286 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOR. 



this act he also closed the harbour against succours, at least 

 until the French fleet should be driven away. To drive it away 

 was the manifest business of the British admiral, and on the 

 morning of the 20th of May, the day after his arrival, Byng gave 

 the signal to bear down and engage the enemy. The number of 

 ships was equal on both sides, though the French had twenty- 

 four guns more than the British ; but in point of numbers of 

 men, the French exceeded their opponents by nearly 3,000. 

 Still there was no reason why the battle should not take place, 

 and accordingly, in obedience to orders from the commander-in- 

 chief, Admiral West began the action by falling on to the 

 French ships immediately opposed to his division. Soon after 

 two o'clock in the afternoon, by which time West had driven 

 one of the French ships out of line, Byng's division was about 

 to come into action, when a series of accidents conspired to 

 embarrass the commander, who did not prove himself superior 

 to them. The Intrepid, of West's division, had so much of her 

 rigging shot away, that she became unmanageable, and drifted 

 foul of some of the other ships. Byng's line was thrown into 

 confusion, and his own ship, the Ramillies, was obliged, in 

 consequence, to bring up. 



M. de la Galissoniere took advantage of the circumstances to 

 discontinue the fight, and Byng believing, as he asserted after- 

 wards, that the French fleet would renew the fight next morning, 

 ordered his ships to lie to, in order to repair the Intrepid, 

 Captain, and Defiance, which had been so mauled as to incapa- 

 citate them for further service until they had been repaired. 

 Next morning at daybreak, the French fleet not appearing, he 

 called a council of war, and took their opinion as to whether he 

 should follow the French fleet and bring it again to action, or 

 whether he should leave Minorca to its fate, and go to the pro- 

 tection of Gibraltar, which might be, though it was not, 

 threatened. For reasons which it is difficult to trace even now, 

 the council was unanimous in recommending that Minorca, 

 which the admiral had been sent out specially to protect, should 

 be abandoned, and that Gibraltar should be the admiral's care. 

 There seems to have been an idea that, do what they could, the 

 citadel of St. Philip could not be delivered from the numerous 

 enemy which was besieging it ; and it does not seem to have 

 been considered that if the French fleet could have been defeated, 

 succours might have been thrown into the place, and that the 

 French, blockaded on the sea-side, would have been placed 

 between two fires, and the besiegers turned into the besieged. 

 In an evil hour Admiral Byng acted on the advice of his 

 council of war, and gave orders for the fleet to proceed to 

 Gibraltar. On his arrival there, on the 19th of June, he 

 found five ships of the line awaiting his orders, having 

 been sent out by the Admiralty to counterbalance a reinforce- 

 ment which it was understood was about to join M. de la 

 Galissoniere from Toulon. With this unexpected addition to 

 his strength, he resolved to go back to Minorca, find out the 

 French fleet, and try to execute his original instructions. But 

 he delayed his departure, possibly unavoidably, but the delay 

 was fatal to Port Mahon. Notwithstanding the odds against 

 him, which included not only the army of the Due de Richelieu 

 but the returned French fleet with reinforcements under M. de 

 la Galissoniere, General Blakeney refused to take the same 

 desperate view of his position as had been taken by Admiral 

 Byng ; and he held out for more than five weeks after the 

 departure of the fleet. Even his enemies, though annoyed by 

 his resistance, admired it ; and when, towards the end of June, 

 he found no succour coming, and that the garrison were much 

 straitened for stores and weakened through sickness, he proposed 

 to capitulate, the French granted him terms that were honourable 

 to both sides alike. On the 29th of June Minorca was sur- 

 ; rendered to the Due de Richelieu, and on the 3rd of July, when 

 Admiral Byng was thinking of starting from Gibraltar to relieve 

 it, he was surprised by the arrival of Admirals Hawke and 

 Saunders to supersede him and Admiral West in the command 

 of the Mediterranean fleet. 



A distinction was made between the cases of the two admirals 

 even before they reached England, and when they did arrive, 

 Admiral West was looked upon a? the man who, by his con- 

 duct on the 20th of May, had saved the national honour from 

 irredeemable disgrace. He was graciously received, and at 

 the request of the king another command was given to him. 

