William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose (book club reads txt) 📕

agitators inflamed the crews with the suspicion of ministerial trickery;

and on 7th May, every ship refused to obey Bridport's orders to weigh

anchor. The men arrested Colpoys and sent fifteen officers on shore.

Pitt thereupon, on 8th May, moved a resolution in the terms of the

decision framed at Windsor on 22nd April. He begged the House for a

silent vote on this question; but Fox and Sheridan could not resist the

temptation to accuse him of being the cause of this second mutiny.

Clearly it resulted from the remarks in the House of Lords on 3rd May,

which led the seamen to believe that Pitt was about to play them false.

The Commons passed the resolution; but Whitbread, on the morrow, moved a

vote of censure on Pitt for delay in dealing with this important

question. Again Pitt pointed out that the promise given during the

Budget debate sufficed for the time, but he admitted that preliminary

forms and inquiries had absorbed an undue amount of time. Fox and

Sheridan pounced down on this admission, the latter inveighing against

the "criminal and murderous delay" of Ministers, whose incapacity

earned the contempt of the House. Spying a party advantage in

protracting these debates, Whitbread renewed his attack on the next day

(10th May). Pitt replied with admirable temper, and showed that the

delay in presenting a Bill arose partly from the action of the

Opposition itself. Will it be believed that Parliament wasted two days,

while the navy was in mutiny, in discussing whether Pitt had or had not

been guilty of delay? The results were deplorable. An anonymous

chronicler, hostile to Pitt, confessed that the men at Spithead were

"better pleased with reading Fox and Sheridan's speeches than with the

long-expected settlement of their claims."[454]

In this state of things Pitt despatched Howe ("Black Dick"), the most

popular of the admirals, in order to convince the seamen of the

sincerity of Government. The following is the letter in which he

apprised Bridport of Howe's mission:

                             Downing Street, _May 10, 1797_.[455]

    The account we have received this morning led to a great degree

    of hope that the distressful embarrassments which you have

    experienced may already in a great degree have subsided. You

    will, however, have learnt that in the suspense in which we

    remained yesterday, it had been determined to send Lord Howe

    with such instructions under the sign manual as seemed to us

    best adapted to the very difficult emergency. His presenting

    this commission seems still [more] likely to confirm the good

    disposition which had begun to show itself, and his not coming

    after the intention had once been announced might lead to

    unpleasant consequence [_sic_]. It was thought best to make this

    a civil commission in order not to interfere with the military

    command of the fleet, and at the same time to give the

    commission to a distinguished naval character, though not with

    any naval authority or functions. It was also thought that

    making a communication of this nature after all that had passed

    through some other channel than the commander of the fleet was

    for other reasons preferable and likely to be thought so by you.

    I earnestly hope this measure will produce good effects and will

    both in itself and in its consequences be satisfactory to you.

    At all events I am sure you will continue to contribute your

    exertions with the same zeal and public spirit which you have

    shewn under such trying difficulties to bring this arduous work,

    if possible, to a happy termination. I hope I need not say how

    sincerely and deeply, in addition to the public difficulties, I

    have felt for the situation in which you have been placed. If

    the favourable turn which has been given to affairs should be

    happily confirmed, I look forward to the hope that your command

    may still be attended with circumstances which may repay you for

    the labour and anxiety with which you have had to struggle.

Howe found it no easy task to vindicate the good faith of Ministers; but

by visiting each ship in turn, he prevailed on the men to submit to

discipline. The 14th of May was a day of great rejoicing at Spithead;

the men's delegates landed and carried the venerable admiral in triumph

to Government House, where he and his lady entertained them at dinner.

Three days later the whole fleet put to sea.

But already there had fallen on Pitt a still severer blow. On 10th May

appeared the first signs of discontent in the ships anchored off

Sheerness. In all probability they may be ascribed to the factious

wrangling at Westminster and the revival of the mutiny at Spithead on

7th May. Seeing that the demands of the sailors had been conceded before

this outbreak occurred at the Nore, nothing can be said on behalf of the

ringleaders, except that amidst their worst excesses they professed

unswerving loyalty, firing salutes on 29th May in honour of the

restoration of Charles II and on 4th June for King George's birthday.

Apart from this their conduct was grossly unpatriotic. On 12th May the

crew of H.M.S. "Sandwich," headed by a supernumerary named Parker,

captured the ship, persuaded eleven other crews to mutiny, and sent

delegates to Portsmouth to concert action with Bridport's fleet.

In this they failed; and, had Vice-Admiral Buckner, in command at the

Nore, acted with vigour, he might have profited by the discouragement

which this news produced. He acted weakly; and the men paid no heed to

the Royal Proclamation issued on 23rd May, offering the same terms as

those granted at Portsmouth and pardon to all who at once returned to

duty. Spencer and his colleagues came from London in the hope of

persuading the men, but in vain. The men sought to tempt the one loyal

ship, the "Clyde," from its duty. Fortunately this Abdiel of a false

company was able to slip off by night and guard the entrance to

Sheerness harbour. Government then hurried up troops and had new

batteries constructed to overawe the fleet. Unfortunately, at the end of

May, thirteen more ships, deserters from the fleets of Duncan and

Onslow, joined the mutineers at the Nore. This event might have led to a

double disaster. Stout old Duncan with only two ships sailed on

undaunted to the Texel, where lay a Dutch fleet of fifteen sail

preparing for sea. In order to impose on them he kept flying signals as

if to consorts in the offing, a stratagem which entirely succeeded. The

danger was, however, acute until, acting on Spencer's suggestion,

Vorontzoff ordered a Russian squadron, then in British waters, to sail

to Duncan's help.

