SECTION I SIR ALAN GARDNER'S PROTEST SPENCER TO GARDNER Admiralty. 21st April, 1800. Dear Sir, I hope this letter will meet you on your arrival in Torbay ; as I think it an attention I owe to your situation in the Channel Fleet to give you the earliest information I could regularly do of the intended arrangement in consequence of Lord Bridport's retiring from his command on account of the ill state of his health. His Lordship will be succeeded by Lord St. Vincent, under whom I trust you will have no objection to serve, provided your health should continue to be as good as it appears to have been for the last winter, and indeed ever since I had the pleasure of seeing you in Torbay. Lord St. Vincent's appointment is intended to take place immediately, and he will lose as little time as possible in joining the fleet; but as it is possible that the wind may change before he can get down, you will in that case use no delay in the execution of the orders which have already been given for the fleet's sailing, which it will rest with you to carry into execution when Lord Bridport shall have struck his flag, if his successor shall not have arrived before the wind changes. Believe me, dear Sir, with great truth, GARDNER TO SPENCER Royal Sovereign, Torbay. 24th April, 1800. My Lord, I was honoured with your Lordship's letter of the 21st instant, yesterday, acquainting me of an arrangement which your Lordship thought proper to communicate to me, on Lord Bridport's having signified his intention of relinquishing the command of the Channel Fleet; this communication so very unexpected, from the situation I have so long had the honour of holding in the Channel Fleet under the command of the late Lord Howe, and Lord Bridport, has mortified me exceedingly, and I have no doubt will completely humble and disgrace me in the eyes of the fleet, in which I have been serving (I was vain enough to think) with some degree of credit to myself, and service to my country for the last seven years-I leave your Lordship to suppose what my feelings must be on this occasion. I have the honour to be, my Lord, Your most obedient humble servant, SPENCER TO GARDNER Admiralty. 26th April, 1800. Dear Sir, I never was more surprised in my life than at the contents of your letter of the 24th instant in answer to mine of the 21st in which I acquainted you with the appointment of Lord St. Vincent to succeed to the command of the Channel Fleet. It must be in your recol lection that in every conversation I have had with you on the subject, you have so expressed yourself as to leave me strongly impressed with the idea that the command-in-chief of a large fleet would not be your wish; and I had always collected from what I have heard occasionally of your sentiments on that subject from any of your friends, that I was right in forming that idea. Under this impression I could have had no conception that it was possible for you to be mortified at the command being given to Lord St. Vincent, an officer so much your senior, and who must in the eyes of the fleet as well as of the public, and I could, I think, almost venture to say of yourself, have been looked upon as the most proper and natural successor to the command in the event of Lord Bridport's retiring from it. Having said this much I can only add my sincere regret and concern that your feelings should be anything but what they ought, and what I should have wished them to be on this subject, as the real respect I have ever entertained. for you since I had the pleasure of your acquaintance cannot but make me extremely unwilling to give you a moment's painful sensation. I am, dear Sir, Your very obedient humble servant, SPENCER. GARDNER TO SPENCER Royal Sovereign, off Ushant. 28th April, 1800. My Lord, I am every day more sensible of the uncommonly harsh treatment I have received on Lord Bridport's retiring from the command of the Channel Fleet, and as your Lordship has been pleased to say you thought my situation as second-in-command in the fleet required some attention, your Lordship will judge of my surprise and astonishment when I was (without further preface) informed that Lord St. Vincent would be appointed to succeed Lord Bridport, and that your Lordship trusted I should have no objection to serve under him, provided my health should continue to be as good, as it appears to have been for the last winter,' and indeed (to use your own expression) ever since your Lordship had the pleasure of seeing me in Torbay-in other words that I was at liberty to retire whenever I chose to make use of the plea of ill-health. I will venture to say your Lordship knows very little of my character or disposition, if you have entertained so injurious a thought as to suppose (even in the moment of my disgrace and degrading) I should make use of the plea of ill-health, and request to strike my flag at the time when I had just received intimation from Lord Bridport that so soon as the wind changed I was to proceed to Brest with the command of thirty sail of the line (in expectation of meeting the enemy) which orders I put in execution a very few hours after I received them from his Lordship. After a long and faithful service of forty-five years, thirty-three of which I have been in actual employment, and having served upwards of six years as a flag officer in the Channel Fleet under the late Lord Howe and Lord Bridport, and regularly rose to become the second officer in command, which situation I have held nearly four years, I am now by your Lordship's fiat, either to retire, or to be reduced to the humiliating alternative of having a noble lord (who I very much respect) with the same rank with myself put over my head, and disgraced and humbled in the eyes of the fleet, in which, until now, I was vain enough to think I had been long serving with some credit and honour to myself and with some advantage also to my King and country. What shall I say, my Lord, to my constituents in Westminster? and what will be the sentiments of the country in general respecting your Lordship's conduct to me upon this occasion I shall leave to your Lordship to judge. My great and only consolation is in the confidence I have of my standing high in the favourable opinion of a decided majority of the service, and that (with very few exceptions) there is not an officer or man in the fleet who does not sincerely feel for my disappointment, and lament the humble situation I am reduced to. Your Lordship in your letter of the 21st instant trusts I will have no objection to serve under Lord St. Vincent, provided my health [continues good]. I suppose there are very few men who have enjoyed better health than I have done during the whole course of the war, and the reports abroad are very ill founded indeed, if my health and constitution is not in every respect better than the noble Lord's you have thought proper to put over my head. In regard to my knowledge and abilities as a sea officer to command the Channel Fleet, I shall leave that to the judgment of professional men who I believe are competent thereto, and I hope they may be allowed to form their opinion thereon. In short, my Lord, my sensations are such that I have not words strong enough to |