April the fleet sailed for America. Silas Deane, one of the American commissioners, and M. Gerard, the first appointed French minister to the United States, came passengers in the Languedoc, D'Estaing's flag-ship. Authentic information of the sailing of this expedition reached the British cabinet on the 4th of May. Some of the ministers being out of town, a cabinet council was not held until the 6th, when it was determined speedily to dispatch a powerful squadron, then at Portsmouth, to America. On the 20th, Admirals Byron and Hyde Parker, with twenty-two ships of the line, weighed anchor. Doubtful of the destination of D'Estaing, and not knowing that Deane and Gerard were with him, ministers countermanded the order for sailing, and the squadron, overtaken by an express, returned to Plymouth, where it remained until the 5th of June, when it again sailed under the command of Admiral Byron alone. ***

The conduct of the French government, in thus openly giving aid, by treaty and arms, to the revolted colonies, aroused the ire, not only of ministers, but of the people of Great Britain, in whose bosoms the embers of ancient feuds were not wholly extinct. In Parliament, which was just on the eve of adjournment, ministers moved an appropriate address to the king. The opposition proposed an amendment requesting his majesty to dismiss the ministry! A furious debate arose, but the original address was carried by a majority of two hundred and sixty-three against one hundred and thirteen in the Commons, and an equally

* The French envoy, De Noailles (uncle of La Fayette's wife), delivered a rescript to Lord Weymouth on the 17th of March, in which he informed the British court of the treaty. While in it he professed in the name of the government a desire to maintain amicable relations with Great Britain, and declared that the "court of London" would find in his communication "new proofs of his majesty's [Louis XVI.] constant and sincere disposition for peace," he plainly warned it that his sovereign, "being determined to protect effectually the lawful commerce of his subjects, and to maintain the dignity of his flag, had, in consequence, taken effectual measures, in concert with the Thirteen United and Independent States of America." This note greatly incensed the British ministry, for they considered it more than half ironical in language, and intentionally insulting in spirit. Orders were issued for the seizure of all French vessels in English ports A similar order was issued by the French government. War thus actually commenced between the two nations, though not formally declared.

** Charles Henry Count d'Estaing was a native of Auvergne, in France. He was under the famous Count Lally, governor general of the French possessions in the East Indies, in 1756. He was taken prisoner-by the English, but escaped by breaking his parole. He was commander at the taking of Grenada after his services in America. He became a member of the Assembly of Notables in the French Revolution, and being suspected of unfriendliness to the Terrorists, was guillotined on the 29th of April, 1793.

*** Admiral Byron carried with him to Earl Howe, the naval commander on the American coast, a permit for that officer to return to England, pursuant to his own urgent request. Byron became his successor in the chief command.

The King's Speech.—Boldness of the Opposition.—The British and French Fleets.—Sandy Hook and Amboy Bay.

decided majority in the Upper House. Parliament soon afterward adjourned, and did not meet again until November, when the king, in his speech at the opening, directed the attention of the Legislature to the conduct of France. After speaking of the good faith of Great Britain, and the quiet then prevailing in Europe, he said, "In a time of profound peace, without pretense of provocation or color of complaint, the court of France hath not forborne to disturb the public tranquillity, in violation of the faith of treaties and the general rights of sovereigns; at first by the clandestine supply of arms and other aid to my revolted subjects in North America; afterward by avowing openly their support, and entering into formal engagements with the leaders of the rebellion; and at length by committing open hostilities and depredations on my faithful subjects, and by an actual invasion of my dominions in America and the West Indies." He alluded to the want of success in America, the means that had been put forth to suppress the rebellion, the complete failure of the commissioners to conclude a peace, and the evident preparations for hostilities which Spain was making. He closed his address by calling upon Parliament to put forth their utmost energies which the crisis demanded, assuring them that his cordial co-operation would always be extended, and informed them that he had called out the militia for the defense of the country. In fact, the king carefully avoided casting censure upon ministers for the late miscarriages in America, and, by implication, fixed the blame upon the commanders in that service. The address was warmly opposed in both houses, and in the Commons the king was accused of falsehood—uttering "a false, unjust, and illiberal slander on the commanders in the service of the crown; loading them with a censure which ought to fall on ministers alone." Yet ministers were still supported by pretty large majorities in both houses, while the war-spirit, renewed by the French alliance, was hourly increasing among the multitude without. *

After a voyage of eighty-seven days, the French squadron arrived on the coast, and anchored at the entrance of Delaware Bay. Howe, with his fleet, had July 8,1778 fortunately for himself, left the Delaware a few days before, and was anchored off Sandy Hook, to co-operate with the British land forces under Clinton, then proceeding from Philadelphia to New York. ** On learning this fact, Deane and Gerard proceeded immediately up the Delaware to Philadelphia, where Congress was then in session. *** After communicating with that body, D'Estaing weighed anchor and sailed for Sandy Hook. Howe was within the Hook, in Raritan or Amboy Bay, **** whither D'Estaing could not with safety attempt to follow him with his large vessels, on account of a sand-bar extending to Staten Island from Sandy Hook. (v) He anchored near the Jersey shore, not far from the mouth of the Shrewsbury River.

On the 22d of July, D'Estaing sailed with his squadron, at the urgent request of Washington, to co-operate with General Sullivan, then preparing to make an attempt 1778

* Lossing's "1776," p. 274.