hrough the
traditions of his service and assert for the navy that principal part
which befits it, that offensive action which secures the control of
the sea by the destruction of the enemy's fleet. Had he met in his
lieutenants such ready instruments as Nelson found prepared for him,
there can be little doubt that Hughes's squadron would have been
destroyed while inferior to Suffren's, before reinforcements could
have arrived; and with the English fleet it could scarcely have failed
that the Coromandel coast also would have fallen. What effect this
would have had upon the fate of the peninsula, or upon the terms of
the peace, can only be surmised. His own hope was that, by acquiring
the superiority in India, a glorious peace might result.

No further opportunities of distinction in war were given to Suffren.
The remaining years of his life were spent in honored positions
ashore. In 1788, upon an appearance of trouble with England, he was
appointed to the command of a great fleet arming at Brest; but before
he could leave Paris he died suddenly on the 8th of December, in the
sixtieth year of his age. There seems to have been no suspicion at
the time of other than natural causes of death, he being exceedingly
stout and of apoplectic temperament; but many years after a story,
apparently well-founded, became current that he was killed in a duel
arising out of his official action in India. His old antagonist on the
battlefield, Sir Edward Hughes, died at a great age in 1794.

FOOTNOTES:

[168] This Commodore Johnstone, more commonly known as Governor
Johnstone, was one of the three commissioners sent by Lord North in
1778 to promote a reconciliation with America. Owing to certain
suspicious proceedings on his part, Congress declared it was
incompatible with their honor to hold any manner of correspondence or
intercourse with him. His title of Governor arose from his being at
one time governor of Pensacola. He had a most unenviable reputation in
the English navy. (See Charnock's Biog. Navalis.)

[169] This plate is taken almost wholly from Cunat's "Vie de Suffren."

[170] Page 299.

[171] La Serre: Essais Hist. et Critiques sur la Marine Francaise.

[172] The question of attacking the English squadron at its anchors
was debated in a council of war. Its opinion confirmed Suffren's
decision not to do so. In contrasting this with the failure of the
English to attack the French detachment in Newport (p. 394), it must
be