FLAG RANK AND PARLIAMENT
When Rodney became a rear-admiral he had already been in Parliament for
eight years. No word good or bad need be said of his career as a member
in the House, for it had necessarily been, and was to continue to be,
insignificant. The truth is that he valued his seat for social and
professional reasons. It has always been a pleasant thing for a
gentleman to be a member of the House, and at that time the best club in
England was particularly agreeable. The work demanded was as much as you
chose to do, and the privileges were many. For a naval or military
officer a seat was especially valuable. When Rodney was on his way from
the relief of Gibraltar to his third command in the West Indies in 1779,
he wrote to his second wife a letter, in which he said that no man could
hope to hold a satisfactory position in the navy unless he had a seat in
Parliament. His meaning is easy to understand. A naval officer who was
also a member had in the first place a much better chance of obtaining a
command than another, and in the second, was much more likely to be well
backed up when he was in it. The possession of a vote which might be
used to support or annoy a minister would give him an independent
position, or at least a claim. Moreover, his mouth could not be shut.
The calculation was a convincing one, and therefore His Majesty’s sea
officers went into the House as much as they could. Indeed, the number
of admirals and captains who were members of Parliament in the early and
middle eighteenth century was large. The Treasury and Admiralty made a
similar calculation for their part. If it was convenient for a naval
officer to have a seat, it was equally useful to ministers that many
members should belong to a body of gentlemen who might be soothed by the
prospect of command, or kept in order by fear of the loss of place.
Naval officers were therefore commonly chosen as Treasury candidates
(_i.e._ nominees) for dockyard seats, or for the pocket boroughs in the
west. So there was between ministers and naval officers not a little of
that mutually advantageous give-and-take by which His Majesty’s
Government was so largely carried on in the last century.
Rodney, with the sagacity of a practical man, had early seen the
advantage of obtaining a seat in Parliament, to say nothing of the fact
that as a gentleman of good connections he would naturally wish to be in
the House if possible. For one who, like himself, could not cultivate
popularity there were three ways in which his useful seat might be
obtained. An officer might belong to a great family with plenty of
“influence” of its own. This--the best--was Boscawen’s position. “Old
Dreadnaught,” as the sailors called him, had largely to thank the fact
that he was Lord Falmouth’s brother and M.P. for Truro for the commands
which enabled him to destroy M. de la Clue at Lagos, and to help in the
taking of Louisburg. Another way was to inherit or make money enough to
“cultivate an interest,” as the process was politely called, in some
properly constituted borough. The third way was to attach yourself to a
patron and follow him. It was the tamer eighteenth-century equivalent of
the alliance recorded in the _Fair Maid of Perth_ which bound the stout
Laird of Wamphray to ride with the redoubted Lord of Johnstone, who
again was banded with the doughty Earl of Douglas. In the meantime the
Devil’s Deck of Hellgarth was employed in looking after the borough.
Not having family influence or private fortune enough, or of the right
kind in the right place, and being withal resolute to get on in this
world by all means permissible to a gentleman, Rodney had nothing for it
but to attach himself to a patron. With what Carlyle would doubtless
have praised as showing a certain veracity of intellect, he recognised
the conditions of the game and played it resolutely. He sat for Saltash
in Cornwall as nominee of John Clevland, the Clerk of the Admiralty.
Clevland, a Cornishman of Scotch descent, owned Saltash by inheritance,
and used it with judgment to push his own fortunes in the world. To give
the seat to a naval officer was for him an obviously convenient way of
making it serve that end. In 1751 it was Rodney who was selected, while
he was in command of the _Rainbow_ on the Newfoundland station.
Doubtless, Mr. Clevland’s protection helped to make him a more
acceptable suitor for the hand of Miss Jane Compton, and beyond all
question it helped him to his successive commands of the _Kent_, the
_Fougueux_, the _Prince George_, and the _Monarch_.
