ased by the failure of provisions. On the night of the 2d
of November, the admiral sent for the master of the Victory, and told
him that he now had not the least hope of being reinforced, and had
made up his mind to push down to Gibraltar with all possible dispatch.

The passage became a stormy one, and it was with considerable
difficulty that the fleet reached Gibraltar. Some of the transports
were lost, a ship of the line went down, and several of the fleet were
disabled.

The result of the French successes and the Austrian misfortunes, was
an order for the fleet to leave the Mediterranean, and take up its
station at the Tagus. The vivid spirit of Nelson was especially
indignant at this change of scene. In one of his letters he says--"We
are preparing to leave the Mediterranean, a measure which I cannot
approve. They at home do not know what this fleet is capable of
performing--any thing, and every thing. Of all the fleets I ever saw,
I never saw one, in point of officers and men, equal to Sir John
Jervis's, who is a commander able to lead them to glory." The
admiral's merits were recognized by the government in a still more
permanent manner; for, by a despatch from the Admiralty in February
1797, it was announced that the king had raised him to the dignity of
the peerage.

The prospect now darkened round every quarter of the horizon. The
power of Austria had given way; Spain and Holland were combined
against our naval supremacy; Italy was lost; a French expedition
threatened Ireland; there was a strong probability of the invasion of
Portugal; and the junction of the French and Spanish fleets might
endanger not merely the Tagus fleet, but expose the Channel fleet to
an encounter with numbers so superior, as to leave the British shores
open to invasion. The domestic difficulties, too, had their share.
The necessity of suspending cash payments at the Bank had, if not
thrown a damp upon the nation, at least given so formidable a ground
for the fallacies and bitterness of the Opposition, as deeply to
embarrass even the fortitude of the great minister. We can now see how
slightly all these hazards eventually affected the real power of
England; and we now feel how fully adequate the strength of this
extraordinary and inexhaustible country was to resist all obstacles
and turn the trial into triumph. But faction was busy, party predicted
ruin, public men used every art to dispirit the nation and inflame the
populace; and