The enemy was so numerous that nothing could justify Lord Howe, who had answered his great object, to bring on unnecessarily an unequal contest: and his orders to detach 12 or 14 ships of the line, to reinforce Admiral Paget in the West Indies would have been frustrated, had the fleet much suffered in such a contest: wherefore the gallant Admiral having once more drawn up to offer them battle, aimed at nothing further at that time: but dispatched Vice Admiral King with the freshest of his ships to the West Indies.
Not long after the decision of the Cabinet, we received the pleasing accounts of the signal successes of the garrison itself in a well conducted and effectual sortie, as also of the distinguished manner in which the formidable attack of the enemy's floating batteries was repulsed with an entire destruction of those famous vessels.[1]
The succour of the place being completely effected by the fleet under Lord Howe, cut off all hopes which the enemy could form; and the siege was raised to the great mortification of the Duc de Crillon, and the army he commanded."[2]The relief of Gibraltar removed the momentary depression which the foundering at Spithead in August of the Royal George and the loss of Admiral Kempenfelt and 600 men had caused; and it determined the Cabinet to withstand the demands of France and Spain, to refuse to surrender Gibraltar, and to withdraw from the offer of St. Lucia and Dominica.[3] Realizing also that the feud between the European belligerents and the United States was already tolerably deep, and that the latter would not in any case continue the war for purely Spanish objects, they resolved to attempt to gain a modification of the American demands in favour of the English creditors and of the Loyalists: points to which Shelburne attached a greater importance than some of his colleagues. Oswald had yielded on them in conformity with the express directions of the Cabinet; they therefore thought it but just to take part of the responsibility of making new demands off his shoulders, and accordingly sent an