Before 1759 Rodney, however, had secured a greater and more powerful
patron than Clevland. I have already quoted the passage of one of his
letters in which he thanked the Duke of Newcastle for all his preferment
in the service. It was to the Duke that he owed his seat at Okehampton
in this year. There does not appear to have been any quarrel with
Clevland, but no doubt reasons judged sufficient by all the gentlemen
concerned made it desirable to give Saltash to somebody else. For the
rest, Newcastle was distinctly a patron worth having. He would, in this
alliance, play doughty Earl of Douglas to Clevland’s Lord of Johnstone
and Rodney’s Laird of Wamphray. It was promotion for the Laird to deal
directly with the Earl. Between 1751 and 1759 there is evidence to show
that Rodney was employed as negotiator in confidential transactions
between Newcastle and the Earl of Northampton. He did not come
empty-handed to the alliance. Rodney had his own “plump of spears,” in
the form of some Parliamentary interest in Hampshire, acquired probably
by his first marriage, which was at the minister’s disposal in return
for the proper consideration. Still there can be no sort of doubt as to
the relations between the men. They are indicated in a letter dated
“Spithead, December 2nd, 1759,” which lies written in Rodney’s large,
flowing, but slightly gouty handwriting in the Newcastle correspondence.
“My Lord,” he begins, “I beg Your Grace will permit me to return you my
most sincere thanks for the Honour you have bestowed on me in chusing me
a Member of Parliament for Okehampton. A steady adherence to Your
Grace’s commands shall ever distinguish me while I have a seat in the
House.” Then after a few words of congratulation on Hawke’s recent
magnificent victory off Quiberon, he ends, “I have the Honour to be with
the utmost Respect and Gratitude Your Grace’s most Devoted and most
obedient humble Servant, G. B. Rodney.” The style of the time allowed a
gentleman to write in this submissive way, but it was a gentleman who
was protected writing to his protector. That this was the footing on
which the Admiral stood to the Duke he never attempts to conceal, nor is
there the slightest reason to suppose that he saw aught undignified in
it. There is something respectable in the honesty with which he tells
the naked truth as to his election for Okehampton.
The Parliament he joined in this year did not last long. It was
dissolved by the death of George the Second in 1760, and a general
election was made necessary. At once Rodney hastened to put his
Parliamentary influence in Hampshire at the minister’s command. He did
not again sit for Okehampton, but for Penryn. It appears, from a very
piteous letter of Rodney’s to West of the Admiralty, written in
February, 1761, that Okehampton was wanted for a Mr. Wenman Coke who was
to be elected “on the interest” of Mr. Thomas Pitt. Rodney asks West in
anguish to tell him, “for God’s sake,” what he has done “to gain His
Grace’s displeasure,” which is the harder to bear because he came in
only to serve His Grace, and wishes to “continue on no other
foundation.” West stood his friend, and the Admiral was sent down to
contest Penryn, where Clive was spending his Indian booty in “making
himself an interest.” Rodney, though his reputation was as yet small,
not only in comparison with what it was destined to be, but with that
of several of his contemporaries, was a distinguished naval officer, and
Cornwall liked naval officers. He could, moreover, pay part at least of
his expenses. It may be, too, that the death of Admiral Boscawen in the
January of this year opened the way for Rodney by removing the natural
candidate of the important Falmouth family. However that may be, Rodney
went down supported by the Boscawens and the Edgcumbes, and recommended
by His Grace. The contest is the subject of a letter of his to his
patron, which is so characteristic of the man and the time that I shall
quote it bodily.
PENRYN, _March 25th, 1761_.
MY LORD--I must beg leave to lay before Your Grace the present
situation of affairs at this place, where I arrived on Sunday last,
and hence in company with Lord Falmouth and Mr. Edgcumbe canvassed
the town.
We find at present but a small majority owing to the defection of
several officers in the customs and salt office, both here and at
Falmouth, as likewise two men belonging to the Pacquets, who are
all obstinate in opposition, the Agents of the other party having
had the presumption to read a letter as from Your Grace, which has
deluded these people so much that Mr. West’s letter signifying Your
Grace’s pleasure had not the least effect. I must therefore join
with Lord Falmouth and Mr. Edgcumbe for the Dismission of one
Charles Robbins, a Tydesman, etc., at Falmouth, which may have the
desired effect on the other officers.
