on took place
at long range, the allies to windward, but not pressing their attack
close. The number of ships engaged in this magnificent spectacle, the
closing scene of the great drama in Europe, the after-piece to the
successful defence of Gibraltar, was eighty-three of the
line,--forty-nine allies and thirty-four English. Of the former,
thirty-three only got into action; but as the duller sailers would
have come up to a general engagement, Lord Howe was probably right in
declining, so far as in him lay, a trial which the allies did not too
eagerly court.

Such were the results of this great contest in the European seas,
marked on the part of the allies by efforts gigantic in size, but
loose-jointed and flabby in execution. By England, so heavily
overmatched in mere numbers, were shown firmness of purpose, high
courage, and seamanship; but it can scarcely be said that the military
conceptions of her councils, or the cabinet management of her sea
forces, were worthy of the skill and devotion of her seamen. The odds
against her were not so great--not nearly so great--as the formidable
lists of guns and ships seemed to show; and while allowance must
justly be made for early hesitations, the passing years of indecision
and inefficiency on the part of the allies should have betrayed to her
their weakness. The reluctance of the French to risk their ships, so
plainly shown by D'Estaing, De Grasse, and De Guichen, the
sluggishness and inefficiency of the Spaniards, should have encouraged
England to pursue her old policy, to strike at the organized forces of
the enemy afloat. As a matter of fact, and probably from the
necessities of the case, the opening of every campaign found the
enemies separated,--the Spaniards in Cadiz, the French in Brest.[164]
To blockade the latter in full force before they could get out,
England should have strained every effort; thus she would have stopped
at its head the main stream of the allied strength, and, by knowing
exactly where this great body was, would have removed that uncertainty
as to its action which fettered her own movements as soon as it had
gained the freedom of the open sea. Before Brest she was interposed
between the allies; by her lookouts she would have known the approach
of the Spaniards long before the French could know it; she would have
kept in her hands the power of bringing against each, singly, ships
more numerous and individually more effective. A wind that was fair to