CHAPTER XIII

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_Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge taken into the Administration..... Obliged to resign..... Restored to their Employments..... Coalition of Parties..... Descent on the Coast of France meditated..... Command of the Fleet given to Sir Edward Hawke, and of the Land-Forces to Sir John. Mordaunt..... Fleet sails September 8..... Admiral Knowles sent to take Aix..... Attack and Surrender of Aix..... A Descent resolved on..... The Fleet returns to Spithead..... His Majesty appoints a Board of Inquiry into the Reasons of the Fleet’s Return..... Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry..... Its Report..... Sir John Mordaunt tried by a Court-Martial, and acquitted..... Fleets sent to the East and West Indies..... Success of the English Privateers..... Riots occasioned by the Price of Corn..... Operations in America..... Lord Loudon’s Conduct in America..... Fort William-Henry taken by the French..... Naval Transactions in America..... Attempt of M. de Kersin on Cape Coast Castle in Africa..... State of Affairs in the East Indies..... Calcutta recovered..... The Suba’s Camp forced, and a new Treaty concluded with him..... Reduction, of Chandernagore..... Colonel Clive defeats the Suba at Plaissey, who is afterwards deposed and put to Death..... King of France assassinated..... Tortures inflicted on the Assassin..... Changes in the French Ministry..... State of the Confederacy against the King of Prussia..... Precautions taken by his Prussian Majesty..... Skirmishes between the Prussians and Austrians..... Neutrality of the Emperor, and Behaviour of the Dutch..... The French take Possession of several Towns in the Low Countries belonging to the King of Prussia..... Declaration of the Czarina against the King of Prussia..... Factions in Poland..... Fruitless Endeavours of the English to restore the Tranquillity of Germany..... King of Prussia enters Bohemia..... Prince of Bevern defeats the Austrians at Richenberg..... King of Prussia obtains a complete Victory over the Austrians near Prague..... Mareschal Schwerin killed..... Prague invested..... and bombarded..... Brave defence of the Besieged..... Count Daun takes the Command of the Austrian Army..... His Character..... King of Prussia defeated at Kolin..... He raises the Siege of Prague, and quits Bohemia..... Preparations for the Defence of Hanover..... The allied Army assembles under the Duke of Cumberland..... Skirmishes with the French..... Duke of Cumberland passes the Weser..... The French follow him, and take Minden and Emden, and lay Hanover under Contribution..... Battle of Hastenbeck..... The French take Hamelen..... Duke de Richelieu supersedes Mareschal d’Etrées in the Command of the French Army..... The French take Possession of Hanover and Hesse-Cassel..... and reduce Verden and Bremen..... Duke of Cumberland signs the Convention of Closter-Seven_

{1757}

MR. PITT AND MR. LEGGE TAKEN INTO THE ADMINISTRATION.

Though the parliament of Great Britain unanimously concurred in strengthening the hands of government for a vigorous prosecution of the war, those liberal supplies had like to have proved ineffectual through a want of harmony in her councils. In the course of the last year the clamorous voice of dissatisfaction had been raised by a series of disappointments and miscarriages, which were imputed to want of intelligence, sagacity, and vigour in the administration. The defeat of Braddock, the reduction of Oswego, and other forts in America, the delay of armaments, the neglect of opportunities, ineffectual cruises, absurd dispositions of fleets and squadrons, the disgrace in the Mediterranean, and the loss of Minorca, were numbered among the misfortunes that flowed from the crude designs of a weak dispirited ministry; and the prospect of their acquiescing in a continental war brought them still farther in contempt and detestation with the body of the people. In order to conciliate the good-will of those whom their conduct had disobliged, to acquire a fresh stock of credit with their fellow-subjects, and remove from their own shoulders part of what future censure might ensue, they admitted into a share of the administration a certain set of gentlemen, remarkable for their talents and popularity, headed by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge, esteemed the two most illustrious patriots of Great Britain, alike distinguished and admired for their unconquerable spirit and untainted integrity. The former of these was appointed secretary of state, and the other chancellor of the exchequer; and their friends were vested with other honourable though subordinate offices.

So far the people were charmed with the promotion of individuals, upon whose virtues and abilities they had the most perfect reliance; but these new ingredients would never thoroughly mix with the old leaven. The administration became an emblem of the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, the leg was of iron, and the foot was of clay. The old junta found their new associates very unfit for their purposes. They could neither persuade, cajole, nor intimidate them into measures which they thought repugnant to the true interest of their country. The new ministers combated in council every such plan, however patronised; they openly opposed in parliament every design which they deemed unworthy of the crown, or prejudicial to the people, even though distinguished by the predilection of the sovereign. Far from bargaining for their places, and surrendering their principles by capitulation, they maintained in office their independency and candour with the most vigilant circumspection, and seemed determined to show, that he is the best minister to the sovereign who acts with the greatest probity towards the subject. Those who immediately surrounded the throne were supposed to have concealed the true characters of these faithful servants from the knowledge of their royal master; to have represented them as obstinate, imperious, ignorant, and even lukewarm in their loyalty; and to have declared, that with such colleagues it would be impossible to move the machine of government according to his majesty’s inclination. These suggestions, artfully inculcated, produced the desired effect: on the ninth day of April, Mr. Pitt, by his majesty’s command, resigned the seals of secretary of state for the southern department. In the room of Mr. Legge, the king was pleased to grant the office of chancellor of the exchequer to the right honourable lord Mansfield, chief-justice of the court of king’s bench, the same personage whom we have mentioned before under the name of Mr. Murray, solicitor-general, now promoted and ennobled for his extraordinary merit and important services. The fate of Mr. Pitt was extended to some of his principal friends: the board of admiralty was changed, and some other removals were made with the same intention.

What was intended as a disgrace to Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge turned out one of the most shining circumstances of their characters. The whole nation seemed to rise up, as one man, in the vindication of their fame; every mouth was opened in their praise; and a great number of respectable cities and corporations presented them with the freedom of their respective societies, enclosed in gold boxes of curious workmanship, as testimonies of their peculiar veneration. What the people highly esteem, they in a manner idolize. Not contented with making offerings so flattering and grateful to conscious virtue, they conceived the most violent prejudices against those gentlemen who succeeded in the administration; fully convinced, that the same persons who had sunk the nation in the present distressful circumstances, who had brought on her dishonour, and reduced her to the verge of destruction, were by no means the fit instruments of her delivery and redemption. The whole kingdom caught fire at the late changes; nor could the power, the cunning, and the artifice of a faction, long support itself against the united voice of Great Britain, which soon pierced the ears of the sovereign. It was not possible to persuade the people that salutary measures could be suggested or pursued, except by the few, whose zeal for the honour of their country, and steady adherence to an upright disinterested conduct, had secured their confidence, and claimed their veneration. A great number of addresses, dutifully and loyally expressed, solicited the king, ever ready to meet half-way the wishes of his faithful people, to restore Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge to their former employments. Upon this they rested the security and honour of the nation, as well as the public expectation of the speedy and successful issue of a war, hitherto attended with disgraces and misfortunes. Accordingly, his majesty was graciously pleased to redeliver the seals to Mr. Pitt, appointing him secretary of state for the southern department, on the twenty-ninth day of June; and, five days after, the office of chancellor of the exchequer was restored to Mr. Legge; promotions that afforded universal satisfaction.

COALITION OF PARTIES.

It would not, perhaps, be possible to exclude, from a share in the administration, all who were not perfectly agreeable to the people: however unpopular the late ministry might appear, still they possessed sufficient influence in the privy-council, and credit in the house of commons, to thwart every measure in which they did not themselves partake. This consideration, and very recent experience, probably dictated the necessity I of a coalition, salutary in itself, and prudent, because it was the only means of assuaging the rage of faction, and healing those divisions, more pernicious to the public than the most mistaken and blundering councils. Sir Robert Henley was made lord-keeper of the great seal, and sworn of his majesty’s privy-council, on the thirteenth day of June; the custody of the privy-seal was committed to earl Temple; his grace the duke of Newcastle, Mr. Legge, Mr. Nugent, lord viscount Dun-cannon, and Mr. Grenville, were appointed commissioners for executing the office of treasurer to his majesty’s exchequer. Lord Anson, admirals Boscawen and Forbes, Dr. Hay, Mr. West, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Elliot, to preside at the board of admiralty; Mr. Fox was gratified with the office of receiver and paymaster-general of all his majesty’s guards, garrisons, and land-forces; and the earl of Thomond was made treasurer of the king’s household, and sworn of his majesty’s privy-council. Other promotions likewise took place, with a design to gratify the adherents of either party; and so equally was the royal favour distributed, that the utmost harmony for a long time subsisted. Ingredients, seemingly heterogeneous, consolidated into one uniform mass, so as to produce effects far exceeding the most sanguine expectations; and this prudent arrangement proved displeasing only to those whom violent party attachment had inspired with a narrow and exclusive spirit.

DESCENT ON THE COAST OF FRANCE MEDITATED.

The accumulated losses and disappointments of the preceding year, made it absolutely necessary to retrieve the credit of the British arms and councils by some vigorous and spirited enterprise, which should, at the same time, produce some change in the circumstances of his Prussian majesty, already depressed by the repulse at Kolin, and in danger of being attacked by the whole power of France, now ready to fall upon him, like a torrent, which had so lately swept before it the army of observation, now on the brink of disgrace. A well-planned and vigorous descent on the coast of France, it was thought, would probably give a decisive blow to the marine of that kingdom, and at the same time effect a powerful diversion in favour of the Prussian monarch and the duke of Cumberland, driven from all his posts in the electorate of Hanover, by drawing a part of the French forces to the defence and protection of their own coasts. Both were objects of great concern, upon which the sovereign and ministry were sedulously bent. His royal highness the duke, in a particular manner, urged the necessity of some enterprise of this nature, as the only expedient to obviate the shameful convention now in agitation. The ministry foresaw, that, by destroying the enemy’s shipping, all succours would be cut off from America, whither they were daily transporting troops; the British commerce secured, without those convoys so inconvenient to the board of admiralty, and to the merchants; and those ideal fears of an invasion, that had in some measure affected the public credit, wholly dispelled.

COMMAND OF THE FLEET GIVEN TO SIR EDWARD HAWKE, &c.

