's tastes did not allure him to any study of the duties which
belonged to a throne. The Navy was assigned to him as a profession,
and he actually saw some service in America and in the West Indies, but
he obtained his promotion as a matter of course until he reached the
position of Lord High Admiral, which may be described as the main-top
of his naval career. The story is told of him, and will probably,
whether it be accurate or not, be told as long as his history comes
under public recollection, that he had something to do with the
promotion of the great naval battle of Navarino, which led to the
emancipation of Greece. The combined fleets of England, France, and
Russia, under command of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, were watching
the Turkish and Egyptian fleets, in order to protect Greece against
them. But the actual course to be taken by the allies was supposed to
depend upon many serious political considerations. The British
Admiralty issued a solemn official despatch to Sir Edward Codrington,
enjoining on him the necessity of great care and caution in any action
he might take. This {97} document was forwarded in due course by the
Lord High Admiral, and the story goes that the Duke of Clarence
scribbled at the end of it in his own hand the encouraging words, "Go
it, Ned." Whether it was fought under this inspiration or not, it is
certain that the battle was fought, that the Turkish and Egyptian
fleets were destroyed, and that the independence of Greece was won.

The English public generally would have been none the less inclined to
welcome the accession of the Duke of Clarence as William the Fourth
even although it had been part of authentic history that the new King
had lately borne an important, if an underhand, part in the rescue of
Greece from Ottoman oppression. But there was little else in the
career of the Duke of Clarence to command popular respect or affection.
He had lived openly, or almost openly, for many years with the
celebrated actress Mrs. Jordan, who had borne him ten children, and
this connection had been made the subject of free and frank allusion in
some of the verses of Robert Burns. The British public, however, were
inclined, as Robert Burns was, to look forgivingly on the doings of the
Prince, for he was still a young man when his acquaintance with Mrs.
Jordan began. The British public liked him because he was a sailor, if
for nothing else, and men's eyes turned hopefully to him when