England's maritime strength, combined with a bad harvest, war, and insurrection, caused a scarcity of food in France which threatened to amount to a famine. A fleet of merchant ships laden with provisions was anxiously expected from America, and a convoying squadron was sent to bring it over. The channel fleet, thirty-four ships of the line and fifteen frigates, under Howe, sailed on May 2 with 148 merchantmen bound for different parts. Howe despatched the merchantmen and their convoys under Admiral Montagu, with orders that after Montagu had convoyed the merchantmen a certain distance, he was to cruise about with six ships of the line and look out for the provision ships. Their safe arrival was vital to France, and Rear-admiral Villaret-Joyeuse sailed with the Brest fleet to bring them in. As soon as Howe found that the French fleet had sailed, he determined to strike at the main force of the enemy. He sighted the French to windward on the 28th, about 400 miles west of Ushant. Their fleet consisted of twenty-six ships of the line, the same number as his own. He at once sent four of his fastest ships to get to windward of them, and attack their rear. A partial action took place in which the Révolutionnaire (110) was utterly disabled, and her last assailant, the Audacious (74), was so crippled that she went home. On the 29th Howe planned to obtain the weather-gage and to deliver a concentrated attack on the rear of the enemy. He took his flagship, the Queen Charlotte (100), through the French line, and was followed by two others. Villaret manœuvred skilfully, but three of his ships were badly damaged. The result of Howe's admirable tactics during these two days was that four French ships were forced to leave the fleet, and another had to be towed by a consort, and that he won the windward position and so was enabled to force an action. On the 30th there was a thick fog, and during the day the French received a reinforcement of four ships, giving them the advantage of one over the British. The fog cleared at noon on the 31st; the British fleet came up with the enemy, then to leeward, and "near sunset" formed the line of battle.
On Sunday morning, June 1, a fresh breeze blowing south by west, the two fleets lay in parallel lines, the leading British ship being opposite to the seventh of the French fleet. The British having formed on the larboard line of bearing, Howe brought them down slantwise on the enemy, apparently intending that each ship should pass across the stern of her opponent, rake her, and engage to leeward. Unlike Rodney in the battle of the Saints, he deliberately adopted the manœuvre of breaking the line, and planned that his ships should fight to leeward instead of to windward, and so bar the crippled ships of the enemy from getting away. As the Queen Charlotte bore down, he bade the master, Bowen, lay her as close as he could to Villaret's flagship, the Montagne (120). Bowen brought her so close round the Frenchman's stern that the tricolour ensign flapped against her shrouds, and as she passed she raked her gigantic enemy from stern to stem with her larboard broadside to such effect that the Montagne lost 300 killed and wounded before she could make reply. Six British ships broke through the line and engaged to leeward; the others remained to windward, the captains perhaps not fully understanding Howe's plan.
As the Brunswick (74) tried to force her way through the French line, her anchors caught in the rigging of the Vengeur du Peuple (74), and the two ships drifted side by side in deadly embrace for three hours. When at last they parted the Brunswick had received much damage and lost 158 men, including her captain, who was mortally wounded. The Vengeur was a wreck. A broadside from the Ramillies (74) finished her. She "hauled her colours down and displayed a Union Jack over her quarter, and hailed for quarter having struck, her masts going soon after, and a-sinking".[253] The Alfred (74) sent an officer aboard her, and the boats of three English ships saved about 333 of her crew. The "rest went down with her". The flatulent account of her end, given by Barrère in the convention, is largely imaginary. The crew of the Vengeur did not choose death rather than the surrender of their ship. Some of those whom the efforts of the British seamen failed to save, went down with a cry of Vive la république! They had surrendered after a hard-fought fight, and they died as gallant seamen die. The battle of "the glorious first of June" ended in the complete victory of the British fleet. Six French ships were taken besides the Vengeur; five dismasted and several crippled ships were brought away by Villaret. Howe might easily have secured more prizes, but he was an old man, and was completely worn out by the fatigue and anxiety of the last five days. His tactics were splendid, though the detaching of part of his fleet under Montagu was a strategic mistake. The provision ships got safely into Brest, but the French purchased their food at the cost of their fleet.
In July the whigs who supported Pitt coalesced with the government. A third secretaryship of state was again instituted. Grenville remained foreign secretary; the Duke of Portland, the nominal head of the seceding whigs, took the home department, with the colonies, and Dundas retained the conduct of the war as secretary of state for war. Earl Fitzwilliam became president of the council, and was promised the vice-royalty of Ireland as soon as a suitable place was found for the present lord lieutenant, the Earl of Westmorland. The Marquis of Stafford resigned the privy seal, which was given to Earl Spencer, and Windham entered the cabinet as secretary-at-war, though his office was not then considered as one of cabinet rank. Burke retired from parliament at the close of the trial of Hastings, and, as he was in straitened circumstances, accepted two pensions of £1,200 and £2,500. The death of his only son clouded the last years of his noble life. Two later changes in office were salutary. Pitt had the unpleasant duty of urging the king to remove his brother Chatham from the admiralty;[254] he resigned on December 20, was succeeded as first lord by Earl Spencer, an excellent appointment, and succeeded Spencer as privy seal, an office more suited to his temperament and talents. The Duke of Richmond was held to be inefficient as master of the ordnance; the new ministers insisted on his removal, and he was succeeded on February 13, 1795, by Cornwallis. At the same time the king appointed his son York field-marshal on the staff; he became commander-in-chief in 1798, but at no time had a seat in the cabinet.
