himself to the two commanders in a letter, in which he states that he had been drawn by furprise into a procedure tending to judgment, without knowing it to be fuch; that when he appeared be. fore the court of inquiry, he did not imagine it was for any other purpose than to determine whether he ought to be looked on as a British fubject or an American, in order, on that decifion, to ground the future proceedings; that the counfel he had named had not been found; that he had neglected to fummon any witnefes, and by that means had been deprived of the ability of making a legal defence, which he could eafily have done, founded both in law and fact, if he had imagined the trial he was then upon was to be final. He therefore defires a regular trial; and if that be not granted, he intreats a refpite of the fentence of execution. This application, aided by the folicitations of Governor Bull, and other inhabitants of Charles-Town, procured a refpite of eight-and-forty hours; but with this condition, that if General Green made any application whatfoever in his favour, he fhould that moment be led to execution. On the day appointed, Colonel Haynes was executed.

Such was the state of the fact. The illegality, the barbarity, and the impolicy of the proceeding, were ftrongly and powerfully urged by the Duke of Richmond. He read to the Houfe an extract from a proclamation of General Green's, in which this execution was reprefented as a cruel and unjuftifiable murder, and a fevere retaliation threatened on the perfons

of British officers; and he called on the Houfe to institute an immediate and effectual inquiry, as the only means of fecuring their own officers from the danger which hung over them, and of refcuing the British nation from the opprobrious charges of cruelty and barbarity under which it was labouring, in the opinion of all the ftates of Europe.

It

The Duke concluded with moving an addrefs to his Majefty, that directions might be given for laying before the Houfe the feveral papers therein fpecified, relative to the execution of Col. Haynes, This motion was ftrongly oppofed by Lord Walfingham, Lord Stormont, and the Chancellor. was argued, that his Majefty's minifters having declared that they had received no information whatever relative to the facts alluded to, it was beneath the dignity and gravity of the Houfe to proceed to a folemn inquiry on fuch vague and uncertain furmises as thofe contained in the letters produced by the noble duke; that it was ftill lefs candid and lefs equitable to attempt, on fuch flight grounds, to call in question the characters of brave, deferving, and absent officers.

But allowing the facts as stated to be true, and fully authenticated, to the fatisfaction of the Houfe, it was contended by the two laft-mentioned lords (by the former on the ground of modern practice, and by the latter on that of ancient authority) that Colonel Haynes having been taken in arms after admiffion to his parole, was liable to be hanged up inftanter, without any other form of trial than what was ne

ceffary

ceffary to identify the perfon. The Earl of Huntingdon alfo acquainted the Houfe, that he had authority from Earl Cornwallis to declare, that this had been the practice in feveral inftances under his command in North America.

This doctrine was denied on both grounds with equal confifidence, by the Earls of Shelburne and Effingham. It was afferted by the former, from circumftances within his own recollection, that the practice in the laft war had been totally different. A great degree of ignominy, perhaps a ftricter confinement, was the confequence of fuch an action: the perfons guilty of it were fhunned by gentlemen; but it had never before entered into the mind of a commander to hang them.

In answer to the written authority produced by the learned lord, it was remarked by the Earl of Effingham, that the quotation he had brought from Grotius related to fpies, and not to prifoners who had broken their parole. That this was the cafe could not be difputed, fince Grotius could never have heard of a prifoner on parole; it was a modern civility of a very late date, and even not yet prevailing in all countries. In reply to this obfervation, it was argued by the chancellor, that all the reafoning ufed by the great author he had quoted in the cafe of fpies, applied a fortiori to that of perfons who had broke their parole.

At length the question being put, and the Houfe having di vided, there appeared for the addrefs 25; against it 73.

Feb. 7th.

The Houfe of Commons having refolved itself into a committee to inquire into the mifmanagement of naval affairs, as foon as the papers which had been laid before the Houfe were read by the clerks, Mr. Fox rofe to move a refolution of cenfure, founded on the facts contained in them. This cenfure, he faid, he meant to confine, for reafons he had before stated to the Houfe, to the conduct of the navy in the year 1781; but he should beg leave to ftate to the committee a few inftances of grofs and criminal neglect in the first lord of the admiralty previous to that period, in order to ftrengthen and advance the great purpose of the inveftigation.

In the year 1777, the defigns of the French to aid the revolted colonies became fo very apparent, as to make a speedy rupture with that court almoft inevitable. The preparations carrying on in the ports of France were fufficiently declaratory of their intentions, and ought to have given an immediate alarm to government. But in what manner did the first lord of the admiralty prepare to counteract the defigns of the enemy? In that year almost every frigate we poffeffed was fent to carry on a predatory war on the coafts of America; and in confequence of this meafure, the twodeckers and line-of-battle fhips were employed during the winter in cruizing in the Channel. So pernicious was the refult of these measures, that when Mr. Keppel arrived at Portsmouth the following fpring, to take the com-, mand of the fleet, which he was affured

affured would amount to twentyfix fail of the line, he found only fix ready for fervice. Before the crippled fhips were in a condition to fail, the French had a fleet of twenty-feven fait of the line at fea; and thus an opportunity was loft of crufhing the naval power of France in the infancy of the war.

