“They had before found him, as an officer, active and able in the execution of his duty, as well as gentlemanly in command; but they have now found him, in the moment of danger, a leader under whom they should never fear any enemy.
“They therefore humbly solicit your Honour to represent their feelings to His Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral.
“And your petitioners hope that your Honour will permit Captain Dickinson to take the ship home, as captain, in the event of her going to England.
“We are, honoured Sir, your most obedient and humble servants,
“To Vice Admiral Sir E. Codrington,
K.C.B. &c. &c.”
We have elsewhere stated, that Commander Lewis Davies, of the Rose sloop, was promoted to the vacancy occasioned by Captain Bathurst’s death; and that the Genoa returned home under the command of Captain the Hon. C. L. Irby, by whom she was paid off, at Plymouth, in Jan. 1828. Commander Dickinson, who had not then served the full time necessary to qualify him for a captain’s commission, was appointed, on the 3d of that month, to the Wasp sloop ; and advanced to his present rank on the 13th of May following. In the meantime he had been nominated a C.B., and decorated with the Cross of St. Louis, and the Order of St. Anne. We subsequently find him applying for permission also to wear the Russian order of St. Wladimer, and his late Commander-in-chief writing an official letter on the same subject, of which the following is a copy:–
“Sir,– In obedience to the directions of the Lords Commissioners of die Admiralty, in your letter of the 8th of this month, I have the honor to inform their Lordships, that the mistake of two distinct Russian Orders leaving got into the possession of Captain Dickinson, appears to me to have arisen from one of them having been sent to the Mediterranean through Count Helden, without its having been known that another had been conferred upon him in England through Count Lieven.
“As I understand that the Government do not think the Commanders serving in the Asia and Albion entitled to either of these Russian distinctions, I cannot but regret that Captain Dickinson should have been placed in this respect above those two officers; since I have every reason to approve (as I do most highly) of the conduct of Captain Baynes