s his surprise increased, when
Captain Pellew said, "Stop, sir; we must now try you for the theft." The
fact, which had been already admitted, allowed of no defence; and before
the man left the ship, he was deservedly brought to the gangway.

The admiral's secretary, Mr. Graham, afterwards the well-known police
magistrate, related this circumstance to Lord Thurlow. The chancellor
relaxed his iron features, and throwing himself back in his chair in a
burst of laughter, exclaimed, "Well, if that is not law, it is at least
justice. Captain Pellew ought to have been a judge."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This seems to require explanation, for Mr. Pellew entered the navy
in 1770, only ten years before. It was the allowed practice at that
time, and for many years after, for young men intended for the navy to
serve by proxy. A ship's boy would be borne on the books in the name of
the future midshipman, who was allowed the credit of his substitute's
service, and whose time in the navy was thus running on while he was
still at school. Not only so, but, by permission of the Admiralty, the
time served by one boy, personally, or even thus by proxy, might, if he
left the service, be transferred to the account of another! It has been
stated that Mr. Pellew's eldest brother was borne on the books of the
_Seaford_, till he gave up the profession of the sea for that of
medicine; and while Mr. Pellew was serving in America, he wrote to his
brother a letter which still exists, requesting him to procure the
transfer to himself, of his nominal Service. It would therefore appear
that Lord Exmouth, when a midshipman, had the three years of his elder
brother's nominal service added to his own time, though his brother was
never at sea.

[2] The Coles were through life intimately connected with the Pellews,
to whom they were neighbours in childhood, when both families lived on
the shores of the Mount's Bay; and their fortunes were very similar.
Left when very young, to the care of a widowed mother, and in narrow
circumstances, they all rose high by their own deserts. Two entered the
church, and became, one Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, the
other Chaplain to Greenwich Hospital, and Chaplain-General of the Navy.
Two entered the Navy, of whom Frank, the eldest, was selected to take
charge of the late King William IV., when he was sent to sea as Prince
William Henry. Christopher went to sea at ten years old, and became one
of the first office