The royal gazette — [Charleston] S.C., 1782-06-19 00:00:00, page 3

PUBL/CK AUCTION.
(BY PERMISSIO N.)
'Pofitively to be Sold,
On MONDAY next, the 24th instant,
At the house of Mr. James Cook, No. 3, St. Michael's Alley,
Tie Sale to be^in exactly at TEN o' Clock,
A VARIETY OF
Houfhold and Kitchen Furniture,
A Quantity of new-failfened PLATE,
A few rich fafhionable SILKS,
An elegant SILVER WATCH that goes on a Diamond,
An assortment of IRONMONGERY,
PLANK and SCANTLING,
TWO CHAIRS, an excellent CHAIR HORSE.
ALS O,
A LARGE AND VALUABLE
COLLECTION of BOOKS,
A N D,
On WEDNESDAY the 26th,
At EL EKE N o'clock,
A large Gang of NEGROES.
CONSISTING OF
Carpenters, Bricklayers, Sawyers, Cooks, Washers and Ironers, Seam-
Rreffes, and handy Boys and Girls.
SAME DA Y,
At 0 NE o'clock at the Exchange,
That large, commodious and well Situated HOUSE, No. 43,
@n the Bay, lately occupied by Mr. John Morris.
And at the fame Time,
The large double STORES on Greenwood's wharf, late
Kerfhaw and Riddel's.
The terms to be made known on or before the day of jale. by
June ? ad, !&. BLAIR & WALLACE.
PUBLICK AUCTION.
On TUESDAY next, the 25th instant,
WILL BEHOLD,
By JOHN MORRIS,
At TEN o'Clock, on Greenwood's Wbarf,
The CARGO of the Schooner Hunter,
yufl arrived from New-York,
CONSISTING or
'Sugar, Cheese, Cyder, Bottled Wines, Flour, Herrings, Soar,
Candles, Mess Beef, 2 Chests of Hyfon Tea, and a lew Calks of
manufa—ored Tobacco, &c. &c.
A N.D,.
At O NE o'Clock, in tb° Exchange,
The SCHOONER
S A L ' ''
v1"° w lying in Champney's dock, burthen runt rb
tons ' " a '"' flopt vessel, well found, and can be
sent to sea at a final! expence.
Inventory to be seen at my office. JOHN MOaRIS.
Charlfonvn, Tune 22d, 1,82.
PZ7 21L /CK I 0 N.
On TUESDAY next the 26th instant,
WILL BE SOLD,
At THOMAS STEWART & Cos
AUCTION-ROOM, No. 4% on the Bay ;
TheCargo of the Schooner General Carleton,
fuft arrived from New-York,
CONSISTING OF
SUPERFINE Flour, Mould and dipt tallow Candles, Sper
maceti Candles, Soap, Raisins, Almonds, Hyfon and Souchong
sea; Port~Wihe, Chocolate, Double and single refined Sugars,'
Split Peafe, Mustard.
A N D,
6 Trunks Womens Shoes
2 Cases Manchefler Goods
60 Pieces Irish Linens
On FRIDAY the 28th of June instant,
WILL BE SOLD,
By COOKE & WEB B,
At Dr. Elisha Poinsett's House, No. 30, in Church-street,
1 At TEN o'Clock in the Forenoon,
All his Houfhold and Kitchen Furniture,
With a VARIETY of other ARTICLES.
TO BE LET, and Possession given on the loth of fitly, next,
The above HOUSE, which has been lately built, and has
levery conveniency for a family..
PU^Z/CK ucr/0x
On MONDAY theist Day of July next,
WILL BE SOLD,
'At No. 74, in Broad-Street,
By € 00KE & WEB B,
All the EFFECTS of Thomas Pbefeoe Esq;
(Who intends leaving the Province)
CONSISTING OF
! Mahogany Chairs, Tables, Bedheads, Looking Glares, Carpets,
China, Glass Ware, &c. &c.
