Even
a quarter of a century later, Earl St. Vincent gave to George III.
himself the same reason for declining employment. After eliciting from
him an unfavorable opinion as to the discipline and efficiency of the
Channel Fleet, the king asked, "Where such evils exist, does Lord St.
Vincent feel justified in refusing his conspicuous ability to remedy
them?" "My life," replied the old seaman, "is at your Majesty's
disposal, and at that of my country; but my honour is in my own keeping,
and I will not expose myself to the risk of losing it by the
machinations of this ministry, under which I should hold command." To
such feelings it was due that Howe, Keppel, and Barrington did not go to
sea during the anxious three years that followed the return of the
first. The illustrious Rodney, their only rival, but in himself a host,
was the one distinguished naval chief who belonged heart and soul to the
party with which Sandwich was identified.

Thus it happened that Rodney's period of activity during the war of the
American Revolution coincided substantially with that of Howe's
retirement. The same change of administration, in the spring of 1782,
that led to the recall of the older man, brought Howe again into
service, to replace the mediocrities who for three campaigns had
commanded the Channel Fleet, the mainstay of Great Britain's safety.
Upon it depended not only the protection of the British Islands and of
the trade routes converging upon them, but also the occasional
revictualling of Gibraltar, now undergoing the third year of the famous
siege. Its operations extended to the North Sea, where the Dutch, now
hostile, flanked the road to the Baltic, whence came the naval stores
essential to the efficiency of the British fleet; to the Bay of Biscay,
intercepting the convoys despatched from France to her navies abroad;
and to the Chops of the Channel, where focussed the trade routes from
East and West, and where more than once heavy losses had been inflicted
upon British commerce by the allies. All these services received
conspicuous and successful illustration during Howe's brief command, at
the hands either of the commander-in-chief or of his subordinates, among
whom were the very distinguished Barrington and Kempenfelt. Howe
himself, with twenty-five sail-of-the-line, in July encountered an
allied fleet of forty off Scilly. By an adroit tactical movement, very
characteristic of his resolute and adequate presence of mind, he ca