I must now take the liberty to point out to Your Grace a measure
which I am sure will infallibly secure the election, and which I
most earnestly entreat may take place immediately, as it will
convince the people in general (whose minds have been poisoned with
different notions) that I have the honour to be nominated by Your
Grace as candidate.
Captain Peard of the Savage sloop of war, a Freeman of this Town,
whose friends have great influence, has been offer’d by the
adversaries a bond of one thousand pounds, and that they will
procure him a Post Ship; he has resisted the temptation, and
continues firm.
If Your Grace will make it a Point that it may appear here before
the election that Captain Peard has post, I am sure all
difficulties will be removed. My ship, the _Marlborough_, has no
captain appointed as yet.
From Your Grace’s firm friendship to me I cannot doubt but you will
grant me this further mark of your favours, as I shall always
continue to be with the utmost gratitude and respect Your Graces
most obedient and most humble Servant,
G. B. RODNEY.
Thus did they consult the voice of the people in 1761. Whether Charles
Robbins was dismissed, and Captain Peard had post, I do not know, and it
does not greatly matter. Probably they were respectively punished and
preferred, for Rodney was duly elected and returned to Parliament once
more as one of the trusty band of gentlemen who enabled the “noodle of
Newcastle” first to impose himself on the great Pitt and then to trip up
his heels.
It is to be wished that some more heroic tale had to be told of Rodney
as a Parliament man, but even from a biographer a decent measure of
respect for fact is required, and the honest truth is that Rodney was
one of the “items” which made up the sum of political strength in the
hand of His Grace of Newcastle. There was in his case no shadow of that
comely pretence of a regard for the principles of a party which was
exacted from the nominee to a pocket borough in the last years of the
old system. He did not profess to take a seat in order to fight for his
principles. He struggled for one in order to push his fortunes, and in
order to get the seat he made himself the humble servant to command of
the silliest and basest of the politicians of the eighteenth century.
Whatever amount of stain this may be supposed to inflict on his
character must, it is to be feared, remain there.
On the other hand, there is something to be said about the extent and
nature of that stain. A man is to be judged by the morality of his time,
and beyond all doubt that morality permitted Rodney to do what he did.
To attach yourself to the Duke of Newcastle or any other patron was not
thought to be an act deserving praise, but it was permissible without
too much loss of character. It was only one of the many compromises
which are necessary in life. If his patron had been other than
Newcastle, who could not be served except by those who were prepared to
subordinate in things Parliamentary all principle and patriotism to the
interest of their patron, there would to a humane judge be no stain on
his character at all. As it was, he followed many others to do a thing
made disgraceful by the character of his leader, and I greatly fear that
he never woke up to the real nature of his course, but remained to the
end of his life convinced that a gentleman might, without loss of
character, profess himself the “man” of such a one as His Grace of
Newcastle in order to earn place by that act of homage. Here, again, a
consideration on the other side suggests itself. It is this, that
Rodney’s conduct differed rather in certain superficial matters of form,
than in kind, from that of gentlemen of mark in the political world of
to-day. There are many who would now make to a caucus that promise of
unconditional obedience which he made to Newcastle, and would never be
called contemptuous names for so doing except in the criticism of the
other side, which is a matter of course, and, by the way, did not spare
the led captains of the electioneering duke. Which of the two forms of
slavery is the more ignoble is a question to be settled rather by the
taste than the reason. There are who would think it more shameful to be
horsewhipped by a gentleman single-handed than to be dragged through a
horse-pond by a mob. To the fastidious either experience is unpleasant.
For the rest it was true in 1761, as it had been before and has been
since, that “The rising unto _Place_ is laborious; and by Pains men come
to greater Pains; and it is sometimes base; and by Indignities men come
to Dignities.” A man, too, ranks rather by what he does with his dignity
when it has been won, than by what he does to win it. Now, it cannot be
denied that if Rodney stooped somewhat to pick up command, he exercised
it for the good of his country and the confusion of her enemies.
