SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.
BIOGRAPHY.
The Life,of Sir Hugh Palliser, Bart., Admiral of the White and Governor of Green- wich Hospital. By Robert M. Hunt, Esq Chapman awl Hall.
FICrws,
Afloat midashme; or the Adventures or Miles Wallingford. By the Author of "The "Jack O'Lantern," '• Red Rover," &c. In three volumes.... Bestley, ASATIMPlai. CHARACTSSISTICH• German Experiences t addressed to the English, both Stayers-at home and Goers- abroad. By William Hewitt, Author of' The Rural and Social Life of Ger-
many," &c Longman and Co.
MR. HUNT'S LIFE OF SIR HUGH PALLISER.
TUE most if not the only memorable event in the career of Sir Boon PALLISER, was the discreditable action off Ushant, and the Courts-martial on KEPPEL and himself which followed it. The highest praise of his naval life was his early and steady patronage of COOK the great circumnavigator. All beyond may be called nautical commonplace : the same kind of things, and more of them, occurred to any officer on war service who rose to rank,—unless it be held that PALLISER was lucky, or that any thing like zeal Was so rare in those corrupt times as to command promotion. He was born in 1723; sent to sea, as a Midshipman, when eleven years old ; and became Lieutenant in 1742. During his Lieute- nancy, he was in the ill-conducted action of MATHEWS and LES- 'POCK off Toulon ; and accused his Captain, NORRIS, of cowardice,— which was so clear that the guilty officer eloped from his ship and never stood his trial. For his own conduct PALLISER was pro- moted to a Commandership, in July 1746; and, in the sloop Weazel, captured in succession four French privateers ; for which he was raised to Post Captain, in November following. He subsequently served in the West Indies ; and during the Seven Years War, when in command of the Medway of sixty guns, he captured (1757) a French ship of fifty guns ; which, however, did not strike till an- other Englishman, also of sixty, came up. In 1761, he commanded a detachment of the Mediterranean fleet, and chased some French ships into port. He also served under SAUNDERS at the taking of Quebec; was sent with a squadron to retake Newfoundland ; which the army had accomplished before his arrival, but he was appointed Governor of the island. On his removal, in 1768, he was made Comptroller of the Navy ; and eventually a Lord of Admiralty, Baronet, and Lieutenant-General of Marines. When the popular indignation ran so strong against him for the failure off Ushant and his after-conduct towards KEPPEL that he was obliged to conceal himself, Sir HUGH voluntarily resigned all his employments, in 1779 On his own acquittal, the King, with whom he was a fa- vourite, appointed him to the Governorship of Greenwich Hospital; which be held till his death, in 1796.
The furious party-zeal which was inspired by the action off Ushant remains in its effects to this time, and it is still a mooted point where the fault lay. An English fleet of thirty sail of the line, exchanging shots with a somewhat inferior French force that freely offered battle, then drawing off for the whole afternoon, and though the enemy was in sight the next morning allowing him leisurely to retire to Brest without an effort at pursuit, was highly disappointing ; though less, perhaps, to the public of that day than it would be to us, who are familiar with the more daring deeds of Sr. VINCENT and the officers he trained. KEPPEL'S friends put the failure upon PALLISER, who did not obey the signal to get into line and the alleged order for renewing the action. This order has been denied, and the intention of KEPPEL to renew the battle disputed. To the charge of disobeying the signal for the line, we think the answers sufficient,—first, that he kept the signal flying for his own division to form line; second, that his oan ship, the Formidable, was so injured as to be disabled ; third, that if the Formidable had not been there, the English fleet was still equal or superior to the French, and the action might have been re- newed without him. The answer to PALLISER'S not having signalled the state of distress to his commander was, that he could see it. No satisfactory reply can be given to the question of why he did not shift his flag into an effective ship, except that such activity and energy were rarely displayed by Admirals of that day.
The truth seems to be, that the English fleet was beaten, so far as the action went. KEPPEL appears to have been inferior in gene- ralship to D'OnviL„Lryas. When he gave the signal for battle the Engl■sh fleet was scattered ; so that many of the ships, especially of PALLISER'S division, got into action irregularly and unsupported, 'whilst the French fleet was in perfect order : hence, in mere material damage the gain rested with the French. What the re- sult would have been had KEPPEL continued the battle bull-dog fashion, upon the principle of NELSON—" in case of doubt or con- fusion, no captain can do very wrong who lays his ship alongside an enemy," it is impossible to say. Very likely a victory, as PALLI- SER maintained. KEPPEL preferred drawing off to repair the da- mage of the crippled ships. The next morning, when the French went their way, KEPPEL went his. Against this non-professional motion must be put the evidence of ST. VINCENT, then Captain &ran, which was as decidedly in favour of KEPPEL as it was op- posed to PALLISER. It may also be alleged that KEPPEL, as com- mander of the Channel fleet, had a larger object than merely fight- ing. Had he been defeated, or even had his ships been so crippled as to be useless till further repairs, the whole coast would have been exposed to the ravage of descents, and the home seas left vithout protection. A great warlike genius, no doubt, would not :have reasoned so; but want of genius is for criticism, not for georts-martial.
