lords of the oppofition. The induftry, patience, and conftancy, with which he applied himself to to complicated and laborious a bufinefs, encumbered with frequent and tiresome calculation, and with tedious comparative eftimates, at a time when he was finking under the preffure of various infirmities, and a victim to the most excruciating difeafes, could not but excite admiration; and indeed, however right, or otherwife, his opinions might have been founded, afforded no fmall indication, that, in a season and fituation which feemed fo effectually to fhut out all perfonal confiderations, his conduct must have proceeded from the most difinterested and genuine patriotism.

Although the noble earl had on the first day of the feffion given fome intimation of his defign; yet his fubfequent ftate of health was fo deplorable, that, on the 19th of February, the Duke of Richmond was obliged to make the motions, in his name and behalf, for the bringing forward of thofe papers which were immediately neceffary to the enquiry. The demand of papers, tending, it was faid, to expofe the ftate of the navy, and without the knowledge of any important purpose or object in view for the juftification of fuch a meafure, being ftrongly oppofed by the court lords, the noble duke was brought to an explanation and avowal, that the abfent Earl in tended thofe papers, along with other materials, for laying the four dations of a public enquiry into naval affairs, and a comparifon of the prefent ftate of the navy, with that in which it had devolved from Lord Hawke, to the truft and government of the prefent firft lord

4

of the admiralty; and thereon to ground charge of malverfation against that nobleman; with a view more particularly of opening the eyes of a great perfonage, and that he might not continue the only man in the nation, who was unacquainted with the deplorable ftate of his navy.

It was, however, the 24th of March, before the Earl of Bristol was able to attend in perfon, and he was then fo feeble and broken down, as to depend only on his crutches for fupport while he was fpeaking. His fpeech did not seem the lefs vehement for his weaknefs.

He affirmed, and faid he would prove, that the conduct of the noble lord at the head of the navy, with refpect to the great truft repofed in him, was highly criminal; and fuch as called aloud for the fullest cenfure of that House, and for the utmost indignation of the people. After defcribing, what appeared immediately to himfelf, as molt particularly ruinous and calamitous, in the conduct and state of naval affairs, he drew one confelation, he faid, from the ineffectiveness of the attempts made by the marine minifter, upon the character, life, and honour, of Admiral Keppel; and from the failure of thofe machiavelian arts (which, he said, he had so fuccefsfully employed on other occafions) when their object was to create an improper and corrupt influence among the British feamen. That noble lord, he faid, had now found by experience, that no pro. mifes could allure, nor threats prevent them, from a performance of their duty, and the preferva tion of their honour. Having

been

been called to order for the terms machiavelian arts, he repeated them, and faid he would prove them at a proper time. His intended motions were taken up with that view, and he meant to direct them folely to the criminal conviction of the first lord of the admiralty; he therefore gave this early notice, that the Houfe might be prepared, as well as the noble earl, on the 16th of April; he then moved, that the lords might be fummoned for that day, when he would enter fully, he faid, into the proof and inveftigation of thofe facts, which had induced him to inftitute the enquiry.

Thus was the gauntlet thrown down, the day appointed, and the lifts prepared, for the decifion of this conteft. The noble lord at the head of the admiralty, juftified his conduct with respect to Admiral Keppel, upon the fame ground which we have already feen taken upon that fubject. And being furprized into fome warmth, as well by other attacks, as by what we have ftated, he declared that he was afraid of no man living: That his intentions were upright, his heart was honeft, and he had no dread that they would not bear him out against every attack which might be made upon him by his enemies."

Several motions being made on the 30th of March, by the Earl of Bristol, for a great number of additional accounts, naval lifts, and other papers, neceffary to the fupport of the enquiry, they were trongly oppofed by the noble lord at the head of the navy, upon the old ground, that fuch communication would be exceedingly improper, and highly dangerous at

prefent, as affording means of information to the enemy, which they could not otherwife poffibly acquire. Although the validity of this objection was not acknowledged on the other fide, the noble mover offered to modify or contract his motions in any manner that might be thought neceffary for preventing the fuppofed ef fects. He wished, at the fame time, to imprefs one truth important to his purpofe on their lordfhips minds, which he vouched for, that there was not a fingle iota of the matter which his motions were intended to draw forth, with which the French cabinet was not already perfectly acquainted; and, upon the ground of precedent, that they were literally copied from fimilar motions made and agreed to in the year 1759, in the very height of the late war, and when an invafion was directly threatened from France. Nothing he could fay being, however, deemed fatisfactory, and no qualification to the total refufal of the papers admitted, much debate arofe, and the former feverity of cenfure was not only renewed, but it had now, by a fupply of fresh matter, acquired additional strength and sharpness.