ALS 0,
A large QU ANTIT Y of
Elegant and ufeful PLAT E,
Some PLATED WARE, a GOLD REPEATING WATCH
j A larve and roomy POST CHAISE,
1 A CHAISE, and a WINDSOR CHAIR,
TWO good HORSES,
A PEW in St. Michael's Church, No. 40, in the South Aile,
All his LIBRARY of BOOKS,
A N D,
Several valuable NEGROES.
AT THE SAME TIME,
A LEASE for z| Years of the HOUSE No. 74, to com-
IBence from the 26th of June.
The Sale quill begin at N NE o'clock in the Mo r ning, and
\ 'be Conditions quill ^;„ ,de known at that Time.
ELIZABhTH HARVEY,
Begs leave to acquaint her Friends aid Czflomers,
?TIT.J fficcar^son the S PAY- MAKING and M INTUA
"''"'''" BI'SIN. SS^S. in the neatest manner, at
^0.36, ! nan- r G " ' e r e the ^ il-be obliged to such perfoag
tw iu favour her wiw then commands 0
PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.
HOUSE of COMMONS, F.bkuart 7.
Enquiry into the Condidll of the Firfl Lord of the Admiralty,
and into the Causes <f the want of tuccefs of our Naval
Force in the Tear 1781
AS soon as the Committee was formed, the clerks, one
relieving the other, read thr>ugh all the papers that had
at various times been laid upon .he table by Lord Mulgrave,
in confe uence of motions to that pnrpofe, made by Mr.
F x The reading of these papers took up three hours; so
that it was half an hour after fix o'clock, before
Mr. Fox roft to move a resolution of the Committee, found
erbon those papers. He laid, that if they had been laid upon
the tab'e time enough to have.been Sufficiently perilled by gen
tlemen, it wouM have been totally unneceffaiy for him to make
any, remarks upon their contents; for the mismanagement of
our marine appeared so glaringly from the evidence of those
papers, that they required no elucidation. But care had been
taken that they fruM not com before the House in such time
that the members could have compleatly digested them before
it was necessary to ground any resolution on them ; and they
were produced in Rich order, or r ther difordcr and confufion,
that it was impoflible, after a cursory reading by the clerks, to
combine the different parts that related to each other. It was
on this account only that he thought himfelfexcu feable in mak
ing a few observations, which he intended to confine to four
different heads.
But before he wan'd touch upon these heads, he judged it
not improper to throw out a few ideas to the Committee, on
fubje&r, which though they were at present out of the bounds
of the enquiry he intended to press, because the occurrences
to v hich he Should allude, had happened out of the year 1781,
to which year he meant to confine the enquiry for the present,
were by no mean c inapplicable to the great object of the en
quiry. The inOruHlons given to Sir Charles Hardy, to pre
vent , iundinn of the French and Spanish fleets, had not been
laid before the Hcnfe ; and he had Submitted to it,; though he
was not convinced by the reasons given for with-holding them;
but he must needs far, that if Sir Charles was not intruded,
to prevent such a junction, though, at the time alluded to, we
w^re not at war with Spain, it was an unpardonable, nay, a
criminal neglect in 'he Admiralty. From the papersjuft read,
it appealed indeed, that Admiral Geary had received inflruc
tions for that purpose ; but it was at a time, when there was.
every degree of probability that the fleets, which he was to have
kept aftinder, had aftualC jined before hereceßeJ his orders.
°nch bad been the diligence of the firft Lord of the Admiral
ty, such his attention to the interest of his country ! Another
tiring very remarkable, that from the firft of January, 1779,
to the beginning of March, 1781, not one single frigate had
been Rationed off Brest, to watch the motions of the enemy.
