the enemy, as doubtful too, as if they had been equal, for fome time; but their number, in the end, in fome measure prevailing, they took the Garland and the Bonaventure, and funk three other fhips. Akson and Battin, which were the names of these two bold • Commanders, had formed the defign of boarding and taking Van Tromp. The former part of their project they performed with an unparallelled intrepidity; but fuccefs did not attend their expectations in the latter. They found Van Tromp fo well feconded by Evertzen, the Vice-Admiral of Zealand, and others, that after having grappled him, killed his fecretary and his purfer by his fide, loft almost all their men, and made great havock among the Dutch, they found themselves too weak to compleat their noble and well-laid defign; the former being taken by Tromp, and the latter by Evertzen. Blake feeing the danger the Garland and the Bonaventure were expofed to, forced his way into a throng of the enemy's fhips, to relieve them; but being himself attacked and boarded, by feveral of the enemy's ftouteft fhips, could not come at them. He, however, beat the fhips which boarded him, feveral times off, and, in the end, found an opportunity of rejoining his fleet. At laft, night having parted the two fleets, Blake fuppof •ing he had fufficiently fecured the nation's honour, as well as his own, by engaging with fo fuperior an enemy, and coming off with fo little los; and befides, feeing no profpect of ad< vantage, by renewing the fight, retired to the River. This inconfiderable fuccefs was matter of great triumph to the Dutch; and it is faid, that Van Tromp was led away by fo filly a pride and vanity, to pass through the Channel with a broom at his main-top-maft-head, as it were to sweep the feas • of the English. man. The Dutch purchafed this fmall advantage at a dear rate, one of their flag-fhips being blown up, and the other two very much fhattered, befides the lofs of a great number of men.' This third book concludes with an account of this great • Robert Blake was defcended from the antient family of the Blakes at Plansfield, in the parifh of Spaxton, in the county of Somerfet. His father Humphry was a merchant, settled at Bridgwater, in the neighbourhood of which he had purchafed an eftate, having by the Spanish trade raised a confiderable fortune for thofe times. He had feveral children, of whom the eldeft, Robert, was born in the month of Auguft, 1589, and educated, during his father's life-time, at a free• school fchool in Bridgwater. He removed himself to Oxford, where he was matriculated in Lent term, 1615, as a member of St. Alban's Hall. Some time after he flood for a scholarship of Chrift church, but loft it. From Alban-Hall he tranflated himself to Wadham-College, and on the 10th of February, < 1617, he took the degree of Batchelor of Arts.' 6 We have next, an account of his entering the army, on the fide of the Parliament, at the breaking out of the civil war ; and of his fteady and gallant behaviour in that fervice. Afterwards, we are informed of his heroic actions at sea; which established his own reputation, and that of his country. We come at length to his laft expedition; The war, in the mean time, was grown pretty hot with Spain; and Blake, in pursuance of the Protector's orders, did all that in his power lay, to ruin their maritime force in Europe, as Penn had done in the Weft-Indies. But thefe extraordinary and continual cares, falling on a conftitution already not a little impaired, brought General Blake into fo bad a ftate of health, that, fearing the ill confequences that might happen, in cafe he should die without hav⚫ing any colleague, who in fuch a cafe might take charge of the fleet, he wrote letters into England, fuggefting the expe'diency of joining fome proper perfon in commiffion with him; upon which General Montague was fent with a strong squadron to affift him, and was made joint Admiral with him, according to his defire. Soon after his arrival in the Mediterranean, Blake and he failed with their whole fleet to block up a Spanish fquadron in the Bay of Cadiz, which they accordingly did for feveral months. At laft, in September, finding they were in want of water, Blake and Montague ftood away for the coaft of Portugal, leaving Capt. Stayner, with feven fhips under his command, to look after the enemy.--Being watered, and informed of another Plate-fleet put into Santa Cruz, ⚫ he proceeded to Teneriff, and, after a bloody engagement, took them all. In this battle he removed his brother Benjamin for bad conduct; his regard for his country obliging him to prefer ftrict justice to any ties of natural affection. As foon as the news arrived in England of this extraordinary action, the Protector fent his Secretary to acquaint his fecond Parliament, then fitting, therewith; whereupon they ordered a public thanksgiving, and directed a diamond-ring, worth 500l. to be fent to Blake; 100l. was given to the Captain who brought the news; and the thanks of the Houfe was ordered to all the Officers and Seamen, and to be given them by their General. Thefe, as they were the laft honours, fo the receipt of them was the laft news this brave officer received from his dearly-beloved country. For, returning into the Mediterranean, and REV. June, 1758. • cruifing 6 • cruifing fome time before Cadiz, he found his end draw on fo faft, that it determined him, if poffible, to return home. Accordingly he failed for England; and in his laft sickness often enquired for land, which, however, he never lived to fee, dying as the fleet was entering Plymouth found, on board his fhip, the St. George, the 17th of Auguft, 1657, being about • fifty-nine years of age. His body was the next day embalmed and wrapped up in lead; his bowels were buried in the great church at Plymouth, and his corps conveyed by fea to Greenwich-houfe, where it lay in ftate for fome time; from thence on the 4th of September, it was carried by water, in a barge of ftate, covered with velvet, adorned with efcutcheons and pencils, accompanied by his brother, relations, and fervants, in mourning; by Oliver's Privy-Council, the Com⚫ miffioners of the Admiralty and Navy, the Lord Mayor, and Aldermen of London, the, Field-Officers of the Army, and and many other perfons of honour and quality, in a great number of barges and wherries covered with mourning, marfhalled and ordered by the Heralds at Arms, who attended the folemnity. Thus they pafled to Westminster-bridge, and at their landing, proceeded in the fame manner through a guard of feveral regiments of foot, to Westminster-Abbey; his dear