as commander of one of these sloops. It is inferred that this promotion was made through Vernon's interest, with whom it appears that he was a favourite, by his being selected to carry up a loyal address from the fleet under that admiral's orders.

Howe's name is first publicly mentioned in the account of the siege of Fort William. It occurs in the military journal thus:

"Tuesday, 18th March. The Baltimore, Captain Richard Howe, went up towards Killmady Barns, in order to protect the landing of our men. They fired several shot and threw some cohorn shells, and set one hovel on fire, but could not attempt landing; for the rebels were entrenched by a hollow road or rill, and in great numbers. The Baltimore's guns, being only four-pounders, had no effect on the stone-walls of these barns, which the rebels had before loop-holed. We brought our people back without any damage. Soon afterwards he joined the Greyhound frigate, Captain Noel, and was severely wounded in the head, in an action with two large French ships, in a place called Loch Nony, in Mordant.'

fame or fortune, 'yet, while the pendant is over head, there is always an opportunity of acquiring knowledge in the profession, and also of being in the way of anything that may turn up.' In 1751 he obtained a commission for the Glory of 44 guns, and was sent to run down the coast of Africa, visit the settlements there, for the support of which, Parliament had that year granted 10,000l., and to protect the traders. The merchants of Cape Coast Castle complained of wrongs from General Van Voorst, the Dutch Governor of Elmina. Howe anchored close under the Dutch fortress, and demanded immediate satisfaction for the injury done to the English merchants, and the restitution also of some free negroes who had been put in prison. Van Voorst hesitated to comply, but Howe gave him distinctly to understand, that although the two nations were at peace, he felt himself authorized to prevent any communication of Dutch ships with the fort till the demands should be complied with. This was holding the right tone, redress was accordingly obPrevious to this action, he found on his arrival in tained, and all differences adjusted. On his return England that he had been made captain, and appointed home at the close of the year, he was appointed to the to the Triton, with orders to receive treasure at Lisbon honorary command of the Mary yacht, which he soon and bring it to England; meeting, however, in the left, on being commissioned to the Dolphin frigate, for Tagus with the Rippon, destined for the coast of he was desirous of more active employment. In this Guinea, whose captain, Holborne, was unwell, they frigate he was employed about two years in protecting agreed to exchange ships. This being approved, the trade in the Straits of Gibraltar, and along the Howe received his commission for the Rippon in Sep-coasts of France, Spain, and Barbary, in the Meditertember, 1747, ran down the coast as was then usual, and proceeded to cross the Atlantic for the Leeward Islands. Rear Admiral Knowles was then commanding a squadron on the Jamaica station: as soon as he heard that Howe was at Barbadoes, he wrote to the Admiralty thus:—'If their lordships would indulge me with Captain Howe's coming from the Leeward Islands, down here, as he is a pupil of my own, and equally desirous of being with me, I shall esteem it a favour.' Permission was granted, and he arrived at Jamaica just too late for the action with the Spanish fleet off the Havana, on the 2nd of October, 1748, In that action, the Cornwall, bearing the admiral's flag, suffered so much that it was thought expedient to send her home in the spring. Howe was appointed her captain, and returned to England in her, intelligence having arrived that the peace of Aix la Chapelle had been signed.

'The calm and tranquil life,' says Sir John Barrow, "which a sailor is generally compelled to live on shore, compared with his active and unremitting employment afloat, ill accords with that constant wear and tear both of body and mind, which the command and the various duties of a ship of war require, to say nothing of the anxious and ardent desire of distinction with which every lover of his profession is embued.' Howe seems to have felt the languor arising from inactivity, and the peace offered but little prospect of acquiring either

ranean.

Hitherto Howe had been employed in the ordinary course of service, and no opportunity had occurred for distinguishing himself, though that service had sometimes been sufficiently severe.

'He had the good fortune, however, to reach the highest step of rank, short of a flag officer, about the twentieth year of his age, and the sixth of his servitude. But such rapid advancement does not appear, in his either from party or family connexions; in those days case, to have been the result of any undue influence, such early promotion was not unusual, and numerous instances might be quoted, even of a much later date, of youths having risen to the rank of captain at the age of fifteen or sixteen. That abuse, for such it certanly progress can by possibility be made in our days. A was, has long ceased to exist, and no such untimely youth, who now enters the naval profession, must serve six years in one or more of his Majesty's ships, and must have completed his nineteenth year of age, before render him eligible for the commission of lieutenant; he can be examined even, as to his qualifications to he must serve two years more in a sea-going ship, to qualify for the commission of commander; and one year, for that of captain. So that the very earliest period, supposing not a day to be lost, at which a naval officer can now arrive at the rank of captain, is, when he has completed the age of twenty-two; and he may deem himself fortunate, if he acquires that rank by the time he is thirty; many indeed are they who never attain it at all.'*-pp. 19, 20.

