August 15.--The birthday of Admiral Blake, one of the noblest of
England’s heroes and patriots. Robert Blake was born in 1599, at
Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, where his father, who had been a Spanish
merchant, was settled. After he had spent some years at Wadham College,
Oxford, his father died; and he, being the eldest son, returned to
Bridgewater, and lived in a retired manner on the estate which he had
inherited. Although known for his attachment to puritan principles, he
took no part in public affairs till 1640, when he was returned for
Bridgewater to the parliament which met for a few weeks in the early
part of that year. But he failed in being re-elected for the one by
which it was followed--the celebrated Long Parliament, which was
destined to act so memorable a part. He was employed, however, in the
war between the King and the nation, which soon after broke out, and
distinguished himself by his military talent on various occasions. But
it was on another element that his fame was to be chiefly gathered. It
was in 1649, when he was fifty years of age, that he was first invested
with a command at sea. The expedition on which he was sent was directed
against Prince Rupert, whom he pursued from Kinsale, in Ireland, to the
Tagus, and thence to Malaga, on the southern coast of Spain, where he
scattered or destroyed nearly the whole of his fleet. On his return to
England, after this victory, which he had achieved in despite of the
opposition of both Spain and Portugal, he was appointed to the
honourable office of Warden of the Cinque Ports. In the beginning of the
year 1652, when the nation was preparing for war with Holland, Blake was
the man who was chosen to be invested with the chief command of the
fleet. Hostilities soon commenced, and Blake found himself opposed by
the most celebrated admiral of the age, Van Tromp, at the head of one of
the finest equipments that had ever been sent out by the first naval
power in the world. In the beginning of May Van Tromp appeared in the
Channel with forty fine men-of-war; and, by way of defiance, took up his
station in Dover Roads. The fleet under Blake’s command consisted only
of twenty-six sail; but on the 9th he nevertheless boldly advanced
against the enemy, who weighed anchor at his approach, and in reply to
three successive guns, which he fired without ball, as a signal for them
to strike their flag, ranged themselves in order of battle. A desperate
fight ensued, which lasted from four in the afternoon till night, and
the result of which was that the Dutch, after losing two of their ships,
thought proper to retreat. The next great affair with the enemy, in
which Blake was engaged, took place on the 29th of November. On that day
he was again met in the Channel by Van Tromp, now at the head of a fleet
of seventy men-of-war, and six fire-ships. Blake’s force scarcely
exceeded half that of his opponent--but scorning to run away, he
determined to try once more what the gallantry of English sailors could
do under the conduct of a captain who had before led them on to victory
through so unequal a strife. And perhaps his courage might have been
again crowned with success; but besides being obliged to contend
throughout the engagement with an adverse wind, he himself unfortunately
received a wound which partially disabled him, and threw a part of his
forces into disorder. The consequence was, that after a conflict which
lasted from eight in the morning till night, the English found
themselves obliged to retreat, and to take refuge partly in the Downs
and partly in the Thames. Although the circumstances were such as to
remove from it all disgrace, Blake probably felt this defeat severely,
especially as it was followed by the most arrogant and insulting conduct
on the part of the Dutch admiral, who immediately made his way through
the Channel, bearing the ensign of a broom fastened to his main-topmast,
as if to signify that he had swept those seas of British ships. But in
the February following, the English hero, having employed the interval
with admirable diligence in repairing his ships, again put to sea with a
fleet of sixty sail, and soon after encountered his old adversary at the
head of seventy men-of-war, and having three hundred merchantmen under
convoy. The battle this time was far more obstinate than any that had
yet been fought between them: for three days the two armaments, running
up the Channel together, scarcely intermitted their furious fire; when
at last, on the fourth morning, the Dutch, having lost eleven of their
ships of war and thirty merchantmen, while only one of the English
vessels was destroyed, took flight for the coast of Holland. Several
other engagements took place between the two admirals in the course of
the same year; and the result, upon the whole, was decidedly in favour
of the English. Having thus asserted the dominion of his countrymen over
their surrounding seas, Blake returned to England, and was received both
by the Protector and the people with all respect and honour. Some time
before this Cromwell had dismissed the Long Parliament, and openly
assumed arbitrary power; but Blake being at sea when this change took
place, grieved and indignant as his noble spirit must have felt,
restrained himself from giving expression to his sentiments; and calling
his officers together, merely remarked to them, that, with the enemy yet
unsubdued, they had clearly in the mean time only one duty to perform:
“It is not for us,” said he, “to mind state affairs, but to keep the
foreigners from fooling us.” In the parliament which assembled in
September, 1654, Blake was returned for Bridgewater; and he sat in the
House till 1656, when he was despatched with a fleet to the
Mediterranean, to chastise Spain for certain insults which that power
had offered to the English flag. He acquitted himself in this expedition
with his usual ability; but after having done great injury to the marine
of the enemy, and taken many rich prizes, he was attacked by an illness
which rapidly enfeebled him, and from which indeed he soon felt that he
could not recover. He exerted himself, however, as long as his strength
would allow, and even engaged in a new enterprise against Santa Cruz, in
Teneriffe, which was attended with splendid success, after it had become
evident that this would be his last service of gallantry to his country.
