Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/425

 malee; those few that were with the admiral were lost; amongst these the flagship, the Xamur, with upwards of six hundred men on board, went down with all hands ; the admiral, with his immediate staff, and the sick in hospital, who had the fortune to be on shore, alone escaped. In October, having received definite intelligence of the peace, Boscawen sailed for England, where he arrived in the course of April 1750.

Since June 1741 Boscawen had nominally represented Truro in parliament. In June 1751 he was nominated by Anson as one of the lords commissioners of the admiralty; and through all the stormy changes of the following years he retained his seat on that board till his death. On 4 Feb. 1755 he was advanced to the rank of vice-admiral, and appointed to command a squadron ordered to North America as a check on the encroachments of the French, who had sent out large reinforcements covered by a squadron of ten effective ships. With eleven sail of the line Boscawen sailed on 27 April, with instructions to attack the French wherever he should find them; which instructions were duly communicated to the Due de Mirepoix, the French minister in London. The duke had replied that they would consider the first gun fired at sea in a hostile manner as a declaration of war— a threat, however, upon which they were, just at that time, quite unprepared to act. On 10 June Boscawen fell in with three of the French ships—the Alcide, of 64 guns, the Lys, and Dauphin Royal, disarmed, and acting as transports. The two former were captured, but the Dauphin Royal escaped into the fog which shielded the rest of the French fleet, and enabled it to get safely into the river "St. Lawrence. As nothing more could be done, Boscawen went to Halifax to refresh his men, amongst whom a virulent fever had broken out. This, however, continued to rage even in harbour; landing the men did not lessen the death rate, and the admiral determined to take the squadron home without further delay; but before it could reach Spithead it had lost some two thousand men.

During the next succeeding years Boscawen at frequent intervals commanded a squadron in the Channel, off Brest, or in the Bay of Biscay; at other times he was sitting at the admiralty; and as one of the lords commissioners signed Admiral John Byng's instructions on 30 March 1750; signed the order for his court-martial on 14 Dec.: and as commander-in-chief at Portsmouth signed the immediate order for his execution on 14 March 1757 [see ]. Of the responsibility of this measure he has therefore a full share; he was, in an emphatic degree, a consenting party to the death of Byng; and there is no doubt whatever that to him, schooled by disasters arising out of criminal ignorance and negligence, death appeared the just reward of conduct such as that of which Byng had been found guilty; nor should it be forgotten that in his extreme youth, as a lad on board the Superbe in the West Indies, he must often have heard unfavourable criticisms on the conduct of Byng in leaving the ship, at his own request, just as she was ordered on a disagreeable and dangerous service.

In October 1757 Boscawen was appointed second in command of the main fleet under Hawke; and on 8 Feb. 1758, being advanced to the rank of admiral of the blue, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the fleet fitting out for the siege of Louisburg. The operations there were entirely military, the work of the fleet being merely that of a covering force, to guard against any possible attempt at relief. After the capitulation, the admiral, with the greater part of the fleet, returned to England, and on 6 Dec. received the thanks of the House of Commons for his services during the campaign. On 2 Feb. 1759 he was sworn a member of the privy council, and a few days later was appointed to the command of a squadron ordered to be got ready for the Mediterranean. He sailed from St. Helens on 14 April with fourteen ships of the line and two frigates, his flag being, as in the preceding year, on board the Namur, a new ship of 90 guns. At Toulon a French fleet, consisting of twelve ships of the line, commanded by M. de la Clue, was under orders to sail for Brest and join the fleet intended to cover the invasion of England; and as Hawke kept watch off Brest, Boscawen kept watch off Toulon, with the determination that neither the invasion of England nor the junction of the fleets should take place unopposed. It was, however, Boscawen's immediate object to tempt or goad De la Clue to come out, to try and break or force the blockade; and when lighter measures failed he sent in three ships to attack two which were lying further oiit than the rest. This attempt was repelled by the batteries; and the ships, having suffered a good deal of damage, were towed out. But it was necessary that they should go to Gibraltar to refit; and as the whole fleet was in want of water, Boscawen determined to proceed thither, taking measures to prevent the possibility of the enemy