of Prussia had done for military war, freeing naval tactics from the artificial unreality which had made a sea battle a naval parade like the campaigns in Flanders, and beginning a new era of offensive action on the sea. He introduced the tactics of breaking across the enemy's battle line and, while it was in confusion, throwing his whole force into one part of it. In his first attempt at the new method he was foiled by the disobedience to his orders of men accustomed to the stately spectacle of two fleets in line firing broadsides into each other. Rodney finally carried out this manœuvre with success at the battle of the Saints on April 12, 1782, when he captured the French flagship, the Ville de Paris, and other vessels.

Great as was the preponderance of naval force arrayed against Great Britain, the jealousies and bad seamanship of the allied forces helped to neutralize it. When the Spaniards joined the French in the West Indies, the sickness in their fleets was such as to prevent any use of their greater force, and the same may be said of the combined fleets when, with an enormous superiority, they dominated the Channel in 1779. The conditions of this great Armada, which did nothing, are thus described by Mahan (The Influence of Sea Power upon History, pp. 402-3, note). The French fleet was hurried to sea four thousand short. The Spaniards were seven weeks in joining. When they met no common system of signals had been arranged; five fair summer days were spent in remedying this defect. Not till a week after the junction could the fleet sail for England. No steps were taken to supply the provisions consumed by the French during the seven weeks." The plans as to the point of landing were changed from Portsmouth to Falmouth. Then an easterly gale drove the fleet out of the Channel. By this time the sickness that raged had so reduced the crews that many ships could be neither handled nor fought."

"

The difficulties of the British were those of democratic government. Rodney was a Tory; Howe, Keppel and Barrington were Whigs. So, as soon as Lord North resigned, Rodney was dismissed, luckily not in time to prevent his great victory at the Saints.

On their part, while Rodney was relieving Gibraltar, the

allies captured off the Azores the whole East and West Indian merchant fleets, and carried some sixty sail with three thousand prisoners into Cadiz.

In March, 1781, de Grasse came to America with a large fleet and troops, and went, with as much secrecy as possible, to the Chesapeake, where he joined with de Barras from New York. Want of accurate information and want of touch, both on sea and land, led to Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown in October.

The naval affairs in the East were on a much smaller scale, but of great importance in their relation to supremacy of the armies in India, the French Suffren, a very brilliant commander, and the English Hughes fighting several naval battles, while the armies were engaged with Hyder Ali, of Mysore, and the Mahrattas on land.

ix. The Siege of Gibraltar.-The chief object of Spain in the war was the recovery of Gibraltar, Minorca and the Floridas. When, on June 16, 1779, she declared war on Britain, she at once undertook the siege of Gibraltar, for which she had been preparing. The siege, which lasted until the peace in 1783, was by far the most remarkable event of the war.

The Rock, which had been captured by Admiral Sir George Rooke in 1704 as part of the operations in assistance of Charles, Archduke of Austria, the competitor with Philip of Anjou for the throne of Spain, had remained in British hands, being, since 1777, under the command of General Elliott. Drinkwater, its historian, who went through the siege, was one of the men who, in answer for a call for troops in that year, had volunteered into the regiment raised by the City of Manchester.

When the siege began there were in Gibraltar 5,382 officers and men, some of whom had already served in the garrison for some years. The provision for a prolonged siege was very primitive. An aqueduct, constructed by a Jesuit, collected the water for a fountain in the centre of the town; there was plenty of fish of various kinds to be caught around the coast ; there were still great numbers of Barbary apes on the hills; and up to the time when the Spaniards made advanced works on the land side, the garrison had obtained vegetables from the neutral ground between the Rock and Spain. When these

works were erected Elliott had to grow what he could in the low grounds of the Rock, from which he obtained considerable supplies. Besides revictualling from Britain, the garrison expected supplies from Minorca and from the Moors of Ceuta, Tetuan and Tangier, subject to the Emperor of Morocco. The Spaniards appear to have thought that by a close investment they could starve the garrison into surrender, for, while drawing lines across the isthmus and erecting batteries, they made, at first, no attempt at bombardment. Luckily, the garrison had been provisioned in advance in April, 1779. As thick mists prevailed, and easterly winds, enabling ships to go by unperceived, a very careful watch had to be kept on the sea front.

