The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-07 00:00:00

NOT RUINED BY PROMOTION,

A writer in the 7 imes says :—ln corroboration of
he statement by "R. N." in your paper of this day
relative to the mention in Southey's "Life of Nel-
son" of Lieut. Pollard, R.N., having shot the man
by whose unerring aim Nelson fell, I beg to forward
an extract from O'Byrne's "Naval Biography,"
bearing out the fact, and which may prove interest-
ing to your readers. He says—On the return of the
fleet of Lord Nelson from its pursuit of the com
bined squadrons to the West Indies Mr. Pollard
was afforded an opportunity of participating as sig-
nal midshipman of the Victory in the action off
Cape Trafalgar. On that occasion, when standing
on the poop, he was struck by a splinter on the
right arm, and chanced to be the first officer who
was there touched. A musket-ball next passed
thr-,ugh the shell of his spyglass, about a foot above
the hand that held it, and a second one shattered
the watch in his pocket. Some time after the Vic-
tory had been in action with the French 74 gun ship
Redoubtable, the officers and men around him be-
ginning to fall fast, the attention of Mr. Pollard was
arrested by a number of soldiers whom he perceived
crouching in the tops of the Redoubtable, and di-
recting a destructive fire on the poop and quarter-
deck of the Victory. He immediately seized a musket,
and being supplied by the signal-quartermaster,
King, with ball cartridges from two barrels kept on
the afterpart of the poop for the use of the Marines
(who at the time were elsewhere engaged), con-
tinued firing at the soldiers every time they rose
breast high in the tops until not one was to be seen.
In the act of handing the last parcel of ball car-
tridges the quartermaster was shot through the
forehead and fell lifeless nn the spot. When the
action terminated Mr. Pollard was the only officer
left alive of those who had been originally stationed
on the poop; and thus, in the manner we have
described, originated the belief that it was he who
had shot the man who had killed Lord Nelson."

Lieutenant Pollard was promoted the following
year to the rank he now holds, having seen much
active service in both war and peace, and it is only
during the last 10 or 12 years that he has been
found a shelter within the walls of Green% ieh
Hospital. Surely, sir, after a period of 66 years in
her Majesty's navy, during which most of his gene
ration have passed away, he may well present a
claim upon his country's gratitude that at the least,
if nothing can be done for himself in his declining
years, his relatives in the service should meet with
due consideration at the hands of the Admiralty

AMERICAN SPEECHIFYING.—bpeeches are deli-
vered to be printed and circulated amongst consti•
tuents, rather than to influence the audience to which they
are addressed; and, indeed the newspaper summaries are
ordinarily so meagre, that any member who wishes for a full
report is obliged to have his speech reprinted. Probably, in
consequence of this, the custom of reading speeches, or re-
ferring constantly to memoranda, is very common, and
mars the effect of the discussions. There is an amount, too,
of unimpressive gesticulation which become perfectly mono-
tonous. I saw one member, who, during a speech of an
hour, kept advancing and retreating constantly up an open
space of some 12 feet in length, like the Polar bear at the
Regent's-park gardens; another, who always sidled from
one desk to another; a third, who swung his arms up
and down with the regularity of a windmill; and a fourth,
who kept turning like a teetotum towards every part of
the house in turn. The constant, accentuation, t,,0, of
unimportant words, and the frequent misplacement
of the right emphasis to the wrong place, makes long lis-
tening to an American debate wearisome to an Englishman
Still, the one remarkable feature is the marvellous fluency
of the speakers. Everybody has the gift of speaking—the
power, at least, of stringing words together without a hitch

I never heard an American member of either house stutter,
or hem and haw, as nineteen• twentieths of our speakers do
when in want of a word. And this is not solely because the
speeches are prepared beforehand. I have constantly heard
members interrupted in their speeches, and unexpected
questions put to them, yet they always replied with the
same perfect self-possession, and almost fatal fluency of
language. Whether this arises from the fact that, unac••
customed as I am to publio speaking,' is a phrase no Ame-
rican out of his teens could use with truth, or whether, as
I think, it is due to some characteristic excitability in the
race, which supplies words at command, I cannot say. The
tact is certain, that though I never heard anything in the
way of American parliamentary oratory which rose to the
height of eloquence, I never heard so much average good
speaking in any English aaambly. .Dicey's .Federal
States,