him to give up the command of the latter ship, soon after her return home. He subsequently received a letter from our present most gracious Monarch, of which the following is an extract:–
“I am glad to have received, and shall keep the detail of your services. Nothing will, in the event of future war, give me more real pleasure than that of having the advantage of your presence under my immediate command.
“Brighton, Jan. 21st, 1815.”
In consequence of the order in council of June 30th, 1827, Captain Devonshire, though he had already commanded five rated ships, found it necessary to solicit an appointment to another, in order that he might qualify himself for promotion, agreeably to the new regulations. His applications were at length attended with success, and in Jan. 1829, he assumed the command of the Kent 78, stationed as a guardship in Hamoaze, where he had the honor of displaying a broad pendant during the temporary absence of his commander-in-chief. Admiral the Earl of Northesk.
On the 22d July 1830, a general promotion of flag-officers, &c. took place in honor of the accession of King William IV., when Captain Devonshire was placed on the list of Retired Rear-Admirals, and immediately superseded in his command, the retention of which for about four weeks longer would have fully entitled him to a flag. The hopes he had long and anxiously cherished, of arriving at the highest grade in his profession, to which he considered his devotion to the service for so many years entitled him, were thereby destroyed; and his naval career terminated in a manner most unexpected and distressingly painful. He subsequently submitted his case to the sovereign, urging the very peculiar and unprecedented hardship of being debarred from promotion by the retrospective effect of an order in council, and of being prevented from completing the newly prescribed term of service by an earlier supercession than was customary; but his memorial has not yet met with the favorable consideration which he was once rather sanguine in expecting. We may venture to state, however, that he has