From these considerations, a powerful fleet was ordered to be got in readiness to put to sea on the shortest notice, and ten regiments of foot were marched to the Isle of Wight. The naval armament, consisting of eighteen ships of the line, besides frigates, fireships, bomb-ketches, and transports, was put under the command of sir Edward Hawke, an officer whose faithful services recommended him, above all others, to this command; and rear-admiral Knowles was appointed his subaltern. Sir John Mordaunt was preferred to take the command of the land-forces: and both strictly enjoined to act with the utmost unanimity and harmony. Europe beheld with astonishment these mighty preparations. The destination of the armament was wrapped in the most profound secrecy: it exercised the penetration of politicians, and filled France with very serious alarms. Various were the impediments which obstructed the embarkation of the troops for several weeks, while Mr. Pitt expressed the greatest uneasiness at the delay, and repeatedly urged the commander-in-chief to expedite his departure; but a sufficient number of transports, owing to some blunder in the contractors, had not yet arrived. The troops expressed an eager impatience to signalize themselves against the enemies of the liberties of Europe; but the superstitious drew unfavourable presages from the dilatoriness of the embarkation. At last the transports arrived, the troops were put on board with all expedition, and the fleet got under sail on the eighth day of September, attended with the prayers of every man warmed with the love of his country, and solicitous for her honour. The public, big with expectation, dubious where the stroke would fall, but confident of its success, were impatient for tidings from the fleet; but it was not till the fourteenth, that even the troops on board began to conjecture that a descent was meditated on the coast of France, near Rochefort or Rochelle.

ADMIRAL KNOWLES SENT TO TAKE AIX.

On the twentieth, the fleet made the isle of Oleron, and then sir Edward Hawke sent an order to vice-admiral Knowles, requiring him, if the wind permitted the fleet, to proceed to Basque road, to stand in as near to the isle of Aix as the pilot would carry him, with such ships of his division as he thought necessary for the service, and to batter the fort till the garrison should either abandon or surrender it. But the immediate execution of this order was frustrated by a French ship of war standing in to the very middle of the fleet, and continuing in that station for some time before she discovered her mistake, or any of the captains had a signal thrown out to give chase. Admiral Knowles, when too late, ordered the Magnanime, captain Howe, and Torbay, captain Keppel, on that service, and thereby retarded the attack upon which he was immediately sent. A stroke of policy greatly to be admired, as from hence he gained time to assure himself of the strength of the fortifications of Aix, before he ran his majesty’s ships into danger.

ATTACK AND SURRENDER OF AIX.

While the above ships, with the addition of the Royal William, were attending the French ship of war safe into the river Garonne, the remainder of the fleet was beating to windward off the isle of Oleron; and the commander-in-chief publishing orders and regulations which did credit to his judgment, and would have been highly useful, had there ever been occasion to put them in execution. On the twenty-third the van of the fleet, led by captain Howe in the Magnanime, stood towards Aix, a small island situated in the mouth of the river Charente, leading up to Rochefort, the fortifications half finished, and mounted with about thirty cannon and mortars, the garrison composed of six hundred men, and the whole island about five miles in circumference. As the Magnanime approached, the enemy fired briskly upon her; but captain Howe, regardless of their faint endeavours, kept on his course without flinching, dropping his anchors close to the walls, and poured in so incessant a fire as soon silenced their artillery. It was, however, near an hour before the fort struck, when some forces were landed to take possession of so important a conquest, with orders to demolish the fortifications, the care of which was intrusted to vice-admiral Knowles.

Inconsiderable as this success might appear, it greatly elated the troops, and was deemed a happy omen of further advantages; but, instead of embarking the troops that night, as was universally expected, several successive days were spent in councils of war, soundings of the coast, and deliberations whether the king’s express orders were practicable, or to be complied with. Eight days were elapsed since the first appearance of the fleet on the coast, and the alarm was given to the enemy. Sir Edward Hawke, indeed, proposed laying a sixty gun ship against Fouras, and battering that fort, which it was thought would help to secure the landing of the troops, and facilitate the enterprise on Rochefort. This a French pilot on board, Thierry, undertook; but after a ship had been lighted for the purpose, vice-admiral Knowles reported, that a bomb-ketch had run a-ground at above the distance of two miles from the fort; upon which the project of battering or bombarding the fort was abandoned. The admiral likewise proposed to bombard Koch elle; but this overture was over-ruled, for reasons which we need not mention. It was at length determined, in a council of war held on the eighth, to make a descent, and attack the forts leading to and upon the mouth of the river Charente. An order, in consequence of this resolution, was immediately issued for the troops to be ready to embark from the transports in the boats precisely at twelve o’clock at night. Accordingly the boats were prepared and filled with the men at the time appointed, and now they remained beating against each other, and the sides of the ships, for the space of four hours, while the council were determining whether, after all the trouble given, they should land; when at length an order was published for the troops to return to their respective transports, and all thoughts of a descent, to appearance, were wholly abandoned. The succeeding days were employed in blowing up and demolishing the fortifications of Aix; after which, the land officers, in a council of war, took the final resolution of returning to England without any further attempts, fully satisfied they had done all in their power to execute the designs of the ministry, and choosing rather to oppose the frowns of an angry sovereign, the murmurs of an incensed nation, and the contempt of mankind, than fight a handful of dastardly militia. Such was the issue of an expedition that raised the expectations of all Europe, threw the coasts of France into the utmost confusion, and cost the people of England little less than a million of money.

THE FLEET RETURNS TO SPITHEAD.

The fleet was no sooner returned than the whole nation was in a ferment. The public expectation had been wound up to the highest pitch, and now the disappointment was proportioned to the sanguine hopes conceived, that the pride of France would have been humbled by so formidable an armament. The ministry, and with them the national voice, exclaimed against the commanding officers, and the military men retorted the calumny by laying the blame on the projectors of the enterprise, who had put the nation to great expense before they had obtained the necessary information. Certain it was, that blame must fall somewhere, and the ministry resolved to acquit themselves and fix the accusation, by requesting his majesty to appoint a board of officers of character and ability, to inquire into the causes of the late miscarriage. This alone it was that could appease the public clamours, and afford general satisfaction. The enemies of Mr. Pitt endeavoured to wrest the miscarriage of the expedition to his prejudice, but the whispers of faction were soon drowned in the voice of the whole people of England, who never could persuade themselves that a gentleman raised to the height of power and popularity by mere dint of superior merit, integrity, and disinterestedness, would now sacrifice his reputation by a mock armament, or hazard incurring the derision of Europe, by neglecting to obtain all the necessary previous information, or doing whatever might contribute to the success of the expedition. It was asked, Whether reason or justice dictated, that a late unfortunate admiral should be capitally punished for not trying and exerting his utmost ability to relieve fort St. Philip, invested by a powerful army, and surrounded with a numerous fleet, while no charge of negligence or cowardice was brought against those who occasioned the miscarriage of a well-concerted and well-appointed expedition? The people, they said, were not to be quieted with the resolutions of a council of war, composed of men whose inactivity might frame excuses for declining to expose themselves to danger. It was publicly mentioned, that such backwardness appeared among the general officers before the fleet reached the isle of Oleron, as occasioned the admiral to declare, with warmth, that he would comply with his orders, and go into Basque-road, whatever might be the consequence. It was asked, Why the army did not land on the night of the twenty-third or twenty-fourth, and whether the officers sent out to reconnoitre, had returned with such intelligence as seemed to render a descent impracticable? It was asked, Whether the commander-in-chief had complied with his majesty’s orders, “To attempt, as far as should be found practicable, a descent on the coast of France, at or near Rochefort, in order to attack, and, by a vigorous impression, force that place; and to burn and destroy, to the utmost of his power, all docks, magazines, arsenals, and shipping, as shall be found there?” Such rumours as these, everywhere propagated, rendered an inquiry no less necessary to the reputation of the officers on the expedition, than to the minister who had projected it. Accordingly, a board consisting of three officers of rank, reputation, and ability, was appointed by his majesty, to inquire into the reasons why the fleet returned without having executed his majesty’s orders.

