spoken on such matters with any civilian of the name, that he took the person to whom allusion had been made, to be a lieutenant Clerk of the navy; but that even of such conversation he (my father) had no recollection whatever. He then instructs his correspondent, that, inasmuch as he is mentioned or alluded to, 'the subject should be treated as a production offensive to himself, and as highly injurious to the person who commanded in chief on that celebrated day,' and who certainly did not stand in need of any instruction derived, or that could be derived, from lieutenant Clerk, or any other person that he knew of.''
Whether Mr Clerk be really entitled or not to the merit of having suggested the manceuvre of breaking the line, there can be no doubt that he conceived on land, and without the least experience of sea life, that idea, at a period antecedent to the time when it was put in practice.[1] There is also no pretence in any quarter to deny, that his system became a guide to all the operations of the British navy subsequent to the particular victory in which it first seemed to be acted upon, and thus was the means of enabling British valour to gain a series of conquests, which unquestionably proved the salvation of the country.
Mr Clerk died at an advanced age, on the 10th of May, 1812; and, strange to say, there exists no public monument whatsoever, to record the gratitude of the country for his services. It may be mentioned, that Mr Clerk was the father of the late John Clerk, Esq. advocate, (afterwards raised to the bench, where he took the designation of lord Eldin,) whose professional abilities, joined to his exquisite taste in the fine arts, and the rich eccentricity of his manners and conversation will long be remembered.[2]
COCHRANE, Archibald, ninth earl of Dundonald, a nobleman distinguished by his useful scientific investigations, was the son of Thomas, the eighth earl, by Jane, daughter of Archibald Stewart of Torrence; and was born on the 1st of January, 1748. . His lordship, before his father's death, entered life as a cornet, in the 3d dragoons, which commission he aftenvards abandoned, in order to become a midshipman under his countryman captain Stair Douglas. While stationed as acting lieutenant in a vessel off the coast of Guinea, he had occasion to observe the liability of vessels to be rotted by the sea, which in some cases was so very great, that a few months was sufficient to render them not seaworthy. He conceived the idea of laying them over with tar extracted from coal, a substance which was then little known, though now identified with the very idea of marine craft. The experiment was first tried in Holland, and found to answer all the purposes required. Being then tried upon a decked boat at the Nore, and found equally answerable, his lordship procured a patent of his invention for a short term, which was afterwards (1785) changed for an act of parliament, vesting it in him and his heirs for twenty years. Unfortunately, the general adoption of copper-sheathing rendered the speculation not only
- ↑ Mr Clerk has been heard to acknowledge in the later part of his life, that he never enjoyed a longer sail than to the island of Arran, in the Firth of Clyde.
- ↑ Sir George Clerk Maxwell, of Pennycuick, an elder brother of the author of the Naval Tactics, born in 1715, and who succeeded his elder brother, Sir James, in the baronetcy, in 1783, was distinguished by his public spirited efforts to advance the commercial interests of Scotland, at a. time when they were in a state of infancy. He established, at a considerable expense, a linen manufactory at Dumfries, and likewise set on foot many different projects for working lead and copper mines. In 1755, he addressed two letters to the trustees for fisheries, manufactures, and improvements, in Scotland, containing observations on the common mode of treating wool in this country, and suggesting a more judicious scheme of management. These were published, by direction of the Board, in 1756. He likewise wrote a paper on the advantages of shallow ploughing, which was read to the Philosophical Society, and is published in the 3d volume of their essays. In 1741, this ingenious person was appointed king's remembrancer, an office of trust "in the exchequer, of which his father was then one of the judges; and, in 1763, commissioner of the customs in Scotland. Sir George Clerk Maxwell (the latter name had been assumed for an estate) died in January, 1784.
