Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 7

One result of the indecisive battle off Ushant on 27 July 1778 between the British fleet under Adm. Augustus Keppel and the French fleet under the Comte D'Orvilliers was the court-martial of Keppel. The trial, which began on 7 January and ended on 11 February 1779 with Keppel's complete vindication, was politically charged because many believed that it was an effort by Lord North, through his First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, to place the blame for the failure to achieve a decisive victory on an admiral who was also a member of the parliamentary opposition (to Francis Dana, 25 December 1778, note 4, below).

This cartoon celebrates Keppel's acquittal and reflects the popular mood. Vice Adm. Hugh Palliser, Keppel's second in command, who had brought the charges, and Sandwich (“Jemmy Twitcher”) hang from a gallows under the Latin phrase meaning “all's well that ends well.” Labels attached to Palliser refer to his ship, the Formidable, and his charges (“5 Lies”) against Keppel; the “LogBook” hanging from his feet denotes the fact that the Formidable's logbook was found to have been altered. The wine glass attached to Sandwich's vest and the cross hanging from his waist refer to his dissolute life and, more particularly, to his membership in the notorious brotherhood of Medmenham Abbey, a club of aristocrats who met to engage in blasphemous and debauched revels. The “Essay on Woman” had been used by Sandwich in prosecuting his former friend John Wilkes before the House of Lords in 1763. The box or book labeled “£400,000 Sunk” may refer to Sandwich's administration of the admiralty. Below Sandwich, grieving his fate, is a courtesan or “Kitty” ( OED ).

Hailing the fate of Palliser and Sandwich, and representing the people of Britain and the men of the fleet, are Neptune and a group of sailors in a ship's-boat. Above the sailors the flag carries a popular slogan and the Latin words meaning “although you plunge it in the deep, it comes forth more splendid still.” Above it all are Lord North, shown as the orchestrator of the affair, and the devil who {p. R12} declares that “the Gibbet has got their Bodies my Boy their Hearts & Souls are mine.” The book labeled “the Art of Financing” refers to North's problems in raising money to carry on the war. The passage at the bottom of the cartoon is from Samuel Butler's Hudibras, part 3, canto 2, lines 995-998. There the lines refer to the regicides of Charles I (British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, comp. Mary Dorothy George, [London], 1935, 5:No. 5537; DNB ).