07 - Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol 2 by Henry Richard Fox Bourne

Immerse yourself in the thrilling tales of Lord Cochrane, a renowned sea captain from the Napoleonic era, whose life was rich with high-seas adventures that later inspired numerous naval fiction series. This second volume of his biography, penned by his secretary and son, completes the unfinished Autobiography of a Seaman. Discover how Cochrane valiantly assists the Greeks against the Ottoman Empire, marks his presence in the House of Lords, regains his knighthood, and makes a striking comeback to the Royal Navy.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter twenty three of the life of Thomas Lord Cochrane,
tenth Earl of dun Donald, completing the Autobiography of a Seamen,
Volume two by Henry Richard Foxbourne and others. This LibriVox
recording is in the public domain. Recording by Timothy Ferguson
eighteen twenty eight to eighteen thirty two. Lord Cochran's retirement
from the service of Greece brought to close his career

(00:22):
as a fighting seaman, with one brief exception occurring twenty
years later, when he commanded the British squadron in the
North American and West Indian Waters, but when there was
no warfare to be done, the rest of his life,
comprising thirty years of ripe manhood and vigorous old age,
was passed without employment in the profession which was dear
to him, and which he had shown himself to be

(00:44):
possessed of talents rarely equalled and certainly never surpassed. He
entered that profession at the age of seventeen. In eighteen hundred,
when he was twenty four, he was promoted to the
command of the Speedy with that crazy little sloop no
larger than a coasting brig He captured a large French
privateer on the tenth of May, and on the fourteenth

(01:04):
he recaptured two English vessels that had been seized by
the enemy. On the sixteenth of June he took another
French vessel, and on the twenty second another with a
prize which she had just obtained. On the twenty ninth
he secured a large Spanish privateer in spite of five
gunboats which fought in her defense. On the nineteenth of
July he captured another French privateer and rescued her prize,

(01:27):
and on the twenty seventh he sunk another, and on
the thirty first he put another to fly it and
took possession of the prize which she had in tow.
On the twenty second of September he seized another of
the enemy's vessels. On the fifteenth of December he wrecked
one French warship and captured another, one of three which
came to her assistance, and on the twenty fourth, being

(01:47):
attacked by two Spanish privateers, he took one of them.
On the sixteenth of January eighteen o one, he chased
two vessels and seized one, and on the twenty second,
two of the enemy's craft, one French and once at Spanish,
struck to him. On the twenty fourth of February, a
French brig fell into his hands. The same fate was
shared by another vessel on the eleventh of April, by

(02:08):
another on the thirteenth, and by two others on the fifteenth.
He captured a Spanish tartan and a Spanish privateer on
the fourth of May, and on the thirteenth occurred he
celebrated victory over the Gamo, carrying four times the tonnage,
six times the number of men and seven times the
weight of shot possessed by the Speedy, which was soon
followed by taking two other Spanish privateers heavily armed. On

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the ninth of June, the Speedy and another little vessel
had a nine hours fight, first with the Spanish Zebec
and three gunboats, and afterwards were a Felucco and two
more gunboats which came to their aid, which were only
allowed to escape when the English ammunition was nearly exhausted,
the Speedy having discharged fourteen hundred shot. On the third
of July, the Pygmy vessel, after hard fighting, had to

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surrender to three French line of battleships. It was on
that occasion that their senior officer, Captain Pallier, declined to
accept the sword of an officer, as he said, who
had for so many hours struggled against impossibility. In his
thirteen months cruise, Lord Cochran had, with his little sloop
of fourteen four pounders and a crew of fifty four
officers and men, taken and retaken fifty vessels, one hundred

(03:16):
twenty two guns, and five hundred thirty four prisoners. His
next ship, the Arab, was made to serve during fourteen
months in seas in which there was no work to
be done but for the palace. A fine frigate of
thirty two guns, who was allowed to find remarkable employment.
He was first sent to the Azores, with orders to
limit his crews to a month. He captured one large
Spanish vessel on the sixth of February eighteen o five,

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the second on the thirteenth, the third on the fifteenth,
fourth on the sixteenth. Forced after that to be idle
as far as price taking was concerned, for more than
a year. He sees two French vessels on the twenty
seventh of March eighteen o six, and another a few
days later. On the sixth of April he captured the Tapagus,
and on the seventh he chased three other corvettes till

