been obtained

might have been procured without the sacrifices which had accompanied them?

"When he reflected on the propriety of these enquiries, he should not have apprehended any opposition to the motion for the evidence by which they were to be elucidated; but what was his surprise, when he had heard it intimated, and that too from the most respectable authority, that a majority of the house would concur in opposing the motion for producing evidence. Yet whatever might be the decision of the house, whatever line of conduct, on the present occasion, their sentiments of propriety might induce them to pursue, he considered it as his own duty to move for the necessary documents, and in this persuasion would proceed to enumerate the grounds upon which he founded his motion." He then observed, that he was fully justified by every instance of former practice: in the convention of 1739 all the papers relative to that transaction had been produced, and a precedent exactly in point was to be found in the affair of Falkland's islands, more recent as to time, and more applicable in respect to circumstances.

"Whatever rank Britain might hold (added he) in the scale of nations, however distinguished by foreign influence, or internal resources, yet the general principle must be allowed, that peace, almost upon any terms, was in the present situation preferable to hostilities. So oppressed were we with the enormous load of debt, and exhausted by the continual imposition of taxes, as to render the continuance of peace

not