His electioneering adventures have been allowed to slightly overlap his
services at sea. Between his election for Okehampton and his return--as
Clive’s fellow-member, by the way--for Penryn he did a good stroke of
service in the Channel. The French were busy in 1759 in preparing a
great invasion of England. Flat-bottomed boats, such as were afterwards
to reappear on a much more imposing scale in the Napoleonic wars, were
being built all along the Channel. A powerful fleet was getting ready at
Brest, and a smaller force at Rochefort. On our side Sir Edward Hawke
had been told off to watch Brest, and Commodore Duff to pen in the
Rochefort squadron. Rodney, now Rear-Admiral of the Blue, was
despatched with one sixty-gun ship, the _Achilles_, and half a score of
fifty-gun ships, frigates, and sloops, aided by six-bomb ketches, to
answer for the flat-bottomed boats in the Channel ports. The work was
smartly and thoroughly done in the month of July. Some of the
flat-bottomed boats which, under convoy of a galley, endeavoured to
escape from the Seine, and creep along the coast to Brest, were cut off
at Cape Bassin and driven on shore. Havre was bombarded with success,
and numbers of flat-bottomed boats were destroyed, together with great
quantities of the stores collected for the proposed invasion. The
destruction can hardly have been complete, and was probably not even so
extensive as the English supposed. It was enough, however, to deal the
French a shrewd blow. When Rodney returned to port he had greatly
relieved the fears of his countrymen, and had raised his own reputation
considerably. Before the close of the year Hawke’s victory over Conflans
near Quiberon had broken the back of any possible scheme of invasion as
effectually as Trafalgar was to do half a century or so later. It is not
without interest to note that during these operations Rodney had under
his command Captain Samuel Hood of the _Vestal_ frigate, who was to be
his second in the battle off Dominica. When he wished to direct the
inshore operations in shallower water than could be safely navigated by
the _Achilles_, Rodney hoisted his flag in the _Vestal_. The two men now
began a friendship which, if it was not quite proof against the strain
of rivalry in the future--in the heart of one if not of both--was never
openly broken. Rodney must have learned the undoubted capacity of Hood.
The remainder of 1759, the whole of 1760, and the early part of 1761
were passed either in watch and ward in the Channel, or in circumventing
the “adversary” at Penryn. In the last-named year Rodney sailed with a
considerable squadron as Admiral on the Barbadoes and Leeward station.
Here he remained until the Peace of Fontainebleau in 1763. His services
in these two years were divided between co-operating with General
Moncton in the conquest of the French Caribbean Islands, and preparing
the way for the great expedition of Pocock and Albemarle to the
Havannah. Neither part of this service need be repeated here at any
length. The French were in these wars so completely beaten from the sea
that an English admiral engaged on such work as Rodney’s had little more
to do than to superintend the transport of troops, to see them safely
landed, and to organise naval brigades to co-operate with them when on
shore. The work was thoroughly done. Navy and army helped one another in
the proper way, and Martinique, which had repelled an attack in 1759,
soon fell. Other islands followed, and the French were driven from all
their possessions in the West Indies except Hayti. That they were able
to use them against us in the American War which lay ahead was not the
fault of the fighting men, naval or military. The islands were restored
by the diplomatists as a set-off for Canada, which we retained, thereby
removing that fear of French aggression which had hitherto been the main
ingredient in the loyalty of the plantations to the mother-country.
During the conquest of the French islands Rodney regularly reported
progress to his patron of Newcastle, and did it, too, with details which
show that he had measured His Grace’s foot to a hairbreadth. Writing
for instance to Newcastle from Fort Royal Bay in Martinique to give the
good news of the conquest, and point out how advantageous it will be for
His Majesty’s service, he does not fail to insist how useful it may also
be to Thomas Pelham. “I have likewise,” he says, “great satisfaction
when I consider that the conquest puts it into Your Grace’s power to
oblige many of your Friends by the Posts and Employments in Your Grace’s
gift, and which are very lucrative in this Island, particularly those
relative to the customs and Secretary of the Island. This I thought my
duty to represent to Your Grace that you might not be deceived in their
values, which are computed at four thousand pounds a year each. If I
have the good fortune to continue in Your Grace’s esteem, and that my
conduct in this expedition meets with Your Grace’s approbation, I shall
be extremely happy, as among Your Grace’s many friends none is more
truly so than him who has the honour to be with the most profound
respect and gratitude, etc. etc.”