This proceeded from the recent appointment of a commander to the grand fleet, which was defined for the home defence. They said, that the immediate confequences which had already appeared, of thofe manoeuvres of the admiralty, by which they had driven Admiral Keppel, Lord Howe, Sir Robert Harland, and other diftinguifhed officers, from the fervice and defence of their country, were in the highest degree alarming and un

happy

happy to the nation. Through the lofs of thefe great officers, the admiralty were now under a neceflity, of dragging forth Sir Charles Hardy from his intended final retreat, and from that repofe, fuited to his time of life, which had been affigned to him in the government of Greenwich hofpital; and after an abfence of twenty years from the fea, and having neceffarily laid by every idea of a profeffion, to which he did not even dream of ever returning, is compelled, at an age, likewife unfit for active fervice, to undertake a talk of the most arduous and difficult nature, and which may probably require the greatest activity and exertion, which were ever yet difplayed by a British feaman. They defired it might be understood, that they did not mean the smallest imputation to the character of that gentleman, nor the most remote infinuation to his difadvantage; their obfervations were confined merely to his particular circumftances and fituation. But it was, they said, a matter of the most alarming nature, to fee perhaps the fate of England, committed to the hands of a fuperannuated, and it might be faid, a rufticated officer; who must confider the appointment rather as an injury than a favour; and was befides confcious, that he was merely an object of neceffity, and not of choice, even with his employers. And this flate of things was rendered fill more grievous and deplorable, by feeing, at the fame inftant, fome of the greatest names and characters, that had ever graced the British navy, or exalted its renown, profcribed from the fervice of their country,

through the rancour and malignity, if not the treachery, of, the admiralty.

Lord Bristol's motions were rejected, on a divifion, by a majority of just two to one, the numbers being 60 to 30. The lords had been fummo ed on that day, on a motion of the Duke of Manchefter's; which was likewise for naval papers, but not relative to the prefent enquiry; it being intended to convey cenfure or criminality against the minifters in the other Houfe, on a charge of fingular neglect. It was afferted, and we believe has not been difproved, that in fome time after orders were dispatched from hence for the evacuation of Philadelphia, a fleet of victuallers had been fuffered to depart from Ireland for that place, in total ignorance of the defign of the minifters, and having accordingly entered the Delaware, efcaped narrowly, and by mere accident, from falling into the hands of the enemy. The motion was for the papers necessary to an enquiry into this tranfaction. As this could not be oppofed upon any fuppofition of danger, from the affording of intelligence to the enemy, the motion was objected to for its generality, in not being applied to the fpecific papers and dates which were wanted; and alfo, that it was totally unneceffary, as no ill confequence whatever had arifen from the fact, even fuppofing it to be exactly as had been reprefented. This motion was likewife rejected, by a majority of 40 to 28.

The appointment for the Lords to attend on the naval difcuffion, having been changed from the 16th to the 23d of April, the

Earl

Earl of Bristol introduced and fupported his motion, with an extraordinary degree of ability and profeffional knowledge. The information brought out was various, and feems to have been collected with accuracy. He informed the Lords, that he had every one of the papers which they had refufed to him then in his hands, but that as he conceived from that refufal, that they were of opinion there would be fome impropriety in expofing them to public view, however contrary that was to his own knowledge, and however necefiary they might be towards the accomplishment of the great national purpose which he was purfuing, he would, notwithstanding, upon that account, refrain from bringing them forward. He farther profeffed, that in regard to the unhappy circumstances of our fitua. tion, and neceffity of the time, he would himfelf throw a veil over all thofe parts, the expofure of which could poffibly afford any useful information to the enemy.

He obferved, at the clofe of his fpeech, that there were various parliamentary methods of removing any minifter; and all of which, excepting one, tended to punish as well as to remove; as, a bill of impeachment, a bill of attainder, a bill of pains and penalties; all thefe went to punish as well as to remove; but that of addreffing the King to remove from his Majesty's councils and prefence for ever, tends only to remove the evil, without inflicting any real punishment on the offender. He had, however, chofen a milder method than any of thofe, in hopes of the concurrence in general of the Lords; and that many of thofe

who had formerly concurred in fupporting thofe meatures, which had fo notoriously brought the navy, and confequently the nation, into their prefent fituation, being now convinced of their pernicious tendency, and how much they had been deceived by artful mifreprefentation, would condemn thofe very meafures, which they had then been feduced to approve.

He accordingly moved, "That "an humble addrefs be prefented "to his Majefty, that he will be "graciously pleased to remove the

Right Honourable John Earl of "Sandwich, firft commiffioner for "executing the office of lord high "admiral of Great Britain, &c. and one of his Majesty's most "honourable privy council, from "the faid office of the first lord "commiffioner of the admiralty."

We have had fo much occafion, for fome time paft, to state matter of charge and defence, as they were laid or fuftained in botn Houfes, with refpect to the state of the navy, and the conduct of the admiralty, that it will not be fuppofed that much new ground relative to the fubject could now be opened. The curious naval lifts, calculations, and comparative estimates itated by the Earl of Bristol, are not properly within our province. The great point of charge, principally laboured by the Earl of Brittol, and to which all the others were far fubordinate, was to the following purport, viz. That about feven millions more money had been allotted for the fupport and increafe of our navy during the last feven years, than in any former period; and that, during that time, the decreate and decline of the navy, had been in

an