1778.]

FRENCH FLEET UNDER D'ESTAING-RHODE ISLAND.

391

or acknowledge the Independence of America in direct terms. No reply was given to the explanatory offers of the Commissioners-offers which, if made in the early days of the contest, would have commanded not only willing obedience but fervent gratitude. The Commissioners determined to return to England; but they first took the somewhat dangerous step of addressing a Manifesto to the American people, remonstrating against the decision of the Congress, and holding out the threat that if peace and union were refused, the war would in future be conducted upon different principles. "The policy, as well as the benevolence, of Great Britain, have thus far checked the extremes of war, when they tended to distress a people still considered as our fellow subjects, and to desolate a country shortly to become again a source of mutual advantage; but when that country professes the unnatural design, not only of estranging herself from us, but of mortgaging herself and her resources to our enemies, the whole contest is changed." Upon this plea, it was affirmed that the laws of self-preservation called upon Great Britain, if her colonies were to become an accession to France, "to render that accession of as little avail as possible to her enemy." When this Manifesto was brought before Parliament at the end of the year, there were different opinions as to the meaning to be attached to such a threat; but most men, not wholly subservient to the ministry, agreed with Burke, that "if the war was to be changed, if the lenity, the humanity, the toleration, which had been hitherto observed, was to be foregone,-and we had forebore nothing that the rights of war could authorize,-then the plan now to be prosecuted was different from lenity and toleration, and was different from the laws of war; for war was constantly to be limited by necessity, and its calamities and ravages to be bound in by that plea alone. . . . . The extremes of war, and the desolation of a country, were sweet sounding mutes and liquids, but their meaning was terrible; they meant the killing of man, woman, and child, burning their houses and ravaging their lands, annihilating humanity from the face of the earth, or rendering it so wretched, that death would be preferable." *

The war of Great Britain against France and America at once became a fierce struggle by land and sea. When sir Henry Clinton had marched through Jersey with Washington following him, and a partial battle had been fought on the 28th of June, the British army was at last established at New York, with a large garrison at Rhode Island. A French fleet from Toulon, under the count d'Estaing, had appeared off New York on the 5th of July. It consisted of twelve sail of the line and six frigates, with a large number of troops on board. It was determined to attack the British on Rhode Island, by a combined army of four thousand French and ten thousand Americans. The garrison of five thousand retired within their lines at Newport. The Americans had crossed the narrow strait called the Seaconnet Channel; and d'Estaing was about to land his troops on the west side of the island, when the fleet under lord Howe appeared in sight, and the French admiral put to saa to offer battle, leaving his allies to pursue the siege of Newport alone. The fleets were prevented engaging by a violent storm, by which they were both dismantled. Each went into port to refit; the British

* "Parliamentary Debates." vol. xix. col. 1400.

392

THE CHANNEL FLEET UNDER ADMIRAL KEPPEL.

[1778. to New York, the French to Boston. The abandonment of the Americans by d'Estaing compelled them to relinquish their enterprise upon Rhode Island; and bitter was their indignation against their allies. The French admiral finally sailed to pursue his own plans of attacking the British West Indian Islands, or defending those of France. The island of St. Lucia was taken by the British, and Dominica by the French.

In the House of Commons, on the 5th of May, Thomas Townshend noticed the sailing of the French fleet from Toulon, whilst our fleet was merely exhibited as a pageant at Portsmouth-a "puppet-show," as Walpole terms it. Lord North said the utmost exertions had been made. Though no fleet had sailed, the ministers were not to be accused of incapacity; for the French at all times, by their mode of supply of seamen from their registers, could man a fleet sooner than England. Admiral Keppel, an experienced officer, and highly popular with the navy, had been appointed to the command of the Channel fleet. This appointment was creditable to the ministry, for Keppel was, as a member of Parliament, strongly opposed to their policy. When he first accepted the command he found only six ships of the line fit for service; but before the middle of June the number was increased to twenty. He sailed from St. Helen's on the 17th of June. Two French frigates, reconnoitring, were attacked by his squadron; one of which was captured and the other driven on shore on the coast of France. Amongst the papers of the Lecorne thus captured, he discovered that anchorage was ordered at Brest for an immense fleet, with which he thought his own unable to contend. He sailed back to Portsmouth. The public feeling is expressed

1778.]

COURT MARTIAL ON KEPPEL.