This war a chrumßance which, he was convinced, even the
great^R enemies to Lord Sandwich would scarcely have believ
ed. if it diri rot Rand confirmed by the papers that had been
read; and what was frill more fingtilar than the omission, or
either fhameful negle&, of which he complained, that when
frigates were sent in the month of March to cruize off Brest, it
was at a time when their cruize could not be attended with any
u o ful difeovery, forit was at a time when there was no arrna
merc carrying on in that port, all the fqnadrons which were
intended for sea having long before failed for their different de
stinations. He ha ? moved for a lift of the ships employed for
the defe ce of Jersey, at 'he time of the attack Upon that
iOand ; but the return made to his motion was far from being
fa' iTaßorv, in fact it was no return at all ; for having called for
the flrins employed 'or the defence of the island at the time it
was a" ached the return made was a lift of Blips sent to J.crfey,
aTer the expedition agriefti'had nfifearried. Having said thus
much by way of preface, Mr. Fox came immediately to the
year T.7BG to the naval tranfadions of which year, he confined
the enquiry. Tn this year, he found four principal heads of
accusation against Lord Sandwich.
ift. That he fuffered. Comte de Graffe to fail for the Weft-
Indies, without makinga firgleeffAf to intercept.him. From
the papers on the table, it was manifeft that he had had the best
and raoft mimTe intelligence of the equipment, strength and
cieftinatiott of the force under that officer; it was equally clear
that he knew the time, or very nearly, when the Comte was
to fail; and yet not the Icaft attempt was made to block up
Brest, or give the enemy battle after they had let out. There
were two circumftahces which in this case rendered the firft
Lord of the Admiralty, highly criminal : one wasthatthe ob
;°e< ,of Corn'e de Grade's expedition was of the most dangerous
nature to this country: it was to destroy its empire in the weft,-
and in feme measure, to blotthe British name out of thechro
nicles of the world ; but great as these objects were, he was
pet milled to purfne them without the haft molestation on the
part of / ord Sandwich. The other circumstance which ren•
dered that naval Minister highly.crimiral was, that at the very,
time he bad a force at sea, equal to the complect deftruaion
of Comte de Graffe and his fleet. Admiral Darby was then at
sea with thirty ships of the line, well equipped, well manned,
and in the 'eft condition. But .the evil genius of England
would have it that Lores Sandwich should fend such orders to
Admiral Darby, as must necessarily leave a free passage for Mons.
de Graffe: cur fleet confining of thirty line of battle fhips.pot
to sea the 13th of March, 1781; the French Admiral wi r h
25 flrips of the line, failed the 2zd; so that if Admiral Darby
had not been sent out of the way, there would scarcely have
been a pdffibiiity of the latter ^voidirig an engagement with u«,
either before we got to Gibraltar, or on our return from if.
But Lord Sandwich, as if fearing that the French should be de
stroyed. sent or< ers to Admiral Darby to cruize off the coast
of Ireland, to wait for the store ships and victuallers, that were
to join him from Corke: here was he Rationed till-the 27th of
March, before he was joined by the transports : in the mean
time, the French continued their voyage without the smallest
interruption ; and what was the consequence ? He really want
ed words to describe it; the consequence was as dreadful as if
London had been burnt; we had loft otlriflands; Sir Samuel
Hood had been defeated, ornearlyfo; and om; losses and dis
graces were compleated by the farrender of Lord Cornwallis's
army at York Town. He desired gentlemen to tonfider that
the naval Minister had it in his power to prevent all these disas
ters, and to have crushed them in the very embryo, by fending
Admiral Darby to meet Comte de Graffe ; but that instead of
doing it, he sent tie British fleet tocruize in a quarter where it
must be entirely out of (he track of the French. He desired
that they would confider it was not for want of intelligence of
the designs, numbers, and strength of the enenly, that he emit
ted fending Admiral Darby to meet Mons. de Graffe; but it
was after having had the most cotred intelligence on the fubjeCt
that he sent cur fleet to Ireland. He desired gentlemen would
confider this, and fay whether it was credible that it could have