*Such is the effect of the long list of captains, amount

Returning to England in 1754, he was not long un- designed from General Wall, an Irish officer and employed. The French were preparing a powerful statesman in the service of Spain, who had been amarmament; and it was not doubted that their prepara-bassador for Spain in England, and having a clear tions were designed for supporting and extending their view of the interests of his adopted country, was opencroachments upon the British possessions in Ameri- posed to the French party in her councils. The Duc ca. The French then entertained as little doubt of de Mirepoix began to suspect that he had not been outwitting the English in diplomacy, as our soldiers fairly dealt with by his own government; and when and sailors have learned to feel of beating them in bat- the English ministry produced proofs of that insintle. Lord Albemarle, our ambassador at Paris, died | cerity and doubledealing in which he had been made suddenly about this time. Horace Walpole says his to bear a part, he went to France, and upbraided the mistress had sold him to the French court. The se- cabinet of Versailles for having employed him as their crets of any statesman, however honourably he may tool. They referred him to the king, and the king, act according to his own sense of honour, may be pre- pursuing the consistent system of Gallic perfidy, sent sumed to be for sale, if he is under the influence either him back to London, with fresh assurances of the of a mistress or of a father-confessor. The old de- most pacific intentions. But dissimulation could be bauchée is likely to be cajoled by one, the devotee by carried no further now. And M. de Mirepoix had the other. Horace Walpole's opinion is worth more scarcely obtained an audience to deliver the false prothan his testimony, for no man was ever more delibe- fessions with which he had anew been charged, when rately a libeller; but what he asserts in this case was certain intelligence arrived that the French armament generally believed at Paris. In the 'Mémoires Secrets,' was ready to sail. published in continuation of Bachaumont's Journal, (a) Immediately a squadron was equipped under Admicompilation equally disgraceful to the compiler and to ral Boscawen. The equipment was carried on with the public for which he catered,) it is said, on occa- such despatch, that a French 74, which had been sion of the Comte d'Herouville's death, in 1782, that taken in the preceding war, was cleaned and sheathed he had been talked of for the ministry under Louis at Portsmouth in eight hours and three quarters, by XV., and would probably have attained it had it not torch and candle-light. He sailed in April, 1755, from been for son mariage trop inégal. Il avoit épousé la Plymouth with eleven sail of the line, and one frigate, fameuse Lolette, maîtresse du Comte d'Albemarle, l'Am- and with two regiments on board. No secret was bassadeur d'Angleterre; laquelle servait d'espion au made that they had orders to attack the French ships ministère de France auprès de son amant, et a touché wherever they should find them. Upon this the Duc en conséquence jusqu'à sa mort une pension de la cour de Mirepoix declared that his master would consider de 12,000 livres. But if the French court purchased, the first gun fired at sea in a hostile manner as a deas he reports, and, as is sufficiently probable, the in-claration of war. A threat like this was not required structions of our ambassador, they could have learned for rousing the spirit of the nation. Not only was the from them nothing to facilitate their own schemes of aggression-nothing but what they knew before; for the policy of England, defective as it might be on other points, had this great and paramount advantage, that it was open, honest, and straightforward.

The king's message, declaring that it was necessary to augment the forces by sea and land, was received with true English feeling, both by the Parliament and by the nation. A million was granted to be raised by lottery, and so eager were the people to lend their money to the government, that instead of one million, 3,880,000l. were immediately subscribed. The French continued to declare, even to M. de Mirepoix, their minister here, that no hostility was intended, nor even the slightest infringement of the treaty. But the preparations at Brest, Rochefort, and other ports, could not be kept secret; they were too notorious for this to be attempted, and the English government received certain information of the objects for which they were

ing in 1837 to about 760, instead of 284, the number in 1750; and of admirals in the former year, 136, in the place of 181 in the latter.

VOL. XXXIV.-SEPTEMBER, 1838.

4

press for seamen carried on in all parts of Great Britain, and of Ireland also, with extraordinary vigilance, but in aid of the King's bounty, bounties were offered by almost all the considerable towns in England to those who would voluntarily enlist either as sailors or soldiers. Boscawen was reinforced with six sail of the line and a frigate, under Admiral Holbourne. In this fleet Captain Howe had the command of the Dunkirk. The French fleet under Admiral Bois de la Motte had put to sea unperceived, but Boscawen reached the banks of Newfoundland before them, and took a position off Cape Race, the southernmost point of that island, as the most likely place to hear of or intercept them, not doubting that their destination was the St. Lawrence. The French admiral is supposed to have learned Boscawen's position; he divided his squadron into two parts; one passed through the Straits of Belleisle, a most dangerous navigation, which was never known to have been attempted before by ships of the line; the other gained the St. Lawrence by the usual passage round Newfoundland, and escaped the British fleet, owing to the fogs that prevail there and more

solente nation. But the insults of the French had unwisely outstripped their increasing power.'

