The happy marriage of his royal highness, to which event we have already alluded, has, we trust, been the means of clearing away the prejudices which the duke's former conduct may have engendered.
There is a tide in the affairs of man,
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.
This period of his royal highness' life has probably arrived, and his appointment to the important office of Lord High Admiral will doubtless accelerate the beneficial effect. The public are perhaps sanguine in their expectations; but from early and subsequent proofs of the duke's devotion and attachment to the service over which he now presides, we have reason to think they will not be disappointed. It has been shown that his royal highness neither wanted zeal nor ability at any stage of his life, and the ardent assurances which have been quoted from one of his most recent declarations, bespeak that he still possesses the vigour of manhood, tempered with experience; and it must be truly gratifying to his royal highness to know that the honour and authority of the office of Lord High Admiral, have been revived, after the sleep of a century, as if to compensate him for past neglect, with their investiture.[4] In truth, the alacrity with which the duke has already entered into the duties of his office, and the lively sense of justice he has manifested in dispensing its honorary rewards, must be gladly hailed by the service, and the country at large.
His royal highness's present emoluments may be stated as follow:—
| Income on the Consolidated Fund, previous | £. | s. | d. |
| to the death of the Duke of York: | 26,500 | 0 | 0 |
| By the death of the Duke of York | 3,000 | 0 | 0 |
| Additional grant, February, 1827 | 3,000 | 0 | 0 |
| And to the Duchess | 6,000 | 0 | 0 |
| As Ranger of Bushy Park | 187 | 9 | 8 |
| Halfpay as Admiral of the Fleet | 1,095 | 0 | 0 |
| Pay as General of the Marines | 1,728 | 15 | 0 |
| Salary as Lord High Admiral | 5,000 | 0 | 0 |
| ———- | —- | —— | |
| [5]Total Annual Income | 46,511 | 4 | 8 |
The Duke of York is acknowledged by Mr. Peel, in his speech, Feb. 17, 1827, to have had £50,000. a-year.
We subjoin the following characteristic anecdote from the New Sailor's Magazine for December, 1827, sketched with fidelity and in that rich vein of humour by which stories of the service are usually distinguished. It exhibits the character of his royal highness in all the glowing generosity of buoyant youth, and proves him to possess a warm-hearted sympathy for the sufferings of his fellow-creatures—
THE ROYAL REEFER AND BOB CLEWLINES.
It was on one of those December days, when the wind, blowing from the northward, acts almost like a razor on the surface of the skin, and when, accompanied by small sharp rain, a mixture of damp and cold produce a chilling effect upon the frame and spirits, that a ci-devant midshipman, his hands in his pockets, and