APPENDIX to the CHRONICLE. 



S79 



Rochefort squadrons fallen in with 

 me, I must have become an easy 

 prey to them. Had they taken a 

 difiFerent course and sailed for Ire- 

 ■ land, or even England, there was 

 no squadron to arrest their progress. 

 Had I been defeated, although many 

 of the enemy's ships must have been 

 disabled in the conflict, I should have 

 lost the advantage I had before ob- 

 tained, the enemy would have ac- 

 quired spirit, their remaining squa- 

 drons would have been unmolested, 

 and it is impossible to foresee what 

 might, in that case, have been the 

 consequence. 



The question before you is a great 

 and momentous one — it affects every 

 officer who has been, or any time 

 may be in a situation of command. 

 Miserable indeed must be their con- 

 dition if they are to be censured for 

 an honest exercise of the discretion 

 necessarily resulting from such a si- 

 tuation. I have ever felt that in my 

 case, 1 have exercised it wisely and 

 beneficially ; I still feel so, and were 

 I again placed in similar cases, I 

 should act in the same manner, un- 

 less this court, putting themselves in 

 the situation 1 then was, and consi- 

 dering all the circumstances that at 

 that time presented themselves to 

 my consideration, the various con- 



cerns to which my attention was ne- 

 cessarily directed, should tell me I 

 have acted erroneously. This I 

 trust they will not do. 



If, in the discussion of this ques- 

 tion, I may be allowed to look to 

 subsequent events, they, I think, 

 will fully justify the line of conduct 

 I adopted. By it I was enabled, 

 after receiving a reinforcement, to 

 pursue the combined squadrons into 

 Cadiz, and thercb}- perhaps to have 

 laid the foundation of that glorious 

 victory which Ave have so recently 

 celebrated. Believe me, gentle- 

 men, the circumstance of having, by 

 the various calumnies which have 

 been spread, been put under the 

 necessity of soliciting the present 

 inquiry, and thereby been prevent- 

 ed from being a sharer in the glories 

 of that day, has been no small ad- 

 dition to the various sufferings I 

 have undergone. 



These sufferings, I trust, will now 

 have had their period, and the opi- 

 nion of this court will, I flatter my- 

 self, confirm me in that estimatioa 

 with the profession and the public, 

 which I have for so many'years em- 

 ployed, and restore to me unsullied 

 that fair name and reputation which 

 has on this occasion been so cruelly 

 and unjustly attacked.* 



• For further particulars, and for the result of this most interesting trial, vide 

 I Chronicle. 



Pp2 



