JERVIS, SIR JOHN, Earl St Vincent, a distinguished naval officer, was born at Meaford, in Staffordshire, on the 9th of January 1734, old style. His father, Lwynfen Jervis, Esq., was counsel and solicitor to the Admiralty, and treasurer of Greenwich Hospital. Young Jervis was destined for the law, but having contracted a dislike to that profession, and a strong predilection for the sea, he ran away from school, and expressed his determination to be a sailor. He was therefore placed under Commodore Townsend, who was at that time going out in the Gloucester as commander-in-chief to Jamaica. This was in the year 1748. In 1754 he was made a lieutenant out of the Prince into the Royal Anne; and in the year 1759 he distinguished himself very much at the siege and capture of Quebec, when General Wolfe was killed. He was in consequence promoted by Sir Charles Saunders, the commander-in-chief, to the rank of commander, into the Porcupine sloop of war. In the following year he was made a post-captain. He commanded the Foudroyant in July 1778, when the memorable rencontre took place between Admiral Keppel and Count d'Orvilliers, and bore a very distinguished part in that action. In 1782 Captain Jervis fell in off Brest harbour with the French ship Pégase, of seventy-four guns and 700 men, and took her after an engagement which lasted three-quarters of an hour. The Pégase had eighty men killed and wounded, while Captain Jervis and four men only were wounded on board the Foudroyant. In consequence of this action, which at once raised his renown to the highest pitch, he was created a knight companion of the Bath. In 1784 he was elected member of parliament for Launceston, and he afterwards sat for North Yarmouth. In 1787 he was advanced to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue, in 1793 to that of vice-admiral, and in 1795 he became admiral.
In November 1793 an expedition was fitted out to attack the French Caribbee islands, and Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis were nominated respectively to command the land and sea forces to be employed on the occasion. The expedition was at first completely successful, and Martinique, St Lucia, and Guadaloupe, were surrendered to the British arms. The French however succeeded in retaking Guadaloupe, and the rainy season and the yellow fever frustrated all the efforts of the British to regain possession of it. In 1795, on the resignation of Admiral Hood, Jervis was appointed to the command of the British fleet in the Mediterranean, and was employed in blockading the French fleet in Toulon, and protecting our trade in the Levant, a service which he performed with consummate skill and success.
In 1797 Admiral Jervis, with only fifteen ships of the line, gained his celebrated victory over the Spanish fleet,
consisting of twenty-seven ships of the line. The engagement, which took place off Cape St Vincent, on the 14th of February, lasted about ten hours. The Spaniards were completely defeated, and four sail of the line, two of 112, one of 84, and one of 74 guns, were taken. The thanks of both houses of Parliament were voted to the fleet, and the commander-in-chief was created a peer, by the title of Earl of St Vincent. This victory was much more important in its consequences than might be supposed from the mere numerical loss which it caused to the enemy. It paralyzed the power of Spain, gave encouragement to our allies, and added fresh vigour to the efforts of the government in prosecuting the war. The battle of Cape St Vincent was followed by the mutiny of the British fleet at Spithead; and in the month of May and June following its effects were felt in the fleet which was cruising before Cadiz under the command of Lord St Vincent. But the ringleaders were executed, and the mutiny speedily repressed by the resolute and determined conduct of the commander-in-chief: with a combination of humanity and ingenuity eminently characteristic of the man, he contrived to make one execution produce the effect of many, by ordering it on an unusual day, Sunday morning. It was the practice to dispatch mutinous vessels to serve under his orders; and by his masterly operations of combined mercy and justice, he soon reduced them to order, restoring discipline by such examples as should be most striking, without being more numerous than absolute necessity required. In June 1799 he resigned the command of the fleet, in consequence of ill health, and returned to England in the month of August following. On the resignation of Lord Bridport, and his final retirement from active service, he was appointed to the command of the Channel fleet, and in the spring of 1800 hoisted his flag in the Ville de Paris. In the following year, on the formation of the Addington ministry, he was made first lord of the admiralty, and in that important office the great capacity for business with which he was endowed by nature shone forth in all its lustre. He instituted the celebrated Commission of Naval Inquiry, which not only led to numberless discoveries of abuse and extravagance, but laid the foundation of a system of economical administration, which has since been extended from the navy to all the departments of the state. The extent of corruption brought to light by the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry almost exceeds belief. From the dockyard alone the government was plundered at the rate of a million sterling annually; and the same nefarious practices prevailed in all the other departments. Lord St Vincent grappled boldly with these monstrous and deep-rooted abuses, and by his unsparing rigour, inflexible honesty, and resistless energy, succeeded in putting them down. "It is impossible," says
Lord Brougham, "to calculate what would have been the saving effected to the revenues of this country, had Lord St Vincent presided over any great department of national affairs from the beginning of the war, instead of coming to our assistance after its close." The resignation of Mr Addington in 1804 put an end to the naval administration of St Vincent, as first lord of the admiralty; but the exigencies of the state caused him in 1806 to be called from his well-earned retirement and from the enjoyment of his domestic comforts, at the age of seventy-two, to take the command of the Channel fleet. He was at the head of the expedition and the commission sent to the court of Portugal in 1806; and his conduct in that delicate and important affair displayed great talents and address. In the spring of 1807, advanced age and impaired health compelled him finally to resign his command. The remainder of his life was spent in retirement at his beautiful seat of Rochetts, where he died on the 14th of March 1823, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. The character of Lord St Vincent presented an admirable union of the brightest qualities which can adorn both civil and military life. As a statesman, he was distinguished for his sagacity and foresight, and the profoundness of his views. He was a steady and consistent supporter of liberal principles, ever preferring the side of humanity and freedom. He was not more distinguished for his great talents than for his magnanimity and complete freedom from every feeling of jealousy or envy. And it has been justly said by one who knew him well, that "all good officers, all good men employed under him, whether in civil or military service, spoke of him as they felt, with admiration of his genius approaching to enthusiasm." (Brenton's Life of Earl St Vincent; Lord Brougham's Statesmen of the Times of George III.) (J.T.—R.)