Be the nautical fault where it may, and granting that political
partisanship made a handle of KEPPEL, the people were right in their judgment of PALLISER'S moral conduct, though exhibiting their opinions in rather a brickbat-and-bludgeon style. Because PAL. USER was charged in the newspapers with having been the cause of the resultless character of the 27th July 1778, he required that KEPPEL should sign a paper which really gave PALLISER'S own version of affairs. Receiving no answer, he then demanded that KEPPEL should give him an " authorized contradiction" of the reports; although the Admiral in his official letter had spoken of the " spirited conduct of Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser as deserving much commendation." On this being refused, he pub- lished a vindicative letter, and insinuating backwardness on the part of KEPPEL. When the matter was mentioned in Parliament, KEPPEL made no charge against PALLISER ; spoke highly of his courage, but left his conduct in doubt ; and ended by declaring that he was so shocked by the appeal which the Vice-Admiral had made in the newspapers, that he would never serve with him again. PALLISER then demanded a court-martial upon KEPPEL; and the world saw the extraordinary spectacle of an inferior officer, after a silence of five months, accusing his superior officer of " misconduct and neglect of duty," because that officer had refused, months afterwards, to do something which his accuser required, and said something with which he was displeased. The jumble of functions was still more extraordinary. On one side, PALLIssit was an in- ferior officer accusing his superior in the way we have seen ; on the other hand, he was a Lord of the Admiralty, to order this Court- martial, and a member of the Ministry which had employed KEPPEL and himself. The upshot every one knows. KEPPEL was honour- ably acquitted; and the Court-martial pronounced that the charges of PALLISER were "malicious and ill-founded." On the report of the verdict, the country rang with acclamations: London was illu- minated, at the popular bidding, for three successive nights ; and outrages were perpetrated against PALLISER and his friends ; of which the facts are truly stated by Mr. HUNT.
"The acquittal of Keppel, coupled with the imputation cast upon Palliser, of having exhibited a malicious, ill-founded charge, was followed by a series of alarming outrages against the different members of Government, as well as the Vice-Admiral and his friends. The mansions of Lord North, Lord Sandwich, Lord Lisburne, Lord Bute, and Lord Mulgrave, were attacked, as also Captain Hood's in Harley Street. Sir Hugh Palliser's house in Pall Mall was entered by the lawless rabble, the furniture set on fire, and the contents otherwise destroyed. The Admiralty-gates were pulled down, Sir Hugh's residence in the Admiralty assailed; and but for the timely arrival of the guard to his rescue, lie must have fallen into the hands of the besotted, infuriated mob. Three nights in succession, London was illuminated at the command of a body of ferocious rioters, whom the military could scarcely quell; and so completely had what was then designated the Keppel frenzy' taken bold of the nation, that in the most distant districts bonfires were kindled in sympathy with the blaze of the Metropolis."
PALLISER subsequently procured a Court-martial from Govern- ment; KEPPEL declining to prosecute. He was acquitted of " misconduct or misbehaviour," though the Court considered it was an omission for him not to have made known to his commander the disabled state of the Formidable.
A life with so little of character or importance in its events, and of which few or no anecdotes have been preserved, was not fitted to form a large volume • nor would the memoir, it seems, have been written, but for an alleged attack upon PALLISER'S memory in a late biography of KEPPEL. This might have been a fair reason for a notice of the Admiral's life, introducing a disquisition on the action off Ushant and the subsequent trials ; but it is no excuse for the book before us, which is stuffed out with all sorts. When the chronology comes to the Seven Years War, Mr. HUNT gives an account of it ; ByNG's story is told at length ; a mere technical despatch of Admiral SAUNDERS from Quebec is printed verbatim ; there is a history of the attempts to discover the North-west passage, because the Admiralty contemplated a discovery-voyage ; COOK'S instructions are printed, because PALLISER had to do with drawing them up ; and so on to the end.
As regards the author's avowed object the work is equally poor. The zeal of an advocate might be expected, but Mr. HUNT dis- plays the blindness of a partisan. Feeble in logic, imputing things he cannot prove, seeing everything wrong in KEPPEL and everything right in PALLISER, be injures what, notwithstanding the weight of nautical authority against us, we think a fair case as regards his hero's professional character, by want of measure and want of method. His eagerness is so glaring that it betrays itself. Although occupying his pages with such irrelative matter as we have mentioned, he gives a very slight and disconnected account of KEPPEL'S trial ; positively suppressing all the evidence for the defence. The only well-done thing in the volume, is an abridg- ment of CLERK'S remarks on breaking the line ; which is clear, comprehensive, and succinct. Mr. HUNT is a nautical man, and he seems to have mastered the celebrated Essay on Naval Tactics.
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