be more applauded than the gallantry of the officers and crew.’ Early in 1771 the Alarm was ordered home; she arrived at Spithead in the middle of May, and in August sailed again for the Mediterranean, to attend on the Duke of Gloucester, who had been ordered to spend the winter in Italy, and who, for most of the time, lived on board, quitting her only in May 1772, when she sailed for England to be paid off.
In October Jervis started on a tour in France, and after some three weeks' sightseeing in Paris, went on to Lyons, where for four months he applied himself to the study of the language. In April 1773 he resumed his travels, and in November returned to England. In the summer of 1774, in company with Captain Samuel Barrington [q. v.], he took a passage to Cronstadt in a merchant ship, and on the way noted the pilotage, making many additions to a private chart. ‘I find all the charts are incorrect,’ he wrote, ‘and it may be useful.’ At St. Petersburg, while enjoying the festivities of society and the court, he applied himself also to a close investigation of the condition of the Russian navy and arsenals. With a similar object in view he visited Stockholm, Carlscrona, and Copenhagen, returning by Lübeck to Hamburg, thence through Holland, and so to England, bringing back a large collection of notes on naval matters. The next year, again with Barrington, he went on a yachting cruise on the west coast of France, visiting Brest, Lorient, coasting through Quiberon Bay to Rochefort and Bordeaux. At Brest, in particular, he examined the approach to the roadstead with a care to be fully repaid in future years, when he bitterly regretted not having also made himself familiar with the approach to the citadel by land (Tucker, ii. 15).
In June 1775 Jervis was appointed to the Kent, but on 1 Sept. was turned over to the Foudroyant of 80 guns, the same ship which he had helped to bring home from the Mediterranean in 1758, and which was still the largest two-decked ship in the English navy. During the years immediately following she lay for the most part at Plymouth, as a guardship, but in 1778 was attached to the fleet under Admiral Keppel [q. v.], and was the flagship's second astern in the action off Ushant on 27 July. At the court-martial on Keppel in the following January, Jervis's strong evidence in Keppel's favour largely conduced to the admiral's honourable acquittal. During the war the Foudroyant continued attached to the Channel fleet; was with Sir Charles Hardy [q. v.] during the summer of 1779; at the relief of Gibraltar by Rodney [q. v.] in January 1780; with Geary [q. v.] in 1780; and at the second relief of Gibraltar by Darby [q. v.] in March 1781. On 19 April 1782 she came off Brest, in the squadron under Barrington, just in time to fall in among a French convoy which had sailed two days before. The French scattered, and the Foudroyant, giving chase to the largest of the ships of war, the Pégase of 74 guns, came up with her a few minutes past midnight, and took her after a close engagement of three-quarters of an hour. The Pégase suffered severely in men, masts, and rigging, while on board the Foudroyant five men were slightly wounded, Jervis being one of them. Jervis's achievement was rewarded by his being immediately made a K.B. But the success appeared to the public more brilliant than it really was, for the Pégase was but newly commissioned, was short of officers, and manned with raw levies of landsmen, while the Foudroyant was noted at the time for the perfection of her order and discipline. In October she was again at the relief of Gibraltar under Lord Howe, and took part in the skirmish off Cape Spartel on the 20th. On the return of the fleet to England she was paid off, having been nearly eight years in commission; and Jervis, acting, it would almost seem, on Barrington's suggestion, married his cousin Martha, daughter of Sir Thomas Parker.
In the following spring he was under orders to go out to the West Indies, with a broad pennant in the Salisbury; but the appointment was annulled on the conclusion of the peace. He then entered parliament as member for Launceston, and in the general election of 1784 was returned for Yarmouth. As a rule he voted with the whigs, but seldom spoke, except on naval matters; as, for instance, in support of Captain David Brodie [q. v.], 5 March 1787. In 1785–6 he was on a commission for considering a proposal to fortify Portsmouth and Plymouth against an attack in force, the fleet being assumed absent. Jervis, with Barrington, Macbride, and the other naval members, objected to the assumption as a practical absurdity; and the proposal, though supported by the government, was negatived in the House of Commons (Annual Register, 1786, vol. xxviii. pt. i. p. 102).
On 24 Sept. 1787 Jervis was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and for a few weeks hoisted his flag on board the Carnatic; and again on board the Prince during the Spanish armament of 1790. In the general election of that year he was returned for Wycombe, and though opposed to the government, was appointed commander-in-chief of an expedi-
