He remained in the Mediterranean only six months, returning to England in January, 1757.  His tenure of this command was marked by an incident which exemplifies the vigorous exercise of power frequent in naval commanders, in the days when neither steam nor telegraph existed to facilitate reference home for instructions; when men with their strong right arms redressed on the spot what they thought a wrong.  A British ship carrying supplies to Gibraltar, where Hawke was then lying, was captured by a French privateer and taken into the Spanish port of Algeciras, on the opposite side of the bay.  Her surrender was demanded from the governor of the port, Spain being then neutral; but, being refused, the admiral sent the boats of the squadron and cut her out.  This being resisted by the Spanish forts, a hundred British seamen were killed or wounded.  On the admiral’s return home, Pitt is reported to have told him that he thought he would himself have acted in the same way, but would have made some concession afterwards.  Hawke replied that his duty, having the country’s force in his hands, was to act as he had,—­not to make concessions; but that the Ministry could deal with the case subsequently as it thought fit.  In other words, as in joint operations with the army, later in the year, he took the ground that the land officers were the judges of their own business, but that he would see them put safe on shore, as a first step; so in a matter affecting national honor, as he conceived it, he would do the seaman’s part and redress the injury, after which the civil authority could arrange with the other party.  The known details of this transaction are not full enough to permit a decided opinion as to how far the admiral was justified in his action, judged even by the international law of the day.  It was not necessarily a breach of neutrality to admit a belligerent with her prize; but it would have been, had the French ship gone out from Algeciras, seized her prey, and returned with it.  Whatever the facts, however, the episode illustrates interestingly the spirit of Hawke himself, and of the service of that day, as well as his characteristic independence towards superiors when he felt himself right.

From this time forward Hawke’s service was confined to the Channel Fleet.  This was, during that war, the post for the most capable of British officers; for, while the matter at stake was over-sea predominance and conquest, yet both these depended upon the communications of the French colonies and distant possessions with the mother country.  The source of all their strength, the one base indispensable to their operations, was the coast of France; to close exit from this was therefore to strike at the root.  This was much less true for the colonies of Great Britain, at least in America; their numbers, and resources in every way, were so far superior to those of Canada that they needed only to be preserved from interference by the navy of France,—­an