THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF ADMIRAL BYNG.
I.
Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street,
January 30, 1757.
... All England is again occupied with Admiral Byng; he and his friends were quite persuaded of his acquittal. The court-martial, after the trial was finished, kept the whole world in suspense for a week; after great debates and divisions amongst themselves, and despatching messengers hither to consult lawyers whether they could not mitigate the article of war, to which a negative was returned, they pronounced this extraordinary sentence on Thursday: they condemn him to death for negligence, but acquit him of disaffection and cowardice (the other heads of the article) specifying the testimony of Lord Robert Bertie in his favour, and unanimously recommending him to mercy; and accompanying their sentence with a most earnest letter to the Lords of the Admiralty to intercede for his pardon, saying, that finding themselves tied up from moderating the article of war, and not being able in conscience to pronounce that he had done all he could, they had been forced to bring him in guilty, but beg he may be spared. The discussions, and difference of opinions on this sentence is incredible. The Cabinet Council, I believe, will be to determine whether the King shall pardon him or not: some who wish to make him the scapegoat for their own neglects, I fear, will try to complete his fate, but I should think the new Administration will not be biassed to blood by such interested attempts. He bore well his unexpected sentence, as he has all the outrageous indignities and cruelties heaped upon him. Last week happened an odd event, I can scarce say in his favour, as the World seems to think it the effect of the arts of some of his friends: Voltaire sent him from Switzerland an accidental letter of the Duc de Richelieu, bearing witness to the Admiral's good behaviour in the engagement.
Strawberry Hill,
February 13, 1757.
... After a fortnight of the greatest variety of opinions, Byng's fate is still in suspense. The court and the late ministry have been most bitter against him; the new Admiralty most good-natured; the King would not pardon him. They would not execute the sentence, as many lawyers are clear that it is not a legal one. At last the council has referred it to the twelve judges to give their opinion: if not a favourable one, he dies! He has had many fortunate chances; had the late Admiralty continued, one knows how little any would have availed him. Their bitterness will always be recorded against themselves: it will be difficult to persuade posterity that all the same of last summer was the fault of Byng! Exact evidence of whose fault it was I believe posterity will never have: the long-expected inquiries are begun, that is, some papers have been moved for, but so coldly that it is plain George Townshend and the Tories are unwilling to push researches that must necessarily re-unite Newcastle and Fox.
Arlington Street,
March 3, 1757.
I have deferred writing to you, till I could tell you something certain of the fate of Admiral Byng: no history was ever so extraordinary, or produced such variety of surprising turns. In my last I told you that his sentence was referred to the twelve judges. They have made law of that, of which no one else would make sense. The Admiralty immediately signed the warrant for his execution on the last of February—that is, three signed: Admiral Forbes positively refused, and would have resigned sooner. The Speaker would have had Byng expelled the House, but his tigers were pitiful. Sir Francis Dashwood tried to call for the Court-martial's letter; but the tigers were not so tender as that came to. Some of the Court-martial grew to feel, as the execution advanced: the City grew impatient for it. Mr. Fox tried to represent the new ministry as compassionate, and has damaged their popularity. Three of the Court-martial applied on Wednesday last to Lord Temple to renew their solicitation for mercy. Sir Francis Dashwood moved a repeal of the bloody twelfth article [of Byng's indictment:] the House was savage enough; yet Mr. Doddington softened them, and not one man spoke directly against mercy. They had nothing to fear: the man who, of all defects, hates cowardice and avarice most and who has some little objection to a mob in St. James's-street, has magnanimously forgot all the services of the great Lord Torrington [the victor of Cape Passano, 1718]. On Thursday seven of the Court-martial applied for mercy: they were rejected. On Friday a most strange event happened. I was told at the House that Captain