The three general officers, who met on the twenty-first of the same month, were, Charles duke of Marlborough, lieutenant-general, major-generals lord George Sackville and John Waldegrave. To judge of the practicability of executing his majesty’s orders, it was necessary to inquire into the nature of the intelligence upon which the expedition was projected. The first and most important was a letter sent to sir John, afterwards lord Ligonier, by lieutenant-colonel Clark.. This letter had been frequently examined in the privy-council, and contained, in substance, that colonel Clark, in returning from Gibraltar, in the year one thousand-seven hundred and fifty four, had travelled along the western coast of France, to observe the condition of the fortifications, and judge how far a descent would be practicable, in case of a rupture between Great Britain and France. On his coming to Rochefort, where he was attended by an engineer, he was surprised to find the greatest part of a good rampart, with a revetment, flanked only with redans; no outworks, no covered-way, and in many places no ditch, so that the bottom of the wall was seen at a distance. He remembered, that in other places, where the earth had been taken out to form the rampart, there was left around them a considerable height of ground, whence an enemy might draw a great advantage; that for above the length of a front, or two or three hundred yards, there was no rampart, or even intrenchment, but only small ditches, in the low and marshy grounds next the river, which, however, were dry at low water, yet the bottom remained muddy and slimy. Towards the river, no rampart, no batteries, no parapet, on either side appeared, and on the land-side he observed some high ground within the distance of one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards of the town; in which condition, the colonel was told by the engineer, the place had remained for above seventy years. To prevent giving umbrage, he drew no plan of the place, and even burnt the few sketches he had by him: however, as to utility, the colonel declared himself as much satisfied as if he had taken a plan. He could not ascertain the direct height of the rampart, but thought it could not exceed twenty-five feet, including the parapet. The river might be about one hundred and thirty feet broad, and the entrance defended by two or three small redoubts. As to forces, none are ever garrisoned at Eochefort, except marines, which at the time the colonel was on the spot amounted to about one thousand. This was the first intelligence the ministry received of the state of Rochefort, which afforded sufficient room to believe, that an attack by surprise might be attended with happy consequences. It was true that colonel Clark made his observations in time of peace; but it was likewise probable that no great alterations were made on account of the war, as the place had remained in the same condition during the two or three last wars with France, when they had the same reasons as now to expect their coasts would be insulted. The next information was obtained from Joseph Thierry, a French pilot, of the protestant religion, who passed several examinations before the privy-council. This person declared, that he had followed the business of a pilot on the coast of France for the space of twenty years, and served as first pilot in several of the king’s ships; that he had, in particular, piloted the Magnanime, before she was taken by the English, for about twenty-two months, and had often conducted her into the road of the isle of Aix; and that he was perfectly acquainted with the entrance, which indeed is so easy as to render a pilot almost unnecessary. The road, he said, afforded good anchorage in twelve or fourteen fathoms water, as far as Bayonne; the channel between the islands of Oleron and Rhé was three leagues broad, and the banks necessary to be avoided lay near the land, except one called the Board, which is easily discerned by the breakers. He affirmed, that the largest vessels might draw up close to the fort of Aix, which he would undertake the Magnanime alone should destroy; that the largest ships might come up to the Vigerot, two miles distant from the mouth of the river, with all their cannon and stores; that men might be landed to the north of fort Fouras, out of sight of the fort, upon a meadow where the ground is firm and level, under cover of the cannon of the fleet. This landing-place he reckoned at about five miles from Rochefort, the way dry, and no way intercepted by ditches and morasses. He said, great part of the city was encompassed by a wall; but towards the river, on both sides, for about sixty paces, it was enclosed only with pallisadoes, without a fosse. To the intelligence of colonel Clark and Thierry, the minister added a secret account obtained of the strength and distribution of the French forces, whence it appeared highly probable that no more than ten thousand men could be allowed for the defence of the whole coast, from St. Valéry to Bourdeaux. In consequence of the above information the secret expedition was planned; instructions were given to sir John Mordaunt and admiral Hawke to make a vigorous impression on the French coast, and all the other measures projected, which, it was imagined, would make an effectual diversion, by obliging the enemy to employ a great part of their forces at home, disturb and shake the credit of their public loans, impair the strength and resources of their navy, disconcert their extensive and dangerous operations of war, and, finally, give life, strength, and lustre to the common cause and his majesty’s arms. The board of inquiry took next into consideration the several letters and explanatory instructions sent to sir John Mordaunt, in consequence of some difficulties which might possibly occur, stated by that general in letters to the minister, previous to his sailing. Then they examined the report made to sir Edward Hawke by admiral Broderick, and the captains of the men of war sent to sound the French shore from Rochelle to fort Fouras, dated September the twenty-ninth; the result of the councils af war on the twenty-fifth and twenty-eighth; sir Edward Hawke’s letter to sir John Mordaunt on the twenty-seventh, and the general’s answer on the twenty-ninth: after which sir John Mordaunt was called upon to give his reasons for not putting his majesty’s instructions and orders into execution. This he did in substance as follows: the attempt on Rochefort, he understood, was to have been on the footing of a _coup de main_ or surprise, which it would be impossible to execute if the design was discovered, or the alarm taken. He also understood that an attempt could not be made, nay that his majesty did not require it should, unless a proper place for debarking, and a safe retreat for the troops was discovered, particularly where the ships could protect them; and a safe communication with the fleet, and conveyance of supplies from it, were found. His sentiments, he said, were confirmed by a paper to this purpose, delivered to him by sir John Ligonier, on his first being appointed to command the expedition. It was likewise probable, he thought, that although Rochefort should have remained in the situation in which colonel Clark and the pilot Thierry had seen it three years before, yet that a few days’ preparation could make it sufficiently defensible against a _coup de main_. Judging therefore the dependence on such an operation alone improper, he applied to the ministry for two more old battalions, and artillery for a regular attack to force the place, which, from its construction, appeared as difficult to be made defensible against the latter, as easily secured against the former. But this request being refused, he still thought it his duty to obey his orders on the footing on which the expedition was planned, especially as he understood his instructions were discretionary, regarding the circumstances of the time, the condition of the place, and the nature of the service. He recited the positive and credible intelligence received, as well before the embarkation as during the voyage, of the alarm given to France, and the preparations made along the French coasts from Brest and St. Maloes to Rochefort; the accidents that kept the fleet hovering along the coasts, and prevented the possibility of an attempt by surprise; the reports of all the gentlemen employed in sounding the coasts, so contrary to the intelligence given by Thierry the pilot; the opinion of the council of war, by which he was enjoined to act, and with which his own judgment concurred; the endeavours used, after the twenty-sixth, to find out some expedient for annoying the enemy and executing his majesty’s instructions; the attempt made to land, in consequence of the resolution of the second council of war, which was prevented by boisterous and stormy weather; and lastly, the reasons that determined him, in concert with the other land officers, to return to England.

Having considered all these circumstances, and examined several officers who served in the expedition, the court of inquiry gave in the following report to his majesty:--“It appears to us, that one cause of the expedition having failed is, the not attacking fort Fouras by sea, at the same time that it could have been attacked by land, agreeably to the first design, which certainly must have been of the greatest utility towards carrying your majesty’s instructions into execution. It was at first resolved by admiral Hawke; (Thierry, the pilot, having undertaken the safe conduct of a ship to fort Fouras for that purpose), but afterwards laid aside, upon the representation of vice-admiral Knowles, that the Bar-fleur, the ship designed for that service, was a-ground, at the distance of between four and five miles from the shore; but as neither sir Edward Hawke nor the pilot could attend to give any information upon that head, we cannot presume to offer any certain opinion thereupon. We conceive another cause of the failure of the expedition to have been, that, instead of attempting to land when the report was received, on the twenty-fourth of September, from rear-admiral Broderick, and the captains who had been out to sound and reconnoitre, a council of war was summoned and held on the twenty-fifth, in which it was unanimously resolved not to land, as the attempt on Rochefort was neither advisable nor practicable; but it does not appear to us that there were then or at any time afterwards, either a body of troops or batteries on shore sufficient to have prevented the attempting a descent, in pursuance of the instructions signed by your majesty; neither does it appear to us that there were any reasons sufficient to induce the council of war to believe that Rochefort was so changed in respect to its strength, or posture of defence, since the expedition was first resolved on in England, as to prevent all attempts of an attack upon the place, in order to burn and destroy the docks, magazines, arsenals, and shipping, in obedience to your majesty’s command. And we think ourselves obliged to remark, in the council of war on the twenty-eighth of September, that no reason could have existed sufficient to prevent the attempt of landing the troops, as the council then unanimously resolved to land with all possible despatch. We beg leave also to remark, that after its being unanimously resolved to land, in the council of war of the twenty-eighth of September, the resolution was taken of returning to England, without any regular or general meeting of the said council; but as the whole operation was of so inconsiderable a nature, we do not offer this to your majesty as a cause of the failure of the expedition; since we cannot but look upon the expedition to have failed from the time the great object of it was laid aside in the council of war of the twenty-fifth.”

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

SIR JOHN MORDAUNT TRIED BY A COURT-MARTIAL.

This report, signed by the general officers, Marlborough, Sackville, and Waldegrave, probably laid the foundation for the court-martial which sat soon after upon the conduct of the commander-in-chief of the expedition. The enemies of the minister made a handle of the miscarriage to lessen him in the esteem of the public, by laying the whole blame on his forming a project so expensive to the nation, on intelligence not only slight at the first view, but false upon further examination. But the people were still his advocates; they discerned something mysterious in the whole conduct of the commander-in-chief. They plainly perceived that caution took the place of vigour, and that the hours for action were spent in deliberations and councils of war. Had he debarked the troops, and made such an attack as would have distinguished his courage, the voice of the people would have acquitted him, however unsuccessful, though prudence perhaps might have condemned him. Even Braddock’s rashness they deemed preferable to Mor-daunt’s inactivity: the loss of so many brave lives was thought less injurious and disgraceful to the nation, than the too safe return of the present armament. The one demonstrated that the British spirit still existed; the other seemed to indicate the too powerful influence of wealth, luxury, and those manners which tend to debauch and emasculate the mind. A public trial of the commander-in-chief was expected by the people, and it was graciously granted by his majesty. It is even thought that Sir John Mordaunt himself demanded to have his conduct scrutinized, by which method alone he was sensible his character could be re-established. His majesty’s warrant for holding a court-martial was accordingly signed on the third day of December. The court was composed of nine lieutenant-generals, nine major-generals, and three colonels, who sat on the fourteenth, and continued by several adjournments to the twentieth. Lieutenant-general Sir John Mordaunt came prisoner before the court, and the following charge was exhibited against him; namely, that he being appointed, by the king, commander-in-chief of his majesty’s forces sent on an expedition to the coast of France, and having received orders and instructions relative thereto, from his majesty, under his royal sign-manual, and also by one of his principal secretaries of state, had disobeyed his majesty’s said orders and instructions. The proceedings of this court were nearly similar to those of the court of inquiry. The same evidences were examined, with the addition of sir Edward Hawke’s deposition; and a defence, differing in no essential point from the former, made by the prisoner; but the judgment given was clear and explicit. Sir John Mordaunt was unanimously found Not Guilty, and therefore acquitted, while the public opinion remained unaltered, and many persons inveighed as bitterly against the lenity of the present court-martial, as they had formerly against the severity of the sentence passed upon a late unfortunate admiral. The evidence of one gentleman in particular drew attention: he was accused of tergiversation, and of showing that partial indulgence which his own conduct required. He publicly defended his character: his performance was censured, and himself dismissed the service of his sovereign.

FLEETS SENT TO THE EAST AND WEST INDIES.

Besides the diversion intended by a descent on the coast of France, several other methods were employed to amuse the enemy, as well as to protect the trade of the kingdom, secure our colonies in the West Indies, and ensure the continuance of the extraordinary success which had lately blessed his majesty’s arms in the East Indies; but these we could not mention before without breaking the thread of our narration. On the ninth of February, admiral West sailed with a squadron of men of war to the westward, as did admiral Coates with the fleet under his convoy to the West Indies, and commodore Stevens with the trade to the East Indies, in the month of March. Admiral Holbourn and commodore Holmes, with eleven ships of the line, a fire-ship, bomb-ketch, and fifty transports, sailed from St. Helen’s for America in April. The admiral had on board six thousand two hundred effective men, exclusive of officers, under the command of general Hopson, assisted by lord Charles Hay. In May, admiral Osborne, who had been forced back to Plymouth with his squadron by stress of weather, set sail for the Mediterranean, as did two ships of war sent to convoy the American trade.

