e to effect certain
results, he replies that is their business, on which he does not pretend
to judge. In his evidence before the Court afterwards, he said, "Whether
they should land or not, he constantly thought it the part of the
generals to determine. He could not but suppose they were infinitely
better judges of their own business than he could be." Their conduct was
marked by vacillations strange to him, and which apparently displeased
him; the troops being, on one occasion, embarked in the boats for some
hours, and yet returning to the ships without proceeding. He then
addressed a formal letter to the commanding general, saying that if he
had no further operation to propose the fleet would return at once to
England, and he declined to attend a Council of War to decide either of
these points. The Army should decide, alone, whether it could effect
anything by landing; if not, he, without asking counsel, would stay no
longer. On October 7th he reached Spithead.

Pitt, who had espoused Byng's cause against the previous administration,
followed its precedent in throwing the blame on the military and naval
leaders. In Parliament, he "declared solemnly his belief that there was
a determined resolution, both in the naval and military commanders,
against any vigorous exertion of the national power." For far less than
this accusation Byng had been condemned; but in fact the fault at
Rochefort lay clearly on those who issued the orders,--upon the Cabinet;
upon the character of the expedition itself,--a great risk for a
secondary and doubtful object; upon the inconsiderate haste which
disregarded alike the season and the inadequate knowledge; upon
defective preparation in the broadest sense of the words. Diversions, in
truth, are feints, in which the utmost smoke with the least fire is the
object. Carried farther, they entail disaster; for they rest on no solid
basis of adequate force, but upon successful deception. Pitt's angry
injustice met with its due rebuke the next year at St. Cas. It can
scarcely be doubted that words such as those quoted were responsible, in
part at least, for the disastrous issue of that diversion, the story of
which belongs, if to the navy at all, to the life of Howe.

That Hawke resented this language can scarcely be doubted, and none the
less that he evidently himself felt that something might have been
attempted by the troops. He was clear of fault in his own consciousness;
but in the general ce