ho was senior officer
of the troops embarked. As such his name was included in the thanks of
Parliament; but we cannot understand why a lieutenant-colonel, with only
two companies, was placed over the head of an officer of equal rank with
his entire regiment, unless indeed the cause was that Lieut.-Colonel
Brock was not an "honorable!" We are not aware that he ever complained
of what appears to us to have been an act of injustice to him, and we
may therefore be wrong in our view of the subject. The British loss, in
killed and wounded, was 953, or 58 more than fell at the battle of the
Nile. In mentioning the loss at Copenhagen, Southey, in his admirable
Life of Nelson, says, on what authority we know not: "Part of this
slaughter might have been spared. The commanding officer of the troops
on board one of our ships, asked where his men should be stationed? He
was told that they could be of no use; that they were not near enough
for musquetry, and were not wanted at the guns; they had, therefore,
better go below. This, he said, was impossible--it would be a disgrace
that could never be wiped away. They were, therefore, drawn up upon the
gangway, to satisfy this cruel point of honor; and there, without the
possibility of annoying the enemy, they were mowed down! The loss of the
Danes, including prisoners, amounted to about 6,000."

John Savery Brock, of whose gallantry mention is made in the preceding
pages, was the next younger brother of Lieut.-Colonel Brock, and had
been in the navy; but it being supposed that he was influential, in the
year 1790, in inducing his brother midshipmen, of the fleet at Spithead,
to sign a round robin against their being subjected to the practice of
mast-heading--one having been hoisted up to the gaff end in an
ignominous manner, because he refused to go to the mast head as a
punishment--he was recommended privately to retire from the service.[17]
Being at this time a tall and high spirited young man of eighteen, it is
not surprising that he deemed such a punishment unnecessarily degrading
to the feelings of an officer, and which has since been very properly
abolished. Had it not been for this circumstance, it is the opinion of a
naval officer of high rank, that Savery Brock would have distinguished
himself and risen to eminence in the navy during the late revolutionary
wars. Some little time after this affair, being in Guernsey, he wished
to go to England, and was offered a passage in the Am