393

in a letter of Gibbon :-" Keppel's return has occasioned infinite and inexpressible consternation, which gradually changed into discontent against him." The Admiralty made great exertions; and Keppel, on the 9th of July, again put to sea with a reinforcement of ten ships. The French fleet, consisting of thirty-two sail of the line, and a considerable number of

frigates, had come out from Brest, under the command of count d'Orvilliers. After four days' manoeuvring, an engagement took place off Ushaut, which had no decisive result. Night was coming on with a heavy squall. Keppel signalled to the second in command, sir Hugh Palliser, to come up to renew the fight; but that admiral was unable to obey the order, from the damage which his ship had sustained. The French admiral got back to Brest, and Keppel sailed to Plymouth. The conduct of the two admirals became the subject of warm debates when the Parliament met in November. Attacks and recriminations were conducted with all the heat of party; Keppel being upon terms of friendship with the leading members of the Opposition; Palliser a supporter of the ministry, and a lord of the Admiralty. Each admiral blamed the other; and, finally, upon charges made by Palliser against Keppel for misconduct and incapacity, a court-martial was ordered. The trial lasted thirty-two days, and ended in a unanimous verdict of the Court, that Keppel had acted with bravery and judgment, and that the charges were illfounded and malicious. This court-martial has been rendered illustrious by a passage of Burke, in which he describes "with what zeal and anxious affection I attended him through that his agony of glory. . . . . If to the eternal disgrace of this nation, and to the total annihilation of every trace of honour and virtue in it, things had taken a different turn from what they did, I should have attended him to the quarter-deck with no less good will, and more pride, than I partook of the general flow of national joy that attended. the justice that was done to his virtue." The popular enthusiasm in

*"Letter to the Duke of Bedford."

BURGOYNE'S DEFENCE IN PARLIAMENT.

favour of Keppel was indeed remarkable. It may be attributed, in part, to
[1778.
a conviction that the government was unequal to the conduct of the war.
The people could not be supposed to feel with Burke that Keppel was "one
of the greatest and best men of his age;
for his acquittal; and his portrait became a favourite sign in town and
but they illuminated and rioted
country. Palliser demanded a court-martial upon himself, and received an
acquittal of a very qualified character.
Keppel, and the proportionate depreciation of Palliser, may suggest the
The extravagant admiration of
opinion that admirals and generals may receive a more impartial judgment
from their contemporaries by withholding their support from extreme parties
in politics.

General Burgoyne returned to England in the spring of 1778, Congress having consented to give him passports, upon the condition that he would go back to America, and abide the fate of the rest of the army, should their embarkation continue to be prevented. He was treated coldly by our government, and refused admission to the royal presence. inquiry into his conduct was refused, upon the ground that he was a prisoner A court of on parole to the Congress. As a member of Parliament, he had an opportunity of vindicating the Convention of Saratoga. The blame that had been attached to him for the employment of Indians in his campaign appears to have wounded him very deeply. He stated that he always believed the Indian alliances to be, at best, a necessary evil. He had declined their offers and solicitations to be employed separately. He had presided at one of the greatest councils with the Indians that had been held at Montreal. It was their custom to offer the pipe of war to the representative of the power they meant to serve. It was pressed upon him by the chiefs present; and it was at his option, by a single whiff of tobacco, to have given flame and commotion to a dozen nations. He had acted in this matter under the instructions of sir

1778.]

DESTRUCTION OF WYOMING.

395

Guy Carleton in 1776; and when he came to England in that year he found the system of restraining the impetuous passions of these people unpopular with those official persons who had adopted the reasoning, in their zeal against the colonists, that partial severity was general mercy. He returned to Canada, determined to be the soldier, not the executioner, of the State. The eloquent invective of Chatham, we thus see, had in view the ministerial directors of the war rather than the commander who succumbed to unavoidable difficulties.

Connected with the subject of the barbarities of the Indians, there is an event of the year 1778, which has been rescued from the possible oblivion of History by the more enduring associations of Poetry. Wyoming, on the Susquehanna, consisting of eight townships, was a new settlement. The soil was fertile; the climate genial; the inhabitants unusually prosperous.

Happy they were not, for a minority amongst them was bitterly opposed to those who resisted the British government. The people were removed from the scene of hostilities; yet the greater number took a deep interest in the contest for independence, and had sent a large proportion of their adult male population to the army of the Congress. The infant settlement was comparatively defenceless; although four forts had been constructed to resist the inroads of the savages. The right to the soil was a disputed point between the States of Connecticut and Pennsylvania; and in the absence of a central control those who were loyalists, or Tories, were exposed to rigorous treat