Rodney was not a man to do things by halves, whether it was fighting the
French or cultivating his interest with the Duke of Newcastle. Also he
was clearly a man of the eighteenth century when the need, not to say
the imperative social duty, of obliging one’s friends was much borne in
on governing persons. So, having beaten the French in a workmanlike
style, he hastens to call His Grace’s attention to these two important
facts--first, that there are places of dignity and emolument to give
away, and second, that here is George Brydges Rodney, His Grace’s humble
and grateful servant. Then he leaves him to perpend.
If Rodney cherished any hope of good things to be obtained by the help
of Newcastle in the West Indies he was to be disappointed. In more ways
than one his command in these wars was less good than he might
reasonably have expected. A grant of land in one of the conquered
islands turned out to be mere fairy gold. It had not been confirmed in
time, and with the retrocession of our conquests any chance of making it
good disappeared. Rodney had to complain, too, that General Moncton and
the military gentlemen, particularly those of them who belonged to the
North American plantations, had secured an undue share of the
prize-money. He accused them of underhand dealings with the enemy, and
not without good grounds. Owing to these dubious transactions of theirs,
the naval officers, he complained, did not get their fair share. All
this business of prize-money, and the division of it, plays a very
important part in the history of the navy for as long as there were wars
in which booty was to be earned. The desire to obtain it was a great
motive with both officers and men. Lord Dundonald has left it on record
that a captain who had a reputation for luck never had any difficulty in
finding volunteers to man his ship, even when the most severe use had to
be made of the press to complete the complement of other ships. In so
far the acts for the encouragement of seamen, which recognised and
satisfied this natural human love of occasional lumps of extra money,
served the purpose for which they were designed. But their influence was
by no means wholly for good. Our fathers were much of Cassio’s mind.
They took it for granted that the lieutenant was to be enriched before
the fore-mast hand, the captain before the lieutenant, and the admiral
before the captain. When the man got a few pounds, just enough to keep
him drunk for a fortnight, the lieutenant gained a few score, the
captain a few hundreds, the admiral gained thousands, for he shared in
all the prizes taken on his station, whether he had been present at the
capture or not. It is therefore easy to see what an important matter
prize-money was to a flag-officer. To get a rich station, and to keep it
free from the intrusion of a superior, was the ideal of luck. Unless an
admiral was a very magnanimous man indeed, or the pressure of the time
was so great as to silence the voice of interest, he was sorely tempted
to allow the cause of his pocket to interfere with public service. He
was certain to be very angry if a brother-admiral of senior rank turned
up to share the booty, and never failed to take advantage of every
technical excuse which could be found for disputing the claims of a
colleague. How intensely these old heroes resented the diminution of
their “loot,” with what honest natural rancour they would fight over it,
let a long series of quarrels and lawsuits, conducted with all the
pertinacity of Dandie Dinmont, say. In the heart of such as fight on
blue water there has always lingered a something of the pirate--they
have a smack, they do somewhat grow to, as we shall see when this story
has gone a little farther.
The meaning of this same word prize-money must be kept in mind in order
to appreciate the full bitterness of the disappointment which fell upon
Rodney in 1762. Spain had openly avowed the Family Compact, and had
joined her fortunes with France. The avowal would have been made sooner
if Charles the Third had not waited till the treasure-ships were home
from America. By not allowing Pitt to force on a war in time, we gave
the Spaniard a chance, which he lost by declaring war himself when
France was too broken to afford him any help. At once the news was
forwarded to Rodney from Europe, and better he could not have wished
for. A war with Spain, as Nelson said, was a rich war; and for nobody
was it more lucrative than for the officers in command in the West
Indies. They had Cuba and the Spanish main under the lee. There was
nothing to be done but to run down before the unfailing Easterly Trades,
and there lay the Spanish colonies from which the strong man armed had
but to ask with spirit, and to have. Another not unpleasant service was
to cruise to windward of the passages through the Caribbean Islands, and
there snap up the register ships as they passed. When, then, the news of
the Spanish War reached Rodney, he set to work with all the energy of a
commander for whom pleasure and duty were combined in an eminent degree.
