Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/230

290 ficial despatches of general Sir Henry Clinton. The experience which he thus acquired was of great service to him long afterwards, when he had a more prominent and distinguished part to perform.

In 1780, having returned to England with despatches from admiral Arbuthnot, he was, on his arrival, appointed to the command of the Warwick of fifty guns. In the general election, which took place this year, he was chosen member of parliament for Dumbartonshire, where his family possessed some influence; and he was one of those who met at the St Alban's tavern, to attempt a reconciliation between Fox and Pit and the duke of Portland, with the view of forming what was called "a broad-bottomed administration." This attempt, as is well known, proved unsuccessful. In the following year, as he was cruising down the channel in his ship the Warwick, he encountered the Rotterdam, a Dutch ship of war, bearing fifty guns and three hundred men. The manner in which he attacked this vessel and compelled her to strike more especially as the engagement happened immediately after the Iris, a ship of equal force, had been baffled in the attempt gained captain Elphinstone much public notice. Soon after this, he went out to the coast of America, where he served during the remainder of this disastrous war. While on this station, he, in company with other three British vessels of war, captured the French frigate L'Aigle of forty guns, (twenty-four pounders, on the main deck,) and a crew of 600 men, commanded by count de la Touche. Unfortunately for the captors, the enemy's captain escaped to shore with the greater part of a large quantity of specie which was on board the frigate. Two small casks and two boxes, however, of this valuable commodity fell into the hands of the victors. Along with the captain, there also escaped several officers of high rank, and amongst them the commander-in chief of the French army in America. During his service on the American coast, captain Elphinstone had the honour to receive on board his ship as midshipman, prince William Henry, afterwards king William IV.; a distinction the more flattering, that the choice of the ship and officer was made by his royal highness himself^ At the close of the war, when the subject of our memoir returned to Britain, the prince of Wales appointed him for life to be secretary and chamberlain of the principality of Wales.

In April, 1787, captain Elphinstone married Jane, daughter of William Mercer, Esq. of Aldie, in the county of Perth, a lady of large property, by whom he had a daughter, afterwards viscountess Keith, arid wife of count Flahault, aide-du-camp to the emperor Napoleon. In 1786, captain Elphinstone was chosen to represent the shire of Stirling. The breaking out of the French war in 1793, opened a new field for his enterprise and activity, and soon after the occurrence of that event he was appointed to the Robust of seventy-four guns, and sailed under the command of lord Hood to the Mediterranean. The object for which the latter had been sent to these seas was to endeavour to effect a co-operation with the royalists in the south of France. In this his lordship so far succeeded, that the sections of Toulon immediately proclaimed Louis XVII. under a promise of protection from the British fleet, and Marseilles was only prevented from taking a similar step by the approach of a republican army. Before taking possession of Toulon, which was part of the arrangement made with the French by lord Hood, it was deemed proper to secure the forts which commanded the ships in the roads, and for this duty fifteen hundred men were landed under captain Keith, who, after effecting this service, was directed to assume the command of the whole, as governor of fort Malgue. In a few days afterwards general Carteaux appeared, at the head of a detachment of the republican army, on the heights near Toulon. Captain Elphinstone, placing himself at the head of a small body of British and Spanish soldiers, instantly marched out to attack him, and after