itish crown,
to which, by its own vote, it had been annexed but two years before.

Amid these adverse circumstances, the only large operation possible to
him was the close watching of the port of Toulon, conducted on the same
general plan that was afterwards more illustriously exhibited before
Brest, between 1800 and 1805, under conditions of surpassing difficulty.
All contemplated movements of the French fleet were thus dammed at the
source, for it must first fight the British, after which there was
little hope of being in a state to fulfil any further mission. For six
months, from April to October, Jervis held his fleet close up to the
port, the advanced body two miles from the entrance. The effort was
admirable as a pattern, and for disciplinary purposes. The ships, forced
to self-dependence, became organically self-reliant. Their routine life
of seamanship and military exercise perfected habit and efficiency, and
difficulties to others insuperable were as the light burdens which a
giant carries unwittingly.

Further than this, achievement could not then go. During the summer
Bonaparte held Mantua by the throat, and overthrew one after another the
Austrian forces approaching to its relief. Two French armies, under
Jourdan and Moreau, penetrated to the heart of Germany; while Spain,
lately the confederate of Great Britain, made an offensive and defensive
alliance with France, and sent a fleet of over twenty ships-of-the-line
into the Mediterranean. Staggered by these reverses, the British
ministry ordered Corsica evacuated and the Mediterranean abandoned.
Jervis was cruelly embarrassed. A trusted subordinate of high reputation
had been before Cadiz with seven ships-of-the-line, watching a French
division in that port. Summoned, in view of the threatening attitude of
Spain, to reinforce the main fleet in San Fiorenzo Bay, he lost his head
altogether, hurried past Gibraltar without getting supplies, and brought
his ships destitute to the admiral, already pressed to maintain the
vessels then with him. Although there were thirty-five hostile ships in
Toulon and the British had only twenty-two, counting this division,
there was nothing to do but to send it back to Gibraltar, under urgent
orders to return with all speed. With true military insight and a
correct appreciation of the forces opposed to him, Jervis saw the need
of fighting the combined enemies then and there.

Unfortunately, the division commander, Admiral Man