For this important service to his king and country, he was created a peer of the realm, by the title of LORD ANSON; and, in 1749, on the death of Admiral Norris, he was appointed Vice-admiral of England. In 1751, he succeeded to Lord Sandwich, as first Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty; but, incurring censure for the loss of Minorca, he resigned this situation in 1756. But, having been acquitted of all blame relative to that disgraceful affair, after a parliamentary enquiry, he was reinstated in that high office, which he continued to fill, with honour to himself and advantage to his country, during the remainder of his life. While attending upon the Duke of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, brother to our present queen, to shew him the naval arsenal at Portsmouth, and the fleet which was then about to sail on the expedition against the Havannah, he caught a violent cold, of which he died, at Moor-Park in Hertfordshire, on the 6th of June 1762, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Having no issue by his lady, the daughter of Lord Hardwicke, whom he married in 1748, he left the whole of his property to his brother.
Lord Anson appears to have been remarkable for the coolness and equanimity of his temper. Amid all the dangers and successes of his circumnavigation of the globe, he never expressed any strong emotion, either of sorrow or joy, except when the Centurion hove in sight of Tinian. He was a man of few words, and was even reckoned particularly silent among English seamen, who have never been distinguished for their loquacity. He introduced a rigid discipline into the English navy, somewhat resembling that of the Prussian army; and revived that bold and close method of fighting, within pistol-shot, which had formerly been so successfully employed by Blake and Shovel, and which has fostered that daring courage and irresistible intrepidity in our British seamen, which anticipate and secure success to the most daring and hazardous enterprizes.
In some reflexions, towards the conclusion of Betagh's circumnavigation, Harris,[6] a former editor of a collection of voyages and travels, breaks forth in the following laudatory strain:
"Happy, happy, for us, that we have still a SEAMAN left, who has shewn that the race of heroes is not yet extinct among us, in ADMIRAL ANSON, that great and fortunate commander; who enjoys the singular felicity, in an age of sloth, luxury, and corruption, that his ease is the result of his labour, his title the reward of his merit, and that his wealth does honour to his country."
How much more happy is it for us in the present day, somewhat more than half a century later, and while every energy is required to the utmost stretch, that we still have a race of transcendent heroes, who have annihilated the navy and trade and colonies or our arch enemy, have vindicated and preserved our glory and freedom and prosperity, and bid fair to restore the honour and independence of the civilized world, threatened with subversion by the modern AtillaEd.
Footnote 1: [(return)]
Voyage, &c. by George Anson, Esq. afterwards Lord Anson; compiled from his papers and materials by Richard Walter, M.A. chaplain of H.M.S. Centurion in that expeditionfifteenth edition, 4to, Lond. 1776.
Footnote 2: [(return)]
The sequel of these observations, by Harris, are extracted from his supplementary reflections at the close of the expedition, vol. 1, p. 364, et sequ. In these, however, we have used much retrenchment, as the observations that may have been exceedingly applicable in 1745, when Spain was in a great manner identified with France, have now lost much of their force, in consequence of the passing events, well known to all, but which do not admit of being discussed in a note.E.
Footnote 3: [(return)]
It is not easy to conceive how Harris should have fallen into this enormous error. To say nothing of the greater length and difficulty of passing round Cape Horn, rather than the Cape of Good Hope, the difference in longitudes is sufficient to establish the absolute contrary of the position in the text. The longitude, for instance, of the island of Ceylon, by the eastern passage, is only 80° E. whereas by the western passage it is 280 W. an excess of 200 degrees. Even Canton in China, is only in 113° E. but in 247° W. an excess of 134 degrees.E.
Footnote 4: [(return)]
To say nothing of the absurdity of the partial instances adduced, it may be mentioned that, only a few years ago, an English East Indiaman performed the voyage from England to Madras, delivered his outward-bound cargo, took on board a new cargo, and returned to England, all within nine months.E.
Footnote 5: [(return)]
The remaining observations of Harris, supplementary to his abbreviated account of this expedition, have no manner of connection with the subject in hand, and are therefore omitted.