FOLLY OF THE ADMIRALTY.

While the mouths of all men were full of thanksgiving for their happy deliverance from a new and fearful peril, it was announced that the mutiny had broken out afresh. The Admiralty, which by its negligence had been the cause of the first outbreak, was, by its folly, the cause of the second. To save their credit and authority, so grievously impaired by the late transactions, and not certainly with any sinister design, the Board thought fit, a few days after their unconditional submission to the seamen, to take a step well calculated to excite jealousy and resentment throughout the fleet. On the first of May, an order was issued from the Board at Whitehall, referring to the late disturbances, and enjoining upon the officers a strict attention to their own conduct, with the view to the maintenance of discipline and the prevention of discontent. So far this was well; but, in a succeeding paragraph, the captains were instructed to see that the arms and ammunition belonging to the marines be constantly kept fit for immediate service, as well in harbour as at sea; and that the captains and commanders be ready on the first appearance of mutiny, to use the most vigorous means to suppress it, and to bring the ringleaders to punishment.'

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St. Helen's.

Fired with indignation at this threat of keeping Mutiny at them in awe under the bayonets of the marines, and believing that the order itself was significant of an intention to break faith with them, the crews of the ships at St. Helen's, to which the main body

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MUTINY ON BOARD THE LONDON.

of the fleet had been recently moved, again revolted against their officers, again appointed delegates, and despatched some of their number to claim the co-operation of the London and the Marlborough, which remained at Spithead. Admiral Colpoys, whose flag was flying in the London, in obedience to the recent order, summoned his officers, put the marines under arms, and refused to let the delegates come along side. The crew of the London, after some hesitation, came aft, and demanded that the delegates should be admitted. The officers ordered them to go below; but a few only obeyed, and one man proceeded to unlash a gun and point it towards the quarter deck. He was instantly shot dead by a lieutenant. This was the signal for a general insurrection. The men ran for their arms; the marines joined them; the officers were disarmed, and the lieutenant, who had performed his duty with such stern decision, was about to be hurried to the yard-arm, when the Admiral interposed, avowed the lieutenant's act, and declared that it was done in pursuance of the orders of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. This saved the officer's life; but the triumph of the seamen was complete. The Marlborough quickly followed the example of the London, and both ships weighed anchor, and joined the rest of the fleet at St. Helen's.

Lord Howe, the Commander-in-Chief of the Channel fleet, oppressed by sickness and infirmity, had been detained at Bath during the disturbances

POPULARITY OF LORD HOWE.

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1797.

at Spithead. But, in the present extremity, Howe was justly deemed the person of all others most fitted to bring back his mutinous fleet to a sense Lord Howe at of their duty. Accordingly, the venerable admiral Portsmouth. went down to Portsmouth, determined to visit every ship, and to ascertain, by personal communication with the seamen, what they wanted. Lord Howe was, in age, experience and reputation, the foremost officer in the service. A man of birth, a courtier, a diplomatist, and a person of high accomplishments, he nevertheless adapted himself to his profession, and at sea affected those blunt and careless manners which endear a commander to the common seamen. No officer in the service, therefore, had higher authority; and the mutineers, in the transport of their excitement and anger, which no Lord of the Admiralty could appease, at once gave utterance to expressions of joy and hope, when they heard that Black Dick, as they loved to call their renowned commander, was coming among them to listen to their complaints, and redress their wrongs. The conduct of Lord Howe on this trying occasion, was marked by judgment and temper. Knowing the strange mixture of suspicioni and generosity of which the character of the British sailor is compounded, he sought to allay the one, and to conciliate the

i He described the seamen as the most suspicious, but most generous minds he ever met with in the same class of men.'BARROW'S Life of Earl Howe, p.337.

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LORD HOWE PACIFIES THE MUTINEERS.

Ch. 37. other; at the same time that he maintained the dignity, and even under such anomalous circumstances, the authority of his station. He listened attentively while the men eagerly poured into his ear the story of their wrongs. Their specific grievances had been already redressed, but the officers by whose tyranny and petty oppression they had been so much harassed, were restored to power; and they now insisted on the removal of these obnoxious officers. Lord Howe saw that, to restore peace and confidence, it would be necessary to comply with this demand; but he veiled this dangerous concession so skilfully, that it assumed the form of a gracious indulgence, rather than a yielding to mutinous dictation. He told the men they had behaved very badly, that he wished to help them out of their difficulties, and to do all he could to satisfy their complaints. But he advised them, in the first place, to express contrition for their conduct, and to address a petition to himself, praying for his good offices, which he promised to employ. The men willingly came into this suggestion; and the Commander-in-Chief, on his quarter-deck, announced to the representatives of the different ships' companies that Parliament had passed an Act, confirming the promises of the Board of Admiralty, and securing to them permanently the advance of wages and the other benefits which they had sought. At the same time it was made known, that extensive changes were to be made in every grade of the officers of the fleet.

DISMISSAL OF NAVAL OFFICERS.

An admiral, four captains, twenty-nine lieutenants, seventeen mates, and twenty-five midshipmen, besides marine and petty officers, were dismissed. But while the men rigorously insisted on this proscription, it deserves to be mentioned, to their credit, that they desired no proceedings should be taken against the discharged officers, in respect of their alleged misconduct; and, in fact, the greater number of them were subsequently appointed to other ships. An attempt to give a political character to the mutiny was likewise indignantly repelled; and some loose talk having been heard in one of the ships of giving her up to the French, she was threatened with destruction by the rest of the fleet, and a vigilant look-out was kept, to prevent the disaffected ship from holding any communication with the shore.

The measures proposed by the Government, in accordance with the engagements of the Admiralty to allay the discontents of the seamen, were readily agreed to by Parliament, and although the Oppotion did not fail to find topics of censure, no man denied the existence of the grievances, or blamed the concessions which had been made.1

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BARROW'S Life of Earl Howe.

To this, it appears, there was one characteristic exception. Some of the ministers (Windham, of course, being the foremost) consulted Burke, then within a few weeks of his death, as to the treatment of the mutiny. With the same want of judgment and temper, which generally marked his public counsels, the dying statesman strongly recommended the employment of repressive