The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-25 00:00:00

THE LATE LORD LYONS.

A good Englishman and a brilliant seaman now
lies still in death at Arundel Castle. Lord Lyons
died there, after a short illness, yesterday. It was
but the other day, after his return from the Medi-
terranean,:that he was summoned to command the
squadron of honour which escorted her Majesty to
Cherbourg. It was fit that the most illustrious
admiral in the service should be selected for this
duty—the last of a public nature which he was to
fulfil. It was impossible even to look at Lord
Lyons without being interested in him—he was so
like Nelson, the hero whom more than all others
we regard with a sort of personal attachment. He
had the same features, the same "complexion, the
same profusion of grey inclining to white hair, the
same eager and half melancholy 'look. No one
could see him without being struck with this re-
semblance. Not only in appearance, but also in
reality there was something of Nelson in Lord
Lyons. He had the same devotion to his pro-
fession ; he had the same activity in duty ; he
had the same free and frank bearing ; he had
the same art of winning the affection of asso-
ciates and subordinates alike ; he inspired a
similar confidence in all with whom he came
in contact. If we say that he had not the in-
fallible genius of our greatest naval hero, it is but
fair to add that he had not the opportunities which
Nelson enjoyed of exhibiting the highest qualities of
a commander, that he was always equal to the oc-
casion, that his services in the Black Sea were not
onlygreat—they were much greater than the public
generally suppose, and entitled him alone of all the
chiefs in the late war to the honours of a peerage.
Lord Lyons had but just completed his 68th year
when he died. He was born on the 21st November,
1790, at 'White Hayes, Burton, near Christchurch,
Hants, from which place he took his title—Baron
Lyons, of Christchurch. He was the second son of
John Lyons, Esq., of Lyons, in Antigua, and of St.
Austen's-house' Lymington, Hants, whose family
seems to have been connected for some time with
Antigua, and previously with the county of Cork.
Young Edmund was sent at a very early age to
Hyde Abbey School, near Winchester, then under
the care of Dr. Richards. Canning and Gaisford
had been there before him, and Wolfe, the author
of the well-known lines on the burial of Sir
John Moore, was there after him. But probably
Edmund Lyons derived but little from this school
education, since he entered the Navy as a volun-
teer of the first class in June, 1801, when he was
but ten and a-half years old. These were the days
of Nelson and glory, when the British Navy could
boast of more than 800 vessels, when the ships of
the line were more than 200 in number, when our
flag was to be found on every sea, and when we
were more than a match for the combined navies
of all the world. The little middy of 11 was first
sent on board the Royal Charlotte yacht, from
which he was transferred in the following year to i
the Maidstone frigate, and then again to the Active,
38. After seeing some service in the Mediterranean,
accompanying Sir John Duckworth's expedition to
the Dardanelles, and assisting at the demolition of
the redoubt on Point Pesquies, Lyons returned to
England in 1807. In the meantime the battle of
Trafalgar had been fought, Britain was now with-
out a rival on the sea, and there was little left for
our sailors to do but to blockade and make prizes
There were some things to be done, however, that
required vigour, if not genius, and that would
bring promotion, if not glory. Towards the end
of 1807, therefore, being then barely 17, we find
Edmund Lyons on board the Monmouth, 64, on
his way to the East Indies, where he remained for
the next five years, and where he attained the rank
of lieutenant. In the Indian seas he gained con-
siderable distinction. When the island of Banda
Neira was taken, in 1810, he obtained honourable
mention as among the first to scale the castle of
Belgica ; and it was for his share in this exploit
that he was immediately afterwards appointed flag
lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Drury. But his most
important service was the storming of Fort Mar-
rack. An expedition had been planned for the
conquest of Java, and Mr. Lyons had, while
the preparations for this event were as yet incom-
plete, being appointed to a station in the Sunda
Strait, where he was to cruise and procure all the
information he could regarding the position and
force of the enemy. It was while thus engaged
that, with characteristic ardour, he attacked at
night, with not more than 35 men, Fort Marrack,
defended, as it was, by 54 guns, by 800 soldiers,
and by the crews of two boats. lie took it with
scarcely any loss, and obtained from his captain,
who had not counted on such a brilliant success,
the declaration that his conduct was beyond all
comment. His reward followed when shortly after-
wards he returned home in ill-health. He was
promoted to the command of the Rinaldo, 10, in
which vessel he formed one of the squadron which
escorted Louis XVIII. to France, and the Allied
Sovereigns to England.
Although he obtained post rank in 1814, the ces-
sation of the war deprived him of active employ-
ment until 1828, when he received the command of
the Blonde, 46, in which he assisted at the blockade
of Navarino, and superintended the naval expedi-
tion sent to co-operate with the French in the re-
duction of the Castle of Morea, the last remnant of
the Ottoman power in the Peloponnesus. This
appears to have been the only important service
which he rendered in those days. Afterwards we
find him cruising about the Mediterranean, now
conveying an ambassador from one port to another,
now conaucting a Xing to Greece, and on one cele-
brated occasion entering the Black Sea in the first
British man-of-war that had ever passed the Bos-
phorus, and actually visiting the scene of his future
labours—Sebastopol. In 1835 his ship was paid off,
and Captain Lyons, who had in the meantime re-
ceived the honour of knighthood, and the insignia
of several Orders, exchanged the naval for the
diplomatic profession. He was appointed Minister
Plenipotentiary at the Court of Athens, which post
he filled from 1835:until 1849. In 1849 he was
appointed British Minister to the Swiss Confedera-
tion—a position which he occupied until 1851, when
he was sent to Stockholm in a similar capacity.
There he remained until in November, 1853, war
being then imminent, he was appointed second in
command of the Mediterranean fleet. Upon the
duties of this command he entered with the experi-
enee of a diplomatist who had enjoyed large oppor-
tunities of studying the Greek and Turkish ques-
tions, as well as that of a sailor who was perfectly
acquainted with the seas in which he was to act,
and he had also received in the insignia of the
Order of St. Louis of France an acknowledgment
of the cordiality with which ho had co-operated
with our French allies.