(04:00):
they were driven on shore by their crews and wrecked.
He took another prize on the fourteenth. On the fourteenth
of May, the Palace had her famous engagement with the
French frigate Minerve and three brigs, the Lynx, the Sylph
and their Palineur, carrying eighty eight guns in all, wherein
she was so disabled that she was forced to return
to Portsmouth to be refitted, the Imperius being assigned to

(04:23):
him in August eighteen o six. Lord Cochrane took two
prizes on the nineteenth of December and a third on
the thirty first. He was then order at home and
their detained till the autumn of eighteen o seven. On
the fourteenth of November, being again in the Mediterranean, he
captured a Maltese pirate ship, and soon afterwards seized some
other vessels. Being ordered to scour the French coast during
the summer of eighteen o eight, he took numerous prizes

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on the sea and affected yet more inputant work on
land with varying opposition, but with unvaried success. He wrote
in his concise report to Lord Collingwood on the twenty
eighth of September, the newly constructed semaphoric telegraphs, which are
of the utmost consequence to the safety of the numerous
convoys that pass along the coast of France at Berdin, le'pinedd,

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Sint mc guire, Frontingen, Cannae and Fay, have been blown
up and completely demolished, together with their telegraph houses, fourteen
barracks of gens to arms, one battery and a strong
tower on the Lake of Frontignan. The list of casualties
was none killed and unwounded. Ones singed in blowing up
the battery. That work was followed by more of the

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same nature, a famous episode in which was Lord Cochrane's
occupation of the Castle of Trinidad, the zeal And energy
with which he has maintained that fortress, wrote Lord Collingwood,
excite the highest admiration. His resources for every exigency have
no end. The splendid exploit with the fire ships in
Basque roads followed in eighteen o nine, and with that

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Lord Cochrane's services to England as a seaman were brought
to a conclusion. Official persecution kept him in idleness during
the remaining period of the war with France, and he
was in the end driven to secretly from oppression at
home and exercise for his talents by devoting himself to
the cause of freedom in Chile, Peru, Brazil and Greece.
His unparalleled successes on both sides of the South American continent,

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and the circumstances of his partialphailure in Greece have been
sufficiently detailed in previous chapters. All through that time of
virtual expatriation, his dearest hope had been that England would,
as far as possible, retrieve the cruel wrong that had
been done to him. Full redress was impossible, the heavy
cloud that had been cast over so many years if
his most energetic manhood could not be removed by any

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tardy act of justice, but that tardy justice could at
any rate be done to him, and for this he
strove with unabated zeal. To this end. He was partly
occupied during his temporary absence from Greece. In eighteen twenty eight,
on the fourth of June, he addressed a memorial to
the Duke of Clarence, then Lord High Admiral, who just
two years afterwards was to become King of England. This memorial,

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eloquent in its simplicity and earnestness, the view to many
others that were to be presented in later years, claims
to be here quoted in full to His Royal Highness,
the Lord Higher Admiral Iran. The Memorial of Lord Cochrane
humbly showeth that, for fourteen years your memorialist has suffered,
among many injuries and privations, the loss of his situation

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rank as post captain in His Majesty's Navy, in consequence
of a verdict pronouncing your memorialist guilty of an offense
of which he was entirely and absolutely innocent. That during
the whole course of your Memorialist's life, up to the
day on which he was charged with the crime of
conspiring with others to raise false reports for the purpose

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of fraudulently affecting a rise in the price of the
public funds, the character and conduct of your Memorialist were
without reproach, and numerous have been the transactions in which
your Memorialist has subsequently engaged he has amid all of them,
uniformly preserved, though not an unassailed, yet an unshaken, unsullied character.

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That your Memorialist has never ceased, and never can cease,
to assert his absolute innocence of the crime of which
he was pronounced guilty. He asserts it now most solemnly,
as in the presence of Almighty God, and certain he
is that, if every doubt be not dissipated in this world,
that when summoned to enter more immediately into that awful

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and infinite presence, he shall not fail with his last breath,
most solemnly to assert his innocence. That it was your
memorialist's consciousness of innocence that contributed, perhaps more than any
other cause, to produce his conviction, because it rendered him
confident and much less careful in making the necessary preparations

(08:43):
for his defense, that he ought to have been, or
that he would have been if guilty, While on the
other hand, there existed the utmost zeal, industry and skill
in the conduct of the prosecution, that your memorialist did
all that was possible to procure a revision of his case.
But as he had labored under the disadvantage of being
included in and tried under the same indictment with some

