Note 333 — 643.
Reading edition
Richard, Earl Howe (1726-1799), had sailed (November 9) in search of the French; but he was compelled to return to Spithead (November 29) without bringing them to action. "We continue in the same eternal state of anxious expectation of news from Lord Howe. Nothing is yet heard" (Lord Auckland to Lord H. Spencer, December 3, 1793: Correspondence, iii. 151). Gibbon did not live to hear of the victory of June 1, 1794.