OWING to some unavoidably new arrangements, which we have been obliged to make in our Ship's Company, and to that delay we too often experience, in the very difficult and delicate task of procuring authentic materials for the Biographical Department of our Chronicle; our memoirs of the public services of naval officers have not been, with the exception of those of Captain E. L. Graham, so full in this Volume, as our readers we trust will find in the next that succeeds it.

Under our Biographical Department will be found a memoir of Admiral Sir Francis Drake, as written by Dr. Johnson, and which, for interest, we believe, cannot be exceeded. From the length of this memoir, we could not complete it in one number, without encroaching upon the other departments of the work, therefore, have continued it occasionally, so as to give the conclusion in our last number of this Volume. Besides the memoir of Admiral Drake, we have given one of the late Austen Forrest, Esq. captain in the Hon East India Company's Marine Service—A sketch of the services of Rear-admiral Richard Incledon Bury, and the one above alluded to of Captain E. L. Graham.

Our constant wish to give as much interest and accuracy to these Memoirs as the time will admit, very frequently, as in the present case, brings on us an appearance of inattention and falling off from our wonted table of fare.