(09:04):
who had probably no reason to complain of the result,
as well as the still greater disadvantage of having his
defense splendid with theirs. So has he denied a new
trial for the same reason, it being a rule of
the Court that a new trial should not be allowed
to any individual tribe for conspiracy unless all the parties
should appear in court to join in the application, which

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in the case of your Memorialist could not possibly be
some of the parties having quitted the country on the
verdict being pronounced against them. That your Memorialist has never
been able to obtain a reinvestigation of his extraordinary case,
nor to obtain redress in any way. But now that
your Royal Highness is Lord High Admiral, and has, among
other illustrious acts, distinguished yourself in that capacity by doing

(09:46):
justice to meritus officers, your Memorialist feels that he has
everything to hope for from the magnanimity of your Royal Highness.
That it is indeed certain that nothing can be more
repugnant to the feelings of your Royal Highness than that
an individual who zealously devoted himself to the naval service
of his king and country, as Your Royal Highness knows
your memorialists to have done, should be forever cut off

(10:09):
from the service without the most unquestionable certainty of the
rectitude of so severe an infliction. So far therefore, as
depends on Your Royal Highness, your Memorialist cannot but confidently
hope that he shall not be doomed to remain all
his life the victim of a verdict of which he
has not only never ceased to complain, but which he
knows that he has proved to be unfounded, to the

(10:30):
satisfaction of those who have examined as well what was
advanced against him at the trial as what he has
since adduced in his own justification. Your Memorialist therefore is
encouraged most respectfully to solicit Your Royal Highness to represent
his case a case of peculiar and unprecedented hardship to
his most sacred majesty, and to advocate his cause, and

(10:52):
if happily for your Memorialist, his most sacred majesty recognizing
the innocence of your Memorialist and taking his life protracted
and unmerited sufferings into his greatest consideration, should of his
most gracious pleasure vouchsafe to reinstate your Memorialist in that
rank and station in his Royal Navy which he previously held.

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Your Memorialist will ever maintain the deepest and most grateful
sense of his duty to his most sacred Majesty and
to Your Royal Highness, and will never cease to testify
his gratitude by all means in his power. That document
was presented by Sir Robert Preston to the Duke of Clarence,
who promised to use every endeavor to obtain a reconsideration
of Lord Cochrane's case. He was unsuccessful. Dear Sir, he

(11:38):
wrote to Sir Robert Preston on the fourteenth of June.
Immediately on the receipt of the memorial you brought from
Lord Cochrane, I sent it to the Duke of Wellington
with a request it might be considered by His Majesty's
confidential servants. And last evening I had a communication from
His Grace to state that the King's Cabinet cannot comply
with the prayer of the memorial. I ever remain, dear Sir,

(11:58):
your sincerely, William. The harsh news was sent to Paris,
where the Lord Cochrane had gone in furtherance of his
efforts for the assistance of Greece to Paris. He returned,
as we have seen, after his final departure from Greece,
and there he resided with his family for about six months.
He paid a brief visit to England in September eighteen
twenty nine, but, seeing no immediate prospect of gaining the

(12:20):
restitution of his naval rank, and finding that idle life
at home was especially irksome to him, he soon went
back to the continent. The serious illness of Lady Cochrane
induced him to pass the winter in Italy, where by
the same cause he was detained for several months. He
was in England again in the autumn of eighteen thirty one.
Motive for his return was the accession of the Duke

(12:41):
of Clarence to the throne as King William the Fourth.
The new sovereigns often expressed sympathy for him, induced him
to hope that now he had a better chance of
obtaining the justice that had been so long withheld. The
change of sovereigns, however, was of small avail, while the
ministers who had summarily rejected his former memorial continued to
have the direction of affairs to petition and memorialize the King,

(13:06):
whilst his present ministers remain in office. He wrote in
a letter on the tenth of September, would be to
debase myself in my own estimation, and I think in
that of every man of sense and feeling. I cannot
petition again, he said in another letter, though I am
assured from higher authority it would be attended to. Sir
Robert Wilson and others have obtained favor, but I, who

(13:28):
protested against the forging of charts and public waste of money,
have had no mercy shown. Lord Cochrane ascertained about this
time that his memorial of eighteen twenty eight, though sent
by the Duke of Clarence for the consideration of kingdow
which the fourth, had never reached his Majesty, the Cabinet
having preferred to dismiss it at once. He therefore had
good reason for abstaining from further action until a more
friendly ministry should be in power. He had not long

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to wait. On the sixteenth of November, the Duke of
Wellington's cabinet resigned in the administration which succeeded. Earl Gray
was the Premier, and Mister Brahm, raised to the peerage,
was Lord Chancellor. Lord Cochrane then lost no time in
completing a review of his case, which he had prepared
for publication, and in getting ready some early copies of
the volume to be presented to the King and his ministers.

