exertions; and I trust I shall be excused for postponing the more detailed narrative of the other transactions of the fleet thereon for being communicated at a future opportunity, more especially as Sir Roger Curtis, who is charged with this despatch, will be able to give the farther information the lords commissioners of the admiralty may at this time require. It is incumbent on me, nevertheless, now to add, that I am greatly indebted to him for his counsels as well as conduct in every branch of my official duties; and I have similar assistance, in the late occurrences, to acknowledge of my second Captain, Sir Andrew Douglas.

I am, with great consideration, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

HOWE.

A very great injustice was done both to the Queen and the Glory in the relation of the battles of the 29th May and 1st of June in my former Edition of this work. I cannot however, while I make this acknowledgment, take the whole blame to myself: the Glory, and her gallant captain the late John Elphinstone, were not mentioned in Lord Howe's Letter, than which perhaps a worse was never written on a similar occasion. Captain (the late Vice-admiral) Bedford, who, under the flag of Admiral (the first Lord) Gardner, commanded the Queen from the death of Captain Hutt, who was killed on the 29th of May, had an equal right to complain of partiality in the mention of names and the subsequent and consequent distribution of medals. I can find no other memorial of the conduct of Captain Elphinstone than the general admission by all who were present that he did his duty in the most distinguished manner; with respect to the Queen I have been more fortunate that ship was well known to have been a very bad sailer, yet, on the morning of the 29th of May, she was one of the leading ships close up with the enemy, tacked when other ships failed, particularly the Cæsar, and three times attempted to pass through the enemy's line, but was baffled by the crippled state of her sails and rigging. Such was the determination of Admiral Gardner to close with the enemy that the Queen would have been cut off from her fleet had she not been released and supported by Admiral Graves, in the Royal Sovereign, who with some other ships ran to her assistance. The Queen passed through the

enemy's line on the morning of the 1st of June, stuck to her opponent (a three decker), dismasted her, and only ceased firing when the French, to save themselves from farther slaughter, displayed a British flag over a French one on the quarter of their ship. The Queen was at this time too much disabled to take possession, and had not a boat that could swim; and her officers and crew had the mortification to see their conquered and shattered enemy towed away to leeward by a frigate. This ought not to have been, and had the Queen Charlotte run before the wind, as the Montagne did, it would not have happened: the Queen's mainmast was gone close to the deck, and the only sail she could set was a launch's mainsail on the stump of her ensign staff, and a studding-sail on the tottering mizenmast; this last was thrice shot away; her foremast was too much wounded to set a sail on it; the ship drifted to leeward, separated from her antagonist and from the British fleet. No less than eleven sail of the enemy's line passed, and gave her their broadsides, while not one British ship offered to approach her. Fortunately, the enemy, either from an honourable feeling of not firing into a ship that had so greatly distinguished herself, or from mistaking their distance, did her very little injury in this last effort: but while the Queen sustained their fire, her only maintopmast, which had been nearly rigged as a jury mainmast, was lowered into the hold, as less likely to be shot away. The Queen, miraculously preserved from this danger, was left at liberty to secure her masts and yards, a frigate took her in tow, and by six o'clock in the evening, she was enabled to dismiss this attendant and take her station in the line.. It is singular that, a short time before his death, Lord Howe wrote a letter to Captain Bedford, in which he says, that" had Captain Bedford's case been known to him, he certainly should have considered him worthy a medal." To have deserved a medal and not to have had one, was far better than to have obtained one without deserving it: the most noble and unsophisticated compliment that ever was paid to merit was the unanimous cheers of the British ships as they passed the Queen in succession, on the afternoon of this day

The escape of the five dismasted French ships, with the Montagne, after the severe beating she had received from the Queen Charlotte, is a subject of serious reflection, and ought to be a lesson to all our future commanders. Lord Howe was an officer who, by a part of the service at least, and by a great part of the nation, was supposed to have been perfect; my riper judgment has convinced me of this error, and I have long regretted that the naval career of his Lordship had not terminated with his relief of Gibraltar: that he had been both a good and gallant officer cannot be denied, but, on the 1st of June, in the 72nd year of his age, his energies were exhausted, and, after five days and nights of sleepless anxiety, we cannot be surprized at his being contented with a victory greater than Lord Rodney's-and before Nelson had shewn what a naval battle ought to be. I am well aware of some important remarks which were made on the quarter deck of the Queen Charlotte, between one and two o'clock on the 1st of June; but as I have no wish to hurt feelings, though I have been unjustly accused of it, I shall let the subject die with me. My destiny, some years after this event, brought me acquainted with Admiral Villaret, the commander in chief of the French fleet on this occasion, and from him I learned some particulars of this action which will be mentioned in another place. I have too much respect for the memory of Lord Howe to impute to him want of courage or zeal, but I may say that, in this series of battles, he was not very happy either in his selection of merit, or in reprehending the want of it.

