HE OBTAINS A COMPLETE VICTORY OVER THE FRENCH.

Tourville therefore, in obedience to the first mandate, bore down alongside of Russel’s own ship, which he engaged at a very small distance. He fought with great fury till one o’clock, when his rigging and sails being considerably damaged, his ship, the Rising-Sun, which carried one hundred and four cannon, was towed out of the line in great disorder. Nevertheless the engagement continued till three, when the fleets were parted by a thick fog: when this abated, the enemy were descried flying to the northward, and Russel made the signal for chasing. Part of the blue squadron came up with the enemy about eight in the evening, and engaged them half an hour, during which admiral Carter was mortally wounded. Finding himself in extremity, he exhorted his captain to fight as long as the ship could swim, and expired with great composure. At length the French bore away for Conquet road, having lost four ships in this day’s action. Next day, about eight in the morning, they were discovered crowding away to the westward, and the combined fleets chased with all the sail they could carry, until Russel’s foretopmast came by the board. Though he was retarded by this accident, the fleet still continued the pursuit, and anchored near Cape La Hogue. On the twenty-second of the month, about seven in the morning, part of the French fleet was perceived near the Race of Alderney, some at anchor, and some driving to the eastward with the tide of flood. Russel and the ships nearest him immediately slipped their cables and chased. The Rising Sun having lost her masts, ran ashore near Cherbourg, where she was burned by sir Ralph Delaval, together with the Admirable, another first-rate, and the Conquérant of eighty guns. Eighteen other ships of their fleet ran into La Hogue, where they were attacked by sir George Rooke, who destroyed them and a great number of transports laden with ammunition, in the midst of a terrible fire from the enemy, and in sight of the Irish camp. Sir John Ashby, with his own squadron and some Dutch ships, pursued the rest of the French fleet, which escaped through the Race of Alderney by such a dangerous passage as the English could not attempt without exposing their ships to the most imminent hazard. This was a very mortifying defeat to the French king, who had been so long flattered with an uninterrupted series of victories; it reduced James to the lowest ebb of despondence, as it frustrated the whole scheme of his embarkation, and overwhelmed his friends in England with grief and despair. Some historians allege that Russel did not improve his victory with all advantages that might have been obtained before the enemy recovered their consternation. They say his affection to the service was in a great measure cooled by the disgrace of his friend the earl of Marlborough; that he hated the earl of Nottingham, by whose channel he received his orders; and that he adhered to the letter rather than to the spirit of his instructions. But this is a malicious imputation, and a very ungrateful return for his manifold services to the nation. He acted in this whole expedition with the genuine spirit of a British admiral. He plied from the Nore to the Downs with a very scanty wind through the dangerous sands, contrary to the advice of all his pilots; and by this bold passage effected a junction of the different squadrons, which otherwise the French would have attacked singly and perhaps defeated. He behaved with great gallantry during the engagement, and destroyed about fifteen of the enemy’s capital ships; in a word, he obtained such a decisive victory, that during the remaining part of the war the French would not hazard another battle by sea with the English.

Russel having ordered Sir John Ashby and the Dutch admiral Callemberg to steer towards Havre de Grace, and endeavour to destroy the remainder of the French fleet, sailed back to St. Helen’s that the damaged ships might be refitted, and the fleet furnished with fresh supplies of provisions and ammunition; but his principal motive was to take on board a number of troops provided for a descent upon France, which had been projected by England and Holland, with a view to alarm and distract the enemy in their own dominions. The queen was so pleased with the victory that she ordered thirty thousand pounds to be distributed among the sailors. She caused medals to be struck in honour of the action; and the bodies of admiral Carter and captain Hastings, who had been killed in the battle, to be interred with great funeral pomp. In the latter end of July seven thousand men, commanded by the duke of Leinster, embarked on board transports to be landed at St. Maloes, Brest, or Rochefort, and the nation conceived the most sanguine hopes of this expedition. A council of war, consisting of land and sea officers, being held on board the Breda to deliberate upon the scheme of the ministry, the members unanimously agreed that the season was too far advanced to put it in execution. Nevertheless, the admiral having detached sir John Ashby with a squadron to intercept the remains of the French fleet in their passage from St. Maloes to Brest, set sail for La Hogue with the rest of the fleet and transports; but in a few days the wind shifting, lie was obliged to return to St. Helen’s.

The queen immediately dispatched the marquis of Carmarthen, the earls of Devonshire, Dorset, Nottingham, and Rochester, together with the lords Sidney and Cornwallis, to consult with the admiral, who demonstrated the impracticability of making an effectual descent upon the coast of France at that season of the year. The design was therefore laid aside, and the forces were transported to Flanders. The higher the hopes of the nation had been raised by this armament, the deeper they felt their disappointment. A loud clamour was raised against the ministry as the authors of this miscarriage. The people complained that they were plundered and abused; that immense sums were extorted from them by the most grievous impositions; that, by the infamous expedient of borrowing upon established funds, their taxes were perpetuated; that their burdens would daily increase; that their treasure was either squandered away in chimerical projects or expended in foreign connexions, of which England was naturally independent. They were the more excusable for exclaiming in this manner, as their trade had suffered grievously by the French privateers which swarmed in the Channel. In vain the merchants had recourse to the Admiralty, which could not spare particular convoys while large fleets were required for the defence of the nation. The French king having nothing further to apprehend from the English armament, withdrew his troops from the coast of Normandy; and James returned in despair to St. Germain’s, where his queen had been in his absence delivered of a daughter, who was born in the presence of the archbishop of Paris, the keeper of the seals, and other persons of distinction.