The Croker papers ed by LJ Jennings Author:John Wilson Croker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 1780-1809.] MX. CnOEER AT THE ADMIRALTY. 19 You certainly have a lien upon Horace in respect of ship's licences, and so had some Secretary in the days of Augu... more »stus, if we may judge from the following ode:— " 0 navis, referent in mare te novi Fluctus. 0 quid agis ? fortiter occupa Portum." If I am late in the offer of congratulations upon your appointment, you will not on that account doubt the sincerity. I should long since have paid them personally but was prevented by considering that you must be too much occupied at the office to receive any visits other than those of business. There is a book published (which I will send for your perusal to-morrow) containing a history of the late memorable row at Co vent Garden Theatre, with the fugitive rhymes that have been written on that event. Of the latter, the pieces signed " H " arc my brother's, and those signed " I," with the addition of " Heigho, says Kemble," proceed from the pen of Dear Croker, Yours most sincerely, James Smith. Mr. Croker retained this post until 1830, and it has always been admit(d that the Board of Admiralty never had a more efficient, zealous, and industrious Secretary. He once wrote to Thomas Moore (October 26th, 1811), inviting him to call at his office, saying, " I should be glad to see you whenever you happen to pass my way. I am almost always to be found at my desk." This was literally true. He was very seldom absent from his duties, except during the time of his annual holiday. " For two and twenty years," he wrote to Mr. Murray, in 1838, " I never quitted that office-room without a kind of uneasiness, like a truant boy; and this feeling still clings to me." A recent First Lord of the Admiralty has said that all which is best and most business like in the department was the le...« less