If at first only second in comihand, Sir Edmund
Lyons was from the first the ruling spirit of the
British fleet, and to him we owe, in an incalculable
degree, the success which attended our arms on
the shores of the Euxine. He it was who organized
and conducted the expedition to the Crimea, pre-
pared the means of landing, and superintended
all so closely that, "in his eagerness, he left but
six inches between the keel of his noble ship and the
ground below it." Not only in this matter of
the transport of the troops, but also in every sub-
sequent stage of the expedition, Sir Edmund Lyons
gave the most valuable assistance to Lord Raglan
and his successors. How at the battle of the Alma
he supported the French army by bringing the guns
of his ship to bear on the left flank of the Russians,
and what a conspicuous part he took with the
Agamemnon on the first bombardment of Sebas-
topol, are incidents fresh in the recollection of all.
But he . had more to do in the way of advice
and of encouragement than the public ever heard
of. Day after day he might have been seen on his
grey pony hovering about the English lines.on the
vpeneryeesdoturat soldiersl nk e r mtaon
t. h
eI tcwr was
Crimea
hu
es
lava and he 'cvfoa'rnsom
being compelled to leave it—.
heights of Sebastopol; he was present at Balak-
lava
thatsaved having
them
baffled, if not vanquished. A day or two after the
battle of Balaklava Sir Edmund Lyons, on landing,
learnt to his astonishment that orders had been
issued to the Naval Brigade to embark as many
guns as possible during the day, for Balaklava was
to be evacuated at night,—ofcourse, surrendering
to the enemy the greater portion of the guns. On
his own responsibility the Admiral at once put a
stop to the execution of thist order, and went in
search of Lord Raglan, who, appears, had come to
the resolution of abandoning Balaklava in conse-
quence of the opinion expressed by th
that after the loss of the redoubts inou:g
rear,en lately
s
held by the Turks, we ought to concentrate our
strength on the plateau. Taking Lord Raglan aside,
Sir Edmund Lyons strongly spposed these views ;
lie pointed out the advanced position in the valley
in the front of which these redoubts were situated
had been originally occupied, in accordance with
the advice of those very officers, and in opposition
to that of Sir Edmund, who had suggested at the
time that they were covering too much ; he argued
that, as the engineers had been mistaken once, they
might be wrong again ; and he clinched his argu-
ment by saying that, whatever might be the value
of his opinion in such a case, he was, at all events,
entitled to pronounce an opinion as the ill§Uf-: