Admitting the truth of this relation, it would be natural to suppose that Mr. Rathbone, who was probably a worthy but disappointed man, had inspired the youth with his own aversions to serving in the royal navy, without a due consideration being made for the differences of their respective interests. This gentleman, with the utmost purity of design, might wish to prepare the nephew of his friend for mortifications and disappointments to be expected in the profession he had just embraced; it was not his fault, if pictures, which he perhaps feelingly and faithfully pourtrayed from the life, excited too much abhorrence in the mind of his young pupil. The sentiment of "Aft, the most honour; but forward, the better man!" might come with no ill grace from the lips of Mr. Rathbone, but could never originate with a boy of thirteen. So far, the fact may be supported by some degree of probability, but it seems incapable of proof. In the family, no such circumstance appears to be remembered. It is well recollected--in some degree, to the contrary--that, on a slight intimation from his father, of a wish that he might entirely quit the sea-service, he resolutely declared, that if he were not again sent out, he would set off without any assistance. It may, however, be taken for granted, that he wished for more active employment in seamanship, than he could well expect to obtain, on board a man of war, in the capacity of a midshipman. The mode which his uncle is said to have adopted for what is called the recovery of the original bias of his nephew's mind, was to work on the ambition which, it is on all hands agreed, he in a supereminent degree possessed, to become a thorough seaman. Captain Suckling had recently been appointed to the command of the Triumph, then lying at Chatham; on board of which ship he placed his nephew, in July 1772, immediately after the youth's return from the West Indies, in his old situation on the quarter-deck: and, though he had, thus, the "aft" situation of "most honour," the uncle contrived that he should, at the same time, be permitted to enjoy all the advantages of the "forward," which might be supposed to form "the better man." This he judiciously effected, by permitting him to go in the cutter and decked long-boat attached to the commanding officer's ship at Chatham: an indulgence which afforded him the highest satisfaction; while it tended so largely to promote his practical knowledge of navigation, that he is said to have soon actually become an excellent pilot for such vessels as sail from Chatham to the Tower of London, and down the Swin Channel to the North Foreland.