To this period also belong several ballads commemorating disasters at sea, or escapes from shipwreck. _Admiral Cavendish’s distress on board the Canterbury_ (p. 168) must have been written in the year 1728. It is interesting because its metre is probably an imitation of that of _You Gentlemen of England_, while the refrain, ‘In the Bay of Biscay O,’ evidently inspired the well-known song of that name written by Andrew Cherry (Stone, _Sea Songs_, p. 32). The latter was first sung by Incledon in an operatic sketch entitled _Spanish Dollars_, which was produced in April 1805. Another ballad dealing with a similar subject is _The Princess Royal’s Escape from the Goodwin Sands_, written by a sailor on board the ship, and describing a storm which took place in February 1744 (p. 190). Two others deal with the loss of Sir John Balchen and the Victory, a first-rate carrying 108 guns, wrecked on the Caskets on October 4, 1744. About a thousand men perished with Balchen (pp. 192-94). The War of the Austrian Succession closed with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in October 1748. The Seven Years’ War commenced in America and India, and spread to Europe. War between France and England was not declared till May 18, 1756, though on June 8, 1755, Boscawen’s fleet captured two French men of war, the Alcide and the Lys, off Newfoundland. As early as February 1755 there was ‘a hot press’ for seamen, and in July Hawke was sent to sea with eighteen ships to intercept the French fleet under Du Guay, and to make reprisals upon French commerce. The story of _The Lighterman’s Prentice_ relates to this cruise (p. 201). Nearly 300 French merchantmen and about 8,000 seamen were captured before the end of 1755 (Entick, _History of the Late War_ i. 137, 187). _Britain’s Resolution to fight the French_ also refers to these captures, but the exultation they caused lasted but a short time (p. 203). Byng’s action with La Galissonière on May 20 and the capture of Port Mahon which followed on June 29, dashed all these hopes, and popular feeling demanded that the admiral’s misconduct should be punished with death. Every scribbler wrote poems and epigrams against him, and political hostility to the Government swelled the cry. ‘To the block with Newcastle and yard-arm with Byng,’ is the chorus of one ballad appropriately entitled _Block and Yard-arm_. A collection of these was published at the time: _Bungiana; or an Assemblage of What-d’ye-call-em’s in prose and verse that have occasionally appeared relative to the conduct of a certain naval commander, 1756_. The French commander’s conduct was not thought much better than Byng’s, and one of the squibs in this collection satirises both. It is entitled _The Pacific Engagement, a poetical dialogue between two courteous admirals_. ‘(_Byng._)