cible, et la Gloire vous suit.' Saint-George returned to England with Anson, and between the two there sprang up a friendship and correspondence which continued till death ended it.
Anson's great superiority of force was mainly due to his own care and forethought; and he made such good use of it as utterly to overwhelm the enemy. A French fleet had been utterly defeated, and some 300,000l. in specie had been captured and carried through London in triumph. 'I ought to be satisfied,' wrote Anson to the Duke of Bedford, 'but wish he (La Jonquière) had had a little more strength, though this is the best stroke that has been made upon the French since La Hogue.' It was not only a national but a political success, and the ministry, accepting it as such, heaped rewards on the victors. Anson was raised to the peerage as Baron Anson of Soberton, in Hampshire; Warren, the second in command, was made a knight of the Bath; and Boscawen, the senior captain, though of only ten years' standing, was specially included in the next promotion of admirals.
In February 1747-8 the Duke of Bedford was appointed secretary of state, and Lord Sandwich became first lord of the admiralty. The duke had virtually assigned the executive administration of the navy to Anson, but now, in the absence of Sandwich in Germany, Lord Vere Beauclerk took the direction of affairs. As captain, as admiral, and in the admiralty patent, Beauclerk was the senior of the two, and may naturally have felt some annoyance at the preference previously given to his junior. It was now Anson's turn to feel aggrieved; he wrote to Lord Sandwich on 15 Feb.: 'In your absence Lord Vere may make as much a cipher of me as he pleases, which you will easily imagine must be very disagreeable to me after the share the Duke of Bedford has allowed me in the direction of affairs afloat and the success which has attended his grace's administration of naval affairs in every branch of the department. Besides, I think the world will see me in a very disadvantageous light. … He has been in my way ever since I came into the world. Two years ago I endeavoured to shove him before me, but there was no moving him from the earth to his proper element, and to continue now in his rear, both at land and sea, I own I cannot well endure' (Barrow, p. 201). To this, on 19 March, Lord Sandwich replied: 'I think that so far from Lord Vere being able to make a cipher of you, that you must put him absolutely in that situation himself. I always told you that whenever I got to the head of the admiralty it should, except in the name and show of it, be the same thing as if you were there yourself. … If Lord Vere's purposes are disagreeable to you, it is very easy to prevent them, by desiring first to know my opinion. … You may be assured I will do no act whatever but directly through your hands, which will plainly show people where the power centres, and I think indisputably fix you in the entire management of affairs' (ibid. p. 204).
It was shortly afterwards, 25 April 1748, that Anson was married to Lady Elizabeth Yorke, daughter of the lord chancellor. The marriage brought wealth as well as influence. 'The whole portion,' wrote Lord Hardwicke to his intended son-in-law, a few days before the marriage, 'shall be paid either in banknotes, or in my draft upon the bank, as you like best.' Notwithstanding the frequent indelicate jokes of Horace Walpole, there is no reason to suppose that the marriage was other than a happy one. No children followed, although a letter from Lord Hardwicke, dated 30 Aug. 1748 (Barrow, p. 208), seems to imply that some such result was expected. If so, however, it ended in disappointment.
Anson's public life was meantime devoted to reorganising certain weak points in the navy which the war had brought to light. The marine regiments were to be broken, a new corps of marines under the jurisdiction of the admiralty was to be formed, the administration of the dockyards was to be improved, and, most important of all, a new code of articles of war was to be drawn up and passed through parliament. Within the next few years all these things were done, and done effectually. Dockyard administration no doubt remained for very many years exceedingly corrupt, though not, we may believe, so atrociously bad as in former years. The building of ships, too, was improved, and the establishment of guns and all stores put on a more satisfactory footing. The articles of war, as passed in 1749, remained the law of the service till 1865; and the corps of marines, as then planned, and definitely formed in 1755, is the same as at the present day. Of these several measures the chief part of the credit must attach to Anson, who, as we have seen, was placed by Lord Sandwich at the head of the executive, and who in June 1751 became actually, as well as virtually, first lord of the admiralty. This post he filled until the change of ministry in November 1756, and it was thus during his administration that the fleet under Admiral John Byng sailed for the Mediterranean in March, and was defeated off Cape Mola on
