Although it may, unfortunately, be considered improper by some, in the present state of modern opinions, to attribute heroism and nobleness of character as the sole and inseparable appendages to illustrious Ancestry, and that the latter is the only certain fountain from which the former can flow; yet it is to be hoped, that the laudable superstition, if it be one, is not even at the present moment so completely eradicated, as to deny the lesser, and certainly modest point, that the example of the Ancestor possesses no mean influence over the conduct of the Descendant.

It will not perhaps be thought impertinent in us to have urged this point, when it is stated, that Captain Suckling, the Subject of the present Memoir, was the maternal Uncle of the Lord Viscount Nelson, a name, which most indubitably must ever stand revered by every lover of his native Country, and by every honest Briton, till the record of great and glorious deeds shall fee no more.