t, sent off Sir Alan Gardner with
sixteen sail, of which the _Impetueux_ was one, as a reinforcement for
Earl St. Vincent in the Mediterranean. His orders on this occasion were
promptly attended to; and no other attempt was made by any of the crews
to resist the authority of their officers.

The _Impetueux_ being now for a short time under Earl St. Vincent's
command, Sir Edward took the earliest opportunity to enforce the
application for a court-martial, which he had previously made to Sir
Charles Cotton. The Earl, upon inquiry, was so startled at the magnitude
of the plot, that he thought it better, as the mutiny had been so
promptly suppressed, to conceal it altogether. Sir Edward differed from
him entirely. He considered that the worst effects would follow, if the
men were allowed to think that their officers feared to punish the
ringleaders in such a conspiracy; and as the Earl, who was on the point
of resigning the command from ill-health, appeared still reluctant, he
decided the question by declaring that if the court-martial were not
granted, he should immediately go on shore. Accordingly, it was held on
board the _Prince_, in Port Mahon, on the 19th and 20th of June, when
three of the ringleaders received sentence of death. One of them, after
his condemnation, disclosed all the history and circumstances of the
plot; and this, added to the consideration of his previous good
character, to which Sir Edward had borne a strong testimony on the
court-martial, made his captain think him a proper subject for mercy.
But upon this point, Earl St. Vincent was inflexible. "I am glad of it,"
he said, when Sir Edward spoke favourably of the prisoner's former
conduct; "those who have hitherto suffered had been so worthless before,
that their fate was of little use as an example. I shall now convince
the fleet that no character will save the man who is guilty of mutiny."
May there never be a recurrance of such unhappy times as shall make it
the duty of an officer to act upon this stern principle!

The circumstances were concealed from the country, and the rest of the
fleet, as effectually as if the court-martial had never been held. The
distant and retired harbour where the mutiny occurred; the quietness
with which it was suppressed; the holding of the court-martial abroad;
the frequency of aggravated mutinies within the preceding two years; the
magnitude of the political occurrences at that period; and the anxiety
felt at the