Page images
PDF
EPUB

1756.

FRENCH DESIGN UPON MINORCA.

63

CHAPTER XXXIII

WHILE throughout the winter the French were boasting of their intended descent on England,-while, at least, apparent preparations were proceeding in all their harbours from Dunkirk to Brest, they had secretly a far different object in view. They had set their hearts on the island of Minorca,—which in September 1708 had been conquered by General Stanhope at the head of 2,000 men, and which five years afterwards had been secured to England by the Peace of Utrecht. There seems strong reason to believe that at the period of Stanhope's conquest the French had designed the island for their own possession; it was supplied from their treasury and held by their troops, nominally for their ally, King Philip, but in truth for themselves; and their grief and indignation at its loss were manifested in the rigorous treatment of the Governor, La Jonquière, notwithstanding his resolute defence.*

That by far the best port in the Mediterranean should be in the hands of England was a thorn that long continued to rankle in the side of France. An expedition against the island was now planning and preparing from the coast of Provence, but in spite of every precaution this could not be done with perfect secrecy. Intelligence reached the English Ministers early in the year 1756 from several of the Envoys and Consuls both in Spain and Italy, that large bodies of French troops were gathering along the Rhone,—that a French squadron of twelve or fourteen sail of the line was equipping at Toulon,—that a great number of transports was likewise made ready,and that these ships were supplied with provisions for so short a period that they could not be intended for Ame

* "Le Roi l'a cassé et degradé, lui a oté la croix de St. Louis et "ses pensions. On l'envoie en prison en une place de Franche "Comté." (Journal de Dangeau. le 21 Janvier 1709.)

66

rica.* To all these repeated advices the Ministers in London were unwilling to give credit, and long insisted that this was but a feint to divert their attention from their own shores. "I say it with concern," writes Horace Walpole, considering who was Newcastle's associate," (he alludes to his friend Fox,) "but this was the year of "the worst administration that I have seen in England; "for now Newcastle's incapacity was left to its full "play." No pains were taken to reinforce the garrison, which was wholly inadequate to the defence of the place; the Governor, Lord Tyrawley, was allowed to remain in England; and the Deputy Governor on the spot, General Blakeney, though a gallant veteran, who had defended Stirling Castle in the last Rebellion, was disabled by old age and infirmities.

At length, such intelligence arriving as left no further room for doubts, the Ministers endeavoured to repair by precipitation the evils of their previous delay. They sent out ten ships of war, but these in ill condition and poorly manned, and they intrusted the command of them to Admiral John Byng. This was the second son of the late Admiral Byng, who had been created Viscount Torrington, and who, by a singular contrast, as it proved, had distinguished himself at the conquest of Minorca in 1708. Byng sailed from Spithead on the 7th of April; only three days afterwards the French armament issued from Toulon. This armament consisted of twelve ships of the line, and many transports, under M. de La Galissonière, and had on board 16,000 troops commanded by the Duke de Richelieu. They appeared off the port of Ciudadella in Minorca on the 18th. Some days before a fast-sailing sloop had brought General Blakeney the tidings of their approach, and he had been able to make his final dispositions to receive them. Minorca affords no advantages of ground for defence, being, though rocky, nearly all lowland, except towards the centre of the island,

*The first of these advices came from Consul Birtles at Genoa ; it distinctly mentions the French project of surprising Minorca, and is dated so early as January 17. 1756. See Commons Journals, May

1757.

† Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 54.

1756.

PREPARATIONS AT PORT MAHON.

65

where there rises a detached eminence called Monte Toro*, a name which appears to have denoted a hill in the primitive tongues, and which may be traced from the Asiatic Mount TAURUS to our own ToRs in Devonshire. But the castle of St. Philip, which commanded the town and harbour of Mahon, had been constructed with great care and cost, and was probably at this time inferior in strength to no other fortress in Europe. The redoubts, ravelins, and other outworks might have done honour to Vauban, while underground a great number of galleries and mines had been cut with incredible labour through the solid rock. Behind these defences the Governor now withdrew all his advanced parties, calling in especially five companies and two pieces of cannon from Ciudadella. A large herd of cattle was driven into the fort; twentyfive Minorquin bakers were hired to prepare biscuits and bread; the ports were walled up, the pasts assigned, and some windmills and houses demolished so as to clear the esplanade and the approaches. Commodore Edgcumbe, who lay anchored off Mahon with a little squadron, being wholly unable to cope with the enemy's, set sail for Gibraltar, leaving his marines to reinforce the garrison; after which General Blakeney sunk a sloop in the channel, and thus obstructed the entrance of the harbour.