Equally serious was the situation at the Nore. The mutineers, strong in

numbers but lacking beef and beer, stopped the navigation of the Thames

and captured provisions from merchantmen, thus causing a panic in

London. On 5th June, after firing the royal salute, the crews seized

some unpopular officers and boatswains, tarred and feathered them, and

landed them at Gravesend, a spectacle for gods and men. In these and

other reckless acts the fever expended its force. Food and water ran

short; for the banks were strictly guarded, and ships ceased to arrive.

The desperate suggestion of handing the ships over to the Dutch was

frustrated, if it were ever seriously considered, by the removal of the

outer buoys. One by one ships fell away and replaced the red flag by the

white ensign. Enough force was now at hand to quell the desperate

minority; and on 15th June the "Sandwich," renouncing the authority of

Parker, sailed under the guns of Sheerness. A fortnight later Parker

swung from the yardarm of that ship. His had been a strange career. The

son of a tradesman of Exeter, he is said to have entered the navy as a

midshipman, but to have been thrice dismissed from his ship for bad

conduct. Settling down at Perth, he was imprisoned for debt, but gained

his freedom and also a bounty for enrolling in the navy as a volunteer.

His daring spirit and sturdy frame brought him to the front in the way

that we have seen, the moral perversity of his nature largely

determining the course of the mutiny at the Nore. After him twenty-two

other mutineers were hanged.

Few men have done more harm to England than Parker. So heavy a blow did

the Nore mutiny deal to credit that 3 per cent. Consols, which did not

fall below 50 at the Bank crisis, sank to 48 in June, the lowest level

ever touched in our history. After the collapse of the mutiny they rose

to 55 1/2. The serenity of Pitt never failed during this terrible time.

A remarkable proof of his self-possession was given by Spencer. Having

to consult him hastily one night, he repaired to Downing Street and

found that he was asleep. When awakened, he sat up in bed, heard the

case, and gave his instructions, whereupon Spencer withdrew.

Remembering, however, one topic which he had omitted, he returned, and

found him buried in slumber as profound as if he had not been disturbed.

Fox and his friends were far from showing the same equanimity. Because

the House by 256 votes to 91 opposed a motion for Reform which Grey most

inopportunely brought forward in the midst of the mutiny, they decided

to leave Parliament. But the effect of this "secession" was marred by

the occasional reappearance of Sheridan, Tierney, and others who had

loudly advocated it.[456] Unpatriotic in conception, it speedily became

ludicrous from its half-hearted execution.

The question has often been raised whether the mutineers were egged on

by malcontent clubs. There are some suspicious signs. A mutineer on

board H.M.S. "Champion" told his captain that they had received money

from a man in a black coat. This alone is not very convincing. But the

malcontents at the Nore certainly received money, though from what

source is uncertain. The evidence brought before the Committee of

Secrecy as to the connection of the United Irishmen with the mutineers,

seems rather thin. As to French bribery, the loyal sailors at Spithead

in their address to the Nore mutineers bade them not to be any longer

misled by "French principles and their agents, under whatsoever mask."

It was also reported in August 1798 that the French Government paid an

Irishman, Duckett, to go and _renew_ the mutiny. The officials of the

Home Office believed the London Corresponding Society to be guilty; and

on 16th June one of them, J. K[ing], issued a secret order to two of his

agents at Sheerness to discover whether two members of that society,

named Beck and Galloway, had had dealings with the rebel crews. The

agents, A. Graham and D. Williams, on 24th June sent to the Duke of

Portland the following report, which merits quotation almost in

full:[457]

    ... Mr. Graham and Mr. Williams beg leave to assure his Grace

    that they have unremittingly endeavoured to trace if there was

    any connexion or correspondence carried on between the mutineers

    and any private person or any society on shore, and they think

    they may with the greatest safety pronounce that no such

    connexion or correspondence ever did exist. They do not however

    mean to say that wicked and designing men have not been among

    the mutineers; on the contrary they have proof sufficient to

    found a belief upon that several whose mischievous dispositions

    would lead them to the farthest corner of the kingdom in hopes

    of continuing a disturbance once begun have been in company with

    the delegates on shore, and have also (some of them) visited the

    ships at the Nore, and by using inflammatory language

    endeavoured to spirit on the sailors to a continuance of the

    mutiny, without however daring to offer anything like a plan for

    the disposal of the fleet or to do more than insinuate that they

    were belonging to clubs or societies whose members wished well

    to the cause, but from which societies Mr. Graham and Mr.

    Williams are persuaded no such persons were ever regularly

    deputed. Neither do they believe that any club or society in the

    kingdom or any of those persons who may have found means of

    introducing themselves to the delegates have in the smallest

    degree been able to influence the proceedings of the mutineers,

    whose conduct from the beginning seems to have been of a wild

    and extravagant nature not reducible to any sort of form or

    order and therefore capable of no other mischief than was to be

    apprehended from a want of the fleet to serve against the enemy.

    In this state however they were unfortunately suffered to go