ordered to cut the cables which
held the ship to her anchors, and to loose the foresail. Daunted more,
perhaps, by the bearing of the man than by the mere acts, the mutineers
submitted, and in twenty-four days, an extraordinarily short passage for
that time, the _Albany_ was at New York. Here Jervis was unfortunately
delayed, and thus, being prevented from rejoining Sir Charles Saunders,
lost the promotion which a British commander-in-chief could then give to
an officer in his own command who had merited his professional approval.
It was not until October, 1761, when he was twenty-six, that Jervis
obtained "post" rank,--the rank, that is, of full, or post, captain. By
the rule of the British navy, an officer up to that rank could be
advanced by selection; thenceforth he waited, through the long
succession of seniority, for his admiral's commission. This Jervis did
not receive until 1787, when he was fifty-two.

It was as a general officer, as an admiral commanding great fleets and
bearing responsibilities unusually grave through a most critical period
of his country's history, that Jervis made his high and deserved
reputation. For this reason, the intervening years, though pregnant with
the finished character and distinguished capacity which fitted him for
his onerous work, and though by no means devoid of incident, must be
hastily sketched. The Treaty of Paris, which in 1763 closed the Seven
Years War, was followed by twelve years of peace. Then came the American
Revolution, bringing in its train hostilities with France and Spain.
During the peace, Jervis for nearly four years commanded a frigate in
the Mediterranean. It is told that while his ship was at Genoa two
Turkish slaves escaped from a Genoese galley, and took refuge in a
British boat lying at the mole, wrapping its flag round their persons.
Genoese officers took them forcibly from the boat and restored them to
their chains. Jervis resented this, as being not only an insult to the
British flag, but also an enforcement of slavery against men under its
protection; and so peremptory was his tone that an apology was made, the
two captives were given up on the frigate's quarter-deck, and the
offending officers punished. The captain's action, however, was not
sustained by his own government. It is curious to note that,
notwithstanding his course in this case, and although he was not merely
nominally, but strenuously, a Whig, or Liberal, in political faith,
connected