As to regular troops, however, General Blakeney with every exertion could muster no more than 2,800 men. Of the officers belonging to these troops full thirty-five were absent from their duty, including, besides the Governor, Lord Tyrawley, all the Colonels of the regiments. The chief engineer was confined to his chamber with the gout, and Blakeney himself had, for the most part, to issue his orders from his bed. Amidst so much of negligence or infirmity the conduct of one young officer stands forth in spirited contrast.-Captain Cunningham had been engineer in second at Minorca, but being promoted to a Majority in England, was on his way homewards, and was only delayed at Nice by the

*Armstrong's History of Minorca, p. 52. ed. 1752. He adds, "Mount Toro is of the sugar-loaf make, and its vast cone is elevated on a base that is many miles in diameter."

[ocr errors]

+ See Commons' Journals, May 3. 1757.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

delivery of his wife and the sickness of his children. It was at Nice that he heard of the French designs against his former comrades in St. Philip's; he immediately exclaimed, "They will want engineers!" and determined at all risks to rejoin them; first expending what money he had in purchasing timber for the platforms, and other things needful for defence, and in hiring a ship for the voyage, nor did he hesitate, where his country's service was at stake, to leave his wife and children sick in a land of strangers.

Admiral Byng, on anchoring at Gibraltar, found there Commodore Edgcumbe, and thus learnt the particulars of the French descent upon Minorca. Before he again set sail he was anxious, according to his instructions, to take on board a battalion of troops as a reinforcement to St. Philip's, but General Fowke, who commanded at Gibraltar, having consulted a Council of War, refused to spare them. Fowke had received two orders on this subject from Lord Barrington as Secretary at War, but he afterwards alleged in his defence, though, as I think, without sufficient foundation, that these two orders were confused and contradictory, and left him a full discretionary power.* Byng, therefore, proceeded without these expected succours, but was joined by Commodore Edgcumbe with one man-of-war, and by Captain Harvey with another. On the 19th of May the Admiral came in sight of St. Philip's. He descried with pleasure the British colours still flying from the castle, while the

66

*These two orders are dated March 21. and 28. 1756, and were produced at Byng's Trial. (See p. 10. of the Minutes.) It appears from the unpublished Life of Lord Barrington by his brother, the Bishop of Durham (p. 23.), that the first order had been sent out, together with the second, through an official oversight of Mr. Sherwin, the Deputy Secretary at War. "This," says the Bishop, "was certainly a mistake, but it did not appear a material one, for the "last order alone was valid." And he adds elsewhere, "General "Fowke owned to Lord Barrington afterwards, and to several other persons, that he was prevailed on just before his trial, to make this "defence (of his orders being contradictory and unintelligible), and "that it was the action of his life of which he was most ashamed. "His advisers probably did not know that he had written letters "which fully contradicted the justification they had suggested, and "that these Itters would be laid before his judges."

1756.

ADMIRAL BYNG.

67

French standards appeared on several bomb-batteries that were playing against it. In reality the enemy had not as yet made much progress in the siege. By the direction of some unskilful engineers, they had raised their first batteries near Cape Mola on the opposite side of the harbour, from whence they could have but little effect against the castle, whilst themselves were exposed to a galling fire. Accordingly they soon thought proper to change their plan of attack,-to relinquish their first batteries,—and to raise others on the place where the windmills had been destroyed; but these new batteries were not ready to open- until the 12th of the month.

At

The Admiral now made an attempt to communicate with the Governor, and the Governor another attempt to communicate with the Admiral. Both attempts, however, appear to have been faint and slack, and much too readily despaired of. That same evening M. de La Galissonière had come in sight; next forenoon (the 20th of May) he bore down with all his ships; and Byng drew out his own in line of battle. The two fleets were almost equally matched, but the French, as was alleged, a little superior in weight of metal and in number of men. a signal from Byng the engagement was begun by Rear Admiral West, who was second in command on the British side. So impetuously did he attack the enemy with his division that the ships opposed to it were in a short time driven out of their line. But the other division, commanded by Byng, kept aloof at this critical time, and West found himself unable to pursue his advantage. Thus the engagement was interrupted, and the French Admiral showed no disposition to renew it. Next morning the French fleet was out of sight, and Byng, perplexed and irresolute as to his movements, adopted that favourite resource of incapable commanders, Council of War. He urged to the assembled officers his inferiority in men and weight of metal to the enemy, his loss on the foregoing day of 42 killed and 168 wounded, the damaged or unsound condition of his ships. He stated his opinion that if even he should succeed in beating the French fleet, that victory would not suffice to raise the siege of St. Philip's, and upon the whole, therefore, he proposed to leave Minorca to its fate,

a

« PreviousContinue »