There may appear to be a little presumption in making these observations on the conduct of an officer of distinction, but, while I do it, I cannot forget that I have a duty to perform, and that if I err in my judgment, there are those living who can correct me.

With respect to the tactics of those days, I have the pleasure to express my decided admiration: the perseverance of the 28th and 29th of May was not rewarded with success, although the battles were fought on the principles of Mr. Clerk, by an attempt to break the enemy's line from to Leeward.

It would, I apprehend, puzzle Mr. Clerk, and his greatest admirers, to point out any mode by which an attacking fleet, from to Windward, could be covered from the fire of an enemy, drawn up to receive them to Leeward: his "curve of pursuit," by approaching on the quarter, is contemptible: the experiment on the 29th, if such it could be called, had failed, and the British fleet having the weather gage on the 1st of June, the mode of attack was both seamanlike and scientific; and, though the result was not so glorious, I prefer it to the tactics of Nelson, at Trafalgar. Lord Howe brought the whole of his ships into action at once, and trusted to his Captains to do the rest; Nelson advanced in two lines, leading one himself, and giving the other to his second ;the consequence was that the concentrated fire of the greater part of the enemy's fleet fell on the best ships of the British line; so that the Victory, Royal Sovereign, Tonnant, Belleisle, and others, were nearly disabled before they came fairly along-side of their opponents; of this, we shall say more in its proper place-at present, I confine myself to the 1st of June, a battle much better begun than ended. When the Queen Charlotte lost her foretopmast, the Montagne ran to Leeward, and was not followed by her opponent. From this moment I disapprove of every thing that was done: an attempt was made by the Master, to wear the Queen Charlotte, with a view of running to Leeward, but he was overruled and obliged to put the helm down, much, I believe, against his inclination, and that of every officer in the ship, except Lord Howe, and Sir Roger Curtis. How came Lord Howe to suppose that he had sunk the Jacobin? Can any one believe that such an event would have taken place without such a degree of confusion, screaming, and terror, as would have made it manifest to the surrounding ships? would not some at least of her crew have been picked up, some of her boats, or floating spars, been seen when the smoke cleared away? What then are we to think of such assertions, or of the censure cast on real merit, by the same erring hand? The action was over too soon; there were 15 sail of the line ready to renew it, and as 12 sail of the enemy had been dismasted, the odds

were in our favour; Caldwell, Collingwood, Bazely, Elphinstone and Schomberg were undeservedly stigmatized; what could the latter do more than remain by his Commander-inchief? He was ready in the Culloden to have received the flag, and to have led up the fleet to renew the action: whose fault then was it that Villaret not only escaped with his fleet into port, but carried the valuable convoy along with him? My patience is almost exhausted when I think of my wrongs, as connected with this transaction; but the truth must come out at last, and indeed it cannot be concealed. I hope, however, it will be understood that I have the greatest wish to avoid giving offence.

The glorious conduct of Captain John Harvey in the Brunswick led me, in my first Edition, beyond the fair limits of such a work. In this I shall confine myself to shewing that the conduct of that lamented officer was such as ought to be the example of any one who may hereafter be called to the enviable command of a ship of the line in a general action: it was, to say every thing of it in a few words, exactly what Nelson did at Trafalgar ; he singled out his opponent, and fought her till she struck to him: like Nelson, also, losing his life in the discharge of his duty. The action between the Brunswick and her opponent the Vengeur had lasted about an hour and forty minutes, when a French ship came to the relief of the latter, and, as she ranged up on the larboard quarter of the Brunswick, the French ship received such a broadside as soon brought her mast by the board. Soon after, Captain Henry Harvey in the Ramillies came up to the relief of his brother, in the Brunswick, which at this time had separated from the Vengeur: he poured in two or three broadsides, which effectually settled the enemy, whose masts fell over the side; but neither of the British ships had time to take possession of their prize; the French fleet was coming down upon them, the Ramillies hauled her wind to rejoin the British fleet, but the poor disabled Brunswick was left to her fate, and Lord Howe "flattered himself that she might reach some British port in safety;" and the Queen had very nearly fallen a sacrifice to the unfortunate notion that