thankfulness for those more lately begun to be bestowed or promised. To our Correspondents in general we are, indeed, deeply indebted, and to them all we wish to make our most sincerely grateful acknowledgments. With respect to those among them whose contributions may have occasionally been suppressed, we wish to observe, as we have frequently done before, that they are not therefore to conceive themselves to be neglected, or contemptuously slighted. Our communications are extremely numerous, and therefore selection is necessary: frequently, likewise, many good thoughts and ingenious poetical lines are rendered unfit for insertion by one or two defects, the fruit of inattention or impatience. In such a case we wish to give the writers an opportunity to correct what they have written, and render it more worthy of themselves and the attention of the public. Let them not be discouraged, but stimulated to make new and more careful exertions; and they will seldom have to complain of a too rigorously-critical severity in the exclusion of their pieces. We now cominence the THIRTY-NINTH VOLUME of the LADY'S MAGAZINE, encouraged and emboldened by the distinguishedly-favourable reception it has lately been honoured with, and the numerous new and ingenious contributions it has received, to assure with confidence Our FAIR PATRONESSES and the Public in general, that our attention and exertions shall continue unremitted to merit the highly attering approbation with which we have so long been honoured. THIE LADY'S MAGAZINE. FOR JANUARY, 1808. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS of SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY SMITE, REAR ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE, [ With his Portrait elegantly engraved. ] SIR William Sidney Smith is the eldest son of captain Smith, who resides, in a vigorous and trulyrespectable old age, in a villa near Dover. Captain Smith, in the war of 1736, accompanied lord George Sackville as his aid-de-camp, but quitted the service soon after the termination of the court-martial which condemned the conduct of his noble friend at Minden. His son, William Sidney, was born in the year 1764, in the parish of St. Anne, Soho, and received the rudiments of education at Tunbridge school, under the superintendence of the celebrated Vicesinus Knox. When about nine years of age, being removed to Bath, he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Morgan of that city. Being of an enterprising and adventurous disposition he chose the sea-service as his profession, and shortly after his entering into the navy we find him on board the Sandwich, commanded by cap tain Young. He was rapidly pro moted. In 1780 he was on board the Alcide of 74 guns, in the rank of fifth lieutenant; from which he was advanced to be commander of the Fury of 18 guns, on the Jar maica station. On May 7, 1783, he was made a post-captain, and appointed to the command of the Nemesis, a frigate of 28 guns. Sir John Carr, to whom we are indebted for several curious particulars of sir Sidney's life, relates, in his Northern Summer,' the following anecdote of this brave commander in his early years.— Sir Sidney, observes he, in that work, forming one of my favourite heroes, I will run the hazard of being blamed for deviating from my narrative a little, and for detaining the reader an extra motent to relate a singular prepos session he felt, when a youth, of his fame, and the theatre of his future glory, which has just occurred to my memory. Being sent, some years since, on shore with a brother officer, who is now holding a deservedly-high situation in the service, to look for some deserters froin their ship, after a long, fatiguing, and fruitless pursuit, they halted at a little inn to refresh themselves. Having dined, sir Sidney, on a sudden becaine silent, and seemed lost in meditation My dirk for your thoughts,' exclaimed his friend, gently tapping him on the shoulder, what project, Sidney, has got possession of you now ?My good fellow,' replied the young warrior, his expressive countenauce brightening as he spoke, you will, no doubt, suppose me a little disordered in my mind; but I have been thinking that before twelve years shall have rolled over my head, I shall make the British arms triumphant in the Holy Land. There seems no reason to question the authenticity of this anecdote, and the prediction was certainly remarkably fulfilled. After the peace of 1783 the Nemesis, of which, as has been said, sir Sidney had the command, was ordered home to England, and put out of commission. A state of inactivity, however, was insupportable to the active aud ardent mind of our hero; and a rupture being soon expected to take place between Sweden and Russia, he, in 1788, applied for and obtained permission to enter into the service of the former. On the commencement of this war an attempt was made by the Swedish admiral to destroy the Russian fleet in its own harbour; and toward the latter end of April 1790, the grand fleet of Sweden, consisting of twenty-three ships of the line, and eighteen frigates, under the command of the duke of Sudermania, sailed for Revel, in which port a division of the Russian fleet was riding at anchor. The Russians thinking themselves secure, and sufficiently protected by the inclemency of the weather, neglected the proper means of defence, and the Swedish, admiral was enabled to enter the harbour and destroy a great part of the Russian fleet. The duke of Sudermania appears to have proved himself on this occasion a very able naval commander. • The duke of Sudermania,' said sir Sidney Smith, speaking of this engagement, is almost the only man alive who in the midst of a battle knows what he is about'; he knows how to wait for his purpose, and therefore will seldom miss it.' The king (Gustavus the Third) afterward assumed the command of the Swedish fleet. The Swedes now found it ne cessary to return to their own harbours. In the mean time the Cronstadt division of the Russian fleet had sailed to the assistance of the squadron at Revel, and the Russians, thus coming between the Swedish fleet and its ports, seized a narrow pass through which their antagonists intended to make their retreat. In this situation the Swedish sovereign called a council of war to take the opinion and advice of his officers. At this council sir Sidney was present; but as a foreigner, had no right to deliver any opinion. The king, however, observing the impatience visible in his countenance, said, 'Let us hear what this Englishman advises.' Sir Sidney, without hesitation, advised foreing the passage of the straits in which the Russian fleet was drawn up in a line on each side. This measure was adopted, and exe cuted with so much success, that |