RODNEY.
Hon. has often, from the number of dishes which his rank brought to his table, selected something very plain for himself, and sent the rest to the midshipmen's mess.—His public transactions will transmit his name with honour to posterity; his bravery was unquestionable, and his success has been seldom equalled. It has, indeed, been very generally said, that his skill in naval tactics was not great, and that he was indebted to the superior abilities of Capt. Young and Sir Charles Douglas for the manoeuvres by which he was so successful against Langara and De Grasse. But, supposing this to be true, it detracts not from his merit. A weak or foolish commander could not always make choice of the ablest officers for his first captains, nor would such a man be guided by their advice.
Whatever was Lord Rodney's skill in the science of naval war, or however much he may have been beholden to the counsels of others, he certainly possessed himself the distinguished merit of indefatigable exertion; for he never omitted any thing within the compass of his power to bring the enemy to action. He therefore unquestionably deserves the respect and the gratitude of his country. In the year 1783 the House of Assembly in Jamaica voted 1000l. towards erecting a marble statue to him, as a mark of their gratitude and veneration for his gallant services, so timely and gloriously performed for the salvation of that island in particular, as well as the whole of the British West India islands and trade in general. A pillar was also erected to the memory of this gallant officer, upon the Brythen in Shropshire.
But whatever were the talents of Lord Rodney as a naval commander, there is a more splendid part of his character which it would be improper to omit. Before his success against the Spanish admiral Don Langara, the English prisoners in Spain were treated with the greatest inhumanity, and it required more than ordinary strength of constitution to exist for any length of time in a Spanish prison. When the Spanish admiral fell into the hands of Lord Rodney, both himself, his officers, and men, expected to meet with the same treatment they had been accustomed to give; but they were astonished to find in Lord Rodney a man who felt for their misfortunes, relieved their wants, and who, by his polite behaviour to his prisoners, made a powerful impression on the minds of the Spaniards, which could not fail to procure a mitigation of the sufferings of English prisoners in Spain. He represented the miserable condition of his countrymen in the enemy's country, and obtained a promise that Englishmen, when prisoners in Spain, should be made as comfortable as their situation would permit. This was doing his country a service, which will make him stand as high in the estimation of good men as the most astonishing display of courage, which is not always met with in a cultivated mind.