FOX’S MOTIONS FOR INQUIRY INTO THE NAVY.
Encouraged by the recent reverses, during the recess the opponents of administration had been employed in forming and maturing a general plan of attack. The chief conduct of this was intrusted to Mr. Fox, who, on the re-assembling of parliament, moved for an inquiry into the causes of the constant ill-success of the naval forces, and more especially during the preceding year. This inquiry, it was stated, would resolve itself into two distinct parts: whether Lord Sandwich, the first lord of the admiralty, had the means of procuring a navy equal to the exigencies of the state; and whether he employed the force which he possessed with wisdom and ability? Lord Sandwich was defended by Captain Luttrel and Lord Mulgrave; but Lord North declared that both himself and the object of the attack were anxious that the subject should undergo a complete investigation; and the motion passed without a division. An animated debate took place respecting the papers to be produced; and finally a suggestion of Mr. Pitt was adopted: namely, that the substance of letters and documents relating to the subject, and not the letters and documents themselves, should be laid before the house. The debate was then postponed till the 7th of February, when, after the reading of the papers which ministers consented to produce, Fox brought forward several distinct charges against the board of admiralty. These were:—That de Grasse was suffered to depart for the West Indies without any effort to intercept his fleet; that the loss of the convoy sent home with the booty captured at St. Eustatius might have been prevented, had a squadron been sent out for its protection; that a letter sent by the admiralty to the merchants of Bristol, had misled them with reference to the presence of the French fleet in the Channel, whereby the trade of their port was endangered; and that the fleets sent out with Admiral Kempenfelt and against the Dutch, were insufficient for the object of their expedition. Fox concluded by moving, that there had been gross mismanagement of naval affairs during the year 1781. This motion was supported by Lord Howe and Mr. Pitt; but Lord Sandwich was again defended by Lord Mulgrave; and on a division, it was lost by a majority of twenty-two: a majority, however, which showed that there was a change of opinion in the house.