The French were so completely subdued that the English squadron could
safely be spared from the Leeward Islands. Rodney decided to strengthen
the Jamaica station, which was distinct from his own; and not only so,
but to go there himself in order to assist in the defence of the island,
in case a combined attack was made on it by the Spaniards and the
French, who had recently contrived to smuggle a few ships through the
Caribbean Islands to Hayti. In a despatch to the Admiralty he expressed
the hope that their lordships would approve of his decision to take this
course without waiting for orders. Having wound up his formal duties on
the Leeward station, Rodney prepared to run down to Jamaica, and no
doubt every man on board his flagship was looking forward to a slap at
the Spaniards and a share of the booty with a natural, and withal
honourable, feeling of satisfaction. But at the very last moment there
came upon all these tender leaves of hope a frost--a killing frost. On
March 26th Captain Elphinstone of the _Richmond_ frigate turned up with
orders from home. By the despatches brought him Rodney learnt that a
great expedition was preparing in England for an attack on Havannah. It
was to be commanded by Sir George Pocock. As for him, he was to remain
on his station in order that he might render all possible assistance to
the expedition as it passed. Rodney obeyed orders punctually. Ten sail
of his squadron were sent to Jamaica, and he remained at Antigua
collecting stores, water, and information for the use of Sir George
Pocock. After delays which might have proved fatal, the great expedition
arrived. It was carried by Pocock through the dangerous and then
little-known Bahama Channel--a feat which was quoted as a masterpiece of
seamanship--and after desperate fighting did take Havannah. The loss of
the expedition by disease was heavy; but Pocock and Albemarle, the
admiral and general in command, made a handsome fortune each out of the
prize-money. Rodney’s share in the enterprise was to see his squadron
depleted to strengthen Pocock; to have a great deal of work thrown on
him; to be left behind at Antigua with the mere carcass of his command,
and nothing but routine to attend to; to be, moreover, prostrated by a
smart attack of bilious fever. Pocock had taken his best ships and
officers, but had left him behind, having no desire that another
flag-officer should come with him to divide the expected plunder.
On this, as on all other occasions, Rodney obeyed orders exactly, and
without futile complaint. He was too able--too much a man of the
world--to suppose that he could gain anything by showing himself
unmanageable; too honourable a man to revenge a private disappointment
by neglecting the service; and, above all, too proud a man to make an
outcry where he had no quotable grievance. None the less he was
disappointed, and did not scruple to say so when a fitting occasion
presented itself. He did not do so now because there really was no
ground for protest. It was a matter of course that a great expedition
should be commanded by an officer of proportionate rank. Pocock was his
senior both in rank and length of service. He had lately commanded with
fair success in three battles in the East Indies against a superior
French force. Rodney could not complain when such a man--whose
reputation was then higher than his own--was put over his head. It was
for Pocock and the Ministry to decide whether the expedition to Havannah
required the presence of the Admiral on the Leeward station. They did
not think it did, and so Rodney had to remain at his unremunerative
command. Still, to Rodney, who neither was nor pretended to be
indifferent to money, it was a disappointment to lose so splendid a
chance. Some years afterwards he made it an excuse for a claim to be
allowed to retain the governorship of Greenwich Hospital along with an
active command at sea. He then plainly told Sandwich that he thought the
Government owed him this, which had been granted in the noontide of
jobbery to former admirals, as a compensation for what he had lost in
the West Indies in 1762. If this did not sound heroic, it was honest and
human. Moreover, it was only what was to be expected. If a government
holds out the chance of earning money as an incentive to its officers
and men, it must expect that its officers and men will think of money.
Rodney did not cant on the subject. He liked money and wished to earn it
as easily as possible. His code of honour consisted of two articles. The
first was that he was to do his duty; the second was that he was
entitled to all the places, pensions, allowances, prize-money, and
praise which law, or public opinion, or the customs of society entitled
him to get, down to the last farthing. Whoever stood in his way must
take the risk of whatever George Brydges Rodney could do to break his
neck--always in the way of fair fighting. It was not the code of a
saint, or of an unselfish hero; but it was a good working code of honour
for a plain man of the world.