In the meantime, the privateers fitted out by private merchants and societies, greatly annoyed the French commerce. The Antigallican, a private ship of war, equipped by a society of men who assumed that name, took the duke de Penthievre Indiaman, off the part of Corunna, and carried her into Cadiz. The prize was estimated worth two hundred thousand pounds, and immediate application was made by France to the court of Spain for restitution, while the proprietors of the Anti-gallican were squandering in mirth, festivity, and riot, the imaginary wealth so easily and unexpectedly acquired. Such were the remonstrances made to his catholic majesty with respect to the illegality of the prize, which the French East India company asserted was taken within shot of a neutral port, that the Penthievre was first violently wrested out of the hands of the captors, then detained as a deposit, with sealed hatches, and a Spanish guard on board, till the claims of both parties could be examined, and at last adjudged to be an illegal capture, and consequently restored to the French, to the great disappointment of the owners of the privateer. Besides the success which attended a great number of other privateers, the lords of the admiralty published a list of above thirty ships of war and privateers taken from the enemy in the space of four mouths, by the English sloops and ships of war, exclusive of the duke de Aquitaine Indiaman, now fitted out as a ship of war, taken by the Eagle and Medway; the Pondicherry Indiaman, valued at one hundred and sixty thousand pounds, taken by the Doverman of war; and above six privateers brought into port by the diligent and brave captain Lockhart, for which he was honoured with a variety of presents of plate by several corporations, in testimony of their esteem and regard. This run of good fortune was not, however, without some retribution on the side of the enemy, who, out of twenty-one ships homeward bound from Carolina, made prize of nineteen, whence the merchants sustained considerable damage, and a great quantity of valuable commodities, indigo in particular, was lost to this country.

RIOTS OCCASIONED BY THE HIGH PRICE OF CORN.

Notwithstanding the large imports of grain from different parts of Europe and America, the artifice of engrossers still kept up the price of corn. So incensed were the populace at the iniquitous combinations entered into to frustrate the endeavours of the legislature, and to oppress the poor, that they rose in a tumultuous manner in several counties, sometimes to the number of five or six thousand, and seized upon the grain brought to market. Nor was it indeed to be wondered at, considering the distress to which many persons were reduced. The difficulty of obtaining the necessaries of life, raised the price of labour at the most unseasonable time, when all manufacturers were overstocked for want of a proper market, which obliged them to dismiss above half the hands before employed. Hence arose the most pitiable condition of several thousands of useful industrious subjects; a calamity attended only with one advantage to the public, namely, the facility with which recruits were raised for his majesty’s service. At last the plentiful crops with which it pleased Providence to bless these kingdoms, the prodigious quantities of corn imported from foreign countries, and the wise measures of the legislature, broke all the villanous schemes set on foot by the forestallers and engrossers, and reduced the price of corn to the usual standard. The public joy on this occasion was greatly augmented by the safe arrival of the fleet from the Leeward islands, consisting of ninety-two sail, and of the Straits fleet, estimated worth three millions sterling, whereby the silk manufacturers in particular were again employed, and their distresses relieved. About the same time the India company was highly elated with the joyful account of the safe arrival and spirited conduct of three of their captains, attacked in their passage homewards by two French men of war, one of sixty-four, the other of twenty-six guns. After a warm engagement, which continued for three hours, they obliged the French ships to sheer of, with scarce any loss on their own side. When the engagement began, the captains had promised a reward of a thousand pounds to the crews, by way of incitement to their valour; and the company doubled the sum, in recompence of their fidelity and courage. His majesty having taken into consideration the incredible damage sustained by the commerce of these kingdoms, for want of proper harbours and forts on the western coast to receive and protect merchantmen, was graciously pleased to order, that a temporary security should be provided for the shipping which might touch at Milford-haven, until the fortifications voted in parliament could be erected. How far his majesty’s directions were complied with, the number of merchant ships taken by the enemy’s privateers upon that coast sufficiently indicated.

OPERATIONS IN AMERICA.

Whatever reasons the government had to expect the Campaign should be vigorously pushed in America, almost every circumstance turned out contrary to expectation. Not all the endeavours of the earl of Loudon to quiet the dissensions among the different provinces, and to establish unanimity and harmony, could prevail. Circumstances required that he should act the part of a mediator, in order to raise the necessary supplies for prosecuting the war, without which it was impossible he could appear in the character of a general. The enemy, in the meantime, were pursuing the blow given at Oswego, and taking advantage of the distraction that appeared in the British councils. By their successes in the preceding campaign, they remained masters of all the lakes. Hence they were furnished with the means of practising on the Indians, in all the different districts, and obliging them, by rewards, promises, and menaces, to act in their favour. Every accession to their strength, was a real diminution of that of the British commander; but then the ignorance or pusillanimity of some of the inferior officers in our back settlements was, in effect, more beneficial to the enemy than all the vigilance and activity of Montcalm. In consequence of the shameful loss of Oswego, they voluntarily abandoned to the mercy of the French general the whole country of the Five Nations, the only body of Indians who had inviolably performed their engagements, or indeed who had preserved any sincere regard for the British government. The communication with these faithful allies was now cut off, by the imprudent demolition of the forts we possessed at the great Carrying-place. A strong fort indeed was built at Winchester, and called fort Loudon, after the commander-in-chief, and four hundred Cherokee Indians joined the English forces at fort Cumberland; but this reinforcement by no means counterbalanced the losses sustained in consequence of our having imprudently stopped up Wood-creek, and filled it with logs. Every person the least acquainted with the country, readily perceived the weakness of these measures, by which our whole frontier was left open and exposed to the irruptions of the savages in the French interest, who would not fail to profit by our blunders, too notorious to escape them. By the removal of these barriers, a path was opened to our fine settlements on those grounds called the German Flats, and along the Mohawk’s river, which the enemy destroyed with fire and sword before the end of the campaign.

LORD LOUDON’S CONDUCT IN AMERICA.

In the meantime, lord Loudon was taking the most effectual steps to unite the provinces, and raise a force sufficient to strike some decisive blow. The attack on Crown-Point, which had been so long meditated, was laid aside as of less importance than the intended expedition to Louisbourg, now substituted in its place, and undoubtedly a more considerable object in itself. Admiral Holbourn arrived at Halifax, with the squadron and transports under his command, on the ninth day of July; and it was his lordship’s intention to repair thither with all possible diligence, in order to take upon him the command of the expedition; but a variety of accidents interposed. It was with the utmost difficulty he at length assembled a body of six thousand men, with which he instantly began his march to join the troops lately arrived from England. When the junction was effected, the whole forces amounted to twelve thousand men; an army that raised great expectations. Immediately some small vessels were sent out to examine and reconnoitre the condition of the enemy, and the intermediate time was employed in embarking the troops as soon as the transports arrived. The return of the scouts totally altered the face of affairs: they brought the unwelcome news, that M. de Bois de la Mothe, who sailed in the month of May from Brest, with a large fleet of ships of war and transports, was now safe at anchor in the harbour of Louisbourg. Their intelligence AAras supported by the testimony of several deserters; yet still it wanted confirmation, and many persons believed their account of the enemy’s strength greatly magnified. Such advices, however, could not but occasion extraordinary fluctuations in the councils of war at Halifax. Some were for setting aside all thoughts of the expedition for that season; while others, more warm in their dispositions, and sanguine in their expectations, were for prosecuting it with vigour, in spite of all dangers and difficulties. Their disputes were carried on with great vehemence, when a packet bound from Louisbourg for France, was taken by one of the English ships stationed at Newfoundland. She had letters on board, which put the enemy’s superiority beyond all doubt, at least by sea. It clearly appeared, there were at that time in Louisbourg six thousand regular troops, three thousand natives, and one thousand three hundred Indians, with seventeen ships of the line and three frigates moored in the harbour; that the place was well supplied with ammunition, provisions, and every kind of military stores; and that the enemy wished for nothing more than an attack, which it was probable would terminate to the disgrace of the assailants, and ruin of the British affairs in America. The commanders at Halifax were fully apprized of the consequences of an unsuccessful attempt; it was, therefore, almost unanimously resolved to postpone the expedition to some more convenient opportunity, especially as the season was now far advanced, which alone would be sufficient to frustrate their endeavours, and render the enterprise abortive. This resolution seems, indeed, to have been the most eligible in their circumstances, whatever construction might afterwards be given, with intention to prejudice the public against the commander-in-chief.

FORT WILLIAM-HENRY TAKEN by the FRENCH.

