convoy.  As there had been treachery in some quarters, there had been incapacity in others.  The State was ill served.  And then the orator pronounced a warm panegyric on his friend Somers.  “Would that all men in power would follow the example of my Lord Keeper!  If all patronage were bestowed as judiciously and disinterestedly as his, we should not see the public offices filled with men who draw salaries and perform no duties.”  It was moved and carried unanimously, that the Commons would support their Majesties, and would forthwith proceed to investigate the cause of the disaster in the Bay of Lagos.489 The Lords of the Admiralty were directed to produce a great mass of documentary evidence.  The King sent down copies of the examinations taken before the Committee of Council which Mary had appointed to inquire into the grievances of the Turkey merchants.  The Turkey merchants themselves were called in and interrogated.  Rooke, though too ill to stand or speak, was brought in a chair to the bar, and there delivered in a narrative of his proceedings.  The Whigs soon thought that sufficient ground had been laid for a vote condemning the naval administration, and moved a resolution attributing the miscarriage of the Smyrna fleet to notorious and treacherous mismanagement.  That there had been mismanagement could not be disputed; but that there had been foul play had certainly not been proved.  The Tories proposed that the word “treacherous” should be omitted.  A division took place; and the Whigs carried their point by a hundred and forty votes to a hundred and three.  Wharton was a teller for the majority.490

It was now decided that there had been treason, but not who was the traitor.  Several keen debates followed.  The Whigs tried to throw the blame on Killegrew and Delaval, who were Tories; the Tories did their best to make out that the fault lay with the Victualling Department, which was under the direction of Whigs.  But the House of Commons has always been much more ready to pass votes of censure drawn in general terms than to brand individuals by name.  A resolution clearing the Victualling Office was proposed by Montague, and carried, after a debate of two days, by a hundred and eighty-eight votes to a hundred and fifty-two.491 But when the victorious party brought forward a motion inculpating the admirals, the Tories came up in great numbers from the country, and, after a debate which lasted from nine in the morning till near eleven at night, succeeded in saving their friends.  The Noes were a hundred and seventy, and the Ayes only a hundred and sixty-one.  Another attack was made a few days later with no better success.  The Noes were a hundred and eighty-five, the Ayes only a hundred and seventy-five.  The indefatigable and implacable Wharton was on both occasions tellers for the minority.492

In spite of this check the advantage was decidedly with the Whigs; The Tories who were at the head of the naval administration had indeed escaped impeachment; but the escape had been so narrow that it was impossible for the King to employ them any longer.  The advice of Sunderland prevailed.  A new Commission of Admiralty was prepared; and Russell was named First Lord.  He had already been appointed to the command of the Channel fleet.