happened without treachery somewhere? But supposing trea
chery totally out of the question, those who flioul'd think so far
favourably of Lord Sandwich, as to suppose him incapable of
treachery, must still in candour admit, that from the evidence
contained in the papers just read, that he was totally inade
quate to the management of the navy of this country. No
one could conceive the reafen why a fleet of thirty ships of the
line fhculd be sent out of their wayto Ireland to meet the trans
ports from Corke, which ought to have been ordered to join
the fleet in the channel; if that had been the case, there was
not a doubt but Admiral Darby would have given a good ac
count of the French ; and perhaps he might hav&arrived time
enough to fall upon the rear of the Spanish fleet, which, after
a cruize of two months, was returning in very foul condition,
to Cadiz. It was a very great injury to our affairs, that Comte
de Graffe fliould not have been intercepted in the European
seas; but still an able firft Lord of the Admiralty might have
men that it was not irreparable ; for he might still have defeated
the Comte's expedition, by a proper detachment from Admiral
Darby's fleet. It was his bufintfs to have given orders toour
commander to detach to the Weft-Indies, if it should so hap
pen that the Spaniards should not dispute the passage of the
Streights with us. A Minister of common forefight would have
said to his Admiral, either the Spaniards will fight you on the
way to Gibraltar, or they will not. If they should not, there
you will immediately dispatch a part of your fleet to the Weft-
Indies, to counteract the Comte de Graffe. This woul d have
been the language of a provident minister; but it was not the
language of Lord Saidwich. If he had so inftru&ed Admiral
Darby, a detachment of clean En^lifh ships, without convoy,
would have in all probability joined Sir Samuel Hood before
the Comte's Arrival ; and in that case there was every degree
of likelihood, that the French Would have been defeated.
2d. The second head of accusation was the iofs of the S&
Euftatius convoy. It appeared from the papers before the
Committee, that Sir George Rodney had written to the Ad
miralty about this convoy before it failed ; and acquainted the
Board with the conrfe it was to steer: the letter was received
on the 25th of March. When it was received, it was well
known to the firft Lord of the Admiralty, as the Committee
had learned from the papers, that a squadron was fitting out at:
Brest, the command of which was given to Mons. de la Motte
Piquet. Admiral Darby was then lying off the coast of Ire
land; but no orders were sent to him on the fubjeft. Admiral
Rodney's letter said, the Euftatius convoy was perhaps the
richest that had ever been bound for England. Mr. Fox ob
served, that as to the riches that were on board of it, when he
considered how they had been acquired, they were the riches,
the lots of which, of all others, he should least regret; but still
as it was the duty of the firft Lord of the Admiralty to protect
it, his neglect alone was Efficient to Shew how disqualified he
was for the office he held. The squadron under De la Motte
Piquet had been a considerable time fitting out; very regular
intelligence had been transmitted to the Admiralty, of the pro
gress of preparations during the months of February, Marche
and Apiil ; and yet not one step had been taken to guard against
it: and this was the more criminal as we were at the time, ire
alrhoft" daily expectation of the arrival f the Jamaica, as well
as the St. Euftatius fleet: no preparation however was made;
to afford them protection; and all that was done was, that
two frigates had been dispatched to meet them if possible, warn
them of their danger, and enable them to avoid it, ifthey could
by making some port in Ireland, or going north about. One
of the frigates fortunately fell in with the Jamaica fleet, which
accidentally escaped the danger; but the St. Euilatius convoy
was taken, at Itaftin part, on rhe 2d and 3d of May. The
convoy had been expected ever fi ice the receipt of Sir George
Rodney's letter on the 25th of March, 'and Lord Sandwich
knew of the preparation of Mons. de la Motte Piquet, from
the beginning of February, and yet no Rep had been taken to
protect the one, or defeat the other; nay, so great was the
negligence of the firft Lord of the Admiralty, that he never
thought of making Admiral Darby acquainted with the ex