Lord Loudon’s departure from New-York, with all the forces he was able to collect, afforded the marquis de Montcalm the fairest occasion of improving the successes of the former campaign. That general had, in the very commencement of the season, made three different attacks on fort William-Henry, in all of which he was repulsed by the vigour and resolution of the garrison. But his disappointment here was balanced by an advantage gained by a party of regulars and Indians at Ticonderoga. Colonel John Parker, with a detachment of near four hundred men, went by water, in whale and bay boats, to attack the enemy’s advanced guard at that place. Landing at night on an island, he sent before dawn three boats to the main land, which the enemy waylaid and took. Having procured the necessary intelligence from the prisoners of the colonel’s designs, they contrived their measures, placed three hundred men in ambush behind the point where he proposed landing, and sent three batteaux to the place of rendezvous. Colonel Parker mistaking these for his own boats, eagerly put to shore, was surrounded by the enemy, reinforced with four hundred men, and attacked with such impetuosity, that, of the whole detachment, only two officers and seventy private men escaped. Flushed with this advantage, animated by the absence of the British commander-in-chief, then at Halifax, and fired with a desire to revenge the disgrace he had lately sustained before fort Henry, Montcalm drew together all his forces, with intention to lay siege to that place. Fort William-Henry stands on the southern coast of Lake George; it was built with a view to protect and cover the frontiers of the English colonies, as well as to command the lake; the fortifications were good, defended by a garrison of near three thousand men, and covered by an army of four thousand, under the conduct of general Webb, posted at no great distance. When the marquis de Montcalm had assembled all the forces at Crown-Point, Ticonderoga, and the adjacent posts, together with a considerable body of Canadians and Indians, amounting in the whole to near ten thousand men, he marched directly to the fort, made his approaches, and began to batter it with a numerous train of artillery. On the very day he invested the place he sent a letter to colonel Monro the governor, telling him, he thought himself obliged, in humanity, to desire he would surrender the fort, and not provoke the great number of savages in the French army by a vain resistance. “A detachment of your garrison has lately,” say she, “experienced their cruelty; I have it yet in my power to restrain them, and oblige them to observe a capitulation, as none of them hitherto are killed. Your persisting in the defence of your fort can only retard its fate a few days, and must of necessity expose an unfortunate garrison, who can possibly receive no relief, considering the precautions taken to prevent it. I demand a decisive answer, for which purpose I have sent the sieur Funtbrane, one of my aids-de-camp. You may credit what he will inform you of, from Montcalm.” General Webb beheld his preparations with an indifference and security bordering on infatuation. It is credibly reported, that he had private-intelligence of all the French general’s designs and motions; yet, either despising his strength, or discrediting the information, he neglected collecting the militia in time; which, in conjunction with his own forces, would probably have obliged Montcalm to relinquish the attempt, or at least have rendered his success very doubtful and hazardous. The enemy meeting with no disturbance from the quarter they most dreaded, prosecuted the siege with vigour, and were warmly received by the garrison, who fired with great spirit till they had burst almost all their cannon, and expended their ammunition. Neither Montcalm’s promises or threats could prevail upon them to surrender, while they were in a condition to defend themselves, or could reasonably expect assistance from general Webb. They even persisted to hold out after prudence dictated they ought to surrender. Colonel Monro was sensible of the importance of his charge, and imagined that general Webb, though slow in his motions, would surely make some vigorous efforts either to raise the siege, or force a supply of ammunition, provisions, and other necessaries, into the garrison. At length necessity obliged him, after sustaining a siege from the third to the ninth day of August, to hang out a flag of truce, which was immediately answered by the French commander. Hostages were exchanged, and articles of capitulation signed by both parties. It was stipulated, that the garrison of fort William-Henry, and the troops in the intrenched camp, should march out with their arms, the baggage of the officers and soldiers, and all the usual necessaries of war, escorted by a detachment of French troops, and interpreters attached to the savages; that the gate of the fort should be delivered to the troops of the most christain king, immediately after signing the capitulation; and the retrenched camp, on the departure of the British forces; that the artillery, warlike stores, provisions, and in general every thing, except the effects of soldiers and officers, should, upon honour, be delivered to the French troops; for which purpose it was agreed there should be delivered, with the capitulation, an exact inventory of the stores and other particulars specified; that the garrison of the fort, and the troops in the retrenchment and dependencies, should not serve for the space of eighteen months, from the date of the capitulation, against his most christian majesty, or his allies; that with the capitulation there should be delivered an exact state of the troops, specifying the names of the officers, engineers, artillery-men, commissaries, and all employed; that the officers and soldiers, Canadians, women, and savages, made prisoners by land since the commencement of the war in North America, should be delivered in the space of three months at Carillon; in return for whom an equal number of the garrison of fort William-Henry should be capacitated to serve agreeably to the return given by the English officer, and the receipt of the French commanding officers, of the prisoners so delivered: that an officer should remain as an hostage, till the safe return of the escort sent with the troops of his Britannic majesty; that the sick and wounded, not in a condition to be transported to fort Edward, should remain under the protection of the marquis de Montcalm; who engaged to use them with tenderness and humanity, and to return them as soon as recovered: that provisions for two days should be issued out for the British troops: that in testimony of his esteem and respect for colonel Monro and his garrison, on account of their gallant defence, the marquis do Montcalm should return one cannon, a six-pounder. Whether the marquis de Montcalm was really assiduous to have these articles punctually executed we cannot pretend to determine; but certain it is, they were perfidiously broke in almost every instance. The savages in the French interest either paid no regard to the capitulation, or were permitted, from views of policy, to act the most treacherous, inhuman, and insidiuous part. They fell upon the British troops as they marched out, despoiled them of their few remaining effects, dragged the Indians in the English service out of their ranks, and assassinated them with circumstances of unheard-of barbarity. Some British soldiers, with their wives and children, are said to have been savagely murdered by those brutal Indians, whose ferocity the French commander could not effectually restrain. The greater part of the English garrison, however, arrived at fort Edward, under the protection of the French escort. The enemy demolished the fort, carried off the effects, provisions, artillery, and every thing else left by the garrison, together with the vessels preserved in the lake, and departed, without pursuing their success by any other attempt. Thus ended the third campaign in America, where, with an evident superiority over the enemy, an army of twenty thousand regular troops, a great number of provincial forces, and a prodigious naval power, not less than twenty ships of the line, we abandoned our allies, exposed our people, suffered them to be cruelly massacred in sight of our troops, and relinquished a large and valuable tract of country, to the eternal reproach and disgrace of the British name.

NAVAL TRANSACTIONS IN AMERICA.

As to the naval transactions in this country, though less infamous, they were not less unfortunate. Immediately on lord Loudon’s departure from Halifax, admiral Holbourn, now freed from the care of the transports, set sail for Louisbourg, with fifteen ships of the line, one ship of fifty guns, three small frigates, and a fire-ship. What the object of this cruise might have been can only be conjectured. Some imagine curiosity was the admiral’s sole motive, and the desire of informing himself with certainty of the enemy’s strength, while others persuade themselves that he was in hopes of drawing M. de la Mothe to an engagement, notwithstanding his superiority in number of ships and weight of metal. Be this as it may, the British squadron appeared off Louisbourg on the twentieth day of August, and approaching within two miles of the batteries, saw the French admiral make the signal to unmoor. Mr. Holbourn was greatly inferior in strength, and it is obvious that his design was not to fight the enemy, as he immediately made the best of his way to Halifax. About the middle of September, being reinforced with four ships of the line, he again proceeded to Louisbourg, probably with intention, if possible, to draw the enemy to an engagement; but he found de la Mothe too prudent to hazard an unnecessary battle, the loss of which would have greatly exposed all the French colonies. Here the English squadron continued cruising until the twenty-fifth, when they were overtaken by a terrible storm from the southward. When the hurricane began, the fleet were about forty leagues distant from Louisbourg; but were driven in twelve hours within two miles of the rocks and breakers on that coast, when the wind providentially shifted. The ship Tilbury was wrecked upon the rocks, and half her crew drowned. Eleven ships were dismasted, others threw their guns overboard; and all returned in a very shattered condition to England, at a very unfavourable season of the year. In this manner ended the expedition to Louisbourg, more unfortunate to the nation than the preceding designs upon Rochefort; less disgraceful to the commanders, but equally the occasion of ridicule and triumph to our enemies. Indeed, the unhappy consequences of the political disputes at home, the instability of the administration, and the frequent revolutions in our councils, were strongly manifested by that langour infused into all our military operations, and general unsteadiness in our pursuits. Faction, in the mother-country, produced divisions and misconduct in the colonies. No ambition to signalize themselves appeared among the officers, from the uncertainty whether their services were to be rewarded or condemned. Their attachment to particular persons weakened the love they ought to have entertained for their country in general, and destroyed that spirit of enterprise, that firmness and resolution which constitutes the commander, and without which the best capacity, joined to the most uncorruptible integrity, can effect nothing.

The French king not only exerted himself against the English in America, but even extended his operations to their settlements in Africa, where he sent one of his naval commanders with a small squadron, to reduce. This gentleman, whose name was Kersin, had scoured the coast of Guinea, and made prize of several English trading ships; but his chief aim was to reduce the castle at Cape-coast, of which, had he gained possession, the other subordinate forts would have submitted without opposition. When Mr. Bell, the governor of this castle, received intelligence that M. de Kersin was a few leagues to windward, and certainly intended to attack Cape-coast, his whole garrison did not exceed thirty white men, exclusive of a few mulatto soldiers: his stock of ammunition was reduced to half a barrel of gunpowder; and his fortifications were so crazy and inconsiderable, that, in the opinion of the best engineers, they could not have sustained for twenty minutes the fire of one great ship, had it been properly directed and maintained. In these circumstances, few people would have dreamed of making any preparation for defence; but Mr. Bell entertained other sentiments, and acquitted himself with equal courage and discretion. He forthwith procured a supply of gunpowder, and a reinforcement of about fifty men, from certain trading vessels that happened to be upon that part of the coast. He mounted some spare cannon upon an occasional battery, and assembling a body of twelve hundred negroes, well armed, under the command of their chief, on whose attachment he could depend, and ordered them to take post at the place where he apprehended the enemy would attempt a landing. These precautions were hardly taken, when the French squadron, consisting of two ships of the line and a large frigate, appeared, and in a little time their attack began; but they met with such a warm reception, that in less than two hours they desisted, leaving the castle very little damaged, and immediately made sail for the West Indies, very much to the disappointment and mortification of the Dutch officers belonging to the fort of Elmina, in the same neighbourhood, who made no scruple of expressing their wishes publicly in favour of the French commodore, and at a distance viewed the engagement with the most partial eagerness and impatience. M. de Kersin was generally blamed for his want of conduct and resolution in this attempt; but he is said to have been deceived in his opinion of the real state of Capecoast castle, by the vigorous and resolute exertions of the governor, and was apprehensive of losing a mast in the engagement; a loss which he could not have repaired on the whole coast of Africa. Had the fort of Cape-coast been reduced on this occasion, in all probability every petty republic of the negroes, settled under the protection of the forts on the Gold-coast, would have revolted from the British interest; for while the French squadron, in their progress along-shore, hovered in the offing at Annamaboe, an English settlement a few leauges to leeward of Cape-coast, John Corrantee, the caboceiro, chief magistrate and general of the blacks on that part of the coast, whose adopted son had a few years before been caressed, and even treated as a prince in England, taking it for granted that this enterprise of the French would be attended with success, actually sent some of his dependants, with a present of refreshments for their commodore; the delivery of which, however, was prevented by Mr. Brew, the English chief of the fort, who shattered in pieces the canoe before it could be launched, and threatened with his cannon to level the black town with the dust. The caboceiro, though thus anticipated in his design, resolved to be among the first who should compliment M. de Kersin on his victory at Cape-coast; and, with this view, prepared an embassy or deputation to go there by land; but understanding that the French had failed in their attempt, he shifted his design, without the least hesitation, and despatched the same embassy to Mr. Bell, whom he congratulated on his victory, assuring him he had kept his men ready armed, to march at the first summons to his assistance.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE EAST INDIES.

