the Nile, that he was acting
under the orders of a superior several hundred miles away. Nevertheless,
Hawke, like Nelson later, was then a new man,--"a young officer;" and
the honor he received, though certainly adequate for a victory over a
force somewhat inferior, was not adequate when measured by that given
to Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty, for a much less notable
achievement six months before. Anson was raised to the peerage; Hawke
was only given the Order of the Bath, the ribbon which Nelson coveted,
because a public token, visible to all, that the wearer had done
distinguished service. It was at that period a much greater distinction
than it afterwards became, through the great extension in numbers and
the division into classes. He was henceforth Sir Edward Hawke; and
shortly after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed April 30, 1748,
another flag-promotion raised him to the rank of Vice-Admiral, of the
Blue Squadron.

Such rank, accompanied by such recognized merit, insured that he should
thenceforth always command in chief; and so it was, with a single brief
interval due to a very special and exceptional cause to be hereafter
related. During the years of peace, from 1748 to 1755, his employment
was mainly on shore, in dockyard command, which carried with it
incidentally a good deal of presiding over Courts-Martial. This duty, in
his hands, could hardly fail to raise professional standards, with all
the effect that precedents, established by the rulings and decisions of
Courts, civil and military, exert upon practice. Such a period, however,
affords but little for narration, either professional or personal,
except when the particular occupations mentioned are the subject of
special study. General interest they cannot be said to possess.

But while thus unmarked on the biographical side, historically these
years were pregnant with momentous events, which not only affected the
future of great nations then existing, but were to determine for all
time the extension or restriction of their social systems and political
tendencies in vast distant regions yet unoccupied by civilized man, or
still in unstable political tenure. The balance of world power, in
short, was in question, and that not merely as every occurrence, large
or small, contributes its something to a general result, but on a grand
and decisive scale. The phrase "world politics," if not yet invented,
characterizes the issues then eminently at sta