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
is said to have adopted for what is called the recovery of the original
bias of his nephew's mind, was to work on the ambition which, it is on
all hands agreed, he in a supereminent degree possessed, to become a
thorough seaman.

Captain Suckling had recently been appointed to the command of the
Triumph, then lying at Chatham; on board of which ship he placed his
nephew, in July 1772, immediately after the youth's return from the West
Indies, in his old situation on the quarter-deck: and, though he had,
thus, the "aft" situation of "most honour," the uncle contrived that he
should, at the same time, be permitted to enjoy all the advantages of
the "forward," which might be supposed to form "the better man." This he
judiciously effected, by permitting him to go in the cutter and decked