Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/217

Rh siderations of the Cabinet. At one of their meetings in September, the Chancellor came into the room where they were all assembled, and in his blunt manner asked where was the man who could point out the means to save Gibraltar?

"Lord Keppel," so the Duke of Grafton relates, "replied to the Chancellor, that he certainly had a plan prepared for our consideration and approval, which he would proceed to open to the Cabinet. But he expressed his concern, that he was obliged to state to them another service as pressing, and equally necessary as the relief required for Gibraltar; viz. to get the Baltic fleet safe into our ports. The convoy of this fleet having been informed of the force of the Dutch in the Texel, had put into a port of Norway, I think Bergen, for safety.

Lord Keppel plainly told us that the King's yards were so destitute of naval stores, that our dependence for the means of continuing another campaign rested on the safe arrival of these ships, which were laden with all that was wanted for our navy. His lordship added that neither service could be neglected or deferred; and that he hoped to be able to point out the means by which both objects might be effected. The Duke of Richmond, said Lord Keppel, acquaints me, that two transports laden with ordnance stores cannot be ready to sail with the fleet in less time than a fortnight. The wind, says he, is now at west, which will keep Lord Howe's fleet at Spithead from going down Channel, as well as the Dutch from coming out of harbour. My plan is this, says his Lordship, and it waits your concurrence, for everything else is prepared. Under the sanction of your authority I would before I went to bed, send Lord Howe orders to detach Vice-Admiral Milbanke with fourteen ships of the line: the Dutch from the best and surest information cannot muster more than eleven of the line fit for sea. I have too good an opinion of the wisdom of my old friends as to suppose they would be so rash as to risk their fleet out against one superior to theirs, both in numbers and size of the ships. To Admiral Milbanke, Lord Keppel said, that further orders should go, to direct him on the instant of the wind turning to the east, to sail back to rejoin Lord Howe, who on descrying the return of this part of the fleet would get under way and join at sea, in order to proceed on their voyage. Your Lordships in the mean time, said Lord Keppel, need be under no apprehensions of the Dutch coming out of port hastily on the disappearance of our ships: for they will naturally conclude that they are blown by the easterly wind into the Downs: and they are too cautious to put