MEMOIRS OF SIR WILLIAM HOSTE.

Tuna Memoirs of Captain Sir WILLIAM HOSTE must be placed in the library next to the Life of Admiral Lord COLLINGWOOD-- the dashing frigate by the side of the stately seventy-four. The characters of the men bear something like this relation, and the books hold it too; chiefly composed, as they both are, of family

letters, they are little but the exact reflections of the dispositions, occupations, and ability of their respective writers. Both works are delightful reading, and the perusal of each must be finished with a strong feeling of admiration, nay affection, for the subject of biography.

Sir WILLIAM HOSTE was one of the naval heroes of the late wars. The bravery of these men, joined with nautical skill, was the salvation of this country. They redeemed even the errors of the baneful anti-national policy of the Pittite Administrations. The glory of our Navy, as it shone forth in the actual defence of our national existence, our national honour, during the wars growing out of the French Revolution, can never fade: it may thence always be learned what English energy is capable of—what re- sources the English character possesses—how it can despise death and all forms of danger when opposed to an enemy that threatens, not the existence of the government, but the honour of the nation. It is pleasant to look upon a scene of such exertion, even in ge- nerals; but in the letters of such men as HOSTE, they are brought home to us with all the familiar and intimate knowledge of details, character, and feelings, that converts the reader into more than a spectator, a heartfelt sympathizer.

HOSTE was a brave and generous fellow; he bad a radiant dispo- sition • all was open and pleasant about him; he was single- minded, straightforward, spirited: he bad a tender and affectionate heart. He feared death so little, that he may be said never to have taken it into account, and yet, in his relatives and friends, he died many deaths. No man could feel more acutely any calamity that happened to those he loved ; the loss of a friend was like the tear- iree, out of his heart; and yet such was his spirit, his enthusiasm of honour, that he never spared them, neither could he have borne to have preserved his dearest relative by any the slightest avoid- ance of duty or shrinking from danger. This is the true spirit of the Navy and it leads to victory, to the honour of the service, and the safety of the country. It is surprising that this spirit should have survived its bard trials : it sprung up and flourished in despite of every discourage- ment an Aristocratical Government could fling upon it. Ross% is only one among a crowd of the finest men that ever breathed, and the most useful to this country, that has had nothing from the Government but neglect and ill-treatment. He scarcely even murmurs: complaint and he were almost incompatible ; but it is impossible to avoid seeing in his observations on the remarks made to him by his correspondents, that he felt deeply the churlish behaviour of the Admiralty to him on almost every occasion. Victories, achievements, exploits, activity, energy, spirit, lofty and noble conduct, that in any other service would have led to every kind of national distinction, were, in him, re- warded with invariable indifference to his requests, with no promotion beyond that of Post-Captain, with, in some occa- sions, the suppression of his despatches, and with at length a long-postponed much-talked-of baronacy—a title—a privilege of being be-sirred ; but among all the millions of public money lavished away, not a rap to support the overwhelming honour withal. And why was all this ? Not because the Admiralty was not sensible of the value of such captains as HOSTE—not because they were not well aware that the way to encourage such valuable qualities in others was to distinguish them in such instances as his—but because they had their own hands tied; they were not empowered to reward merit : they were on sufferance—the Government was one of patronage—command, commissions, praise, and pence must be given in return for votes. By votes they Usurped their power, and for votes they necessarily bartered the sgrvice of the country, its rewards and its commands. Horn, himself, with all his admirable qualifications for commanding sue-- cess in his profession, rose by interest. He was recommended by powerful individuals in the first ro. .ce, and for nearly every step was obliged either to a lady of high rank or a great landowner. It is most painful to read of such a man in his letters pressing his father to use all his interest to get him a step in that profession of which he was the ornament, or to hear him lament that his word had no influence—that the Admiralty turned a deaf ear to all his recommendations. Had HOSTE been as unworthy as he was worthy, he would probably have got to as high a rank as he did get; most assuredly he would have risen far higher had his con- nexions been more powerful, or could he have boasted a title, or the being the son of one in or connected with the Peerage. The. country was, and we are afraid is still governed, not for or by itself, but for and by an order. Hence the multitude of able men that have been permitted to starve and die in obscurity, that their su- periors might be qualified for pay, plunder, or pension; hence the complaints of such men as COLLINGWOOD, that there was no de- pendence to be placed upon many of the officers high in rank- placed under his command; hence, too, the waste of stores, the loss of ships, the inefficiency in short, and the failure in parts, of the ()Teat national arm.