In the East Indies the scene was changed greatly to the honour and advantage of Great Britain. There the commanders acted with that harmony, spirit, and unanimity becoming Britons, zealous for the credit of their king and the interest of their country. We left admiral Watson and colonel Clive advancing to Calcutta, to revenge the cruel tragedy acted upon their countrymen the preceding year. On the twenty-eighth of December, the fleet proceeded up the river: next day colonel Clive landed, and with the assistance of the squadron, in twenty-four hours made himself master of Busbudgia, a place of great strength, though very ill defended. On the first of January the admiral, with two ships, appeared before the town of Calcutta, and was received by a brisk fire from the batteries. This salute was returned so warmly, that the enemy’s guns were soon silenced, and in less than two hours the place and fort were abandoned. Colonel Clive, on the other side, had invested the town, and made his attack with that vigour and intrepidity peculiar to himself, which greatly contributed to the sudden reduction of the settlement. As soon as the fort was surrendered, the brave and active captain Coote, with his majesty’s troops, took possession, and found ninety-one pieces of cannon, four mortars, abundance of ammunition, stores, and provisions, with every requisite for sustaining an obstinate siege. Thus the English were re-established in the two strongest fortresses in the Ganges, with the inconsiderable loss of nine seamen killed, and three soldiers. A few days after, Hughley, a city of great trade, situated higher up the river, was reduced with as little difficulty, but infinitely greater prejudice to the nabob, as here his storehouses of salt, and vast granaries for the support of his army, were burnt and destroyed. Incensed at the almost instantaneous loss of all his conquests, and demolition of the city of Hughley, the viceroy of Bengal discouraged all advances to an accommodation which was proposed by the admiral and chiefs of the company, and assembled an army of twenty thousand horse and fifteen thousand foot, fully resolved to expel the English out of his dominions, and take ample vengeance for the disgraces he had lately sustained. He was seen marching by the English camp in his way to Calcutta on the second of February, where he encamped, about a mile from the town. Colonel Clive immediately made application to the admiral for a reinforcement; and six hundred men, under the command of captain Warwick, were accordingly drafted from the different ships, and sent to assist his little army. Clive drew out his forces, advanced in three columns towards the enemy, and began the attack so vigorously, that the viceroy retreated, after a feeble resistance, with the loss of a thousand men killed, wounded, and taken prisoners, five hundred horses, great numbers of draft bullocks, and four elephants. Though this advantage was less decisive than could be wished, yet it sufficiently intimidated the nabob into concessions much to the honour and advantage of the company. Admiral Watson gave him to understand in a letter, that this was no more than a specimen of what the British arms, when provoked, could perform. The suba desired the negotiation might be renewed, and in a few days the treaty was concluded. He promised not to disturb the English in any of those privileges or possessions specified in the firm, and granted by the Mogul; that all merchandise belonging to the company should pass and repass, in every part of the province of Bengal, free of duty; that all the English factories seized the preceding year, or since, should be restored, with the money, goods, and effects appertaining; that all damages sustained by the English should be repaired, and their losses repaid: that the English should have liberty to fortify Calcutta in whatever manner they thought proper without interruption: that they should have the liberty of coining all the gold and bullion they imported, which should pass current in the province: that he would remain in strict friendship and alliance with the English, use his utmost endeavours to heal up the late divisions, and restore the former good understanding between them.

All which several articles were solemnly signed and sealed with the nabob’s own hand.

SEDUCTION OF CHANDERNAGORE.

Such were the terms obtained for the company, by the spirited and gallant conduct of the two English commanders. They had, however, too much discernment to rely on the promises of a barbarian, who had so prefidiously broken former engagements; but they prudently dissembled their sentiments, until they had thoroughly reinstated the affairs of the company, and reduced the French power in this province. In order to adjust the points that required discussion, the select committee for the company’s affairs appointed Mr. Watts, who had been released from his former imprisonment, as their commissary at the court of the suba, to whom he was personally known, as well as to his ministers, among whom he had acquired a considerable influence. Nothing less could have balanced the interest which the French, by their art of intriguing, had raised among the favourites of the viceroy. While Mr. Watts was employed at Muxadavad in counter-working those intrigues, and keeping the suba steady to his engagements, the admiral and Mr. Clive resolved to avail themselves of their armament in attacking the French settlements in Bengal. The chief object of their designs was the reduction of Chandernagore, situated higher up the river than Calcutta, of considerable strength, and the chief in importance of any possessed by that nation in the bay. Colonel Clive being reinforced by three hundred men from Bombay, began his march to Chandernagore, at the head of seven hundred Europeans and one thousand six hundred Indians, where, on his first arrival, he took possession of all the out-posts except one redoubt mounted with eight pieces of cannon, which he left to be silenced by the admiral. On the eighteenth day of March, the admirals Watson and Pocoke arrived within two miles of the French settlement, with the Kent, Tiger, and Salisbury men of war, and found their passage obstructed by booms laid across the river, and several vessels sunk in the channel. These difficulties being removed, they advanced early on the twenty-fourth, and drew up in a line before the fort, which they battered with great fury for three hours; while colonel Clive was making his approaches on the land side, and playing vigorously from the batteries he had raised. Their united efforts soon obliged the enemy to submission. A flag of truce was waved over the walls, and the place surrendered by capitulation. The keys were delivered to captain Latham of the Tiger; and in the afternoon colonel Clive, with the king’s troops, took possession. Thus the reduction of a strong fortress, garrisoned by five hundred Europeans, and one thousand two hundred Indians, defended by one hundred and twenty-three pieces of cannon, and three mortars, well provided with all kinds of stores and necessaries, and of very great importance to the enemy’s commerce in India, was accomplished with a loss not exceeding forty men on the side of the conquerors. By the treaty of capitulation the director; counsellors, and inferior servants of the settlement, were allowed to depart with their wearing apparel: the Jesuits were permitted to take away their church ornaments, and the natives to remain in the full exertion of their liberties; but the garrison were to continue prisoners of war. The goods and money found in the place were considerable; but the principal advantage arose from the ruin of the head settlement of the enemy on the Ganges, which could not but interfere with the English commerce in these parts.

COLONEL CLIVE DEFEATS THE SUBA AT PLAISSEY, &c.

Success had hitherto attended all the operations of the British commanders, because they were concerted with foresight and unanimity; and executed with that vigour and spirit which deservedly raised them high in the esteem of their country. They reduced the nabob to reasonable terms of accommodation before they alarmed the French; and now the power of the latter was destroyed, they entered upon measures to oblige the treacherous viceroy to a strict performance of the treaty he had so lately signed. However specious his promises were, they found him extremely dilatory in the execution of several articles of the treaty, which, in effect, was the same to the English commerce as if none had been concluded. The company’s goods were loaded with high duties, and several other infractions of the peace committed, upon such frivolous pretences, as evidently demonstrated that he sought to come to an open rupture as soon as his projects were ripe for execution. In a word, he discovered all along a manifest partiality to the French, whose emissaries cajoled him with promises that he should be joined by such a body of their European troops, under M. de Bussy, as would enable him to crush the power of the English, whom they had taught him to fear and to hate. As recommencing hostilities against so powerful a prince was in itself dangerous, and if possible to be avoided, the affair was laid before the council of Culcutta, and canvassed with all the circumspection and caution that a measure required, on which depended the fate of the whole trade of Bengal. Mr. Watts, from time to time, sent them intelligence of every transaction in the suba’s cabinet; and although that prince publicly declared he would cause him to be impaled as soon as the English troops should be put in motion within the kingdom of Bengal, he bravely sacrificed his own safety to the interest of the company, and exhorted them to proceed with vigour in their military operations. During these deliberations a most fortunate incident occurred, that soon determined the council to come to an open rupture. The leading persons in the viceroy’s court found themselves oppressed by his haughtiness and insolence. The same spirit of discontent appeared among the principal officers of his army; they were well acquainted with his prefidy, saw his preparations for war, and were sensible that the peace of the country could never be restored, unless either the English were expelled, or the nabob deposed. In consequence, a plan was concerted for divesting him of all his power; and the conspiracy was conducted by Jaffier Ali Khan, his prime minister and chief commander, a nobleman of great influence and authority in the province. The project was communicated by Ali Khan to Mr. Watts, and so improved by the address of that gentleman, as in a manner to ensure success. A treaty was actually concluded between this Meer Jaffier Ali Khan and the English company; and a plan concerted with this nobleman and the other malcontents for their defection from the viceroy. These previous measures being-taken, colonel Clive was ordered to take the field with his little army. Admiral Watson undertook the defence of Chandernagore, and the garrison was detached to reinforce the colonel, together with fifty seamen to be employed as gunners, and in directing the artillery. Then Mr. Watts, deceiving the suba’s spies by whom he was surrounded, withdrew himself from Muxadavad, and reached the English camp in safety. On the nineteenth of June a detachment was sent to attack Cutwa fort and town, situated on that branch of the river forming the island of Cassimbuzzar. This place surrendered at the first summons; and here the colonel halted with the army for three days, expecting advices from Ali Khan. Disappointed of the hoped for intelligence, he crossed the river, and marched to Plaissey, where he encamped. On the twenty-third, at day break, the suba advanced to attack him, at the head of fifteen thousand horse, and near thirty thousand infantry, with about forty pieces of heavy cannon, conducted and managed by French gunners, on whose courage and dexterity he placed great dependence. They began to cannonade the English camp about six in the morning; but a severe shower falling at noon they withdrew their artillery. Colonel Clive seized this opportunity to take possession of a tank and two other posts of consequence, which they in vain endeavored to retake. Then he stormed an angle of their camp, covered with a double breastwork, together with an eminence which they occupied. At the beginning of this attack, some of their chiefs being slain, the men were so dispirited, that they soon gave way; but still Meer Jaffier Ali Khan, who commanded their left wing, forbore declaring himself openly. After a short contest the enemy were put to flight, the nabob’s camp, baggage, and fifty pieces of cannon taken, and a most complete victory obtained. The colonel, pursuing his advantage, marched to Muxadavad, the capital of the province, and was there joined by Ali Khan and the malcontents. It was before concerted that this nobleman should be invested with the dignity of nabob; accordingly, the colonel proceeded solemnly to depose Surajah Dowlat, and, with the same ceremony, to substitute Ali Khan in his room, who was publicly acknowledged by the people as suba, or viceroy, of the provinces of Bengal, Banar, and Orixa. Soon after, the late viceroy was taken, and put to death by his successor, who readily complied with all the conditions of his elevation. He conferred on his allies very liberal rewards, and granted the company such extraordinary privileges, as fully demonstrated how justly he merited their assistance. By this alliance, and the reduction of Chandernagore, the French were entirely excluded the commerce of Bengal and its dependencies; the trade of the English company was restored, and increased beyond their most sanguine hopes; a new ally was acquired, whose interest obliged him to remain firm to his engagements: a vast sum was paid to the company and the sufferers at Calcutta, to indemnify them for their losses: the soldiers and seamen were gratified with six hundred thousand pounds, as a reward for the courage and intrepidity they exerted; and a variety of other advantages gained, which it would be unnecessary to enumerate. In a word, in the space of fourteen days a great revolution was effected, and the government of a vast country superior in wealth, fertility, extent, and number of inhabitants to most European kingdoms, transferred by a handful of troops, conducted by an officer untutored in the art of war, and a general rather by intuition, than instruction and experience. But the public joy at these signal successes was considerably diminished by the death of admiral Watson, and the loss of Vizagapatam, an English settlement on the Coromandel coast. The admiral fell a victim to the unwholesomeness of the climate, on the sixteenth of August, universally esteemed and regretted; and the factory and fort at Vizagapatam were surrendered to the French, a few days after colonel Clive had defeated the nabob.

