 Complete the following phrase:  In January 1755, Howe was given command of the fourth-rate HMS Dunkirk and was sent to North America as part of a squadron commanded by Admiral Edward Boscawen: his capture of the French Alcide was the first shot fired in the Seven Years War. He was elected Member of Parliament for Dartmouth in May 1757 and became commanding officer of the third-rate HMS Magime in the Channel in July 1757. From then until the peace of 1763, he served in the Channel in various more or less futile expeditions against the French coast, gaining a reputation as a firm and skillful officer for his role in the series of naval descents on the French coast including the Raid on Rochefort in September 1757. Promoted to commodore, with his broad pent in the third-rate HMS Essex, he took part in the 