Keppel and Admiral Norris desired a bill to absolve them from their Oath of Secrecy, [as members of the Court-martial on Byng] that they might unfold something very material towards the saving the prisoner's life. I was out of Parliament myself during my re-election, but I ran to Keppel; he said he had never spoken in public, and could not, but would give authority to anybody else. The Speaker was putting the question for the orders of the day, after which no motion could be made; it was Friday. The House would not sit on Saturday, the execution was fixed for Monday. I felt all this in an instant, dragged Mr. Keppel to Sir Francis Dashwood, and he on the floor before he had taken his place, called out to the Speaker, and though the orders were passed, Sir Francis was suffered to speak. The House was wondrously softened: pains were taken to prove to Mr. Keppel that he might speak, notwithstanding his oath; but he adhering to it, he had time given him till next morning to consider and consult some of his brethren who had commissioned him to desire the bill. The next day the King sent a message to our House, that he had respited Mr. Byng for a fortnight, till the bill could be passed, and he should know whether the Admiral was unjustly condemned. The bill was read twice in our House that day, and went through the Committee; Mr. Keppel affirming that he had something, in his opinion, of weight to tell, and which it was material his Majesty should know, and naming four of his associates, who desired to be empowered to speak. On Sunday all was confusion again, on news that the four disclaimed what Mr. Keppel had said for them. On Monday, he told the House that in one he had been mistaken; that another did not declare off, but wished all were to be compelled to speak; and from the two others he produced a letter upholding him in what he had said. The bill passed by 153 to 23. On Tuesday it was treated very differently by the Lords. The new Chief Justice [Mansfield] and the late Chancellor [Hardwicke] pleaded against Byng like little attorneys, and did all they could to stifle truth. That all was a good deal. They prevailed to have the whole Court-martial at their bar. Lord Hardwicke urged for the intervention of a day, on the pretence of a trifling cause of an Irish bankruptcy then depending before the Lords, though Lord Temple showed them that some of the Captains and Admirals were under sailing orders for America. But Lord Hardwicke and Lord Anson were expeditious enough to do what they wanted in one night's time; and for the next day, yesterday, every one of the Court-martial defended their sentence, and even the three conscientious said not one syllable of their desire of the bill, which was accordingly unanimously rejected, and with great marks of contempt for the House of Commons.
This is as brief and as clear an abstract as I can give you of a most complicated affair, in which I have been a most unfortunate actor, having to my infinite grief, which I shall feel till the man is at peace, been instrumental in protracting his misery a fortnight, by what I meant as the kindest thing I could do. I never knew poor Byng enough to bow to—but the great doubtfulness of his crime, and the extraordinariness of his sentence, the persecution of his enemies, who sacrifice him for their own guilt, and the rage of a blinded nation, have called forth all my pity for him. His enemies triumph, but who can envy the triumph of murder?
II.
Thomas Potter to Mr. Grenville, September 11, 1756.
Source.—Grenville Papers, 1852. Vol. i., p. 173.
This morning I heard the whole city of Westminster disturbed by the song of a hundred ballad-singers, the burthen of which was, "To the block with Newcastle, and the yard arm with Byng."
[This ballad is to be found as a single sheet broadside in the British Museum in a volume lettered Ballads and Broadsides; the first verse is as follows:—]
THE BLOCK AND YARD ARM,
A NEW BALLAD ON THE LOSS OF "MINORCA," AND THE DANGER OF OUR "AMERICAN" RIGHTS AND POSSESSIONS.
To Tune of the "Whose e'er been at Baldock," &c.
Draw nigh my good Folks whilst to you I Sing
Great Blak'ney[23] betray'd by N[ewcastle] and B[yng],
Before such a Story ne'er has been told
We're bought all, my Friends, by shining French gold.
Chorus.
To the Block with N[ewcastle] and Yard Arm with B[yng].
Terra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ring.
[23] The Governor of Minorca, then eighty-five, "that gallant old man," as Lady Hervey (Letters, p. 219) justly calls him, "who had behaved like a hero of antiquity," had held out in Fort St. Philip for five weeks after Byng's retreat.