tion on your promotion, and more particularly as it has been the result of your services and professional reputation, and not from any interest or consideration for me, or with any reference to the flag.
“You have now served under my immediate command nearly six years as midshipman, and eighteen months as senior lieutenant of my flag-ship, during the whole of which time I have carefully watched your character, and am gratified by stating, that for zeal and ability, temper and judgment, in fulfilling all your duties as an officer and gentleman, I have been most perfectly satisfied, and think myself called upon to offer you this tribute of my approbation. I wish you every possible health and happiness, and hope that you will believe me always very faithfully your friend.
In Dec. 1819, Commander Astley was appointed Deputy-Comptroller-General of the Preventive Water-Guard service, then acting under the immediate authority of the Treasury, but transferred, in Jan. 1822, to the Board of Customs, The following is an extract from a report of survey of the coast between Seaford and Plymouth, made by a committee of the Commissioners, June 1st in the latter year:
“We have to regret that the Comptroller-General of the Coast-Guard, Captain Shortland, was prevented by ill health from accompanying us; but we had every assistance in the course of our inspection from Captain Astley, and are happy to take this opportunity of expressing our sense of his zeal, activity, and knowledge of the service he is employed in.”
In April, 1824, Commander Astley received another handsome testimonial of his services between Dec. 1819 and July 1822, accompanied by a letter worded as follows:–
“My dear Astley, – I have enclosed a certificate for the time we were serving together in the preventive department. I wish I could have added more in it, as I can assure you I entertain such a high opinion of year integrity, zeal, and abilities, as to entitle you to any mark of approbation our superiors might bestow on you. In all my service, I never met an officer so fully inclined and determined to fill the station allotted to him; our duties not being determined by any former rules, made it often completely out of our usual beat, still I always had your support and assistance to meet those exigencies; and whether at sea or on shore, I should always feel pleasure and confidence in having the assistance of your valuable services. Believe me always, my dear Astley, yours most faithfully,
In Sept. 1825, Commander Astley transmitted to the
