there can be no question that the progress of the French armies would
have been signally retarded, if invasion had not been thrown back
over the French frontier. For instance, it would have been utterly
impossible for Napoleon, in 1796, to have marched triumphantly
throughout Italy with the British fleet covering the coast, commanding
all the harbours, and ready to throw in troops in aid of the
insurrections in his rear.

But it was the policy of the time to pacify the merchants, whose
bugbear was a negro insurrection in the West Indies; and whether the
genius or the fears of Pitt gave way to the impression, the
consequence was equally lamentable--the mighty power of England was
wasted on the capture of sugar islands, which we did not want, which
we could not cultivate, and which cost the lives, by disease and
climate, of ten times the number of gallant men who might have saved
Europe. At the close of 1793, a grand expedition against the French
Caribbee islands was resolved upon by the British cabinet; and it is a
remarkable instance of both the reputation of Sir John Jervis and the
impartiality of the great minister, that a Whig member of parliament
should have been chosen to command the naval part of the expedition.

The expedition consisted of twenty-two ships of war and six thousand
troops, the troops divided into three brigades, of which one was
commanded by the late Duke of Kent. Sir John Jervis hoisted his flag
as vice-admiral of the blue on the 3d of October.

A ludicrous circumstance occurred in the instance of a favourite
officer, Mr Bayntun, who had applied for permission to join Sir John.
Bayntun received in answer the following decisive note: "Sir, your
having thought fit to take to yourself a wife, you are to look for no