THE IRISH CATHOLIC QUESTION.
These accessions and changes strengthened the ministry. For a time, however, the new ministers recruited from the whigs were inclined to act as a party on questions concerning office. This caused some trouble in the cabinet, specially in connexion with Ireland. Although the trade of Ireland was increased by the removal of restrictions, its agriculture stimulated by bounties on exported corn, and its manufactures and other resources enlarged by parliamentary grants and wise legislation, its political condition was unsatisfactory. It needed a reform of parliament, the admission of catholics to political power, the overthrow of the system by which the castle secured power by the distribution of pensions and offices, and a change in the tithe law. The Earl of Westmorland had succeeded Buckingham as lord-lieutenant in 1790. Round him stood a group of ministers, bishops, and great lords opposed to any changes. Revolutionary principles gained ground among the people. The society of United Irishmen, founded by Wolfe Tone, a lawyer, in 1791, aimed at uniting protestants and catholics for the purpose of overthrowing the English ascendency and effecting a reform of parliament of a democratic kind. While religious animosity was dying out among the upper classes, it was rife among the peasantry, and catholic "defenders" and protestant "peep of day boys" were at constant war. The catholics still suffered from many disabilities. Their hopes of relief were encouraged by the English relief act of 1791, and by the advocacy of Burke, who in his Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe (1792), argued against the monopoly of power by the protestants, and allowed his son to act as the professional adviser of the catholic committee. The English ministers favoured the catholics, and dreaded an alliance between them and the democratic party among the protestants, which would bring them over to join in the demand for parliamentary reform.
Dundas urged the Irish government to assent to the enfranchisement of the catholics on grounds both of justice and expediency. Westmorland and his advisers objected. Pitt recommended them to give way, and wrote that in any case they must not deprive the catholics of hope. In a letter to Westmorland he pointed out that no danger could possibly arise from enfranchisement if Ireland were united to England, a plan which, he said, had long been in his mind.[255] The Irish government yielded, and a bill granting the catholics the suffrage and other relief became law in April, 1793. They were still shut out from parliament and from high offices of state. The measure was ill-conceived, for while it conferred political power upon the poor and ignorant catholics, it left the catholic gentry, a loyal and conservative body, debarred from exercising the influence to which their position entitled them. On the outbreak of the war Grattan supported the government; and parliament voted liberal supplies for the army and navy, and passed a bill establishing an Irish militia of the same kind as that of England. The country was disturbed by troubles over the compulsory enlistment for the militia and by the lawlessness of the defenders. A period of comparative quiet, however, followed the relief act, and the rejection of a moderate reform bill in 1794 created no disturbance. Nevertheless secret disloyalty increased, and Tone and some of his allies held seditious correspondence with France.[256] The United Irishmen grew in numbers, for while the leaders, Tone, Emmet, and Rowan were protestants, they were joined by many catholics. On the other hand, Grattan and his party, supported by most of the protestant and many of the catholic gentry, though anxious for reforms and specially for the complete repeal of the catholic disabilities, were strongly opposed to the democratic movement and were loyal to the constitution of 1782.
FITZWILLIAM AS VICEROY.
Their hopes were raised by the prospect of the speedy appointment of Fitzwilliam as lord-lieutenant, which seemed to promise a change of system favourable to the hopes of the Irish whigs. On taking office as president of the council in July, Fitzwilliam, in common with Portland, to whose department Ireland belonged, thought that he was to succeed Westmorland without delay; he appointed his chief secretary and openly entered into communications with Grattan and Ponsonby which implied extensive changes both of men and measures.[257] The Irish were delighted. Pitt, however, did not mean to give Ireland over to Portland and Fitzwilliam. Unfortunately he let matters slide; though he did not recall Westmorland, he abstained from checking Fitzwilliam's somewhat premature proceedings. In October, Portland pressed for Fitzwilliam's immediate appointment. Pitt then said that he would not consent to a change of system, and specially not to the dismissal of the chancellor, Fitzgibbon, and would not recall Westmorland until he had a suitable place to offer him. A serious quarrel ensued between him and the new ministers of Portland's party. At last a compromise was effected. A court office was found for Westmorland. Fitzwilliam in an interview with Pitt and other ministers disavowed all idea of a general change of system, agreed to some arrangements with regard to appointments, and was instructed to prevent, if possible, the agitation of the catholic question during the coming session, though if he could not evade it he was to be at liberty to give the measure his full support.[258] Pitt was favourable to catholic emancipation, but wished to have no changes during the war. Fitzwilliam received his appointment and was succeeded as president of the council by the Earl of Mansfield.
FITZWILLIAM RECALLED.