in a sulk, who will do only that which he can find no excuses
for neglecting. In such cases of sailing close, men generally slip
over the line into grievous wrong.

Keppel was cleared of all the charges preferred against him; the
accuser had not thought best to embody among them the delay to recall
the ships which his own example was detaining. Against Palliser no
specific charge was preferred, but the Admiralty directed a general
inquiry into his course on the 27th of July. The court found his
conduct "in many instances highly exemplary and meritorious,"--he
had fought well,--"but reprehensible in not having acquainted the
Commander-in-Chief of his distress, which he might have done either by
the _Fox_, or other means which he had in his power." Public opinion
running strongly for Keppel, his acquittal was celebrated with
bonfires and illuminations in London; the mob got drunk, smashed the
windows of Palliser's friends, wrecked Palliser's own house, and came
near to killing Palliser himself. The Admiralty, in 1780, made him
Governor of Greenwich Hospital.

On the 28th of July, the British and French being no longer in sight
of each other, Keppel, considering his fleet too injured aloft to
cruise near the French coast, kept away for Plymouth, where he arrived
on the 31st. Before putting to sea again, he provided against a
recurrence of the misdemeanor of the 27th by a general order, that
"in future the Line is always to be taken from the Centre." Had this
been in force before, Palliser's captains would have taken station by
the Commander-in-Chief, and the _Formidable_ would have been left to
windward by herself. At the same time Howe was closing his squadron
upon the centre in America; and Rodney, two years later, experienced
the ill-effects of distance taken from the next ahead, when the
leading ship of a fleet disregarded an order.

Although privately censuring Palliser's conduct, the
Commander-in-Chief made no official complaint, and it was not until
the matter got into the papers, through the talk of the fleet, that
the difficulty began which resulted in the trial of both officers,
early in the following year. After this, Keppel, being dissatisfied
with the Admiralty's treatment, intimated his wish to give up the
command. The order to strike his flag was dated March 18th, 1779. He
was not employed afloat again, but upon the change of administration
in 1782 he became First Lord of the Admiralty, and so remained,