THE ROCKINGHAM MINISTRY.

263

Sheridan held minor offices. Burke felt somewhat mortified at that exclusiveness in the party that "almost avowedly regarded power as an heir-loom in certain houses."* He wrote to an applicant for place, "I make no part of the ministerial arrangement. Something in the official line may possibly be thought fit for my measure."

At the precise period when the successors of lord North were entering upon their tenure of office, a signal triumph of the British navy was taking place, which, had it occurred earlier, might have somewhat altered the course of party movements and of national feeling. Sir George Rodney, at the beginning of the year, had left England to resume his command on the West India station. He arrived at Barbadoes on the 19th of February, with twelve sail of the line. He would learn that the surrender of St. Christopher's had taken place a week before his arrival. He would find that of all the West Indian possessions of Great Britain only Jamaica, Barbadoes, and Antigua remained. The united naval force of France and Spain in the West Indies amounted to sixty ships of the line; and it was known that a formidable armament was preparing to attack Jamaica. Fortunately Rodney was enabled to form a junction with the squadron of sir Samuel Hood, whose efforts had been unavailing to prevent the surrender of St. Christopher's. With a reinforcement of three sail of the line from England, Rodney had now thirty-six sail of the line, although several ships were in bad condition. His cruisers were watching the movements of De Grasse in the harbour of Port Royal, where he was re-fitting and taking troops on board. On the 8th of April signal was made that the French fleet had put to sea, with thirtythree sail of the line. It was the obvious policy of Rodney to engage De Grasse before a junction could be effected with the Spaniards. His fleet, which had been anchored at St. Lucia, was immediately under weigh, and in pursuit of the enemy. In the French fleet there were vessels of very heavy metal, especially the Ville de Paris, the flag-ship, of 110 guns, considered the pride and bulwark of their navy. In the English fleet there were five ninetygun ships. On the 9th of April, the van under Hood became engaged with a superior number of the French ships; but the disproportion was remedied by Rodney coming up with a few ships of his division. The baffling winds prevented a general engagement, which De Grasse was evidently desirous to avoid. But on the evening of the 11th, Rodney, after a continued chase, in the endeavour to cut off two of the French ships that had made signals of distress, found himself in face of the main fleet of De Grasse

* Lord Mahon, voi vii. p. 21.

which had borne down to the assistance of the disabled vessels. It was manifest that a general battle on the next day was inevitable.

The scene of action on the memorable 12th of April has been described as a moderately large bason of water, lying between the islands of Guadaloupe, Dominica, Saintes, and Mariegalante; and bounded both to windward and leward by very dangerous shores."* At seven in the morning the battle commenced. It was sunset before it was finished. As the British ships came up, having received the signal for close fighting, they ranged closely along the enemy's line-so close that every shot that was given or received told with fatal effect. The slaughter was tremendous in the French ships that were crowded with troops. It was about noon when Rodney, in the Formidable, led the way in the daring manœuvre of breaking the enemy's line. He was followed by the Namur, the Duke, and the Canada. They broke the French line, about three ships from the centre, where De Grasse commanded in the Ville de Paris. Rodney was followed by the ships astern of his division; and then wearing round, doubled upon the enemy and completed the separation of their line. It is difficult, if not impossible, to show in words the precise effect of such a manœuvre. Rodney himself, in 1789, wrote some marginal notes in a copy of a book which we shall presently notice, in which he said that it was the duty of an admiral “to bring, if possible, the whole fleet under his command to attack half, or part, of that of his enemy." He further said that, in the engagement with De Grasse, his own ship, the Formidable, "began a very close action within half musketshot, and continued such action close along the enemy's lines under an easy sail, till an opening appeared at the third ship astern of the enemie's admiral, which gave an opportunity of breaking their line, and putting their rear in the utmost confusion." The French fleet was indeed thrown into confusion by a movement so wholly unknown in maritime warfare. Rodney furnished an example which was gloriously imitated by Duncan at Camperdown, by Howe, and by Nelson. There have been pages of controversy on the question whether Rodney is entitled to the merit of the idea of breaking the line, for the first time carried into effect on this 12th of April. About the period that Rodney left London to take the command in the West Indies, was printed "An Essay on Naval Tactics," by Mr. John Clerk, of Eldin. This treatise contained a very able exposition of the different principles of maritime warfare pursued by the English and the French-the one making an attack "Annual Register," 1782.

RODNEY'S VICTORY OVER DEGRASSE.

265 from windward, the other courting a leward position; which difference, the author contended, had produced many of our failures in general engagements, where the results were indecisive and totally inadequate to the bravery of our sailors and commanders. He compared the meeting of two fleets, on contrary tacks, to a rencounter of horsemen, where the parties pushed their horses at full speed, in opposite directions, exchanging only a few pistol shots as they passed; and thus two great armaments had often engaged and separated, without any serious damage or loss on either side. But Mr. Clerk held that if an enemy's line be cut in twain, that portion which is separated from the rest can more readily be destroyed. He alleged, in a later edition of his book, that before its publicatiɔn he had communicated his views to Mr. Atkinson, a friend of Rodney; and that the admiral himself, before quitting London in 1782, said he would bear them in mind in engaging an enemy. On the other hand, sir Charles Douglas maintains, by a comparison of dates, that Rodney could not have acquired this information before he left to take his command at the beginning of 1782; and that his father, the captain of the Formidable, made the suggestion to the admiral in the heat of the engagement, when he saw a favourable opportunity of breaking the line.* In these rival claims to what has in some degree the character of an invention, most persons will be inclined to consider that the greater merit rests with the man who first gives a practical value to a theory, and especially so in the case of a naval or land commander, who, in the hurry and tumult of a battle, seizes the right moment for carrying a principle into operation.

The engagement of the 12th of April terminated in the most signal success. The admiral held that it was the severest seafight on record. The great triumph of the day was the capture of the Ville de Paris. De Grasse continued the fight in this mighty vessel-mighty as compared with the usual size of seventy-fours, and even ninety-gun ships, in that day-till the victory was decisive over the other portions of his fleet. The last broadside from the Barfleur, commanded by Hood, compelled him to strike. Five large ships were captured, and one sunk. Those that escaped fled to various ports, and were not again united for any continuance of the naval warfare. Jamaica was saved from the joint attack of the French and Spanish; for which vast preparations had been made in the trains of artillery that were found on board the captured Clerk's claims are advocated in the "Edinburgh Review," vol. vi. p. 301. The pretensions of Clerk and Douglas are minutely examined in the "Quarterly Review," vol. xlii. p. 50.