tated, many years later, "When it
was close upon sunset, it became a question whether the chase should
be continued. After some discussion between the admiral and captain,
at which I was present, the admiral being confined with the gout, it
was decided to persist in the same course with the signal to engage to
leeward." (United Service Journal, 1830, Part II. p. 479.)

[224] Rodney was a strong Tory. Almost all the other distinguished
admirals of the day, notably Keppel, Howe, and Barrington, were
Whigs,--a fact unfortunate for the naval power of England.

[225] Rodney's Life, vol. ii. p. 242.

[226] Chevalier, p. 311.

[227] Kerguelen: Guerre Maritime de 1778. Letter of De Grasse to
Kerguelen, p. 263.

[228] Troude: Batailles Navales. It is interesting to note in this
connection that one of the ships near the French admiral, when he
surrendered, was the "Pluton," which, though the extreme rear ship,
had nevertheless thus reached a position worthy of the high reputation
of her captain, D'Albert de Rions.

[229] Troude, vol. ii. p. 147

[230] That is, commanders of single ships.

CHAPTER XIV.

CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF THE MARITIME WAR OF 1778.

The war of 1778, between Great Britain and the House of Bourbon, which
is so inextricably associated with the American Revolution, stands by
itself in one respect. It was purely a maritime war. Not only did the
allied kingdoms carefully refrain from continental entanglements,
which England in accordance with her former policy strove to excite,
but there was between the two contestants an approach to equality on
the sea which had not been realized since the days of Tourville. The
points in dispute, the objects for which the war was undertaken or at
which it aimed, were for the most part remote from Europe; and none of
them was on the continent with the single exception of Gibraltar, the
strife over which, being at the extreme point of a rugged and
difficult salient, and separated from neutral nations by the whole of
France and Spain, never threatened to drag in other parties than those
immediately interested.

No such conditions existed in any war between the accession of Louis
XIV. and the downfall of Napoleon. There was a period during the reign
of the former in which the French navy was superior in number and
equipment to the English and Dutch; but the policy and ambition of the
sovereign was always directed to continental extension, and his naval
power,