XVIII. kingdom; and the houses of lord Sandwich and Book sir Hugh Palliser were insulted by the populace, and the demolition of them with difficulty prevented. The ready acquiescence of the board of Admiralty in the appointment of the court-martial on a charge so grossly invidious and unjust, gave the highest disgust to the officers of the navy. A strong memorial was presented to his majesty on the subject by the duke of Bolton, signed by twelve admirals, with the venerable Hawke at their head, stating to his majesty, in strong colors, the ruinous consequences which the precedent now introduced would inevitably bring upon all naval service and discipline. " If," said these gallant defenders of their country, "we had conceived that this board had no legal use of their reason in a point of such delicacy and importance, we should have known on what terms we served; but we never did imagine it possible that we were to receive orders from, and be accountable to, those who by law were reduced to become mere passive instruments to the possible ignorance, malice, or treachery, of any individual who might think fit to disarm his majesty's navy of it's best and highest officers. We conceive it to be disrespectful to the laws of our country, to suppose them capable of such manifest injustice and absurdity." 1778. XVIII. BOOK The only part of admiral Keppel's conduct really culpable appears to have proceeded from 1778. that excess of deference and respect for sir Hugh Palliser, which prevented his adopting those daring and decisive measures the occasion called for in order to improve in the most effectual manner an opportunity of which he had little reason to expect the return. The courage of sir Hugh Palliser had been on many occasions too conspicuous to be questioned; but that principle of envy, so powerful in some minds, could not endure that a man whom he regarded in the light of a rival should acquire such an addition of fame and superiority as must have resulted from a complete and decided victory. The SESSION commenced on the 26th of November, 1778. The speech from the throne was loud in complaint of "the unexampled and unprovoked hostility of the court of France; and regret was expressed that the efforts which had been made for disappointing the malignant designs of the enemy had not been attended with all the success which the justice of the cause, and the vigorous exertions which had been made, seemed to promise." The addresses of both houses, in the usual style of duty and loyalty, were carried by great majorities. But in a short time the attention of parliament was attracted XVIII. 1778. by a motion made by the marquis of Rocking- Book ham, "That an humble address be presented to his majesty, to express the displeasure of the house at the manifesto issued under the seal of the American commissioners on the 3d day of October last; and to acquaint his majesty with the sense of this house, that the said commissioners had no authority whatsoever under the act of parliament, in virtue of which they were appointed to make such declaration; and humbly beseeching that the said manifesto be publickly disavowed by his majesty." The noble mover, in the course of an able and excellent speech, addressed himself to the BISHOPS in a manner peculiarly striking. He observed that "the nature and principle of the war were entirely changed. The right reverend bench, relying on the assurances of ministers, might originally have believed its motives honorable, and its object easily attainable; but the same ministers now declared to all the world, that a totally new system of policy was adopted, America was relinquished, and a new species of war denounced, tending merely and avowedly to revenge, slaughter, and universal destruction. The simple votes of their lordships on this occasion would at once fully express their detestation of the inhuman system in question, and, in con BOOK junction with those of the temporal lords who ✓ entertained the same sentiments, would fully 1778. obviate its effects." After a vehement debate, in which the ministers endeavoured, by refinements of explanation, to palliate what no one dared explicitly to defend, the motion was negatived by a majority of 71 to 37 peers, 31 of whom joined in a protest of uncommon energy and ability. "The public law of nations," said their lordships, "in affirmance of the dictates of nature and the precepts of religion, forbids us to resort to the extremes of war upon our own opinion of their expediency, or in any case to carry on war for the purpose of desolation. We are shocked to see the first law of nature, selfpreservation,' perverted and abused into a principle destructive of all other laws. Those objects of war which cannot be compassed by fair and honorable hostility ought not to be compassed at all. An end that has no means but such as are unlawful is an unlawful end." It is painful to remark, that the name of one bishop only, the venerable Shipley of St. Asaph, is to be found in the long and illustrious train of signatures affixed to this memorable protest; which, if it wanted any other recommendation to notice than its own intrinsic merit, might with pride recount the names of a Rockingham, a XVIII. Camden, an Effingham, a Harcourt, and many BOOK others, inferior neither in wisdom nor in virtue to any which this age or country could boast. Some time after the Christmas recess, Mr. Fox moved a vote of censure upon lord Sandwich, for sending admiral Keppel, with twenty ships of the line only, to a station off the coast of France, thereby hazarding the safety of the kingdom, the Brest fleet consisting at that time of thirty-two ships of the line, besides a great superiority of frigates. Mr. Fox said, if the present motion was carried, he should follow it with another, for the removal of the first lord of the admiralty. This nobleman had deservedly incurred the public resentment and odium by the countenance he had given to the late prosecution of admiral Keppel. Of this he now felt the effect; the motion of censure being negatived, in a very full house, by a majority of 34 voices only. Encouraged by the unaccustomed strength of the minority on this occasion, Mr. Fox in a few days moved, "That the state of the navy, at the breaking out of the present war, was inadequate to the exigencies of the service." This motion he enforced in a speech of singular ability. In the course of the debate, lord Howe declared his resolution to decline all future service so long as the present ministers continued in office. A decisive experience had 1778. |