two large French ships proceeding to La Valetta, with troops and stores. He blockaded the ports of Toulon, Marseilles, Nice, and the coast of the Riviera; and, co-operating with the Austrians, who were besieging Genoa, he so effectually cut off all supplies from the French garrison in that place by the activity of his blockade, that they were compelled to surrender. In the following September, the island of Malta was captured by a detachment of his fleet. The British cabinet having determined to make a descent on Spain, lord Keith and Sir Ralph Abercromby entered the bay of Cadiz with a large fleet, having on board about eighteen thousand troops. Circumstances, however, occurred, which the admiral and general conceived warranted them in not attempting the proposed landing, and they accordingly withdrew without making any descent.
The greatest and most brilliant of all lord Keith's services, however, was yet to be performed ; this was the celebrated landing of Aboukir, one of the most splendid affairs in the annals of war; and it was in a great measure owing to the promptitude and skill of the admiral alone, that this critical and perilous enterprise was so triumphantly accomplished. For this important service lord Keith received the thanks of both houses of parliament, and on the 5th December, 1801, he was created a baron of the united kingdom, by the title of baron Keith of Barheath, county of Dumbarton. He had been previously advanced to the rank of admiral of the blue. In the fulness of the country's gratitude for his services, he Mas also presented by the corporation of London with the freedom of the city in a gold box, together with a sword of the value of one hundred guineas, and was invested by the Grand Signor with the order of the Crescent, which he had established to perpetuate the memory of the services rendered to the Ottoman empire by the British.
In 1803, lord Keith was appointed commander-in-chief of all his majesty's ships in the north sea. In 1805, he was further advanced to the rank of rear-admiral of the white, and in 1812, succeeded Sir Charles Cotton as commander-in-chief of the channel fleet. While on this station, it was his lot to be the means of capturing the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, on his flight from France after the battle of Waterloo. The disposition which lord Keith made of his ships on this occasion was such, that the distinguished fugitive, after being taken by captain Maitland of the Bellerophon, acknowledged escape to have been impossible. His treatment of the prisoner was as noble, delicate, and humane, as his arrangements for seizing him had been dexterous. He acted throughout the whole affair with so much good sense and right feeling, that he at once gained the esteem and gratitude of Napoleon, and the approbation of the government which he represented.
In 1814, lord Keith had been created a viscount; and, at the conclusion of the war, by the exile of Napoleon in St Helena, he retired to enjoy his well-earned honours in the bosom of his family, and the society of his former friends. Latterly he resided constantly on his estate of Tulliallan, where he erected a mansion-house suited to his rank and fortune. There he also expended large sums in works of permanent utility, and united with constant acts of voluntary bounty the encouragement of industrious pursuit and useful occupation, those sure sources of comfort to a surrounding population. The strength of his natural understanding enabled him to derive the utmost benefit from all that he had occasion to see or to contemplate. A most tenacious memory and great readiness enabled him to bring all his information effectually into action when the occasion called for it. Such powers, united to a fertility of mind which is rarely excelled, rendered him a most distinguished character in all that regarded his profession. In social intercourse, his kindly nature was constantly predominant: he was entirely free of affectation in conversation, and he dealt out the
