om this evil, Lord Exmouth was most happily kept; and additional
distinctions only confirmed the unaffected simplicity and benevolence of
his character. When he was fitting out his fleet for Algiers, amidst all
the anxiety of hurried preparations, he took care that every ship should
be properly supplied with the sacred volume. For this purpose, he
obtained from the Naval and Military Bible Society, of which he was a
Vice President, every copy which could be procured at so short a notice.
Finally, after this, the last and greatest of his services, a battle of
almost unexampled severity and duration, and fought less for his country
than for the world, his gratitude to the Giver of victory was expressed
in a manner the most edifying and delightful.

With such principles, he might well have hoped for happiness when he
retired from public life. Religion alone can fill and satisfy the most
active and capacious mind; but that its power may be felt to calm,
strengthen, and support, under whatever circumstances of endurance, or
of action, it must govern the character always, and be the supreme
controlling principle. For this, the position of a naval officer is not
favourable. War has much, in addition to the miseries and evils it
directly creates, which only necessity can excuse; and there is too
little leisure for reflection amidst the anxiety of early struggles, the
full career of success, or the pressure of exciting and important
duties.

But when external responsibilities had ceased to divert his attention
from himself, his religious principles acquired new strength and exerted
a more powerful influence. They guided him to peace; they added dignity
to his character: and blessed his declining years with a serenity, at
once the best evidence of their truth, and the happiest illustration of
their power.

The quiet of domestic life offers little to be recorded; and except when
public or private claims might call him for a short time from home, Lord
Exmouth passed the remainder of his life at Teignmouth. He had nobly
done his duty; and now enjoyed in honourable repose all that the
gratitude of his country and the affection of his family could bestow.
Though he knew himself liable to an attack which might be almost
suddenly fatal, he dwelt on the prospect without alarm, for he rested
upon that faith whose privilege it is to rise above present suffering,
and to regard death itself as the gate of immortal life.

No man was more