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The King's copy was forwarded through Lord Melbourne, the Home Secretary,
on the tenth of December, accompanied by a brief petition,
assured that the memorial which I laid before Your Majesty,
when Lord High Admiral wrote Lord Cochrane, was honored with
your earnest consideration, and that your Majesty was graciously pleased
to make an effort in my behalf, with the desire
of restoring me to my station in the Navy. Assured

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too that had not ministers of the late most gracious
Majesty been opposed to the prayer of my memorial, I
should then have been restored. And, believing that no such
obstacle to Your Majesty's favor would now be interposed, I
have every reason to hope that the auspicious moment is
at length arrived, when the redress which I have so
long sought will be freely bestowed by my most gracious Sovereign.

(14:58):
I beseech your Majesty to com to send, to receive
the accompanying or review of my case, which I trust
will prove to your Majesty that I am not unworthy
of that act of Your Majesty's favor which I humbly solicit.
It is not because I have undergone a sentence heavier
than the law pronounced. It is not because I have
been deprived of sixteen years of the rank and honors
which I acquired in the Royal Navy. Nor is it

(15:20):
because I am deserving of any consideration on account of
services to my king and country that I now presume
to appeal to Your Majesty, though no one is more
likely than Your Majesty to feel for my sufferings, and
no one more competent to appreciate my services. But it
is because I had no participation in, and no knowledge,
not even the most indistinct and remote of the crime

(15:40):
under the imputation of which I have been so variously
and so unceasingly punished. It is this alone which impels
me to approach your majesty, and this alone which enables me.
It is not a letter ends. Other copies of the
review having been sent to the Cabinet ministers with letters
urging its favorable consideration Lord Cochrane, and nearly every case
received a friendly ansis Sir, I need not say, wrote

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Lord Gray on the twelfth December, that it would give
me great satisfaction if it should be found possible to
comply with the prayer of your petition. This opinion I
have expressed some years ago in a letter which I
believe was communicated to you. To the sentiments expressed in
that letter I refer, which, if I remember right, acquitted
you of all blame, except such as might have been
occurred by inadvertence, and by having suffered yourself to be

(16:25):
led by others into measures of the consequences of which
you are not sufficiently aware. Letter ends. More than a
year was to be spent, however, in persevering effort before
Lord Cochrane's claim for justice was succeded to Objection was
taken by some to the form in which his address
to the King was worded. It was a letter, they said,
not a petition, and Lord Cochrane was distressed at hearing

(16:47):
on the eighteenth that the document had been given back
by His Majesty to Lord Melbourne without any comment. If
I have erred in the form of my petition, which
was in the shape of a most respectful and dutiful
letter to His Majesty, or as to the channel through
which it should have been forwarded, said Lord Cochrane in
a letter to Earl Gray, written on the twenty third
of December, I have hered in judgment only, and it

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would be hard, indeed, should redress not be accorded by
reason of any informality in the mode of my application.
I have since been advised that my petition ought to
have been forwarded through the first Lord of the Admiralty,
whom I have therefore solicited to present another petition the
same in effect, but more brief and in the regular form.
When His Majesty was Lord Higher Admiral, he received a

(17:28):
memorial from me by the hands of Sir Robert Preston,
And though it had not the effect of procuring my
restoration at that time, yet from the gracious manner in
which I am assured it was received, I did flatter
myself that his Majesty would have pleasure in the opportunity
which appeared to present itself when your Lordship's administration was
formed of originating a measure which all would consider gracious

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and most I hope believed to be perfectly just. In
reference to the letter in answer to mine with which
your Lordship honored me on the twelfth instant, which I
cannot but perceive is written with a kindness of feeling
which commands my best thanks, I beg only to state
that any opinion of me in regard to the crime
imputed to me that does not fully acquit me of
all knowledge thereof whatever does not do me justice. The

(18:15):
crime was contrived and completed sign entirely without my knowledge,
that I had not the most distant idea of its
having been meditated until I read of its commission in
the public Prince letter ends. In a brief reply to
that letter, Earl Gray stated that the petition having been
presented to the King and being now under consideration, no
more formal address need to be sent in a luw
of it. Thus, Lord Cochrane had only to await the

