when humble stations in her navy are filled by princes of the blood." We have next the pleasing duty of adverting to two signal exertions of his royal highness in the cause of humanity--conduct which is twice bless'd: It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes: 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown. The first is thus narrated by a midshipman of the Torbay, in a letter to his friends:-- "_Port Royal Harbour, April_, 1783. "The last time Lord Hood's fleet was here, a court-martial was held on Mr. Benjamin Lee, midshipman, for disrespect to a superior officer, at which Lord Hood sat as president. The determination of the court was fatal to the prisoner, and he was condemned to death. Deeply affected as the whole body of the midshipmen were at the dreadful sentence, they knew not how to obtain a mitigation of it, since Mr. Lee was ordered for execution; while they had not time to make their appeal to the Admiralty, and despaired of success in a petition to Admiral Rowley. However, His Royal Highness generously stepped forth, drew up a petition, to which he was the first to set his name, and solicited the rest of the midshipmen in port to follow his example. He then himself carried the petition to Admiral Rowley, and in the most pressing and urgent manner, begged the life of our unhappy brother; in which he succeeded, and Mr. Lee is reprieved. We all acknowledge our warmest and grateful thanks to our humane, our brave, and worthy prince, who has so nobly exerted himself in preserving the life of his brother sailor." In the same year, 1783, the prince, then a fine midshipman, visited Cape Francois, and the Havannah, where the second instance of his generous humanity occurred. It should be premised, that some of his countrymen having broken their oath of fidelity to the Spanish government, were in danger of suffering under sentence of death. The governor of Louisiana, Don Galvez, offered, at the intercession of the prince, to pardon them; and the enthusiasm which he manifested in this "labour of love" cannot be better illustrated than by the following letter addressed by his royal highness to the governor:-- "Sir,--I want words to express to your Excellency my just sense of your polite letter, of the delicate manner in which you caused it to be delivered, and your generous conduct towards the unfortunate in your power. Their pardon, which you have been pleased to grant on my account, is the most agreeable present you could have offered me, and is strongly characteristic of the bravery and gallantry of the Spanish nation. This instance increases, if possible, my opinion of your Excellency's humanity, which has appeared on so many occasions, in the course of the late war.