 Admiral Byng, however, was at once arrested, and the Minis- 

 ters, against whose incapacity and sheer mismanagement the 



popular voice had long exclaimed, determined to let him be 

 the scapegoat for the popular fury. There was a cry for 

 blood, the king, whose one virtue was courage, and who cor- 

 dially hated the bare appearance of cowardice, being among 

 the most violent in urging the demand. It was resolved to 

 bring the admiral to trial before a court-martial ; and there 

 was, it is to be feared, a strong predetermination to show 

 no mercy in the event of the prisoner being found guilty. 



The trial began on the 28th of December, 1756, and lasted 

 many days, and then the members of the court came to a resolu< 

 tion that Admiral Byng had not done his utmost to relieve the 

 citadel of St. Philip, and that he fell under part of the twelfth 

 article of trie existing articles of war.* As that article pre- 

 scribed death as the only punishment for breach of any of 

 the rules laid down therein, and left not any discretionary 

 power to the court to moderate the punishment according to 

 the circumstances of the case, the court had no choice but to 

 pass sentence of death. That sentence was accordingly given, 

 and the prisoner was condemned to be shot to death at such 

 time, and on board of such ship as the Lords Commissioners 

 of the Admiralty should please to direct. It appeared, however, 

 upon the evidence of those who had the fullest opportunity 

 of judging the evidence of officers and men, who had stood 

 close to the admiral during the action on the 20th of May that 

 there was no imputation whatever upon his personal courage 

 or coolness, that he gave his orders easily, and that he made 

 no effort to screen himself from the enemy's fire. From 

 other circumstances it also appeared that what had happened 

 could not be attributed to personal cowardice or disaffection ; 

 and it was only on condition of a unanimous recommenda- 

 tion to mercy, that the minority in the court agreed to find 

 a verdict of guilty on the charges. The court found specially 

 that the admiral was not guilty of cowardice or disaffection, 

 and as to the negligence charged, they wrote to the Admiralty 

 as follows : " We cannot help laying the distresses of our 

 minds before your lordships on this occasion, in finding our- 

 selves under necessity of condemning a man to death, from 

 the great severity of the twelfth article of war, part of which 

 he falls under, which admits of no mitigation if the crime 

 should be committed by an error in judgment ; and therefore, 

 for our own consciences' sake, as well as in justice to the 

 prisoner, we pray your lordships in the most earnest manner 

 to recommend him to His Majesty's clemency." 



Nothing could have been stronger than this. The papers 

 were forwarded to the king, but without any recommendation 

 from the Admiralty. Viscount Torrington, the prisoner's 

 kinsman, petitioned the king for mercy, and several of the 

 Cabinet Ministers advised to the same end. The people had 

 grown calmer, and on further reflection deemed that the Govern- 

 ment which had sent the admiral away with an insufficient 

 force was more to blame than the admiral, and the cry for 

 Byng's blood was considerably lessened indeed, it began to 

 be thought by many that the admiral was an ill-used man. 

 The king, however, was inexorable ; he would not be moved 

 by petitions, recommendations, or anything else ; he consented 

 to refer to the twelve judges the question, whether on tech- 

 nical grounds the sentence was legal ; and having obtained an 

 answer in the affirmative, nothing would induce him to spare 

 Byng's life. 



It seems that Byng had, until a day or so before the close 

 of his trial, entertained the conviction that he would be acquitted. 

 Conscious of his own innocence, he felt persuaded his judges 

 would end by also thinking him innocent, and he expressed 

 considerable surprise when a friend informed him of the sentence 

 he might expect. Even after his condemnation he seems to 

 have believed his life would be spared, and this belief was 

 shared by almost every one else except the king and those who 

 were bent on screening the Government at the expense of the 

 individual. But a warrant was sent down to Portsmouth 

 from the Admiralty (Admiral Forbes, one of the commissioners, 

 refused to sign it), ordering Byng's execution for the 2Sth of 

 February, and then the terrible earnestness of the prosecu- 

 tion was made manifest. Even then, however, efforts were 



* This article was modified in the time of George III., so as to admit 

 of a less punishment for negligence, or error in judgment ; and by 

 the present articles of war, an officer, convicted as Admiral Byng was, 

 would be dismissed ihe service with disgrace. 