pected arrival of the St. Euftatius convoy, till the loth of May,
and then dispatched a frigate to him, to g : ve him orders to fail
to a particular latitude, in order to protect a convoy, which
had been taken just seven days before the frigate had been dis
patched to him: now the probability was, that this frigate
could not reach Admiral Darby in much less than a fortnight,
so that near two months had elapsed between the receipt of Sir
George Rodney's letter, giving notice of the failing ofthe con
voy, and the time when Admiral Darby got orders to fail for
its protection. He alked gentlemen, if this alone was not fuf
fieient to justify any motion that he Should think proper to
make against the firft Lord of the Adm ralty? There was only
one excuse, which however poor for a naval Minister, ought:
to be admitted in such a case as the present ; and that was, that,
he really had not any force Sufficient to cope with Mons. de 1%
Motte Piquet; but poor As this excuse must be in the mouth
of an English naval Minister, Lord Sandwich was not fortun
ate enough to have it; for it appeared from the monthly re
turns, tnat'tbere were Teips enew in port, which, from the
month of March, when Sir Gebrge Rodney's letter gave notice
of the intended-failing of the convoy from St. Euftatius, to the
latter end of April, might have been got ready; he read a lift
of the Ships, and, including one or two fifties, there appeared
to have been in o^r different ports twelve fail ofthe line, a
force fufficient to have defeated Mons. de la Motte Piquet 1
he read aifo the returns frem the guardships, Rating the num
bers on board, from which he proved, that if we had ships, fix
also we had men to put on board of them : so that he conclud
ed that the lot's of the convoy could and ought to be attributed;
only to the mismanagement or Something" worse, of the firft
Lord of the Admiralty..
3d. The third head of Accusation was the letter from the
Admiralty to the Mayor of Bristol ; Admiral Darby, as appear-,
ed from the papers, had acquainted the Admiralty, that he
had fallen in with a Swedish brig, them After of which had
informed him, that he had been boarded by a frigate, under
Spanish colours, belonging to the combined fleets, whicl%
were then in the Channel; and that in consequence of thi?
intelligence he had thought proper to return up the Channel
for orders, and had put into Torbay. And here it was to bet
observed, that the matter of the brig was an Englishman, who
would not deceive his country, and whose journal confirmed;
his story. How did the firft Lord of the Admiralty anfwei this
letter? In an mfulting manner, telling.the Admiral he did not
believe the intelligence ; and adding; if the account bad been
true that the combined fleets had appeared in such a latitude^
he (Admiral Darby) must have seen them. In answer to the
Mayor of Bristol, he said that the combined fleets were not in
the Channel, and that Admiral Darby had put into Torbay
only to water. This he must have known at the time to have
been a falfehood ; for the Admiral in his letter assigned a very
different reason for returning to port, so that it looked as ifthe
naval Minister wanted to ensnare the trade of Bristol, by indu
cing the merchants to fend their Snips to sea, that he might de
liver them into the hands of the enemy, just as he had sent
Capt. Moutray into the hands of Admiral Cordova. But to
Shew how compleatly the Admiralty either had deceived itfelf,
or had deceived the Mayor of Bristol, it appeared that Lord
Stormont had, on the very day of the date of the Admiralty
letter to the Mayor, sent an express to Lord Carlifle, with po
sitive intelligence that the enemy was in the Channel.
4th. The fourth charge related to the management of the
Dutch war. That war was, he said, of all foolifh, absurd,
and mad undertakings, the most foolifh, the most absurd,
and the most mad. It had been represented to that Houfe^
in order to get them to approve of the war, that the Dutch
were in a'moft defenceless Rate; that there was a very great:
- party for usjn Holland; and that we had only to make
a vigorous effort in the beginning, to give that party the
Superiority in the councils of the Republick. Upon such
a ftatt of .the case, would not any one have expected that the
naval Minister would have signalized the outset of the Dutch
war by an appearance of an English squadron in the Texel?
An attack might surely be expe&ed to be attended with
every luccefs Quit we could with for; but nothing was more