(18:37):
result of his application, and he waited for sixteen months.
During that interval, many friends interceded on his behalf, especially
Lord Durham and Lord Auckland, and from time to time
his hopes were quickened by information that the subject was
still being considered by His Majesty's ministers, who were anxious
that right should be done, but he was often disappointed.
The King, he said, in a letter written on the

(18:59):
first of Ais April, has invited all the knights of
the Bath to dine with him on the twelfth, which
is the anniversary of the affair of Basque Rhodes, as
well as that of Gambia's installation. If nothing is done
on that day, I shall not obtain justice during the
life of William the Fourth. Indeed, I understand that every
effort has been made to influence the King to my prejudice.
It is no letter ends. I was at an evening

(19:20):
party at the Marquess of Landsdowns on Friday, wrote Lord
Cochrane on the twenty fifth of April, and there I
met with the Lord Chancellor Braham, who was very civil indeed,
and told me they had a battle to fight for me,
and hoped they would succeed. Since then, the electors of
the Borough of Southwark have sent a deputation to beg
me to stand, but hearing that Brahm's brother was also

(19:41):
to be a candidate, I have declined opposing him. I
had a double motive for this line of conduct, for
had I been returned to Parliament, I could not have
consciously accepted a favor at the hands of the ministers
of the Crown service in the House of Commons. Was
soon after that made impossible to Lord Cockran and his father,
Archibald ninth, Earl of dun Donald, died on the first

(20:03):
of July eighteen thirty one. Lord Cochrane then ceased to
be a coroner and became in succession when he was
nearly fifty six years old, Earl of dun Donald. As
Earl of dun Donald, however, he found it no easier
to obtain an answer to his demand for justice than
as Lord Cochrane. In September, he heard that his opponents
were making use of some Admiralty correspondents respecting his conduct
in Chile nearly ten years before, to throw fresh difficulties

(20:27):
in his way. He at once applied to Sir James Graham,
the first Lord of the Admiralty, for extracts from his
correspondence of any parts requiring explanation in order that he
might furnish the same. I beg leave to state, wrote
Sir James in reply, that it is not usual for
His Majesty's government to produce from the records of the
public officers documents which do not appear to be required

(20:48):
for any public purpose. I am therefore under the necessity
of declining to comply with your Lordship's request. Is it
not astonishing, said Lord dun Donald in the letter to
the Duke of Hamilton. But Sir Adams Graham does not
consider justice to an individual to be a public object.
Tired out at length by the delays in the settlement
of his case, Lord dun Donald wisely resolved to seek

(21:10):
a personal interview with the King. With that object, he
went down to Brighton, and the interview was readily granted
to him on Sunday, the twenty seventh of November. He
was graciously received, and the King listened attentively to his
respectful claim for fairing investigation of the matter, and for
permission to rebut any charges that might have been brought
against him respecting his conduct and connection with the stock exchange, fraud,

(21:32):
his chile in service, or any other portion of his
life that had been or could be complained of. His
Majesty promised to see that the case was fairly looked into,
and Lord dun Donald was not long in observing the
good effects of his bold step. Lady dun Donald has
seen Lord Gray and he has expressed his readiness to
do all he can, he wrote from London on the

(21:52):
seventeenth of December. But I understand there is something in
the way. Burdette assures me he will bring the whole
affair before Parliament if they do not do me justice.
It is no letters. Sir Francis Burdette, who never flagging
in his friendship, had rendered valuable assistance during these weary months,
continued in the same course to the end, But it

(22:13):
was not necessary for him to speak to Parliament in
this case. Yet its settlement was further delayed. I am
unwilling to trespass on your Lordship's most valuable time, wrote
Lord Dundonnell to Earl Gray on the twenty eighth of
January eighteen thirty two. But as it is now two
months since I had the honor of an audience with
the King and of presenting to His Majesty my humble memorial,

(22:35):
setting forth my claims to be heard in my defense
in reputation of the accusations existing against me in the Admiralty,
and praying that I might be furnished with copies of
the accusatory documents. I can no longer refrain from entreating
your Lordship to relieve my mind from its present state
and most painful suspense, by making me acquainted with the
decision of the government, from my knowledge of your Lordship's