He then set sail for England; and as life was fast ebbing, the only and
constant wish he expressed was that he might but once more rest his
eyes, for however short a space, on the coast of his native land before
closing them for ever. His wish, and no more, was granted. He expired as
the fleet was entering Plymouth Sound, on the 27th of August, 1657. A
true model in all things of a British sailor, Blake had been during his
life as prodigal of his money among his comrades as of his personal
exertions in the service of his country; and notwithstanding the ample
opportunities he had had of enriching himself, it was found that he had
not increased his paternal fortune by so much as 500_l._ A magnificent
public funeral, and the interment of his body in Henry VII.’s Chapel, in
Westminster Abbey, testified the grief of England for the loss of her
greatest defender; but among the mean outrages which disgraced the
triumph of the Restoration, it was one of the very meanest that Blake’s
mouldering remains were removed from the honourable resting-place thus
assigned to them, and deposited in the neighbouring church-yard of St.
Margaret. They could not, however, remove his glory from the page of the
national history, nor bury among common and forgotten things the name
and actions of one who, as having first taught our seamen that daring
and contempt of danger for which they have ever since been famous,
deserves to be regarded as, more than any other, the founder of the
naval greatness of England.
[Illustration: Admiral Blake.]
---------------------
_General Education_.--A strange idea is entertained by many that
education unfits persons for labour, and renders them dissatisfied
with their condition in life. But what would be said were any of the
powers of the body to be in a certain case disused? Suppose a man were
to place a bandage over his right eye--to tie up one of his hands--or
to attach a ponderous weight to his legs--and, when asked the cause
were, to reply, that the glance of that eye might make him
covetous--that his hand might pick his neighbour’s pocket--or that his
feet might carry him into evil company,--might it not be fairly
replied, that his members were given to use and not to abuse, that
their abuse is no argument against their use, and that this suspension
of their action was just as contrary to the wise and benevolent
purpose of their Creator as their wrong and guilty application? And
does this reasoning fail when applied to the mind? Is not the
unemployed mental faculty as opposed to the advantage of the
individual as the unused physical power? Can the difference between
mind and matter overturn the ordinary principles of reasoning and of
morals? Besides, how is man to be prepared for the duties he has to
discharge?--By mere attention to his body? Impossible. The mind must
be enlightened and disciplined; and if this be neglected, the man
rises but little in character above the beasts that perish, and is
wholly unprepared for that state to which he ought to have
aspired.--_Wilderspin’s Early Discipline._
---------------------
_Trade in Bristles._--In 1828, 1,748,921 lbs. of bristles were imported
into England from Russia and Prussia, each of which cannot have weighed
less than two grains. From this we may fairly conjecture that
13,431,713,280 bristles were imported in that year. As these are only
taken from the top of the hog’s back, each hog cannot be supposed to
have supplied more than 7680 bristles, which, reckoning each bristle to
weigh two grains, will be one pound. Thus in Russia and Prussia, in
1828, 1,748,921 hogs and boars were killed, to furnish the supply of
England with bristles.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
⁂ The Office of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is at
59, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.