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Article THE FREEMASONS' QUARTERLY REVIEW. ← Page 5 of 12 →
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The Freemasons' Quarterly Review.
BIOGllAl'HICAL SKETCH OF THE LIFK OP Ills LATE MAJESTY . ( t \; n : ! eii 3 eii from the Ciuit Jrituiial . ) The third son of King George the Third , Prince AA illiam Henry , born on the 21 st . of August 1765 , exhibited in his earliest years a predilection for the naval service . At the age of fourteen he was entered a midshi on board the Prince Georgea 98-gun shi commanded
pman , p , by Captain , afterwards , Admiral Lh ' gby . A few months only had elapsed when he took part in the decisive engagement between the Spanish and British fleets off Cape St . Alncent , in which Lord Rodney captured the Spanish Admiral . He was also present , soon afterwards ( in 1780 ) at the capture of a French sixty-four , and some smaller vessels of the convoy . He continued actively employed , although hostilities ceased in 1782 , and in the following year , visiting Cape Francois and the
Havannah , confirmed the impression which he had previously made in benevolently petitioning for the life of a midshipman under sentence of death for disrespect to his superior officer , and by interceding for the lives of several British subjects who had incurred a similar sentence by a breach of parole and fidelity to the Spanish government . Having accomplished his six years' service as Midshipman , he , in 1785 received his Lieutenant ' s commission , and was appointed to the
Hebe . His qualifications as a sailor are indisputable ; for Nelson himself , from whom no consideration of mere rank would have wrung such praise , has borne testimony to them in characteristic terms . "You must have heard , " he says in a letter written at this period ( it was in 1782 at Quebec that the Royal Midshipman and the illustrious Commander became acquainted ) — " you must have heard long before this
reaches you , that rnnce Avilham is under my command . I shall endeavour to take care that he is not a loser by that circumstance . He has his foibles as well as private men , hut they are far over-balanced by his virtues . In his professional line he is superior to near two-thirds , I am sure , of the list ; and in attention to orders , and respect to his superior officer , I hardly know his equal , this is what I have found him . " In a subsequent letter he says— " His Royal Highness keeps up strict disciline in his shi andwithout ing him any complimentshe is one
p p ; , pay , of the finest ordered frigates I have seen . " Promotion to the rank of captain soon followed ; and having commanded the Pegasus and other ships , and shared all the hardships of service and the hazards of climate in the AA est Indies , His lloyal Highness was , in 1790 , made Rear Admiral of the Blue , having , in May of the previous year , been created a Peer by the titles of Duke of Clarence and St . Andrew ' s and iiarl of Munster . He attained the rank of A'ice-Admiral in 1794 , that of
Admiral in 1799 , and became Admiral of the Fleet in 1811 . How much of the knowledge , and of the characteristic habits and sentiments necessary to fit him , while still a young man , for these distinguished stations , he owed to his venerated friend Nelson , may he seen from the following passage of a letter in the Prince ' s hand-writing : — " It was at this era , that I particularly observed the greatness of Nelson ' s superior mind . The manner in which he enforced the irit of the Navigation Act first
sp drew my attention to the commercial interests of my country . AA e visited the different islands together ; and as much as the manoeuvres of fleets can he described off ' the headlands of islands , we fought over again the principal naval actions in the American war . Except the naval tuition which I had received on board the Prince George , when the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Quarterly Review.
BIOGllAl'HICAL SKETCH OF THE LIFK OP Ills LATE MAJESTY . ( t \; n : ! eii 3 eii from the Ciuit Jrituiial . ) The third son of King George the Third , Prince AA illiam Henry , born on the 21 st . of August 1765 , exhibited in his earliest years a predilection for the naval service . At the age of fourteen he was entered a midshi on board the Prince Georgea 98-gun shi commanded
pman , p , by Captain , afterwards , Admiral Lh ' gby . A few months only had elapsed when he took part in the decisive engagement between the Spanish and British fleets off Cape St . Alncent , in which Lord Rodney captured the Spanish Admiral . He was also present , soon afterwards ( in 1780 ) at the capture of a French sixty-four , and some smaller vessels of the convoy . He continued actively employed , although hostilities ceased in 1782 , and in the following year , visiting Cape Francois and the
Havannah , confirmed the impression which he had previously made in benevolently petitioning for the life of a midshipman under sentence of death for disrespect to his superior officer , and by interceding for the lives of several British subjects who had incurred a similar sentence by a breach of parole and fidelity to the Spanish government . Having accomplished his six years' service as Midshipman , he , in 1785 received his Lieutenant ' s commission , and was appointed to the
Hebe . His qualifications as a sailor are indisputable ; for Nelson himself , from whom no consideration of mere rank would have wrung such praise , has borne testimony to them in characteristic terms . "You must have heard , " he says in a letter written at this period ( it was in 1782 at Quebec that the Royal Midshipman and the illustrious Commander became acquainted ) — " you must have heard long before this
reaches you , that rnnce Avilham is under my command . I shall endeavour to take care that he is not a loser by that circumstance . He has his foibles as well as private men , hut they are far over-balanced by his virtues . In his professional line he is superior to near two-thirds , I am sure , of the list ; and in attention to orders , and respect to his superior officer , I hardly know his equal , this is what I have found him . " In a subsequent letter he says— " His Royal Highness keeps up strict disciline in his shi andwithout ing him any complimentshe is one
p p ; , pay , of the finest ordered frigates I have seen . " Promotion to the rank of captain soon followed ; and having commanded the Pegasus and other ships , and shared all the hardships of service and the hazards of climate in the AA est Indies , His lloyal Highness was , in 1790 , made Rear Admiral of the Blue , having , in May of the previous year , been created a Peer by the titles of Duke of Clarence and St . Andrew ' s and iiarl of Munster . He attained the rank of A'ice-Admiral in 1794 , that of
Admiral in 1799 , and became Admiral of the Fleet in 1811 . How much of the knowledge , and of the characteristic habits and sentiments necessary to fit him , while still a young man , for these distinguished stations , he owed to his venerated friend Nelson , may he seen from the following passage of a letter in the Prince ' s hand-writing : — " It was at this era , that I particularly observed the greatness of Nelson ' s superior mind . The manner in which he enforced the irit of the Navigation Act first
sp drew my attention to the commercial interests of my country . AA e visited the different islands together ; and as much as the manoeuvres of fleets can he described off ' the headlands of islands , we fought over again the principal naval actions in the American war . Except the naval tuition which I had received on board the Prince George , when the