17 11-16ths

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613 62

623

80

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17 11-16th

dis.

613

THE

UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. MAGAZINE.

N° XLVI.-VOL. VIII.] For SEPTEMBER, 1807.

4

NEW SERIES.

"We shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if we can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth."-DR. JOHNSON.

IT

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

The

Rear-admiral Sir JOHN BORLASE the present times. In turning our WARREN, Bart. K. B. c. eyes towards the picture of modern T has been the practice in every Europe we naturally fix them on miage to hold up the actions and litary men; and the Cobourgs, and the character of the worthies of the coun- Pichgrues, the Melases, and the Destry to the admiration and imitation saixes offer themselves to our notice, of others. It has been said, with our wonder, and our grief. respect to pourtraying the life measures of one of our reputed great. of those who are no more, "De men have awakened a belligerent mortuis nil nisi bonum;" with the spirit in our enemy, which might substitution of the word verum for long have lain quiet. These meabonum, the maxim would be more sures, while they flattered the pride consonant to the object and views of and exalted the fortunes of a few, history and such a reserve adhered have brought a danger on the whole. to in the depicting of contemporary In watching the fortune of an empire, characters would render their histo- whether in its progression to splenries, whether short or long, less dour or to decay, we cannot but nofulsome, as being less adulatory and tice how much the devotion or ambimore useful, as having the good of tion of a few persons contributes to the country and not the praise of the its prosperity or ruin. Never was this individual for the motive. Men emi- truth so illustrated as in our own nent in the arts and sciences, whe- country. Even after the wound octher wielding a spear or holding a casioned by the American war and pencil, are entitled to the notice of the pertinacity of Lord North to his the country for saving or adorning it. mischievous opinions, the nation re Such persons, indeed, have no occa- covered a vigour beyond any thing sion, no more than they have the de- ever witnessed by its oldest inhabi sire, to write their own lives. The tant. The trade flourished by its exeye of fame will discover them, and tension; the stocks rose by their cre will raise the trumpet to its mouth; dit, insomuch that an eloquent mininor ought the diffidence of the par- ster promised the listering senate ta ties themselves, nor the gross flattery bring the three per cents. to par in a we sometimes see poured on the pre- short time; and to place the comsumptuous and undeserving, stop its mercial and political glory of Great commendable and wide spreading Britain on a basis never to be shaken, sound. In a very little while after this flatterWar is considered as the first of ing boast, the affairs of a neighbour arts. It is by war that countries are ing state gave rise to questions and often gained; and, we fear, it is by considerations at home, which afthis cruel art that we are called upon fected the personal pride and feelings to preserve our own. The warrior of this modern Cicero, more than then by the course of things, or, as they concerned the honour and safety many insist upon it, by the conduct of his country, and which under his of a few men, is necessarily made a eloquence and influence kindled a prominent character in the history of war which, by its continuance, has at UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL. VIII. 2 B

length involved the prosperity and destined to guide the helm of the safety of the empire.. state, let them be told that a great it is here, however, both useless crisis awakens new energies; "that and unseasonable to discuss the ne- great events bring new and great men cessity or expediency of the war, to notice, that the substitution of a either in its conimencement in 1793, system of economy in the room of a or ia the renewal of it in 1803. The baneful extravagance wil be loudly ene ny flushed with successive victo- called for, and that the sums which ries threatens us with extinction of have been lavished on the less deserv liberty. The genius of Britain re- ing will be applied to a better pur presents to its sons the value of the pose. object to be defended, and the extent Let us then not conceal the diffiof the power to be resisted in its pre- culty of our situation. The solemn servation. The regular military are declaration that the country is in danpowerfully arrayed, the citizens at ger will be enough to make the large ready to arm for the important hardy warrior leave those Capuan reoccasion: but, before all, the Navy pasts with which our country abounds, of England, high in discipline, and and which the venal and time servanimated by its wonted courage and ing prints announce and expatiate unexampled success, is ever on the upon with more pomp and compla alert to frustrate the design of the enemy before he approaches our shores, thereby depriving him of that chance in the conflict wherein Bellona has so remarkably favoured him.

cency than would be required in 'detailing a signal victory.

The hero of this short memoir is neither indolent nor epicurean. Like Cyrus, he can quit without relucIt has been the fashion to say, that tance, at his country's call, the com France has long threatened us with forts he is entitled to on land for the invasion, but not having executed her privations he must necessarily endure purpose hitherto, we have nothing to when at sea. The admiral is defear. The sense, however, which the scended from the Earls of Warenne, government entertains of our danger who traced their origin up to the is manifested by its recent conduct to- Plantagenets. The family in Chewards a neutral power, being con- shire is of the same stock, being of strained to declare that the plea of Norman extraction. His more im justice must yield to that of policy mediate ancestor was John Burlacy, and necessity. We must then pre- of St. Newbrine, in Cornwall, being pare for a struggle, a terrible strug- one branch of the Burlacys. Another gle! The contest is for the unlimited was Dr. Borlase, the historian of that Sovereignty of Europe on the one county; while a third included hand, on the other for obtaining se- Humphrey Borlase, created Lord curity by considerable cessions or sa- Borlase by King James II. after his crifices. The whole world appears abdication, The one we allude interested in the result. Our appeal to removed into Buckinghamshire, is not made to the civilians of Europe. where it obtained considerable estates. It does not rest with the Grotiuses, Sir William Borlase founded a chathe Puffendorfs, and the Vattels, we rity school for boys at Great Marlow, have carried it beyond their jurisdic- in consideration of his son being tion. Neither the code of the Jus elected the representative of that Gentium, nor the practice founded place. The trustees for this charity upon the opinions of mankind are are the inhabitants of Marlow, subhere consulted, but the resolution is ject to the approval of the head of the formed of resorting to every expe- Warren family. Great Marlow sends dient which self-preservation can de- twenty boys, Little Marlow and

vise

Our defenders want no stimulus, they stand not in need of such examples. If they doubt of the skill or strength of the hands which may be

Medmanham two each. This last mentioned place has beeen rendered remarkable for containing the abbey, in which the late celebrated Jolin Wilkes and Lord le Despencer were