which has on no occasion been let slip by your
old and sincere friend,

ST. VINCENT.

On the 4th of April 1824, Sir James, then Admiral of the White,
hoisted his flag on board the Britannia as Port Admiral at Plymouth.
It was during his period of command that Earl Grey, who was fully
sensible of the unhandsome and ungrateful manner in which he had been
treated, visited Plymouth, and when his health was proposed by Sir
James at the Royal Naval Club openly announced his sentiments in the
following words:

I rise to offer my best thanks for the manner in which the
president (Sir James Saumarez) has been pleased to propose my
health, and for the assent which the gentlemen present have given
to the gallant Admiral's favourable view of me as a public
character. I cannot but remind those about me of the merits of my
noble friend--[then correcting himself, Earl Grey went on]--I
wish I could call him my _noble_ friend (_noble_, I mean, in
rank, as he is already _noble_ in mind)--I wish I could see him
ennobled by his Sovereign, as his services entitle him to be; for
who would deny him that honour, who recollects the career which
he has run from Rodney's glorious day, the battles off Cape St.
Vincent and the Nile, down to his own brilliant exploits in the
Crescent and as commander-in-chief at Algeziras, and not say,
that if ever a name should or would have graced the peerage, it
should have been that of Saumarez?

Ralfe, in his Naval Biography, after alluding to the above speech,
justly remarks,--

Were it a matter of importance to adduce further proof of the
high opinion entertained of Sir James's abilities, we believe
we might name nearly the whole list of Admirals; for we never
yet conversed with a single officer who was not loud in his
praise, and who did not think the service neglected in his
person.

At Plymouth, Sir James received a visit from Lord Exmouth, with whom
he had had no personal communication since the time when they both
commanded frigates on the Plymouth station.

Sir James struck his flag for the last time on the 10th of May 1827,
after a most glorious career of nearly sixty years. His reiterated
claims were still disregarded.

We have now arrived at the period when the great revolution in the
affairs of the state brought Earl Grey into power, previously to
which, his late Majesty Wil