ignate his future politics and fortitude. In 1745, when
the Pretender marched into the heart of the kingdom, without being
joined by his friends or opposed by his enemies, as Gibbon
antithetically observed, all the boys at the school, excepting young
Jervis and Dick Meux, (afterwards the eminent brewer,) wore plaid
ribands sent to them from home, and they pelted their two
constitutional playmates, calling them Whigs.

His father designed young Jervis for the law; but, in 1747, removing
to Greenwich on being appointed Counsel to the Admiralty and Auditor
to the Hospital, naval sights were too near not to prove a strong
temptation to the mind of an animated and vigorous boy. His parents
were still strongly for the adoption of his father's profession; but
there was another authority on the subject, the family coachman, one
Pinkhorne, who, saying that it was a shame to go into a profession
where all were rogues, determined the future hero; and, before the
year was over, he ran away, to commence life as a sailor. He was
reclaimed, however, by his family, and was regularly entered in the
navy, in January 1748, on board the Gloucester, fifty guns, Commodore
Townshend--twenty pounds being all that was given to him by his father
for his equipment. The Gloucester sailed for the West Indies; and
thus, at the age of thirteen, young Jervis began the world. It appears
that the rigid economy of his father, combined with the singular good
sense of this mere child, urged him to every means of acquiring the
knowledge of his profession. The monotonous life of a guard-ship
already seemed to him a waste of time, while the expenses on shore
must have been ruinous to his slender finances. He therefore
volunteered into whatever ship was going to sea. He thus writes to his
sister from on board the Sphinx, 1753:--"There are many entertainments
and public assemblies here, but they are rather above my sphere, many
inconveniences and expenses attending them; so that my chief employ,
when from my duty, is reading, studying navigation, and perusing my
own letters, of which I have almost enough to make an octavo volume."

At length, however, his twenty pounds were exhausted; and, at the end
of three years, he drew for twenty pounds more. It is vexatious to say
that his bill was dishonoured; and he never received another shilling
from any one. It is scarcely possible to conceive that so harsh a
measure could have been the result of intention; but it s