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Guns.

Lord Hood showed at once his judgment and his sense of the value of Sir Sidney's services, by appointing him to be the bearer of the despatches to England, containing an account of these stir

List of ships of the line, frigates, and sloops, of the department of Toulon.

In the road where the English fleet entered Toulon :

SHIPS OF THE LINE.

Now with the English fleet.

Le Commerce de Marseilles

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120

Le Genereux

Le Pompée

74

Burnt at Toulon.

Remaining at Toulon.

Now with the English fleet.

74

FRIGATES.

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ring events. He was favourably-indeed, without incurring the blame of exaggeration, we may

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say, was enthusiastically received in London. He was caressed at the Admiralty, and distinguished at the court of his sovereign.

As it is our office to record the events of Sir Sidney's life more as a public than as a private character, we shall not inflate these volumes with anecdotes, which, however pleasing in themselves, have nothing to do with the official career of his usefulness and of his glory. It will be sufficient to say, that, during his short cessation from actual service, he was sought for and cherished in the best and most distinguished circles.

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CHAPTER VII.

Appointed to the Diamond-His services on the Channel station-Attacks two French ships under La Hogue-Destroys a French corvette-Attacks a French squadron which had taken shelter in the Port of Herqui.

HAVING, by the late splendid though incomplete operations, given earnest to his superior officers, and to the country at large, that he was possessed of abilities of the highest order, Sir Wm. Sidney Smith was appointed by the Lords of the Admiralty, in the commencement of the year 1794, to the command of the Diamond frigate, on the station of the British Channel.

The officers and the crew of the Diamond soon experienced the beneficial effects of his enlightened and energetic command. At this period very many and very hurtful prejudices existed in the service. A mixture of firmness and conciliation in the carrying out of improve

ments soon removed most of the anomalies that interfered with the due efficiency of the force under Captain Sir Sidney Smith's command. The Diamond became one of the most perfect specimens of a vessel of war in the British navy. Next to the conquest or destruction of the enemy, the greatest glory that can be achieved by the commander is the ennobling of the force under his government by judicious expedients, and the employing an enlightened discipline to enable him to do so.

It would be tedious to enumerate all the minutiæ of a blockading cruise in the Channel-the chase by day, and the dangerous approximation to the enemy's harbour by night-the interchange of shot with the batteries, and the verifying of the charts, under the very guns of the enemy, by soundings in the boats. Though each of these operations may seem to be but a little matter of itself, the whole makes a service no less arduous than it is necessary. Insignificant as this may appear to be, it affords an ample field in which the abilities of the officer in command can be fairly and almost fully tested.

No sooner had the year 1795 been ushered in by the din of a war soon to become almost universal, than the government at home received what was considered to be authentic information that the French fleet, under Admiral Villare de Joyeuse,

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