(22:58):
considerate feelings towards me, and your desire, should it be
found practicable and just, to restore me to my place
in His Majesty's service, and from that consciousness of my
own integrity which has maintained me during so many years
of adversity, I cannot but be sanguine, notwithstanding the delay
of an ultimately favorable result. But the period of suspense

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is not only one of great mental anxiety, but in
other respects most injurious. It places me in a position
worse than that which I was in under the former administration,
which at once decided to dismiss my complaint without consideration
and spared me the uncertainty that makes the heart sick.
While those ministers were in power. My character sustained no
injury from their refusal to do me justice. But under

(23:40):
the administration of your Lordship, the public opinion must be
that my case has received every consideration, and that the
ascertained justice of the verdict against me is the bar
to my restoration. This opinion already operates so much to
my disadvantage and annoyance as to paralyze all my pursuits,
and will shortly compel me unless your Lordship spares me
that sacrifice to quit a country of which I have never,

(24:02):
by any act of my life rendered myself unworthy, and
in the bosom of which, unless called out again in
her service, I would fain spend the remainder of my
life in tranquility. Readers, no letter ends. The letter was
delivered by the Countess of dun Donald, who, at this time,
as at all others, labored with rare energy and tact
to lighten her husband's heavy load of suffering and to

(24:23):
augment his scanty store of joy. Lady dun Donald, he wrote,
on the sixth of February, has had a long talk
with Lord Gray on the subject of my affair, and
it clearly appears that there are two individuals in the
cabinet who will not give in. It is now, however,
determined that Lady dun Donald I, being out of town,
shall go to the King with a very proper memorial

(24:43):
on her part, praying that the stain on the family
may be wiped away by a free pardon. It is
supposed this will succeed, because in that case the King
can exercise his prerogative without other counsel than that of
his Prime Minister, who is favorable readers. No letter ends.
The term free pardon was galling to Lord dun Donald.
He knew that he had done nothing which needed forgiveness.

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It was justice, not pardon he sought. He had suffered
so much, however, from official formalities and his honest resentment
of them, that he now reluctantly consented to accept the
virtual acquittal, which was the great object of his hopes
and toils. Though it might be couched in a phrase
done the less distasteful to him, because it was a
phrase that from time immemorial had been used as a

(25:25):
cloak for the withdrawal of official wrong. His concession was successful.
The King, he was able to write, on the fourth
of March, has at last promised to do that which
the late administration refused, and the present ministry had not
the power or courage to accomplish. For this, I am
indebted to the zealous exertions of Lady dun Donald, who
has been at Brighton and has left Lord Gray and

(25:47):
others no rest until her object was accomplished. Thus, you
see perseverance has done more than reason, right and justice.
The fact is that great folks neither read nor trouble
themselves with judging from facts on subjects which do not
immediate concern themselves. I have no doubt that the review
has never been looked into by one of the ministers,
writin letter ends. The free pardon was promised on the

(26:10):
twenty eighth of February, but it was not formally granted
until five weeks afterwards. Lord dun Donald ascertained that one
cause of the long delay in considering his case was
the heat of party fight occasioned by the reform Bill.
The government fear to show any kindness to a man
whom the Tories had so long and so persistently reviled,
lest thereby they should lose in the House of Commons.
A few wavering votes that were important The reform bill

(26:34):
passed the Lower House for the second time at the
end of March, its final adoption being expected with less
difficulty than a rose. It was now easier to do
justice to Lord dun Donald. I was happy to hear
your memorial to the King read in Council and referred
to the Admiralty. The Earl of Durham wrote to him
on the sixteenth of April. I trust we may eventually

(26:55):
have the means of doing an act of private as
well as of public justice, and that I shall see
you restored to that service of which you are the
highest ornament. But you well know that you have not
only my best wishes, but my warmest exertions for your
attainment of that object. It is not letter. The object
was at last attained. At a Privy Council held on

(27:16):
the second of May, a free pardon was granted to
the Earl of dun Donald. He was restored to his
position the Navy list, and on the eighth gazetted as
a rear Admiral of the Fleet. In that capacity, he
was presented to King William the Fourth at a levee
held on the ninth of May, and congratulations poured in
from all quarters as soon as the good news was published.
But he could not, even at the first moments of rejoicing,

(27:38):
forget that the cause of congratulation was only a pardon
for an offense which he had never committed, and for
which he had been enduring heavy punishment during sixteen years
of his life. End of Chapter twenty three. Recording by
Timothy Ferguson, Cold Coast, Australia,