“THE CROWNING CITY! WHOSE MERCHANTS ARE PRINCES, AND WHOSE TRAFFICKERS ARE THE HONOURABLE OF THE EARTH.”

THE indefatigable Biographer of the Walpole Family, Mr. Coxe, has inadvertently omitted to notice the gallantry of this British Officer, amidst the splendid archives of his Family. As our Chronicle was purposely established to assist the future Historian, and to supply the omissions of contemporary writers; we have availed ourselves of that affability which so much belongs to Captain Walpole's Widow; and with the memoranda she has been pleased to communicate, shall hope to render a Character more known, whose amiable disposition cannot be better described, than in the words of Lord Clarendon—“He was compounded of all the Elements of Affability, and Courtesy, towards all kind of People.”

The change that has taken place in the Merchant Service, since the period we are about to Review, is well worthy of the attention both of the Statesman, and the Directors of its interests: for notwithstanding the abilities of some few Individuals in that line, the acquirements of Mr. Dalrymple, the ingenuity of Captain Burgess, the variety of observations by different Officers, which form the Oriental Navigator; the character of the East India Service has of late years been waning in the public estimation: it neither contains the rank, nor the talent, which it formerly possessed; and until the Squadron under Commodore Dance chastised the vaunting Linois, and recalled the memory of former Heroes in the same department; our Countrymen were led to believe, and particularly the younger Officers in the King's Service, that the Command of a Merchant Ship was a situation derogatory to the character of a Merchant Ship.