it, and it was accepted accordingly, though too late to be of any service.
Meantime Sir Ralph Abercromby [q. v.] had been sent out to the Mediterranean with a large armament. He joined Keith at Leghorn on 1 July; but the plans of the government had been unsettled, and though the troops were there, nothing had been decided as to their destination. In August Keith went to Minorca, shifted his flag to the Foudroyant, and was ordered to prepare, in concert with Abercromby, for a descent on Cadiz. By 5 Oct. they were off Cadiz with a fleet numbering upwards of 130 vessels. A virulent pestilence was carrying off the inhabitants of the city by thousands; and the governor wrote off, deprecating any hostilities against a place in so lamentable a condition. Keith and Abercromby replied in a joint letter that they were 'little disposed to multiply unnecessarily the evils inseparable from war,' but unless the ships of war then in Cadiz were given up they should be obliged to carry out their instructions to take or destroy them. But when the governor's answer came, virtually refusing compliance, the joint commanders had arrived at the conclusion that the expedition was not equal to the undertaking. They accordingly returned straightway to Gibraltar. It is impossible to acquit the two commanders, but more especially Keith, of weakness and vacillation. On 25 Oct. they at length received orders for the invasion of Egypt, and after touching at Malta (which had surrendered on 5 Sept.), sailed for the coast of Caramania, where, in a gale which threatened imminent loss to the whole fleet, they arrived almost by accident in the harbour of Marmorice (Wilson, Hist. of the Expedition to Egypt, p. 3; Parson, Nelsonian Remniniscences, p. 80) on 1 Jan. 1801, on which day Keith was gazetted to the rank of admiral, on the general promotion accompanying the declaration of the union between Great Britain and Ireland. In Marmorice harbour they were detained till 22 Feb.; on 2 March they anchored in Aboukir Bay; and on the 8th the troops were landed. Keith's share in the ensuing operations was mainly limited to guarding the coast, till, on 2 Sept., the final capitulation was signed, and Alexandria, with all the shipping in the port, was surrendered. The service had been irksome and onerous to an extreme degree, without the redeeming opportunities of distinction. 'It fell to the lot of the army to fight and of the navy to labour,' was Nelson's happy phrase in seconding the vote of thanks in the House of Lords; 'they had equally performed their duty and were equally entitled to thanks.' From the city of London Keith received the freedom of the city and a sword of the value of a hundred guineas; the sultan conferred on him the order of the Crescent; and on 15 Dec he was raised to the dignity of a peerage of the United Kingdom, with the same title as before.
On the conclusion of the peace Keith was permitted to resign the command to Sir Richard Bickerton. He returned to England in July 1802; but on the fresh outbreak of the war, May 1803, he was appointed commander-in-chief in the Nortn Sea, where, throughout that and the following years, he was closely occupied with preparations for the defence of the coast, eventually extending into the Channel, as far west as Selsea Bill. It was not till after the enemy's scheme of invasion was finally disposed of at Trafalgar that the strain of this command was relaxed; but he continued to hold it till the spring of 1807. On 12 Dec. 1808 he married Hester Maria, daughter of Mrs. Thrale (Piozzi) [see Elphinstone, Hester Maria], now no longer young, and described as having 'strengthened her mental faculties by the severe studies of perspective, fortification, Hebrew, and mathematics.' Notwithstanding this she made Keith an excellent companion in his declining years.
In February 1812 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Channel fieet, and on 14 May 1814 was advanced to the dignity of viscount. His command seems to have been exercised mainly by deputies afloat, he himself arranging the stations of the several squadrons and superintending the whole. The fleet, indeed, was broken up into numerous small detachments employed on the coast of France or Portugal, in convoy or transport service, the organisation of which was more properly settled in the home ports. It was thus that he had drawn a line of cruisers along the French coasts, even before receiving the news of the battle of Waterloo; and little further preparation was needed to prevent the escape of Bonaparte to America. He was at Plymouth when the news reached him of Bonaparte's having given himself up on board the Bellerophon, and was throughout the intermediary of the government in its correspondence with Bonaparte relative to his being sent to St. Helena. Bonaparte protested vehemently against the treatment to which he was subjected, and endeavoured to draw Keith into arguing the matter; but Keith maintained strict silence on his own part, considering himself merely the mouthpiece of the government. The departure of Bonaparte and the conclusion of peace permitted Keith to retire from active service.
