Many were the individual instances of fidelity in my corps, at this awful crisis. Many were the gallant fellows in it who preferred the honorable distinction of allegiance to their King, to the mercenary attainments of self interest. The partial support of the party of Marines on board the London, given to Admiral Colpoys and his Officers, at a time when they were surrounded by thousands of disaffected comrades, afforded a faint display of what would have been their general energies had such been called forth. They were indeed overpowered by numbers, after a contest, in which Lieutenant (now Captain) W. Sims was severely wounded. The loyal conduct of Serjeant Sweet, on board the Pompee, was evident to the members of a Court Martial which sat upon the trial of some misguided mutineers of that ship. An instance of true heroism appeared in Charles Cubitt, private Marine, (in the Royal Sovereign I think,) who, after having been stabbed in the belly, by a Sailor, with a pike, pursued him with a loaded musket at his ear, but on the fellow begging for life, he nobly spared him. The steady faithfulness of all those Marine Soldiers who had served during the American war, and had survived the heavy reduction at its close, was uniformly conspicuous. At the outset of these lamentable events, an unshaken resolve to stand or fall with their Officers, inspired every breast, which, had it been accepted, might have led to the sacrifice of those brave men who would have been opposed to uneven numbers, in the Seamen and many of their fellows, whom public emergency had embarked, untrained even to the common duties of their profession, and unhabituated to that strict obedience, which is the essence of every military virtue. Unconscious of that dignity which belongs to his character, the raw recruit readily gives in to any scheme urged by the designing; of which there were too many drawn from the dregs of society, amongst those provincial conscripts who had previously been levied at the most enormous bounties, to man the fleet. This fiendly spirit soon found its way to the Mediterranean, where all the achievements of Earl St. Vincent's life were yet, I may say, surpassed, by the evidences of that manly vigour with which he subdued it. In this, his Lordship was zealously seconded by all the Officers and the Marines of his fleet, and by one uniform system of subordination which emanated from his high example. The conduct of Admiral Duncan, at Yarmouth, and Admiral Pringle, at the Cape of Good Hope, was alike energetic. Subsequent events have shewn that this flame was only stifled, but not extinguished, and it would have yielded me the highest gratification to have here bidden an adieu to the hateful topic.