ENGLAND AT HOME.

9

Just as d'Estaing anchored in the Delaware, England at home began to feel the effects of war against the French. Stocks began to rise and fall. Even Horace Walpole, at Strawberry Hill, could not resist the contagion of universal excitement. In the last war he had always thought that his friend, Harry Conway, was born to beat the French (although that hero was taken prisoner at Fontenoy, and nearly had his head cut off), and now Horace wrote to Harry Conway:

"Saturday, July 18th, 1778. "Yesterday evening the following notices were fixed up in Lloyd's Coffee-house:

"That a merchant in the City had received an express from France; that the Brest fleet, consisting of twenty-eight ships of the line, were sailed, with orders to burn, sink, and destroy. That Admiral Keppel was at Plymouth, and had sent to demand three more ships of the line to enable him to meet the French.

"On these notices the Stocks sunk three and ahalf per cent. An account I have received this morning from a good hand says that on Thursday the Admiralty received a letter from Admiral Keppel, who was off the Land's End.... he hoped

10

THE FRENCH NAVY.

to have an opportunity of trying his strength with the French fleet on our own coast; if not, he would seek them on theirs.

"The French fleet sailed on the 7th, consisting of thirty-one ships of the line, two fifty-gun ships, and eight frigates. This statement is probably more authentic than those at Lloyd's. Thus you see how big the moment is! and, unless far more favourable to us in its burst than good sense allows one to promise, it must leave us greatly exposed. Can we expect to beat without considerable loss?"

England had not believed in the French Navy. In the late war England was the acknowledged mistress of the sea. As Madame de Pompadour had then said-"The French seem born to rule the land, the English to control the waves."-Marshal Belleisle, too, since dead, had then told King Louis XV. that men for the French army he always could find, but that he knew not where to lay his hands on a few thousand sailors.

De Maurepas was Minister of Marine in France until just before the Seven Years' War. Owing, as beforesaid, to a ribald rhyme he then composed on the King's friendship ("lamour sans ailes") for Madame de Pompadour, de Maurepas was served

EMBARKATION AT BREST.

11

with a lettre de cachet, which exiled him from Cabinet and Court. Only lately, as we have seen, restored to both in the reign of Louis XVI., de Maurepas, the old intriguer, was rather disposed to make light of the naval power which, withont his aid, had grown thus amazingly; for Horace Walpole spoke below the mark when he wrote, as above, as to the number of ships which had sailed from Brest.

Thirty-two ships and fifteen frigates issued from the port of Brest, under the orders of the Count d'Orvilliers. The three divisions were commanded by Admirals de Guichen, Duchafaut and Lamotte Piquet. Of these men we shall see more hereafter. The Duke de Chartres, first prince of the blood, embarked with this expedition.*

Old Maurepas at Versailles says, in reference to this fine sight, "Do you know what a naval fight is? I will tell you. Two squadrons sail out from two opposite ports. They tack about, they manœuvre, make some noise with cannon, break some masts, tear some sails, kill some men! There is great waste of powder and bullets. Then both squadrons retire; each pretending to be mistress of

* Gazette de Paris, 1778.

12

FRENCH SHIPS AND BRITISH TIMBER.

the other. Each sings a Te Deum. The sea is not the purer for all this."

Admiral Keppel was amazed at the strength of the French Navy, which had increased so much since the last war. Admiral Keppel would have been still more amazed and indignant had he known that the French ships which now, in 1778, came sailing out from Brest, against Great Britain, were built with British timber, which, in 1775, had been obtained by intrigue: witness the following, hitherto unpublished, memorial:

"In March, 1775, it was proposed in the Cabinet of Versailles (seeing that England's supply of American timber would be cut short by the war; and as it had been proved in the House of Commons that the whole island of Great Britain did not afford wood enough to repair the Royal Navy) that France should send to England sufficient money, by trusty hands, to buy up large quantities of English timber, that the distress in England consequent upon American non-supply should be increased. Those of the Ministry who opposed this scheme were threatened into silence by its supporters. After some delay, Beaumarchais" (the author of Figaro) "was sent to London, from France, with

FRENCH CABINET INTRIGUE.

13

a credit of two millions of livres. With part of this money he was to buy up timber; part of it he was to keep for himself; and the remaining part he was to dispose of, in silencing such persons as might seem to know enough of the matter to make the circumstance public either in England or Holland. Beaumarchais accordingly bought up to the amount of £15,000 or £20,000 worth, which he got entered at London as bound for Portsmouth, but which in fact was sent to Havre de Grâce and Brest; and he left £1,000 more in the hands of a certain merchant, to dispose of in the same manner. He gave a good deal of it, in bribes, to Garnier, the French Chargé d'Affaires in London, &c. And this part of his commission he executed so well, that no discovery would have been made of the affair, had not a train of accidents led to it in France.

"The Duc de Bouillon has very extensive woods in Normandy, and about a year ago (1774) he sold timber from them to the Crown for ship-building, to the amount of £110,000. Although the contract was completed, and part of the wood was cut down, the money was not yet paid.

"As soon as this plan of buying English timber was adopted, De Sartine (Minister of War for Ma