Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/335

 12. III. JUXE, 1917.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Navy immediately after the outbreak of the French war under the auspices of Nelson, who described him as " a good boy, and one that would shine in the service " :

" Hoste was at the battle of the Nile in 1798, and in January, 1802. was promoted Post by Lord St. Vincent. From 1808 to 1814 he com- manded a detached squadron in the Adriatic, stopping the coasting trade, and engaging in a series of adventurous attacks on the coast bat- teries, or on vessels sheltered under them ; the stories of which read more like a romance than sober history."

Ke captured the town of Grao in 1808-9, and in 1811 defeated at Lissa a force much larger than his own.

Continuing his journal, on July 8, 1812, Mr. Johnson Yonge says :

" The day after sailing from Port Mahon we fell in with Sir Edward Pellew and his fleet.... There were 13 sail of the line....Tne admiral received Hoste in the most flattering manner and offered him a cruise in the Adriatic, which he said he considered as his birthright. ..."

" Lissa, June 20, 1813. You will be a little .surprised at the date of my letter. . . .But imme- diately upon our arrival at Malta on the 19th of April, we learnt that orders had arrived from. Sir Ed. Pellew for us to return again to this Island^. . . .It is reported that Admiral Hallowell is coming to succeed Admiral Freemantle, and J make no doubt it has been his request that Hoste should be under him on this station. Admiral Hallowell has known Hoste all his life, and was particularly intimate with Lord Nelson."

In describing an engagement which took place on June 10, the writer says :

" You may cut sailors to pieces, but you cannot conquer ^their spirit .... One of our midshipmen, Langton by name, commanded the first gig, which carried 10 men beside himself ... .[As the result] the commodore and the chief part of his officers, with about 50 men, were made prisoners. He told us that he had no notion that our boats would have persevered in their attack after discovering his force. . . .but instead of observing any symptoms of fear, his ears were greeted with a loud and animated shout, which was continued throughout the little squadron ....

" 14th June. We arrived here safe and without losing a single prize .... You cannot think what credit our boats have gained, and it is esteemed one of the most gallant boat actions in our naval annals."

Lord Nelson, in his earlier correspondence, frequently mentioned Charles Boyles, the son of the collector of Customs at Lynn, and at the time of Hoste' s action off Lissa Charles Boyles, then a rear-admiral, had his flag flying in the Canopus at Palermo, and wrote :

' My dear Hoste, Your gallant and dis- tinguished bravery will ever immortalize your name, and make our county of dumplings and dripping rejoice to think they have still preserved for its protection a brilliant spark from the shrine of our immortal county man, Lord Nelson."

Capt. Hoste was created a baronet in September, 1814, and in April, 1817, married Lady Harriet Walpole, a daughter of the second Earl of Orford (second creation). He was appointed to the command of his Majesty's yacht the Royal George, a post he held until his death in 1828, which took place at the early age of 48. The writer of the letters, the Rev. Johnson Yonge, married Elizabeth, second daughter of the Rev. Peter Wellington Furse of Halston House, Devon, and being appointed Rector of Rochbourne in Hampshire, there died in 1860, leaving a son and four daughters. [A reference to the Yonge family appeared at 10 S. xi. 129. F. H. S.

SIK JAMES GRAHAM : EARLY ELECTIONEER- ING EXPERIENCE. (See 7 S. xi. 304.) Just over a quarter of a century ago, I drew attention to the fact that at the Cornwall Lent Assizes, held at Launceston in March, 1820, a true bill was found by the Grand Jury against the distinguished Whig Parlia- mentarian, known to a later generation as Sir James Graham, for alleged bribery and corruption at a St. Ives election ; and I expressed a hope to be supplied with the result of the proceedings. That wish re- mains ungratified, but some additional light is thrown on the affair in the extracts from the diary of John Tregerthen Short given by Sir Edward Hain in his ' Prisoners of War in France from 1804 to 1814,' Short having been one such. These are as follow :

" March 22, 1820. Several persons subpcened, to go to Launceston to swear bribery against the two elected Members, Messrs. Graham and Evelyn.

' March 27. According to their evidence, the jury found indictments against the two elected Members.

" The evidences returned from Launceston, having sworn against Graham and Evelyn.

" April 21. Placards and caricatures posted against some of the false swearers.

" April 26. This evening the account came that recognizances had been entered into to bring the newly elected Members to trial, by a most villainous and perjured crew, to get them turned from Parliament.

" May 28. Mr. Halse [the town clerk of St. Ives, who had acted as solicitor for Graham and Evelyn] went to London.

" June 4. A great number subpcened to go to London, to appear before the Members of the House of Commons, a gainst Graham and Evelyn.

" June 22. The evidences for Mr. Halse arrived from London, and before their departure the two members, Graham and Evelyn, were declared by a Committee of the House of Commons duly elected, and that gross and infamous perjury was pronounced against an Irishman, named George Patrick Dunn.