This plan of cruizing in the winter, and making a vain parade, whilft the enemy were buty in port, equipping for the next campaign, had been the favourite measure of the first lord of the admiralty, and had contributed, more than any thing elfe, to the latenefs of our expeditions, in which we had always been behind hand with the enemy. Our fleets had uniformly been fent after thofe of France, and to the place of their deftination, for the purpofe of contending with them there, inftead of attempting to intercept or attack them at home.

The intelligence of the equip ment of a fquadron at Toulon, under M. d'Estaing, and of its destination for North America, had been received at the admiralty feveral months before that fquadron was ready to fail: yet no attempt was made to difpute its paffage out of the Mediterranean; but Admiral Byron, as ufual, was fent out to follow it to the coaft of America; and the admiralty, equally dilatory in inftructing their officers abroad as they were in fitting out fhips at home, had not apprized Lord Howe of the danger to which he might be expofed, till the month of June, though the defigns of the enemy had been publicly and notoriously known fo early as in February.

The year 1779 prefented a re petition of the plan and mifcon duct of 1778. But what diftinguished it above the former, was the unaccountable neglect of not preventing the junction of the French and Spanish fleets. The inftructions given to Sir Charles Hardy, it was true, were not before the Houfe; the admiralty, for political reafons, as they alleged, had refufed to produce them; but as no attempt was made by that admiral to prevent their junction, he was warranted in concluding that his inftructions contained no fuch orders.

Towards the clofe of that year a powerful fquadron was fitting out at Breft, under the Comte de Guichen, deftined, as was gene rally believed, for the Weft Indies. The moft alarming confequences to our poffeffions in that quarter were to be apprehended from the junction of this force with the fleets under M. d'Estaing and Don Solano; and an univerfal expectation prevailed, that Sir George Rodney, who was at that time ready to fail, would have been difpatched immediately, either to intercept the Breft fquadron in the Bay, or by proceeding, without delay, to the Weft Indies, to prevent its junction with the fleets in that quarter. That this was practicable, had clearly appeared, fince the fingle fhips, which failed at the fame time with him, and proceeded directly to the Weft Indies, arriv ed there before M. de Guichen. Inftead of adopting either of thefe meafures, Admiral Rodney was ordered to convoy the ftorefhips to Gibraltar in his way; in confe quence of which step, he found a

force

force to contend with, on his arrival in the Weft Indies, from which nothing but Providence and the infatuation of the enemy could have faved us. The victory gained over the Spaniards, important as he acknowledged it to be, he contended was merely accidental, and in which the noble earl could not claim the leaft

merit.

In the year 1780, it appeared, indeed, that inftructions had been given to Admiral Geary to prevent the junction of the French and Spanish fleets; but fuch were the active efforts of the first lord of the Admiralty, fuch his eager vigilance and indefatigable attention to the interefts of his country, that the directions to the British commander, that he should keep afunder the naval armaments of France and Spain, did not reach him until they were actually joined.

From the fame criminal negligence, the Chev. de Ternay was permitted to fail unmolefted with his fquadron to North America, when he transported thither those numerous military forces which had fince captured the army of Lord Cornwallis.

It was at this difgraceful period that Captain Moutray, with the valuable and important convoys for the Eaft and Weft Indies, was betrayed (he could not ufe a gentler expreffion) into the hands of the enemy. At least, if the noble earl had been in the pay of the houte of Bourbon, he could · not have acted with greater zeal and ability in their fervice, than he had done in that bufinefs. For at the very moment when he knew that the enemy's fleet was cruizing

off the coaft of Spain, he ordered Capt. Moutray to touch at Madeira; that is, to go in the very track where he was fure of falling in with them.

To thefe, he faid, might be added another inftance of the most aftonishing negligence, a degree of negligence, indeed, that could only be attributed to treachery or infatuation; that from the commencement of the year 1779 to the close of the month of February 1781, the board of admiralty did not ftation even a fingle frigate off Breft harbour, for the purpose of watching and giving notice of the motions of the enemy.

Having brought the hiftory of our naval tranfactions down to 1781, the period to which he fhould particularly call the attention of the committee, Mr. Fox proceeded to ftate five diftinct charges of grofs mifconduct, which he contended, were proved and brought home to the board of admiralty by the papers on the table.

The first was the fuffering M. de Graffe to fail for the Weft Indies, without making a fingle effort to intercept him. It appeared that government had received the minuteft intelligence of the equipment, ftrength, and deftination of the force under that officer; it was equally clear that they knew almost precifely the time when it was to fail. Two circumftances rendered this conduct in the first lord of the admiralty criminal in the highest degree: one was, that the object of the Comte de Gratle's expedition was known to be of the most dangerous nature to this country: the

fuccefs