The first shot was fired by the garrison on July 6th. During the first months of the siege nothing of any great moment occurred, unless it be that, from July 21, the troops were to mount guard with their hair unpowdered. But the troops, in their confined quarters, and the inhabitants soon began to suffer from want of food and fuel. At the end of October the smallpox was discovered among the Jews, who formed a large part of the population, and by November provisions were becoming terribly scarce and dear, vegetables and bread being almost unobtainable. A Moorish boat came in, says Drinkwater, with thirty-nine bullocks which were so weak and poor that many of them died on the beach as soon as they were landed they were, however, a most acceptable supply." The women and children, suffering from starvation, ate dandelions, thistles and wild leeks. The Hanoverian troops set up incubators and hatched chickens.

The most remarkable feature of the siege which continued throughout was, I think, the number of desertions on both sides. Desertions from the Rock, under the desperate conditions of the garrison, were not surprising, but they were equalled by the desertions from the other side. These were, for the most part, foreign troops in Spanish pay. Besides the numbers who came from the Spanish camp, which was reported to be very sickly and in want of provisions, to the British garrison, numbers deserted into the country behind them, taking with them their arms.

Then, when hope was nearly gone, on January 17, 1780,

Rodney, after defeating the Spanish navy and taking their admiral, brought in a large convoy of food and fuel and munitions. He sent soldiers' wives and children with the prizes to England. Still, the situation of the garrison was not very satisfactory. Scurvy had appeared. Salt cod had been provided from Newfoundland, which was not good, and the men having no vegetables, the disease often proved fatal, though the British ships captured a Danish boat from Malaga, laden with oranges and lemons which were a specific remedy. Leather was so scarce that most of the men wore canvas shoes with linen soles. In June, fireships were sent down on the British ships to burn them, but the sailors, at great risk, grappled them and towed them ashore. Then, in July, they heard the bad news that the combined fleets of France and Spain had captured the East and West Indian fleets off the Azores, and had taken some sixty ships with three thousand prisoners and great quantities of stores of all kinds into Cadiz. Another very great misfortune now happened to them. The Spaniards made an agreement with the Moorish Emperor not to allow them to be supplied from Africa, and the fishing-boats were driven in by Spanish cruisers. Still they got some supplies from Minorca.

In February, 1781, so severe was the condition, that the officers presented a memorial to Elliott. They pointed out the hardships which they had undergone, that their pay was diminished by the rate of exchange, the great advance in price of everything required, whether food or clothing, and the loss of any share of extensive promotions going on in the Army, begging him to lay their complaints before the King. Of this the Governor took no notice.

The food at this time is thus described by Drinkwater : The soldier for himself received weekly 5 lbs. of bread, 13 oz. of salt beef, 18 of pork, both of them almost in a state of putrescence, 2 oz. of butter which was little better than rancid congealed oil, and a few other small items of peas, beans and rice, "What then must be the sufferings of those who had a family of small children to support out of this pittance, or what must be the distress of the inhabitants who had no assistance from the stores?"

Under these circumstances the garrison was a second time

relieved, on April 12, 1781, by Admiral Darby. Then the Spaniards, who had been erecting and manning batteries, started a tremendous bombardment which continued without intermission until the end of the siege. The inhabitants lost most of their property by the destruction caused. But the destruction of the houses disclosed stores which had been held back by the merchants, and the soldiers, who had been suffering from want, got out of hand and committed many excesses, destroying, as is usual in such cases, more than they consumed. "I recollect," says Drinkwater, "seeing a party of soldiers roast a pig by a fire of cinnamon." After trying gentle measures, Elliott stopped this mutinous conduct by an order for the immediate execution for looting or being drunk or asleep on a post. Owing to Darby's anxiety to leave without missing the east wind, the stores had not been properly secured or handled, and were subjected to great damage from very heavy rains.

In November, 1781, the garrison performed a remarkable feat. The Spaniards having, by much labour, finished some batteries about three-quarters of a mile from our lines, Elliott ordered a silent sortie at night. The men were armed with inflammable material with which they entered the batteries, fired them and utterly destroyed them. From time to time, chiefly from British privateers, small stores of ammunition, timber and food arrived for the garrison. But on February 5, 1782, Minorca falls, which is sad news.

The enemy were now preparing for the great attack to be made by sea and land by the combined forces of France and Spain, under the Duc de Crillon, who had taken Minorca. A French engineer, M. d'Arcon, had constructed battering ships, roofed with non-inflammable material, and mounted with very heavy guns. These began to appear in May. The garrison, on their part, constructed ten gun-boats from material sent from the islands, and red-hot shot had been provided, which they were trained to use. The Comte d'Artois and the Duc de Bourbon and many others came to see the fall of the great fortress, and parties of Corsican volunteers came to assist the garrison. In August the influenza set in. On September 8, by red-hot shot, some of the enemy's elaborate land works were again destroyed.