tenants, take the kindest notices of their little ones, and bountifully relieve their necessities.  Among his select wealthy neighbours, the celebrated Abraham Goldsmid, Esq. of Morden, and his amiable family, ranked high in his lordship’s estimation, as well as in that of Sir William and Lady Hamilton, and their reciprocal visits were frequent.  A most liberal and unsolicited tender of pecuniary accommodation to Lord Nelson, by that worthy and disinterested gentleman, in the very origin of their acquaintance, bound his generous heart for ever to Mr. Goldsmid; whose mutually ardent amity, shining with undiminished lustre, still survives for all who were dear to his lordship.

On the 21st of December, when the famous bill of his noble friend, the Earl of St. Vincent, then First Lord of the Admiralty, for a commission of Naval Enquiry, which brought on such a train of important but unexpected consequences, and was pregnant with so many beneficial effects to the service, underwent a discussion in the House of Lords, at it’s second reading, Lord Nelson made the following exquisite speech, in support of it’s proposed objects—­

     “MY LORDS!

“In the absence of my noble friend, who is at the head of the Admiralty, I think it my duty to say a few words to your lordships, in regard to a bill of which the objects have an express reference to the interests of my profession as a seaman.  It undoubtedly originates in the feelings of the Admiralty; that they have not the power to remedy certain abuses, which they perceive to be most injurious to the public service.  Every man knows, that there are such abuses; and, I hope, there is none among us who would not gladly do all that could be constitutionally effected to correct them.

Yet, if I had heard of any objection, of weight, urged against the measures in the present bill, I should certainly have hesitated to do any thing to promote it’s progress through the forms of this house.  But, I can recollect only one thing with which I have been struck as possibly exceptionable in it’s tenor.  It authorizes the commissioners to call for, and inspect, the books of merchants, who may have had transactions of business with any of the boards, or prize agents, into whose conduct they are to enquire.  But, the credit of the British merchant is the support of the commerce of the world; his books are not, lightly, nor for any ordinary purpose, to be taken out of his own hands.  The secrets of his business are not to be too curiously pryed into.  The books of a single merchant may betray the secrets, not only of his own affairs, but of those with whom he is principally connected in business; and the reciprocal confidence of the whole commercial world may, by the authoritative enquiry of these commissioners, be shaken.  All this, at least, I should have feared, as liable to happen, if the persons who are named in the bill had not been men whose characters are above