Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/47

 20 May 1756. Anson's whole life and career are utterly opposed to the idea of his having, in this matter, erred through carelessness. We are forced, therefore, to the conclusion that in not ordering a larger fleet to the Mediterranean, he was honestly mistaken, and that in appointing Admiral Byng to the command he was under some undiscoverable influence. We know now that the French, in the spring of 1756, had no idea of invading England or Ireland; but the ministry certainly thought it necessary to keep an overwhelming force at home or in the Bay of Biscay. But the main cause of the failure was the misconduct of Byng, and Anson is directly concerned in the appointment, as commander-in-chief, of a man whom events proved to be utterly unfit for the office. It can only be said now, that this had not been proved in March 1756, that Byng was a man of high-service rank who might almost claim the highest command, and that there was nothing whatever known against him. That afterwards, on Byng's failure, Anson should not be inclined to show him any undue consideration, or to err on the side of lenity, was natural enough. He very probably regarded Byng with feelings akin to personal hatred, as the incarnation of the one great mistake he had made in a prosperous career, and was quite willing that the offender should feel the full weight of the law; but, as a matter of fact, Anson had nothing whatever to do with Byng's trial and execution, which took place under a ministry with which he had no connection.

Having gone out of office in November 1756, he did not re-enter till the end of June 1757, when he was again appointed first lord of the admiralty in the Newcastle-Pitt administration. He was thus the chief of the navy when the bootless expedition against Rochefort was sent out in the autumn of that year; and in 1758, when the petty incursions on the coast of France, as at St. Malo or Cherbourg, ended disastrously at St. Cas. In these matters Anson took no part, except in providing the covering force of men-of-war, and in taking command personally of the main fleet, which meantime blockaded Brest, in order to allay some irritation felt by Sir Edward Hawke. It was his last service at sea. During the next year, 1759, this fleet was commanded by Hawke, and put an end to the necessity of blockading Brest by demolishing the French fleet in Quiberon Bay. Anson's share in this brilliant victory was merely that of the home administrator by whose care the fleet was fitted out and supported; he had also the same share in the conquest of Canada and in many other of the events which rendered the year 1759 'wonderful,' not only in Garrick's celebrated song but in the current language of the day ( Letters, iii. 269, ed. Cunningham, 1861), and the years immediately succeeding memorable in English annals.

In June 1761 Anson was advanced to the high rank of admiral of the fleet; but, except to bring over the new queen, Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, he never hoisted the distinguishing flag of union at the main. He died quite suddenly on 6 June 1762 at his country seat of Moor Park in Hertfordshire, and was buried in the family vault at Colwich. The title died with him. His wife had died two years before, on 1 June 1760, and his very large property went to his sister Janetta, wife of Mr. Sambrooke Adams, whose son George afterwards inherited also the family estate of Shugborough, and took the name of Anson. The son of George Adams was in 1806 created Viscount Anson and Baron Soberton, and his grandson in 1831 was made Earl of Lichfield.

Anson is undoubtedly best known to posterity by his voyage round the world, the history of which, as written, or rather edited, by his chaplain, Mr. Walters, or in different abridgments, has always been a popular book even among schoolboys. It is to that voyage, and the temper, the tact, and the judgment which he displayed under very trying circumstances, that his further advancement was mainly due. Anson may have been cold in his affections, studious of his own interest, and even selfish; calm, placid, possibly—as his enemies might say—fish-like in his temperament; but he was a careful, painstaking, thoughtful man, of singularly accurate judgment: and much of the more important work which fell to him was work in which a warmer-hearted, warmer-tempered, more loveable man might well have broken down. And one point which tells enormously in Anson's favour is the fact that so many young officers, trained under him in the Centurion, were afterwards honourably known. In the whole history of our navy there is not another instance of so many juniors from one ship rising to distinction, men like Saunders, Saumarez, Peircy Brett, Denis, Keppel, Hyde Parker, John Campbell.

Sir John Barrow has expressed surprise 'that neither private affection nor public gratitude has ever raised a monument to one who shed such lustre on the name.' This is not strictly correct, for there is in Shugborough Park a sort of triumphal arch which was erected to his memory by his elder brother Thomas. The colossal lion, once the