The shattered remainder of their fleet put back into the Texel. The
British admiral was created Viscount Duncan of Camperdown, and received
a pension of L3,000 a year. The victory was of incalculable importance.
Three fleets threatened the kingdom, and Camperdown, as Grenville said,
broke the right wing of the invasion.[280] It raised the spirits of the
nation. Won by the fleet so lately in mutiny, it proved that England
could again, as of old, rely on the loyalty of her navy. It reasserted
her supremacy at sea, which, in spite of the victories of Howe and
Jervis, seemed weakened by the evacuation of the Mediterranean and the
mutinies. Supreme at sea, she carried the trade of the world. Since the
great drop of 1793 her commerce had increased year by year until it
again declined in 1797. From that year, fostered by the demands of war
and fed by the activity of British manufactures, it increased with
extraordinary rapidity.

[Sidenote: _SECESSION FROM PARLIAMENT._]

In parliament the opposition gained no ground. On May 26, Grey again
brought forward the question of reform, and this time propounded a
scheme. He proposed that the counties should return 113 instead of 92
members, that they should be divided into districts each with one
member, and that the franchise should be extended to leaseholders and
copyholders, that in boroughs householders only should have votes, that
polls should be held simultaneously, and that, if possible, no one
should record more than one vote; that all landowners, traders, and
"professors of science" should be qualified for a seat, and that
parliaments should be triennial. Pitt declared that the country did not
desire reform, and the motion was lost by 252 to 91. When parliament met
in November, Fox and some of his chief supporters in both houses
seceded, attending only on special occasions. Their conduct was
unconstitutional and ill-advised. It is the duty of a member of
parliament to attend its proceedings, and in the commons his attendance
can be enforced. Secession is a betrayal of a public trust and a
declaration against the constitution. In this case it was partial, and
therefore specially futile. It caused a division among the little band
of the opposition, and injured the seceders in the opinion of the
country; their conduct was considered unpatriotic, and Fox's absence
from parliament when the thanks of the house were voted to Duncan was
particularly blamed. The secession of their le