friend, General Lambert, though then in difgrace with the Protector, attending on his horfe. The proceffion over, the body was interred in a vault, built on purpose, in the chapel of King Henry VII. whence it was removed on the 12th of September, 1661, and re-interred in St. Margaret's churchyard. He was a man but of a low ftature, however of a quick lively eye, and of a good foldier-like countenance. He was in his perfon, brave beyond example, yet cool in action, and fhewed a great deal of military conduct in the difpofition of thofe defperate attacks, which men of a cooler compofition have judged rather fortunate than expedient. He certainly loved his country with extraordinary ardour, and as he never ⚫ meddled with intrigues of ftate, fo whatever government he ferved, he was folicitous to do his duty. He was upright to a fupreme degree, tor notwithstanding the vaft fums which paffed through his hands, he fcarce left five hundred pounds behind him, of his own acquiring. In fine, he was altogether difin• tereited and unambitious, expofing himself on all occafions for the benefit of the public, and the glory of the nation, and not with any view to his own private profit or fame. In respect to his perfonal character, he was pious without affectation, frictly juf, and liberal to the utmoft extent of his fortune. His officers he treated with the familiarity of friends, and to his failors he was truly a parent. The State buried him, as it : was was fit; at the public expence they gave him a grave, but no tomb; and though he ftill wants an epitaph, Writers of all 'parties have fhewn an eagerness to do his memory justice.' The fourth book contains the hiftory of our naval transac tions from the restoration of Charles II. in 1660, to the acceffion of William and Mary, in 1688: a period in which, notwithstanding several actions that do honour to the British marine, and the great increase of our wealth and commerce, the nation, by the impolitic views and connections of two Princes, the one governed by knaves and prostitutes, and the other by priests, confiderably funk in its importance in the scale of Europe. The fifth book includes an account of naval affairs, from the revolution to the union of the two kingdoms, in 1706. An Æra full of action, chequered, indeed, with various loffes and difappointments, but, upon the whole, as glorious to ourselves, as advantageous to the liberties of Europe. The fixth book continues the hiftory to the acceffion of the Houfe of Hanover.; and the feventh and last to the present time. We have already objected to our Author's fwelling his performance with a number of materials, when the fubftance of them digefted into the body of the work, would have better anfwered the ends proposed by hiftory. Of this, the feventh book is a glaring inftance. He has here inferted great part of the pamphlets published concerning the late unfortunate Admiral Byng; but we must beg leave to remark, that however requifite those writings might be at the time, to fecond the endeavours of the Admiral's friends to fave him, or affift different parties to difcredit each other with the public, yet we hope, that pofterity will confign them to oblivion, and that it will not need many arguments to enforce this doctrine, That the man who betrays the honour and intereft of his country, by meanly fhrinking froin his duty on the day of battle, fhould at least make it fome recompence, by the example of his punishment. As this Author, however, seems exact in ascertaining the dates, and most other material circumftances of the feveral facts he recites, without omitting, as far as we are able to recollect, any tranfaction of confequence; and as Burchet, Lediard, and moft other Writers of Naval Hiftory abound with defects fimilar to those hinted at in regard to this work; and confidering likewise the extenfivenefs of the plan, and the variety of matter contained in the volume before us, we may venture to recommend it as the most compleat account of Naval Affairs with which the Public has yet been prefented. Pp 2 I-n Sketches Sketches; or, Elays on various Subjects. By Lancelot Temple; IT T was modest enough in the ingenious Author of these Effays barely to entitle them sketches; but if we rightly apprehend his meaning, the fame degree of modefty does not appear in his preface, in which he owns, that he could have given these loofe fragments much bolder ftrokes, as well as more delicate touches: but, adds he, as an Author's renown depends at present upon the Mobility, he (meaning himself) dreads the danger of writing too well; and feels the value of his own labour too sensibly to beftow it where, in all probability, it might only ferve to ⚫ depreciate his performance.' This, if the Author be ferious, is offering a poor compliment to his Readers, and as poor an apology for prefenting them with imperfect pieces, when it was in his power to have done better. What fhould we think of a Painter, who fhould take it in his head to offer his first rude draughts, or mere cut-lines, to the public, inftead of finifhed pictures? Or how would it found were a Bookfeller thus to harangue his cuftomers- Gentlemen, I could print better books"-but as the profit depends "upon the number fold, it is moft prudent to confult the tafte of the Mobility: were an Author to write too well for them, "they might only like his book the worfe for it.-What figni"fies FAME?-Here's an Author now! a man of fenfe; who honestly tells you, (the difcerning FEW) he could write to "please you, if he thought it worth his while :--but he knows the value of his own labour, and of your approbation; and "won't fpoil his books by making them too good for his "Readers." But perhaps the crudity of our Author's apology may tacitly fuggeft a fufficient one for itself. He poffibly thought, that, in regard to uniformity, he ought to prefix but the sketch of a preface to the fketch of a book, and to give no other than the out-lines of an excufe, where a compleat apology might have appeared like a contradiction to his own plan, and his profeffed dread of the danger of writing too well. To hazard another conjecture, perhaps, after all, our Author's feeming contempt of his own performance may proceed from that Kind of folicitude expreffed by the good Lady, who having, with much coft and care, provided a fett entertainment for the celebrated Swift, began to teaze him, on his fitting down to table, with her apprehenfions left Mr. Dean fhould not be able to make a dinner upon what was before him; with a thoufand apologies for the meannefs of the fare: Confound you for a foolish "B |