Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/47

 sion of the board to Keppel. The conduct of the admiralty in thus ordering the trial of the commander-in-chief on charges exhibited by an inferior, five months after date, and under circumstances which were strongly suggestive of a personal motive, called forth an expression of surprise from Keppel, and of disapproval from the House of Commons and the country at large. A memorial to the same effect was addressed to the king by Lord Hawke and most of the senior admirals; but no notice was taken of it, and the court assembled at Portsmouth as ordered, on 7 Jan. 1779; for the first day on board the Britannia, and afterwards, through a period of five weeks, at the governor's house on shore, in consideration of Keppel's infirm health, and in accordance with a special act of parliament.

He was charged with not marshalling his fleet, going into the fight in an unofficer-like manner, scandalous haste in quitting it, running away, and not pursuing the flying enemy—each one a capital offence. Palliser in person was the prosecutor; Sir Robert Harland, Rear-admiral Campbell, most of the captains, some lieutenants, and several masters were the witnesses. Of these, whether called for the prosecution or defence, the unanimity was remarkable. With scarcely an exception they were agreed that if the admiral had waited to form his fleet in line he could not have brought the enemy to action at all; that the enemy was very far from being in a perfect line; that after passing the enemy the admiral had turned towards them as soon as he could do so without blocking the course of the ships astern; that he turned from them and hauled down the signal for battle only when it was evident that many of his ships were too shattered to renew the fight at once; that his standing towards the south was a judicious manœuvre, and neither was, nor had the appearance of being, a flight from the enemy; and that any chase on the morning of the 28th would certainly have been unavailing, and would probably have been dangerous. And after examining and considering an enormous body of technical evidence, the court, on 11 Feb., pronounced the charge to be ‘malicious and ill-founded;’ that Keppel had behaved as became ‘a judicious, brave, and experienced officer;’ and thereupon unanimously and honourably acquitted him.

Keppel became the hero of the hour. It was honestly believed that he would have won a victory had not Palliser prevented him, and Palliser's backwardness was attributed to the malign influence of Lord Sandwich. Keppel's acquittal was thus not only a triumph of innocence over vice and fraud, it was a triumph of the popular party over the unpopular ministry. The admiralty gates were torn down; the windows of the official residences were smashed; Palliser's house in Pall Mall was gutted, and his effigy was burnt. Bonfires blazed in Keppel's honour; the rioters drank Keppel's health; and the publicans painted Keppel's head on their signs.

On the conclusion of the court-martial Keppel addressed a letter to the king personally, relating the facts of the conduct of the admiralty towards him, and imploring his majesty's permission not to go again to sea under men on whom, as he had learned by experience, he could not depend for support. ‘I am ready,’ he wrote, ‘to quit my command to-day, or to preserve it as long as may be convenient for your majesty's arrangements and consistent with my own honour; but I trust your majesty will see my reputation cannot continue safe in hands who have already done all they could to ruin it.’ The king would seem to have handed the letter over to the admiralty, who wrote on 12 March expressing their desire to know with certainty whether he intended to continue in his present command. Keppel replied that he had laid his situation and the treatment he had received before the king; and after a further exchange of acrimonious letters he was ordered, 18 March 1779, to strike his flag.

He had naturally no further service under Lord Sandwich. But he had long been a member of the House of Commons, being elected for Windsor to the parliaments of 1761, 1768, and 1774, and for Surrey to the parliament of 1780, and from his place in the house he lost no opportunity of criticising the misconduct of naval affairs. On the fall of Lord North's administration, 20 March 1782, and the formation of Rockingham's, Keppel was appointed first lord of the admiralty, and on 26 April was raised to the peerage as Viscount Keppel and Baron Elden. After the death of Rockingham Keppel was succeeded at the admiralty by Lord Howe, but resumed office on the formation of the coalition ministry. On its downfall, 30 Dec. 1783, he was again succeeded by Howe, and retired altogether from public life. His health, which had suffered severely from the climate of Havana, had never been quite re-established, and during his later years was very much broken. In the autumn of 1785 he was advised not to risk the winter in England, and went to Naples, from which he returned in the spring of 1786. The change, however, effected no lasting good, and he died a few