Note 95 — Chapter III
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"Shortly after came letters from the Earl of Loudon, the commander-in-chief in North America, stating that he found the French 21,000 strong, and that, not having so many, he could not attack Louisburg, but should return to Halifax. Admiral Holborne, one of the sternest condemners of Byng, wrote at the same time that he, having but seventeen ships and the French nineteen, dared not attack them. There was another summer lost! Pitt expressed himself with great vehemence against the earl, and we naturally have too lofty ideas of our naval strength to suppose that seventeen of our ships are not a match for any nineteen others."—Walpole's George II., vol. ii., p. 231.
"Admiral Holborne declined to attack the French, because, while he had seventeen ships of the line, they had eighteen, and a greater WEIGHT OF METAL, 'according to the new sea phrase,' says Chesterfield, indignantly, 'which was unknown to Blake!' (Letter to his Son, Sept. 30, 1757.) He adds, 'I hear that letters have been sent to both (Holborne and Loudon) with very severe reprimands.'"—Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. iv., p. 168.
"The recent fate of Admiral Byng, who was shot on the 14th of March, 1757, for incapacity in a naval engagement, is supposed to have paralyzed the energy of many British officers at this juncture."—Graham's United States, vol. iv., p. 6.
"Dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de tems en tems un amiral pour encourager les autres."—Candide, ch. xxiii.
"The miserable consequences of our political divisions (in 1757) produced a general unsteadiness in all our pursuits, and infused a languor and inactivity into all our military operations; for while our commanders abroad knew not who would reward their services or punish their neglects, and were not assured in what light even the best of their actions would be considered (having reason to apprehend that they might not be judged of as they were in themselves, but as their appearances might answer the end of some ruling faction), they naturally wanted that enterprising resolution, without which the best capacity, and intentions the most honest, can do nothing in war."—Annual Register.