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE KING OF FRANCE.

We now turn our eyes to the continent of Europe, where we see the beginning of the year marked with a striking instance of the dreadful effects of frantic enthusiasm. France had long enjoyed a monarch, easy, complying, good-natured, and averse to all that wore the appearance of business or of war. Contented with the pleasures of indolence, he sought no greatness beyond what he enjoyed, nor pursued any ambitious aim through the dictates of his own disposition. Of all men on earth such a prince had the greatest reason to expect an exemption from plots against his person, and cabals among his subjects; yet was an attempt made upon his life by a man, who though placed in the lowest sphere of fortune, had resolution to face the greatest dangers, and enthusiasm sufficient to sustain, without shrinking, all the tortures which the cruelty of man could invent, or his crimes render necessary. The name of this fanatic was Robert Francis Damien, born in the suburb of St. Catharine, in the city of Arras. He had lived in the service of several families, whence he was generally dismissed on account of the impatience, the melancholy, and sullenness of his disposition. So humble was the station of a person, who was resolved to step forth from obscurity, and, by one desperate effort, draw upon himself the attention of all Europe. On the fifth day of January, as the king was stepping into his coach to return to Trianon, whence he had that day come to Versailles, Damien, mingling among his attendants, stabbed him with a knife on the right side, between the fourth and fifth ribs. His majesty applying his hand immediately to his side, cried out, “I am wounded! Seize him; but do not hurt him.” Happily the wound was not dangerous; as the knife taking an oblique direction, missed the vital parts. As for the assassin, he made no attempts to escape; but suffering himself quietly to be seized, was conveyed to the guard-room, where, being interrogated if he committed the horrid action, he boldly answered in the affirmative. A process against him was instantly commenced at Versailles: many persons, supposed accessaries to the design upon the king’s life, were sent to the Bastile; the assassin himself was put to the torture, and the most excruciating torments were applied, with intention to extort a confession of the reasons that could induce him to so execrable an attempt upon his sovereign. Incisions were made into the muscular parts of his legs, arms, and thighs, into which boiling oil was poured. Every refinement on cruelty, that human invention could suggest, was practised without effect; nothing could overcome his obstinacy; and his silence was construed into a presumption, that he must have accomplices in the plot. To render his punishment more public and conspicuous, he was removed to Paris, there to undergo a repetition of all his former tortures, with such additional circumstances as the most fertile and cruel dispositions could devise for increasing his misery and torment. Being conducted to the Concergerie, an iron bed, which likewise served for a chair, was prepared for him, and to this he was fastened with chains. The torture was again applied, and a physician ordered to attend, to see what degree of pain he could support. Nothing, however, material was extorted; for what he one moment confessed, he recanted the next. It is not within our province, and we consider it as a felicity, to relate all the circumstances of this cruel and tragical event. Sufficient it is, that, after suffering the most exquisite torments that human nature could invent, or man support, his judges thought proper to terminate his misery by a death shocking to imagination, and shameful to humanity. On the twenty-eighth day of March he was conducted, amidst a vast concourse of the populace, to the Grève, the common place of execution, stripped naked, and fastened to the scaffold by iron gyves. One of his hands was then burnt in liquid flaming sulphur; his thighs, legs, and arms, were torn with red hot pincers; boiling oil, melted lead, resin, and sulphur, were poured into the wounds; tight ligatures tied round his limbs to prepare him for dismemberment; young and vigorous horses applied to the draft, and the unhappy criminal pulled, with all their force, to the utmost extension of his sinews, for the space of an hour; during all which time he preserved his senses and constancy. At length the physician and surgeon attending declared, it would be impossible to accomplish the dismemberment, unless the tendons were separated; upon which orders were given to the executioner to cut the sinews at the joints of the arms and legs. The horses drew afresh; a thigh and an arm were separated, and, after several pulls, the unfortunate wretch expired under the extremity of pain. His body and limbs were reduced to ashes under the scaffold; his father, wife, daughter, and family banished the kingdom for ever; the name of Damien effaced and obliterated, and the innocent involved in the punishment of the guilty. Thus ended the procedure against Damien and his family, in a manner not very favourable to the avowed clemency of Louis, or the acknowledged humanity of the French nation. It appeared from undoubted evidence, that the attempt on the king’s life was the result of insanity, and a disturbed imagination. Several instances of a disordered mind had before been observed in his conduct, and the detestation justly due to the enormity of his crime ought now to have been absorbed in the consideration of his misfortune, the greatest that can befal human nature.

CHANGES IN THE FRENCH MINISTRY.

Another remarkable event in France, in the beginning of this year, was the change in the ministry of that nation, by the removal of M. de Machault, keeper of the seals, from the post of secretary of state for the marine; and of M. d’Argenson from that of secretary at war. Their dismission was sudden and unexpected; nor was any particular reason assigned for this very unexpected alteration. The French king, to show the queen of Hungary how judiciously she had acted in forming an alliance with the house of Bourbon, raised two great armies; the first of which, composed of near eighty thousand men, the flower of the French troops, with a large train of artillery, was commanded by M. d’Etrées, a general of great reputation; under whom served M. de Contades, M. Chevert, and the count de Saint Germain, all officers of high character. This formidable army passed the Rhine early in the spring, and marched by Westphalia, in order to invade the king of Prussia’s dominions, in quality of allies to the empress-queen, and guardians of the liberties of the empire. But their real view was to invade Hanover, a scheme which they knew would make a powerful diversion of the British force from the prosecution of the war in other parts of the world, where the strength of France could not be fully exerted, and where their most valuable interests were at stake. They flattered themselves, moreover, that the same blow, by which they hoped to crush the king of Prussia, might likewise force his Britannic majesty into some concessions with regard to America. The other army of the French, commanded by the prince de Soubise, was destined to strengthen the imperial army of execution, consisting of twenty-five thousand men, beside six thousand Bavarians, and four thousand Wirtembergers. But before these troops, under Soubise, passed the Rhine, they made themselves masters of several places belonging to the king of Prussia, upon the borders of the low Countries;* whilst a detachment from d’Etrées’s army seized upon the town of Embden, and whatever else belonged to the same monarch in East Friesland.

* The king of Prussia had withdrawn his garrison from Cleves, not without suspicion of having purposely left this door open to the enemy, that their irruption into Germany might hasten the resolutions of the British ministry.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

STATE OF THE CONFEDERACY.

At the close of the last campaign, the king of Prussia, having gained a petty advantage over the Imperialists under the command of mareschal Brown, and incorporated into his own troops a great part of the Saxon army taken prisoners at Pima, as was observed before, retired into winter-quarters, until the season should permit him to improve these advantages. His majesty and mareschal Keith wintered in Saxony, having their cantonments between Pirna and the frontier along the Elbe; and mareschal Schwerin, returning into Silesia, took up his quarters in the country of Glatz. In the meantime, the empress-queen, finding the force which she had sent out against the king of Prussia, was not sufficient to prevent his designs, made the necessary requisitions to her allies, for the auxiliaries they had engaged to furnish. In consequence of these requisitions, the czarina, true to her engagements, despatched above an hundred thousand of her troops, who began their march in the month of November, and proceeded to the borders of Lithuania, with design

## particularly to invade Ducal Prussia, whilst a strong fleet was equipped

in the Baltic, to aid the operations of this numerous army. The Austrian army, assembled in Bohemia, amounted to upwards of fourscore thousand men, commanded by prince Charles of Lorraine and mareschal Brown. The Swedes had not yet openly declared themselves; but it was well known, that though their king was allied in blood and inclination to his Prussian majesty, yet the jealousy which the senate of Sweden entertained of their sovereign, and the hope of recovering their ancient possessions in Pomerania, by means of the present troubles, together with their old attachment to France, newly cemented by intrigues and subsidies, would certainly induce them to join the general confederacy. The duke of Mecklenburgh took the same party, and agreed to join the Swedish army, when it should be assembled, with six thousand men. Besides all these preparations against the king of Prussia, he was, in his quality of elector of Brandenburgh, put under the ban of the empire by the Aulic council; declared deprived of all his rights, privileges, and prerogatives; his fiefs were escheated into the exchequer of the empire; and all the circles accordingly ordered to furnish their respective contingencies for putting this sentence in execution.

