Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/106

 sea' he would refuse to serve with Bridport (, pp. 416-7).

In March 1796, on the death of Admiral Forbes [see, 1714-1796], Howe was promoted to be admiral of the fleet, and at the same time appointed general of marines. He unwillingly resigned the office of vice-admiral of England, which (he held) was superior to all other naval rank except that of lord high admiral (, p. 311). In April 1796 Howe was ordered to Portsmouth to preside at the court-martial on Vice-admiral Cornwallis [see ]. It was his last actual service, though he was still compelled by the king's solicitations to retain the nominal command. The position was anomalous, and seems not only to have given rise to the bad feeling between himself and Bridport, but to be largely responsible for the serious occurrences of the spring of 1797. In the first days of March, Howe, while at Bath, received petitions from the crews of several of the ships at Spithead, praying for ' his interposition with the admiralty' in favour of the seamen being granted an increase of pay and rations, and a provision for their wives and families. As the handwriting of three of these petitions was clearly the same, Howe conceived them to be fictitious, and as Sir Peter Parker, the port admiral, and Lord Bridport concurred in this opinion, no notice was taken of them, further than a representation to that effect to Lord Spencer, then first lord of the admiralty. But on 15 April the seamen broke out into open mutiny, and though then persuaded to return to their duty, the mutiny again broke out on 7 May. Apparently at the particular desire of the king, the admiralty then begged Howe to go to Portsmouth and see what was to be done, although a few days before he had sent in his final resignation, and it had been accepted. Accordingly, on 11 May, he visited the ships and heard the demands of the men; on the following days the differences were arranged, the mutineers accepted Howe's assurances, and on the 16th the fleet put to sea (Howe to Duke of Portland, 16 May 1797, in, p. 341).

This negotiation was Howe's last official act, though in his retirement he continued to take the keenest interest in naval affairs. His mind remained perfectly clear, though his body was disabled by attacks of gout. In the summer of 1799, in the absence of his regular medical adviser, he was persuaded to try 'electricity,' then spoken of as a universal remedy. This, it was believed, drove the gout to the head, and with fatal effect; he died on 5 Aug. 1799. He was buried in the family vault at Langar, where there is a monument to his memory; another and more splendid monument by Flaxman was erected at the public expense in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Notwithstanding Howe's very high reputation, both among his contemporaries and his successors, he can scarcely be considered a tactician of the first order, though in perfecting and refining the code of signals he left a powerful instrument to the younger officers (cf. Nelson to Howe, 8 Jan, 1799, in, Nelson Despatches, iii. 230). He was abreast of his age, but scarcely in advance of it, and even on 1 June 1794 he got no further than forcing an unwilling enemy to close action with equal numbers; the victory was mainly won by the individual superiority of the English ships (cf., ii. 146-9). As to his personal character, his courage and his taciturnity were almost proverbial; he was happily described by Walpole as 'undaunted as a rock and as silent.' His features were strongly marked, and their expression harsh and forbidding; his manner was shy, awkward, and ungracious, but his friends found him liberal, kind, and gentle. On the other hand, those whose claims, not always well founded, he was unable or unwilling to satisfy, maintained that he was 'haughty, morose, hard-hearted, and inflexible.' But by general consent he is allowed to have been temperate, gentle, and indulgent to the men under his command, who, on their part, adored him, whether as captain or admiral, and appreciated his grim peculiarities. 'I think we shall have the fight to-day,' one is reported to have said on the morning of 1 June; 'Black Dick has been smiling.' The confidence which he had acquired was fully shown in the negotiations with the mutineers at Spithead. It has been said that he was lax in his discipline; it may be that he trusted more to personal influence than to system; but no mutiny or even discontent ever occurred in any ship or squadron under his command. The mutinous and disorderly conduct of the crew of the Queen Charlotte (, Naval History, i. 414) after his virtual retirement is distinctly attributed by Sir Edward Codrington to the mistaken interference of Sir Roger Curtis (, manuscript note, p. 301).

Howe married, on 10 March 1758, Mary, daughter of Colonel Chiverton Hartop of Welby in Leicestershire, and by her had issue three daughters. To the eldest of these, Sophia Charlotte, married in 1787 to Penn Assheton Curzon, the barony descended, the English viscounty and earldom becoming extinct on Howe's death. The Irish titles passed to his brother, Sir William Howe,who died without issue in 1814. Lady Howe's son, Richard