OT: Adm. Byng -- reputed or disreputed?

[Wilson Gray]

So, "Do or die" wasn't a mere slogan, but the law.

-Wilson

On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 10:32 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: OT: Adm. Byng -- reputed or disreputed?
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>
> At 12/6/2009 09:27 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>Voltaire was referring to the execution in 1757 of Adm. John Byng, not for
>>cowardice but  for failing to disobey [sic] an order during the Battle of
>>Minorca. Though most of the nation sided with Byng, and even the House of
>>Commons recommended clemency,  George II refused to commute the sentence.
>
> Byng joined the pope and the devil as an effigy in Pope's Day
> processions in 1756, before his conviction and execution.  So the
> early sentiment in the colonies, like that in England, was negative.
>
> One quibble:  According to Wikipedia, Byng was convicted of the
> then-capital crime of 'failing to  "do his utmost" '.
>
> Joel
>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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