have defeated the one great object I had in view, the defence of the nation. In that letter I expreffed alfo my hopes of bringing the French fleet to action in the morning.

I had fuch hopes; and my accufer, even in the fecond edition of his log-book, fhews that I was not wholly ungrounded in my expectations, fince he has recorded himself as of the fame opinion. I faid, that I did not interrupt the French fleet that evening in the formation of their line. I fhall thew you by evidence (if it should not have already fully appeared) that I was not able to do it, and that any random firing from me under my circumftances would have been vain against the enemy, and a difgraceful trifling with regard to myself.

You have feen my expreffions, and fuch is their meaning with regard to both the French and Sir Hugh Pallifer, fo far as they applied to the particular times to which they feverally belonged. But there was an intermediate time with regard to both, of which, when I wrote my letter, I gave no account. I intended to conceal it. I do not conceive that a commander in chief is bound to difclose to all Europe, in the midst of a critical service, the real ftate of his fleet, or his opinion of any of his officers.

He is not, under fuch circumftances, bound to accufe a British admiral. To me, fuch an accufation, under almost any circumstances, is a very ferious matter; whilft a poffibility of an excufe for an officer remains in my mind, I am in my difpofition ready to lay hold of it; and I confefs to you,

that until Sir Hugh Pallifer himfelf had brought out to this Court all the particulars, I attributed much more to his misfortune, or mistake, than I now find myfelf authorized to do; nor did I think his conduct half fo exceptionable as he himself has proved it.

After the engagement, he never thought fit to explain to me the reasons of his not bearing down into my wake, to enable me to renew the action, and I did not think fit to enquire into them.

I apprehend that a power of paffing over faults or mistakes in fervice, (into which the very best officers may be furprized) to be fometimes as neceffary, if not to difcipline, yet to the end of all difcipline, the good of the fervice, as any punishment of them can poffibly be and one of the ill effects of this profecution will be, I fear, to terrify a commander in chief out of one of the most valuable parts of his difcretion.

By using the difcretion which I thought was in me, I preferved concord in the fleet, promptitude in the fervice, and dignity to the country. In my opinion, any complaint of fuch a magnitude would have produced infinite mifchiefs.

Nobody can imagine, that in that moment, an accufation of a Vice-admiral, who was befides a Lord of the Admiralty, could be undertaken without a capital detriment to our naval operations, and even to the quiet of the public.

My letter was written folely upon the principles which I have now honeftly and faithfully laid before you, and which I submit to your judgment. If I have been

more

more indulgent than was wife, the public has had the benefit, and all the trouble and inconvenience of my indifcretion has fallen upon myfelf. I never had a more troublesome task of the fort than in penning that letter, and it has ill answered my pains.

If I have not fhewn myfelf able at concealment, it is a fault for which I hope I fhall not lofe much credit with this court martial. I fhall not be very uneafy if I have been thought to have wrote a bad letter, if I fhall be found, as I truft I fhall be found, to have done my duty in fighting the enemy.

The intrufion of my letter into the trial, has made it neceffary for me to explain it. I now proceed with the account of my con. duct.

I got ready for fea again, with my ufual temper and difpofition to accommodate; after this I kept the fea as long as I could. The French fleet carefully avoided my ftation. I could obtain no diftinct intelligence of them, though I omitted no means to procure it.

In confequence of this, their defertion of the feas, their trade fell into the hands of our privateers, to a number and value that I believe was never equalled in the fame fpace of time. His Majefty was pleafed to fpeak of it in his fpeech from the throne, and to attribute it to the good conduct of fome of his officers.

When I confidered this; when I confidered the direct approbation of my conduct, and the circumftances which attended my appointment, it was with difficulty I perfuaded myfelf that I was awake, when I found that I was

treated as a criminal, and ordered, without the leaft ceremony, or previous enquiry, to be tried by a court martial, on the accufation of my officer, my old friend, one over whofe faults I had fo lately caft a veil; the very perfon who was a meffenger and congratulator of my original appointment. I acknowledge it was for fome time before I could fufficiently mafter my indignation, and compofe myfelf to that equality of temper with which I came hither, and with which I have heard fuch fhocking and reproachful matter and words read to my face, in the place of fupport I was made to look for. I feel very much inward peace at prefent; and the event I confider with much less concern for myself, than for the fervice. Your judgment, I am fully perfuaded, will be wife and well weighed, and fuch as will be of credit to yourfelves, and of advantage and encouragement to that part of the military which is moft interesting to this kingdom. On my part, I truft I fhall intitle myfelf not only to an acquital, but to an honourable reparation at your hands, for the malicious calumnies contained in the charge against me.

Thus much I have faid as to the general matter which has arifen on the trial, and the circumftances by which that trial has been brought on, as well as to the mo tives and principles which regulated the discretion that I conceive was in me. If these motives were probable, and likely to be real, I cannot be guilty of the criminal negligence and want of knowledge in my profeflion, with which I ftand charged. As to the charges themselves,

armies, is often obliged, both in duty and confcience, to exercife to the beft of his judgment, and which depending on circumstances and fituations infinitely various, cannot be reduced to any pofitive rule of difcipline or practice; a difcretion which I will fubmit to the Court, I was particularly called upon by the ftrongest and beft motives to exercife, and which, in my public letter to the Board of Admiralty, I openly avowed to have exercised. I admit, that on the morning of the 27th of July, I did not put my fleet into a line of battle, becaufe I had it not in my choice to do fo, confiftent with the certainty, or even the probability of either giving, or being given battle; and becaufe, if I had fcrupulously adhered to that order, in which, if the election had been mine, I fhould have chofen to have received, or attacked a willing enemy, I fhould have had no enemy either to receive or to attack.

I fhall therefore, in answer to this charge, fubmit to the Court my reafons for determining to bring the French fleet to battle at all events; and fhall fhew, that any other order than that in which my fleet was conducted, from my first feeing them, to the moment of the action, was incompatible with fuch determination.

And in order to this, I muft call the attention of the Court to a retrospective view of the motions of the two fleets, from their firft coming in fight of each other.

On my firft difcovering the French fleet at one o'clock in the afternoon of the 23d of July, I made the neceffary fignals for forming my fleet in the order

of battle, which I effected towards the evening, when I brought to, by fignal, and lay till the morning, when perceiving that the French fleet had gained the wind during the night, and carried a preffed fail to preferve it, I difcontinued the fignal for the line, and made the general fignal to chace to windward, in hopes that they would join battle with me, rather than fuffer two of their capital fhips to be entirely feparated from them, and give me the chance of cutting off a third, which had carried away a topmaft in the night, and which but for a fhift of wind I must have taken. In this, however, I was disappointed, for they fuffered two of them to go off altogether, and continued to make every use of the advantage of the wind.

This affiduous endeavour of the French admiral to avoid coming to action, which, from his thus having the wind, was always in his option, led me to believe he expected a reinforcement; a reflection which would alone have been fufficient to determine me to urge my purfuit in as collected a body as the nature of fuch a purfuit would admit of, without the delay of the line, and to feize the first opportunity of bringing on an engagement.

But I had other reasons no less urgent.

If by obftinately adhering to the line of battle, I had fuffered, as I inevitably muft, the French fleet to have feparated from me; and if by fuch feparation the English convoys from the Eaft and WeftIndies, which I have already stated in the introduction to my defence to have been then expected home, had

been