any apparent cause, an entire horror of the royal navy; that Captain
Suckling, who beheld with anxiety the critical situation of his nephew,
was soon convinced, by the sentiment he appeared to indulge in--"Aft,
the most honour; but forward, the better man!"--his too credulous nephew
had acquired a bias utterly foreign to his real character; and that it
was many weeks before all the firmness of the captain, assisted by his
thorough knowledge of the human heart, could overcome these prejudices
in his nephew, and reconcile him to the service on board a king's ship.
Admitting the truth of this relation, it would be natural to suppose
that Mr. Rathbone, who was probably a worthy but disappointed man, had
inspired the youth with his own aversions to serving in the royal navy,
without a due consideration being made for the differences of their
respective interests. This gentleman, with the utmost purity of design,
might wish to prepare the nephew of his friend for mortifications and
disappointments to be expected in the profession he had just embraced;
it was not his fault, if pictures, which he perhaps feelingly and
faithfully pourtrayed from the life, excited too much abhorrence in the
mind of his young pupil. The sentiment of "Aft, the most honour; but
forward, the better man!" might come with no ill grace from the lips of
Mr. Rathbone, but could never originate with a boy of thirteen. So far,
the fact may be supported by some degree of probability, but it seems
incapable of proof.
In the family, no such circumstance appears to be remembered. It is well
recollected--in some degree, to the contrary--that, on a slight
intimation from his father, of a wish that he might entirely quit the
sea-service, he resolutely declared, that if he were not again sent out,
he would set off without any assistance.
It may, however, be taken for granted, that he wished for more active
employment in seamanship, than he could well expect to obtain, on board
a man of war, in the capacity of a midshipman. The mode which his uncle
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