ed is eminently characteristic, "By
the grace of God, he would have given a good account of them." Whatever
the reason, there seems little doubt that Pitt did not like Hawke; but
the latter was at once too independent to care, and too necessary to be
discarded.

He remained in the Mediterranean only six months, returning to England
in January, 1757. His tenure of this command was marked by an incident
which exemplifies the vigorous exercise of power frequent in naval
commanders, in the days when neither steam nor telegraph existed to
facilitate reference home for instructions; when men with their strong
right arms redressed on the spot what they thought a wrong. A British
ship carrying supplies to Gibraltar, where Hawke was then lying, was
captured by a French privateer and taken into the Spanish port of
Algeciras, on the opposite side of the bay. Her surrender was demanded
from the governor of the port, Spain being then neutral; but, being
refused, the admiral sent the boats of the squadron and cut her out.
This being resisted by the Spanish forts, a hundred British seamen were
killed or wounded. On the admiral's return home, Pitt is reported to
have told him that he thought he would himself have acted in the same
way, but would have made some concession afterwards. Hawke replied that
his duty, having the country's force in his hands, was to act as he
had,--not to make concessions; but that the Ministry could deal with the
case subsequently as it thought fit. In other words, as in joint
operations with the army, later in the year, he took the ground that the
land officers were the judges of their own business, but that he would
see them put safe on shore, as a first step; so in a matter affecting
national honor, as he conceived it, he would do the seaman's part and
redress the injury, after which the civil authority could arrange with
the other party. The known details of this transaction are not full
enough to permit a decided opinion as to how far the admiral was
justified in his action, judged even by the international law of the
day. It was not necessarily a breach of neutrality to admit a
belligerent with her prize; but it would have been, had the French ship
gone out from Algeciras, seized her prey, and returned with it. Whatever
the facts, however, the episode illustrates interestingly the spirit of
Hawke himself, and of the service of that day, as well as his
characteristic independence towards superiors when h