Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p1.djvu/297

Rh accompanied to the Mediterranean, and assisted at the reduction of Minorca.

Early in 1799, our officer was entrusted by his friend Earl St. Vincent with the command of a flying squadron, with which he attacked the town of Cambrelles, on the coast of Catalonia; and after driving the Spaniards from their battery, landed a party of men under Lieutenant Grossett, who dismounted the guns, burnt five settees, and took five others laden with staves, wine, and wheat. About the same period the Centaur captured la Vierga de Rosario, of 14 guns and 90 men.

On the 16th March, the Centaur, in company with the Cormorant, drove el Guadaloupe, Spanish frigate, of 40 guns, on shore near Cape Oropesa, where she was totally wrecked. In the month of June following, the squadron under Captain Markham captured the following French men of war, on their return to Toulon from the coast of Syria; la Junon, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Perée, mounting 40 guns, 400 men; l’Alceste, 36 guns, 300 men; le Courageux, 22 guns, 300 men; la Salamine, 18, and l’Alerte, 14 guns, each carrying 120 men.

The Centaur returned to England soon after the above capture, and Captain Markham continued to command her until the early part of 1801, when he was nominated one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and at the general election in 1802, was chosen M.P. for Portsmouth. On the 13th Dec. in the same year, he brought in a bill for appointing Commissioners to inquire into the abuses, frauds, and irregularities practised in several of the Naval Departments, and in the business of prize agents, &c. During the progress of the above bill through its several stages, it encountered much opposition; however, it finally passed both Houses, and received the royal assent on the 29th of the same month.

In 1804, when Earl St. Vincent left the Admiralty, our officer accompanied that nobleman in his retirement. He