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heard many experienced officers declare, that the rules and maxims delivered in this Poem, for the conduct of a Ship in the most perilous emergency, form the best, indeed the only, opinions which a skilful Mariner should adopt. We possess, therefore, a Poem, not only eminent for its sublimity and pathos, but for an harmonious poetic assemblage of technical terms and maxims used in Navigation, which a young Sailor may easily commit to memory; and also, with these, such scientific principles as will enable him to lay a sound foundation for his future professional skill and judgment. We should therefore, as Britons, respect this Poem as the composition of a Naval Sibyl; and its three Cantos are the more valuable, since our Author did not live to enrich his Country with any similar productions.

At the Peace of 1763, the ROYAL GEORGE was paid off; and FALCONER now added another zealous and benevolent character to the number of his friends, in the person of Mr WILLIAM HUNTER, † brother to his Shipmate, who at the same time was also paid off in the SUTHERLAND. Previous to the Peace, the Duke of

Now one of the Officers in Greenwich Hospital.

YORK had embarked on board the CENTURION, with Commodore HARRISON, for the Mediterranean; on which occasion FALCONER published an Ode, † entitled, On the Duke of York's second departure from England as Rear-Admiral. "He composed it," says Governor HUNTER, "during an occasional absence from his messmates, when he retired into a small space formed between the cable tiers and the Ship's side.” In this composition he had DRYDEN'S Ode to SAINT CECILIA in view; and, like him, with all the enthusiasm of a Poet, has made a demigod of his Hero. The conclusion is not unworthy even of Dryden :

"Nor thou, illustrious CHIEF! refuse

The incense of a Nautic Muse!

For ah! to whom shall NEPTUNE's sons complain,
But him whose arms unrivalled rule the Main?

Deep on my grateful breast

Thy favour is imprest;

No happy son of wealth or fame

To court a royal Patron came;

A hapless Youth! whose vital page

as one sad lengthened Tale of woe;
Where ruthless Fate, impelling tides of rage,

Bade wave on wave in dire succession flow;

The reader will find a severe Critique on this Poem in the Critical Review, written by FALCONER.

To glittering stars, and titled names unknown,
Preferred his suit to thee alone:

The Tale your sacred pity moved,

You felt, consented, and approved.

Then touch my Strings, ye blest PIERIAN CHOIR!
Exalt to rapture every happy line,
My bosom kindle with Promethean fire,
And swell each note with energy divine:
No more to plaintive sounds of woe
Let the vocal numbers flow ;
Perhaps the CHIEF, to whom I sing,
May yet ordain auspicious days
To wake the Lyre with nobler lays,
And tune to War the nervous string.
For who, untaught in NEPTUNE'S School,
Though all the powers of Genius he possess,
Though disciplined by classic rule;

With daring pencil can display

The Fight, that thunders on the watery way,
And all its horrid incidents express?

To Him, my Muse, these warlike strains belong,
Source of my Hope, and Patron of thy Song!

AS FALCONER wanted much of that complementary time of service, which qualifies an officer to attend the customary examination for a Lieutenant's commission, his friends advised him to exchange the military, for the civil line in the royal navy; and accordingly, in the course of the said year, 1763, he

was appointed Purser of the GLORY* Frigate, 32 guns. The subsequent death of the gallant Duke of YORK at MONACOA, on the 17th of September, 1767, though felt by all the nation, was more particularly a severe loss to FALCONER; whose welfare, owing to this melancholy event, became again precarious. His literary fame, however, was established; some few friends, among whom the HUNTERS took the lead, still remained; and he accordingly endeavoured to dry the tear, which the memory of his royal Patron frequently called forth, by indulging in the vision of Hope that was still prolonged nor did Providence in this emergency forsake him. Soon after his appointment to the GLORY, FALCONER had married a young lady of the name of HICKS, who, I believe, is still living; but where, I have hitherto been unable to discover. She, probably, possesses not only a miniature of her husband, but many manuscripts and letters, which would tend to throw additional light on his biography. Miss HICKS's father was Surgeon of Sheerness Yard, and enjoyed considerable talents for poetry. Mrs FALCONER is described to me as displaying keen abilities; and that it was the

*Commanded, in 1770, by the Hon. Captain JOHN RUTHVEN; she was afterwards called the APOLLO.

lustre of her mind, rather than of her person, which attracted and confirmed the affection of her husband: his feelings, at this period, are expressed in a little Ballad, † styled the FOND LOVER:

"A Nymph of ev'ry charm possessed
That native Virtue gives,
Within my bosom all confessed
In bright idea lives:

For her my trembling numbers play
Along the pathless Deep;
While sadly social with my lay
The Winds in concert weep.

If Beauty's sacred influence charms
The rage of adverse Fate;
Say, why the pleasing soft alarms

Such cruel pangs create ?

Since all her thoughts by sense refined

Unartful Truth express,

Say, wherefore Sense and Truth are joined
To give my soul distress?" &c.

FALCONER'S principal amusement always consisted in literary occupation; and when the GLORY was laid up in ordinary at CHATHAM, Commissioner HANWAY, brother to the celebrated JONAS HANWAY, became delight

+ There is also printed by him an Address to MIRANDA.

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