WILLIAM HOSTE was, like NELSON-, the son of a clergyman in Norfolk. He was born in 1780, went to sea at the age of thirteen,. and in that service be remained actively engaged for twenty-three years ; in the course of all which time, he was very little more than a year and a half on shore. After going to sea as a boy, he, was a Lieutenant, and a Commander, and a Post Captain, before he again touched the British soil. He returned to his father's house only after ten years' hard service in many parts of the world ; in the course of which, be had been worn down into ill- ness, had been wounded, had broken both his legs, had been first in every enterprise, and had never failed. His rise had been rapid up to this point, for he was under the discriminating eye of NEL- SON, and NELSON could at one time even bend the Admiralty. HOSTE resembled NELSON in many points—he was his pupil, his favourite, and was worthy of being his successor. He often re- minded the Navy of that gallant man. At the commencement of the battle of Lissa, HOSTE telegraphed through his little squadron the signal " Remember NELSON. It is said to have had a sur- prising effect on the men. It would have fallen dead, however, on their hearts, had they not been well aware that the chief who led them on was a hero of the same class. "What can be done by a brave officer and an able seaman, that you will do," said Coma's°. woo°, another discerner of merit. Ilona, however, on several' occasions, did more than mere bravery and ability would have at- tempted. As MIRABEAU said, the word impossible was not in his vocabulary. The town and castle of Cattaro he took with his- landed guns and sailors ashore, against all rule and all calcula- tion. When the French General saw the ship-guns dragged and swung up impracticable mountains which commanded him, he laughed at the absurdity of attempting impossibilities. When he found his fort played upon by rockets, he grew angry, and said it was a most unmilitary proceeding. He was told it was very irregular certainly, but that he had sailors to deal with and not soldiers; which fact might perhaps be his consolation, when at the end of a few weeks he was introduced a prisoner on board his Majesty's ship Bacchante. This was an expeditition on which. Captain HOSTE was sent with a force confessedly inadequate. The attempt seemed absurd ; but energy, zeal, fertility of resource, and the love and confidence of those under command, will almost account for the working of military miracles.

The principal part of these volumes is composed of letters writ- ten by Sir WILLIAM to his father and mother, and to his eldest brother and sister, both of whom died while he was on service. He was a most affectionate creature; his heart clung to his home ; though alive to every enterprise, and never flinching from hard work and hard knocks, the first moment of repose always brought ideas of his dear home crowding into his mind. "Dear Godwick" (the name of his father's residence)—" dear old Godwick "—" one line from the old hall "—" my happy home "—" dear, dear, God- wick !"—are phrases which occur in every letter. His feelings. overflow when he looks back upon his boyhood ; in his own cabin, after some of his severe struggles, he will shed tears over his mo- ther's kindness; he writes in raptures of the idea of but once re- turning to his old home. When difficulty overshadows his fa- ther's house, he has no thought for himself—he instantly orders all the few hundreds he possesses to be drawn out, the hard-earned.

share of his slowly paid prize-money. The letters which relate to the missing ones from the "old hall "— they who had not

awaited his return home—his brother, elder only by a year, and a beloved sister, both of whom fell a prey to our national scourge consumption—are full of tenderness and manly grief; they and many others give a beautiful picture of a true English country home.

Sir WILLIAM HosrE returned to England at the general paci- fication. He was just able to be brought ashore at Portsmouth; he could not stir beyond a house at Gosport, where he remained.

