BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF THE LATE SIR JOHN NORRIS, ADMIRAL OF THE WHITE

Summary

How easy 'tis when destiny proves kind,

With full-spread sails to run before the wind!

But those that 'gainst stiff gales laveering go,

Must be at once resolv'd, and skilful too.

——Dryden.

WE have already observed upon the inequality of chances that give to officers of gallantry and enterprise those opportunities of achievement to some, which it withholds from others, making between them a difference of accident rather than of character. The observation is, perhaps, alike applicable to ages as to individuals, and if in the naval contests of the present age a greater brilliancy of exploit may be found—in the past are equally obvious the determined character and warlike prowess of a British seaman, exerted under a less perfect system of naval tactics, in wars of shorter duration, and consequently affording fewer opportunities of exertion.

On a review and comparison of the past with present times, it appears that the Howards and the Drakes of the reign of Elizabeth, were the founders of that naval glory which the Blakes, the Russels, and the constellation of naval worthies in the reigns of Charles and Anne prepared for the radiation it was to receive from that galaxy of naval heroes destined to illustrate the reign of George the Third. From that age to this, the spirit of British gallantry and enterprise has been the same—the apparent difference is that of accident, of circumstance, and system.