The operations at sea had not been so decisive as those of Marlborough on land. On the 12th of May Sir John Munden, sent out to intercept the French fleet convoying the Viceroy of Mexico from Corunna to the West Indies, chased fourteen sail of French ships into Corunna, but, judging the fortifications too strong to attack them there, put out to sea, and soon afterwards returned home for provisions, to the great indignation of the people. Munden was tried by court-martial and acquitted, but the Prince of Denmark dismissed him from the service notwithstanding. King William having planned the reduction of Cadiz, the queen was now advised to put the project into execution. Sir George Rooke was sent out with a squadron of fifty ships of the line, besides frigates, fire-ships, and smaller vessels, and carrying the Duke of Ormond with a land force of fourteen thousand men. The fleet sailed from St. Helens near the end of June, and anchored on the 12th of August within two leagues of Cadiz. The governor of fort St. Catherine was summoned to surrender, but he refused; and on the 15th the Duke of Ormond landed under a fire from the batteries, and soon took the forts of St. Catherine and St. Mary. He issued a proclamation declaring that they came, not to make war on the Spaniards, but to free Spain from the yoke of France, and that the people and their property should be protected. But the English soldiers paid no regard to the proclamation, but got drunk in the wine stores and committed great excesses. Some of the general officers were found as eager as the soldiers for pillaging; and the inhabitants, resenting their sufferings, held aloof. To complete the mischief, the land and sea commanders, as has been too commonly the case, fell to quarrelling. Ormond wanted to storm the Isla de Leon; Rooke deemed it too hazardous. An attempt was made to batter Matagorda fort, but failed, and the troops were re-embarked.

As the fleet was returning from its inglorious enterprise, it was met by Captain Hardy, who informed the commander that the galleons from the West Indies had entered Vigo Bay under convoy of a French squadron. A council of war was immediately summoned, and it was resolved to tack about and proceed to Vigo. They appeared before the place on the 11th of October. The passage into the harbour they found strongly defended by forts and batteries on both sides, and the passage closed by a strong boom of iron chains, topmasts, and cables. The admirals shifted their flags into smaller vessels, for neither first nor second rates could enter. Five-and-twenty English and Dutch ships of the line of lesser size, with their frigates, fire-ships, and ketches, now prepared to make the attempt to force the boom and burn the fleet, and the Duke of Ormond prepared the way by landing two thousand eight hundred men six miles from Vigo, and marching on the harbour, where he attacked and carried a strong fort and a platform of forty pieces of cannon at its mouth. The moment the British colours were seen flying on the fort the fleet put itself in motion. Admiral Hopson led the way in the Torbay, and, running with all sail set, dashed against the boom and burst through it. He was followed by the whole squadron under a tremendous fire from the ships and batteries; but both ships and batteries were soon silenced, the batteries by the soldiers on land, the ships by the fleet. They captured eight ships of war and six galleons; the rest were set fire to by themselves or the French, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the English. The Spaniards had lost no time in removing as much of the plate and merchandise as they could; but the Allies seized on seven millions of pieces of eight in plate and other goods, and the Spaniards are supposed to have saved twice as much. Sir George Rooke left Sir Cloudesley Shovel, who had just arrived, to bring home the prizes, and sailed for England with the rest of the fleet and troops in triumph, complaining that Cadiz, too, might have been taken had Ormond done his duty, and Ormond retorting the blame upon him.

LORD GODOLPHIN. (After the Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller.)

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Had this terminated the usual campaign it might have been considered, to a certain extent, a success; but an expedition, sent out to cruise in the waters of the West Indies, under the brave old Benbow, had a worse fate. He came up with a French fleet under Du Casse, steering along the shore of Santa Martha, and though he had ten sail of the line, and the enemy only the same, he found himself deserted by most of his captains, under the plea that the enemy was too strong. Benbow, upbraiding their cowardice, attacked the whole fleet with only two vessels. The battle lasted, off and on, from the 19th of August to the 24th, some others of the ships occasionally joining him. On the last day his leg was shattered by a chain-shot, and he was wounded in the face and in the arm; yet he caused himself to be placed on the quarter-deck in a cradle, and continued issuing his orders to the last. Seeing it in vain to contend longer, he returned to Jamaica, and ordered a court-martial to be held. The reason assigned for the disobedience of the officers was the rough conduct of Benbow, who was one of the old boisterous school of seamen, but brave and honest. The disgrace thus inflicted on his command, combining with his shattered condition, soon also brought him to his grave.

Marlborough returned to England in November, and was received with great applause. Notwithstanding some sharp criticisms on his campaign, the public saw clearly enough that he was a far superior general to William, and augured great things from his future command. The queen met her new Parliament on the 20th of October, which turned out to be so completely Tory as to carry all before it in that direction. The Government had no occasion to make much exertion to obtain that result; it was enough that the queen's decided leaning to the Tories was known. Addresses of congratulation on the brilliant success of the British arms under Marlborough were presented by both Houses, which, they said, "retrieved" the ancient honour and glory of the English nation. This word "retrieved" roused all the spleen of the Whigs, who knew that it was meant as a censure on them and King William, who, they contended, had maintained the honour of the English nation by joining the great confederacy by which the security of the queen's throne at that moment was established, and by training our soldiers to their ancient pitch of discipline and valour. They moved that the word "maintained" should be substituted for "retrieved," but it was carried against them, amid the most unmeasured abuse of the memory of the late king, Marlborough being cried to the skies at his expense.

The Tories next showed their strength in calling in question various elections of Whig members, and carried the inquiry against them with the most open and impudent partiality.

The Commons then voted the supplies, and in practice justified the Whigs, by being as lavish for the war as they had been. They voted forty thousand seamen, and the same number of land forces, to act along with the Allies. They granted eight hundred and thirty-three thousand eight hundred and twenty-six pounds for their maintenance; three hundred and fifty thousand pounds for Guards and garrisons; seventy thousand nine hundred and seventy-three pounds for ordnance; and fifty-one thousand eight hundred and forty-three pounds for subsidies to the Allies—altogether, one million three hundred and six thousand six hundred and forty-two pounds for the war alone, independent of the usual national expenses, and these soon required an increase. The queen demanded of the Commons a further provision for her husband, the Prince of Denmark, in case of her decease. Howe moved that one hundred thousand pounds a year should be settled on the prince in case he should be the survivor. No objection was offered to the amount, but strenuous opposition was given to a clause in the Bill exempting the prince from the provision in the Act of Settlement, which prevented any foreigner, even though naturalised, from holding any employments under the Crown; but the Court was bent on carrying this, and did so.

Having secured her husband, Anne then sent a message to the Commons to inform them that she had created the Earl of Marlborough a duke for his eminent services, and praying them to settle five thousand pounds a year on him to enable him to maintain his new dignity. This was so glaring a case of favouritism that the Commons, with all their loyalty, expressed their decided disapprobation. The outcry was so great that the Marlboroughs declined what they saw no means of getting—the grant—and the queen intimated that fact to the House; but she immediately offered her favourites two thousand pounds a year out of her privy purse, which, with affected magnanimity, they also declined, hoping yet to obtain, at some more favourable crisis, the Parliamentary grant; and, after that really happened, they then claimed the queen's offer too. But the opposition of the Tories, whom Marlborough had been serving with all his influence in Parliament, alienated him from that party, and he went over to the Whigs.