till he gathered strength, and had in some measure reposed from, the fatigues of his long service. He was on his couch, unable to bear company, all the time of the holy-day visit of the Allied Sove- reigns, who came to celebrate the result of the achievements of such men as himself. He recruited his strength, but never re- covered from the blow which his constitution had received, more especially from arduous service in Egypt and the Adriatic. Gods wick, however, had a charm, and the sports of the field—he was exceeding fond of hunting : and then he married. He could not fail to be happy—first, because of his own disposition, and next, his wife was the amiable authoress of these Memoirs. She tells us no more of herself, than that Sir WILLIAM HOSTE, some time after his return, married the third daughter of HORATIO Earl of ORFORD. Of late years, Sir WILLIAM HOSTE had a guard-ship, and after- wards a yacht ; he was employed occasionally in transporting to our shores such personages as Don MIGUEL. It was a dis- tiriction that the Duke of CLARENCE selected him twice as the captain to convey him and his Dutchess across the Channel. It was only hastening his death, however, thus to employ him. His constitution had been sinking for years; his lungs had been af- fected by some of the pernicious climates he had served in ; and, alter many and frequent attacks, he sunk under the disease in 1828, being then but forty-eight years of age. What a mass of exertion was crowded into the first thirty-four years of this man's life I Such heroes are our only parallels of NAPOLEON'S youth- ful generals. • The letters are not by any means models of composition—they are the careless homely effusions of a sailor, too busy to mind his sentences ; neither do they betray much of the speculative faculty -s-the was framed for action ; but they are transparent, and a heart full of fine feelings is seen through them, all at work like bees in a glass hive.

• We will give one example of Sir WILLIAM'S style : all his letters are alike in style and spirit. • Amphion, off Majorca, May 19, 1808.

My dear Father—For fear the papers should give you a long rigmarole story about Amphion and her crew, I am determined to give you a scrawl directly, though no chance of sending it offers at present. I am on the point of joining Admiral Thornborough off Minorca, and shall leave this with him. I shall begin with saying our dear Edward is quite well, and has commenced his career already in the fighting way, and I can assure you will not tarnish the illustrious honours of your house. We have had a small breeze with a French frigate; and had the rascal allowed me to close in with him, the day would have been a glorious one for Amphion. I think, however, it will appear all was done that was possible, and though not completely successful, speaks for itself. On the 12th instant, coming into the bay of Rosas, the frontier town of Spain in the Mediterranean, I discovered an enemy's frigate at anchor under the bat-

teries. Not a moment was lost ; we had every man ready for boarding her, and any intention was to have run Amphion direct alongside, and have boarded thence. There is no saying what would have been the result; but if cool and determined courage could have gained the day, the frigate would have been ours.

In all the actions I have ever been in, I never saw more cheerfulness and con- fidence than was expressed by all my gallant crew. When I tell you we were exposed to the fire of three heavy batteries besides the French ship, you will conceive we had enough on our hands. Notwithstanding their fire, in three minutes I should have been on board of him ; but the poltroon, seeing our in- tention, gave way to his fears, and rather than wait an attack where he had every advantage, cut his cables and ran her on shore, under the batteries of Fort _Houton, and another of eight twenty-four pounders. He was not to be off quite; and though I saw but little chance of getting him off, I still thought I might be enabled to destroy. I anchored immediately as close as the safety of my own ship would admit, and continued engaging him for near three hours. His fire was completely silenced, and not a man to be seen on his decks; • still, however, so close under the batteries, that I had no prospect of harming him by cannonade. I sent old Bennett, the First Lieutenant, to endeavour to set fire to him ; but their vollies of musketry on his approach obliged him to retreat, which he did in a gallant style. Finding I could do no more with him, and that it was only throwing away powder and shot to no purpose, and galled by the fire of the batteries, which kept playing on us without interruption, and the wind failing me, I made sail out of the road.

How we escaped, I cannot tell; but the hand of Providence was over us; for (though under such a heavy fire for near four hours) on mustering our ship's company, and expecting to find our loss considerable, to my great happiness and astonishment, a few men slightly wounded was the only loss we had sustained ; our sails and rigging much deranged, and several shots between wind and water.

Such is the issue of that day's work, and I think it will make you happy to hear your boys have done their v By little Ned behaved like a hero, and will be every thing you could wish him. He tells me he could beat a dozen French frigates now. You may suppose our men are in high spirits at having -engaged and driven ashore, under such disadvantages, a frigate so superior to themselves. It is gratifying to me, believe me ; and if there is such a thing as true happiness in this life, I think for five minutes I have felt it. I left the frigate on shore, where I think he will remain some time. I join Admiral Thornborough, and then repair to Lord Collingwood. You will see my letter in the papers, I suppose. It is a plain statement of facts, without any humbug, and I hope you will think so.