Thus commenced the seven years' war,--contrary to the expectation of France, and not less contrary, it was said, to that of some of our ministry. Yet the French government knew that its measures must provoke hostilities, and the English, that if its orders were properly obeyed, they must be brought on. That the French intended war at their own time was certain. Their attempts in America 'were daily more open, more avowed, more alarming; indeed, extended to

especially in the spring. In one of those fogs the to say, Je ne pardonnerai pas les pirateries de cette inBritish ships had been dispersed, and when it cleared away, the Dunkirk and Defiance found themselves not only separated from their own squadron, but very near two of the French ships, the Alcide and the Lys. The British were of 60 guns each; the Alcide was of 64, and 480 men; the Lys was pierced for the same number of guns, but being armed en flute, mounted only 22, and had eight companies of soldiers on board. There had been no declaration of war on either side; Howe, therefore, had a critical part to perform, but his good sense and English spirit led him at once to the right course. Under a press of sail he came along-nothing less than by erecting a chain of garrisons side the sternmost ship, which was the Alcide, hailed the captain in the usual manner, and requested he would proceeed with him to the British admiral, who was then in sight at the distance of about six miles. M. Hocquart, the captain, asked in reply whether it was peace or war? Howe repeated his request that he would accompany him to the admiral, so to prevent any order that he might otherwise receive by signal, to fire into him for not having brought to when pursued, which signal he should be bound to obey. During this parley the signal was actually thrown out from the flag-ship to engage.

The log of the Dunkirk, in the usual laconic style, thus relates the action: 'Being got up with the sternmost, the Alcide of 64 guns, a little before noon, and the captain refusing to shorten sail, engaged with (the signal having been made by the vice-admiral) and brought the ship to. Men killed in the action, 7; rendered unserviceable from wouuds, 5; wounded in a lesser degree, 20.' A smart action, Sir John Barrow calls it. By Charnock's account, it would seem to have been a severe one, 'the enemy making,' he says, 'a very brave and resolute defence, and not surrendering till after a contest of nearly five hours' continuance.' The French loss in killed and wounded is stated at 130. Both their ships were taken. Smollett notices the skill and intrepidity with which Howe behaved in this action. Boscawen leaving Holbourne with a few ships to blockade Louisburg, returned to England with the prizes, the money taken in them amounting to about 8,0007., and 1,500 prisoners, among whom were several officers of distinction.

Upon this act of hostility, the French embassador, M. de Mirepoix, departed without taking leave. George II. was then at Hanover, whither the Abbé de Bussy, formerly resident at the British court, had been sent to him with the civilest message that the French had hitherto vouchsafed to dictate.' Two days after he had delivered it a courier was despatched in haste to prevent it, and to recall him, upon the notice of our capture of the two French ships. They had meditated the war,' says Horace Walpole, 'we began it. They affected to call us pirates; their king was made

from Canada to the mouth of the Mississippi, to back all our settlements, cut off our communications with the Indians west of that river, and inclose and starve our universal plantations and trade; it would not be necessary to invade them, they would fall of course.** But the policy of France was to carry on this scheme of aggression as long as possible under the cover of peace; and even when the blow had been struck by Howe, in obedience to Boscawen's signal, and followed up by an order for stopping all French ships, and bringing them into British ports, the French, loudly as they complained, were so desirous of delaying the war till a more convenient season, that they did not even attempt reprisals upon our shipping. Before the close of the year, three hundred of their merchant ships, and 8000 of their seamen were brought in; and while our ships paid no more than the common insurance, theirs were insured at the rate of thirty per cent. This occasioned considerable distress in France, and not a little discontent, and the English government acquired respect in the eyes of Europe for the decision and vigour which it had manifested on this occasion.

The French represented Boscawen's attack, and the subsequent seizure of their ships before any declaration of war, as a breach of faith and of the law of nations. They endeavoured to engage the Spaniards and the Dutch in an alliance with them against Great Britain: and when one of their squadron had taken a ship of war going to Carolina with the governor on board, as soon as the court was informed of the ship's being brought into Nantes, they set the governor at liberty, and shortly afterwards released both the ship and crew, thus contrasting their own conduct with that of the English. This was good policy; and when they inveighed against the seizure of their vessels as acts of piracy, some neutral powers seemed to consider it in the same point of view. It was certainly,' says Smollett, high time to check the insolence of the French by force of arms; and surely this might have been as effectually and expeditiously exerted under the

Horace Walpole.

usual sanction of a formal* declaration, the omission |ed to their right owners in case the disputes between of which exposed the administration to the censure of the two nations could be adjusted without an open war. our neighbours, and fixed the imputation of fraud and freebooting at the beginning of the war.'