THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
239 
£200,000 iii gold/immense supplies of ordnance, ammunition, and 
stores; the cotton industries revived, as if by magic, by the market of 
gum Senegal (which the Dutch and French had hitherto monopolised); 
gold-dust, ivory, ebony, hides, ostrich feathers, amber, wax, &c., &c., 
flowed over in exchange for Lancashire cottons and Birmingham and 
Sheffield wares and trinkets; the wealth-producing slave trade came 
into our hands, and consequently the West Indies lay open to us. West indies. 
These tidings of great joy to traders were procured by conjoint naval 
and land expeditions, Royal Artillery Train and Bomb-ships, in which 
operations, by the annals of the time but not by official despatches, a 
foremost position must be assigned to the disproportionate effects of 
shell fire from the Bombs. 1 2 
But all these paled before the final and colossal effort of Mr. Secretary 
Pitt to win success for his isolation policy by launching a crushing 
coup, by sea and land, against the coasts of France. Still refusing the 
requests of Frederick to send British troops to Germany, to act in con¬ 
cert with the army of the Allies (Hanoverians, Hessians, and Prussians), 
now under command of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick (vice the Duke 
of Cumberland), the only compromise permitted by Pitt was the send¬ 
ing a small squadron, under Commodore Holmes, to recover Emden , Emden. 
capital of East Friesland, one of the safest and most commodious 
harbours of Germany (which 4000 French and Austrian troops had 
surprised and taken from the King of Prussia)—a service which was 
successfully carried out by the Navy, 3 and which was to prove of the 
utmost consequence in 1759. 
The grand expedition was of a twofold character, the naval role Expedition 
assigned to Admiral Anson being to blockade the French fleet in Brest , to st ' Mal °" 
while a squadron under Commodore Howe was to convoy the army for 
a coup de main against Brittany, from which French privateers had 
emerged in previous year to do incalculable mischief against our 
merchantmen. The command-in-chief was given to Charles, Duke of 
Marlborough, now commanding the army camp in the Isle of Wight; 
the second in command being Major-General Lord George Sackville, 
now commanding the Medway defences. Both had sat in judgment on 
Sir John Mordaunt at his trial for miscarriage of the Rochfort expedi¬ 
tion. The good condition of the navy and army, the aroused spirit of 
the nation, the popularity of the Ministry, and the discriminating care 
in selection of the commanders and staff, augured well for the success 
of this undertaking. The errors of Rochfort were to be avoided. 3 No 
council of war was to fetter the General. Two Royal Artillery officers 
1 “ Annual Register,” 1758. “ Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1758, pp. 262, 286. “Naval Memoirs,” 
1804, Vol. II., pp. 139, 145; Vol. III., notes 124-5. The R.A. Train consisted of four 12-prs., 
six 6-prs , eight 5|-in. mortars, 1200 hand grenadoes, 200 round shot (fixed), 50 tin case shot, 
100 shell, 20 wall pieces (“ Ordnance Warrants ” Book, 1758, p. 194) i The personnel consisted of 
detachments of 30 non-commissioned officers and mattrosses of Captain T. Smith’s Company (now 
No. 6 Field Battery, R.A., at Saugor, E.I.). 
The Bomb-ships FiredraJce and Furnace (the latter Joseph Walton’s former ship, recalled from 
America and re-armed), with the Cambridge and Solly Tenders, commanded by Lieutenants 
Borthwick and Ellis Walker. The whole under 11.A. command of Captain Thomas Smith, R.A. 
(“ Muster-Rolls and Pay Lists ” in R.A. Record Office). 
2 “ Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1758, pp. 198, 391. 
3 “Annual Register,” 1758, p. 65. 
32 
