(I think before Christmas), she has been a close prisoner in her chamber, and for upwards of three months past, has been confined to her bed or sofa, alarmingly ill; and I am sorry to say, she still continues in a very weak, suffering, and unrecovered state. "Mrs More commissions me with her best acknowledgments for your last letter. She desires me to say, that she greatly approves of the plan of your work, and fully appreciates the labour and research which must have been used, to bring, into the compass designed, so large and interesting a mass of religious and moral information and improvement. The method and arrangement of it also, she thinks highly useful; the deductions arising from considerations of the human mind and body, being novel, will be likely to be very striking, as they are certainly intelligible to all moderately informed persons. "She desires me to say, it is her sincere opinion, that the work will be, as a whole, extremely interesting and beneficial; but with respect to the assistance you are so obliging as to hope from her, it would be impossible she could render any, under the present sad circumstances of her declining health, she not being even competent to common correspondence, or reading, excepting in a very limited degree, on account of a complaint she has been a long time troubled with in her eyes; independent of which, Mrs Hannah More says, she could not presume any aid of hers would be acceptable, towards the accomplishment of so learned and scientific a work." NAVAL CORRESPONDENCE. Introductory Hints, containing my Correspondence with the late Lord Mulgrave, regarding the naval strength of Great Britain, compared to that of France and Spain. I HAVE always been impressed with the most exalted ideas of the skill and gallantry of British seamen *. Their character reflects the greatest credit on the country, and they constitute its real strength. When I became a member of the House of Commons therefore, I was shocked to hear a naval officer, highly distinguished in the service, and who was also a member of the Board of Admiralty, (Lord Mulgrave), stating opinions in Parliament, which seemed to depreciate the nautical strength and power of the British navy, when compared to the fleets which France was capable of producing. Having studied the subject maturely, and collected the most satisfactory evidence in support of the opinions I maintained, I resolved, instead of attacking the Noble Lord in the House to write a tract upon the subject, as a more durable mode of giving my sentiments to the public †. Peter the Great said, "If I had not been Czar of Muscovy, I would have wished to have been an English Admiral.” Among a number of other communications approving of the tract, the fol. |