of it in England. There, a long series of naval victories had so pampered the public vanity, that the defeat of a British fleet was deemed impossible, and any thing short of its full success a proof of the most culpable negligence and shortcoming. It was the counterpart of that land-delusion which made our countrymen imagine that every British soldier was able to beat three Frenchmen, until subsequent events reduced them to a more reasonable calculation. Of this overweening estimate Sir Robert Calder was soon to taste the bitter fruits. He had encountered a fleet, no matter how superior to his own, and not annihilated it; he had allowed it to slip through his fingers, and find shelter in a friendly harbour. In the meantime, the unconscious victim of such unreasonable obloquy was congratulating himself on his services, and anticipating nothing less than the approbation of his country. With an inferior force he had blocked up the enemy in port for nearly five months; he had afterwards encountered and held the combined fleet at bay when their ships greatly outnumbered his own, and made two valuable captures without losing a single vessel. These advantages were so justly appreciated by Lord Cornwallis, his superior in command, that on the 17th of August (1805), Calder was sent back with twenty ships to Ferrol, from which Villeneuve had ventured out at the express command of Napoleon, to join the French fleet at Brest; but, on hearing of Sir Robert Calder's approach, instead of pursuing his course, he tacked about and made sail for Cadiz, which he reached on the 21st. Thus Calder had the honour of baffling, for the second time, an expedition, upon which the fate of England was at stake; and Villeneuve, shut up in Cadiz, was obliged to remain at anchorage there, until all was ready for the crushing disaster at Trafalgar.
But the same winds that carried Calder against his antagonist, and enabled him once more to baffle the most cherished of Napoleon's objects, also bore to his ears the murmurs of the Admiralty at home, and made him acquainted with the public prints in which his courage as a British sailor, and his loyalty as a British subject, were equally called in question. Indignant at these iniquitous aspersions, and the eagerness with which they were received, he resolved to right himself by a public trial. He therefore demanded from the Lords of the Admiralty the sitting of a court-martial upon his conduct, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of Nelson that he should remain on the station, and await the expected engagement, in which his reputation would be fully cleared. On finding, however, that his brother-admiral was impatient of an hour's delay until his character was vindicated, the hero of the Nile sent him home in the Prince of Wales, his own ship of ninety guns, to do Calder the greater honour, although such a diminution from the fleet could be ill spared at that period. On the arrival of the vessel at Spithead, the court-martial was held on board, on the 23d of December, 1805. After the witnesses had been examined, Sir Robert entered upon his defence. He quoted several recent cases in which our best naval commanders had refrained from the renewal of an encounter without any impeachment of the propriety of their forbearance. He stated that the Rochefort and Ferrol squadrons, to the number of twenty sail of the line, were supposed to be at sea when the battle of the 22d of July occurred; and that had he waited for their junction with the enemy, whose force already so greatly exceeded his own, he must have been utterly overpowered. Even had he been only disabled in the encounter, these united squadrons might have pressed onward for Ireland, or even for England, and thus have facilitated the long-threatened invasion of our country. In this case, it was necessary to preserve his fleet for ulterior ope-
