that Rochefort twenty years after was in the same situation he then described it. I was in Lord Howe's ship, the Magnanime, which was the leading ship; and so bad was our naval intelligence that we imagined that but two ships could sail through the Pertuis d'Ambroche abreast, without being sunk with the fire from both sides—so contrary to the truth, that almost all the whole fleet could have passed, nor did a man or a ship suffer. Mr. Potter wrote the best pamphlet against the generals. The events of 1757 are well summed up in the Annual Register for 1758. Captain Speak however is not mentioned in the account of what passed in the East Indies, who contributed most essentially to our success, and distinguished himself under very particular circumstances.
"In 1758 the French made Marshal Belleisle Secretary of War; a sort of military pedant, immersed in details and passionately fond of all new projects and projectors. Their army in Germany was first commanded by Mareschal d'Estries, a sensible, reasonable man, but I believe diffident as a general and of no great compass.[1] Marshal Richelieu was a mere courtier, brave and nothing else, attached to the old French style, enemy of the modern discipline, a plunderer, no knowledge of war, valued himself upon his ignorance, but gave full scope in other respects to any who showed talents in his army, declaring he knew enough, of course to make the merit always his own. Comte de Clermont, who commanded this year at Crevelt, I know nothing of. Marshal Contades now came forward; the fourth commander.
- ↑ Marshal d'Estrées was the victor of Hastenbeck in 1757, but owing to Court intrigues was superseded by the Duc de Richelieu, who concluded the capitulation of Closterseven with the Duke of Cumberland. The Duc de Richelieu was superseded in 1758 by the Abbé de Clermont, who was defeated by the Duke of Brunswick at Crevelt, and superseded in his turn by Marshal de Contades, who was beaten at Minden by the Duke of Brunswick in 1759. The Comte or Abbé de Clermont had received the tonsure at nine years of age, but had a papal dispensation, which enabled him to bear arms, while retaining the numerous abbayes with which he was endowed. The Duc de Richelieu is frequently mentioned by Lord Chesterfield as the type of person who obtains high positions by superficial accomplishments while lacking any sort of ability. "Women alone formed and raised him." "These early connections gave him those manners, graces, and addresses which you see he has, and which I can assure you are all that he has; for, strip him of them and he will be one of the poorest men in Europe." His natural parts would, he says, never have entitled him "to the smallest office in the excise. …"—Letters, ed. Bradshaw i. 362; ii. 323, October 22nd, 1750; May 2nd, 1752.