In this dangerous situation, thus menaced on all sides, and seemingly on the very brink of inevitable destruction, the Prussian monarch owed his preservation to his own courage and activity. The Russians, knowing that the country they were to pass through in their way to Lithuania would not be able to subsist their prodigious numbers, had taken care to furnish themselves with provisions for their march, depending upon the resources they expected to find in Lithuania after their arrival in that country. These provisions were exhausted by the time they reached the borders of that province, where they found themselves suddenly and unexpectedly destitute of subsistence, either to return back or to proceed forward. The king of Prussia had, with great prudence and foresight, secured plenty to himself, and distress and famine to his enemies, by buying up all the corn and forage of the country which these last were entering. Notwithstanding these precautions, his Prussian majesty, to guard as much as could be against every possible event, sent a great number of gunners and matrasses from Pomerania to Memel, with three regiments of his troops, to reinforce the garrison of that place. He visited all the posts which his troops possessed in Silesia, and gave the necessary orders for their security. He repaired to Neiss, where he settled with mareschal Schwerin the general plan of the operations of the approaching campaign. There it was agreed, that the mareschal’s army in Silesia, which consisted of fifty thousand men, should have in constant view the motions of the royal army, by which its own were to be regulated, that they might both act in concert, as circumstances should require. At the same time, other armies were assembled by the king of Prussia in Lusatia and Voigt-land; twenty thousand men were collected at Zwickaw, on the frontiers of Bohemia, towards Egra, under the command of prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau; and sixty thousand chosen troops began their march towards Great Seidlitz, where their head quarters were settled. In the meanwhile, the Austrian troops began to form on the frontiers of Saxony, where some of their detachments appeared, to watch the motions of the Prussians, who still continued to pursue their operations with great activity and resolution. All possible care was taken by the Prussians at Dresden to secure a retreat in case of a defeat. As only one regiment of Prussians could be spared to remain there in garrison, the burghers were disarmed, their arms deposited in the arsenal, and a detachment was posted at Konigstein, to oblige that fortress to observe a strict neutrality. All correspondence with the enemy was strictly prohibited; and it having been discovered that the countess of Ogilvie, one of the queen’s maids of honour, had disobeyed his majesty’s commands, she was arrested; but on the queen’s intercession afterwards released. The countess of Bruhl, lady of the Saxon prime minister, was also arrested by his Prussian majesty’s order; and on her making light of her confinement, and resolving to see company, she was ordered to quit the court, and retire from Saxony. M. Henwin, the French minister, was told that his presence was unnecessary at Dresden; and on his replying, that his master had commanded him to stay, he was again desired to depart; on which he thought proper to obey. The count de Wackerbath, minister of the cabinet, and grand master of the household to the prince royal of Poland, was arrested, and conducted to Custrin, by the express command of his majesty. The king of Prussia, having thrown two bridges over the Elbe, early in the spring, ordered the several districts of the electorate of Saxony to supply him with a great number of waggons, each drawn by four horses. The circles of Misnia and Leipsic were enjoined to furnish four hundred each, and the other circles in proportion.

SKIRMISHES BETWEEN THE PRUSSIANS AND AUSTRIANS.

While the king of Prussia was taking these measures in Saxony, two skirmishes happened on the frontiers of Bohemia, between his troops and the Austrians. On the twentieth of February, a body of six thousand Austrians surrounded the little town of Hirschfeld, in Upper Lusatia, garrisoned by a battalion of Prussian foot. The first attack was made at four in the morning, on two redoubts without the gates, each of which was defended by two field pieces: and though the Austrians were several times repulsed, they at last made themselves masters of one of the redoubts, and carried off the two pieces of cannon. In their retreat they were pursued by the Prussians, who fell upon their rear, killed some, and took many prisoners: this affair cost the Austrians at least five hundred men. About a fortnight after, the prince of Bevern marched out of Zittau, with a body of near nine thousand men, in order to destroy the remaining strongholds possessed by the Austrians on the frontiers. In this expedition he took the Austrian magazine at Friedland in Bohemia, consisting of nine thousand sacks of meal, and great store of ammunition; and after making himself master of Reichenberg, he returned to Zittau. The van of his troops, consisting of an hundred and fifty hussars of the regiment of Putkammer, met with a body of six hundred Croats, sustained by two hundred Austrian dragoons of Bathiania, at their entering Bohemia; and immediately fell upon them sword in hand, killed about fifty, took thirty horses, and made ten dragoons prisoners. The Prussians, it is said, did not lose a single man on this occasion; and two soldiers only were slightly wounded, the Austrians having made but a slight resistance.

NEUTRALITY OF THE EMPEROR, AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE DUTCH.

Whatever the conduct of the court of Vienna might have been to the allies of Great Britain, still, however, proper regard was shown to the subjects of this crown: for an edict was published at Florence on the thirteenth of February, wherein his imperial majesty, as grand duke of Tuscany, declared his intention of observing the most scrupulous neutrality in the then situation of affairs. All the ports in that duchy were accordingly enjoined to pay a strict regard to this declaration, in all cases relating to the French or English ships in the Mediterranean. The good effects of this injunction soon appeared; for two prizes taken by the English having put into Porto Ferraro, the captains of two French privateers addressed themselves to the governor, alleging, that they were captures of a pirate, and requesting that they might be obliged to put to sea; but the governor prudently replied, that as they came in under English colours he would protect them, and forbade the privateers, at their peril, to commit any violence. They, however, little regarding the governor’s orders, prepared for sailing, and sent their boats to cut out one of the prizes, The captain, firing at their boats, killed one of their men, which, alarming the sentinels, notice was sent to the governor; and he, in consequence, ordered the two privateers immediately to depart.--The conduct of the Dutch was rather cautious than spirited. Whilst his Prussian majesty was employed on the side of Bohemia and Saxony, the French auxiliaries began their march to harass his defenceless territories in the neighbourhood of the Low Countries. A free passage was demanded of the states-general through Namur and Maastricht, for the provisions, ammunition, and artillery belonging to this new army; and though the English ambassador remonstrated against their compliance, and represented it as a breach of the neutrality their high mightinesses declared they would observe, yet, after some hesitation, the demand was granted; and their inability to prevent the passage of the French troops, should it be attempted by force, pleaded in excuse of their conduct.

Scarce had the French army, commanded by the prince de Soubise, set foot in the territories of Juliers and Cologn, when they found themselves in possession of the duchy of Cloves and the country of Marck, where all things were left open to them, the Prussians, who evacuated their posts, taking their route along the river Lippe, in order to join some regiments from Magdeburgh, who were sent to facilitate their retreat. The distressed inhabitants, thus exposed to the calamities of war from an unprovoked enemy, were instantly ordered to furnish contributions, forage, and provisions for the use of their invaders; and what was still more terrifying to them, the partisan Fischer, whose cruelties the last war they still remembered with horror, was again let loose upon them by the inhumanity of the empress-queen. Wesel was immediately occupied by the French; Emmerick and Maseyk soon shared the same fate; and the city of Gueldres was besieged, the Prussians seeming resolved to defend this last place; to which end they opened the sluices, and laid the country under water. Those who retreated, filing off to the north-west of Paderborn, entered the county of Ritberg, the property of count Caunitz Ritberg, great chancellor to the empress-queen. After taking his castle, in which they found thirty pieces of cannon, they raised contributions in the district to the amount of forty thousand crowns. As the Prussians retired, the French took possession of the country they quitted in the name of the empress-queen, whose commissary attended them for that purpose. The general rendezvous of these troops, under prince Soubise, was appointed at Neuss, in the electorate of Cologn, where a large body of French was assembled by the first of April. The Austrians, in their turn, were not idle. Mareschal Brown visited the fortifications of Brinn and Koninsgratz; reviewed the army of the late prince Picolomini, now under the command of general Serbelloni; and put his own army in march for Kostlitz on the Elbe, where he proposed to establish his headquarters.

DECLARATION OF THE CZARINA AGAINST THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

During the recess of the armies, while the rigours of winter forced them to suspend their hostile operations, and the greatest preparations were making to open the campaign with all possible vigour, count Bestucheff, great chancellor of Russia, wrote a circular letter to the primate, senators, and ministers of the republic of Poland, setting forth, “That the empress of Russia was extremely affected with the king of Poland’s distress, which she thought could not but excite the compassion of all other powers, but more especially of his allies: that the fatal consequences which might result from the rash step by the king of Prussia, not only with respect to the tranquillity of Europe in general, but of each power in particular, and more especially of the neighbouring countries, were so evident, that the interest and safety of the several princes rendered it absolutely necessary they should make it a common cause; not only to obtain proper satisfaction for those courts whose dominions had been so unjustly attacked, but likewise to prescribe such bounds to the king of Prussia as might secure them from any future apprehensions from so enterprising and restless a neighbour: that with this view the empress was determined to assist the king of Poland with a considerable body of troops, which were actually upon their march,* under the command of general Apraxin; and that, as there would be an absolute necessity for their marching through part of the territories of Poland, her imperial majesty hoped the republic would not fail to facilitate their march as much as possible.”

* This letter was written in December, and the Russians, as we observed before, began their march in November.

She further recommended to the republic, to take some salutary measures for frustrating the designs of the king of Prussia, and restoring harmony among themselves, as the most conducive measure to these good purposes. In this, however, the Poles were so far from following her advice, that, though sure of being sacrificed in this contest, which side soever prevailed, they divided into parties with no less zeal than if they had as much to hope from the prevalence of one side, as to fear from that of the other. Some of the Palatines were for denying a passage to the Russians, and others were for affording them the utmost assistance in their power. With this cause of contention, others of a more private nature fatally concurred, by means of a misunderstanding between the prince Czartorinski and count Muisnec. Almost every inhabitant of Warsaw was involved in the quarrel; and the violence of these factions was so great that scarce a night passed without bloodshed, many dead bodies, chiefly Saxons, being found in the streets every morning.

In the meantime, Great Britain, unsettled in her ministry and councils at home, unsuccessful in her attempts abroad, judging peace, if it could be obtained on just and honourable terms, more eligible than a continental war, proposed several expedients to the empress-queen for restoring the tranquillity of Germany; but her answer was, “That whenever she perceived that the expedients proposed would indemnify her for the extraordinary expenses she had incurred in her own defence, repair the heavy losses sustained by her ally the king of Poland, and afford a proper security for their future safety, she would be ready to give the same proofs she had always given of her desire to restore peace; but it could not be expected she should listen to expedients of which the king of Prussia was to reap the whole ad vantage, after having begun the war, and wasted the dominions of a prince, who relied for his security upon the faith of treaties, and the appearance of harmony between them.” Upon the receipt of this answer, the court of London made several proposals to the czarina, to interpose as mediatrix between the courts of Vienna and Berlin, but they were rejected with marks of displeasure and resentment. When sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the British ambassador, continued to urge his solicitations very strongly, and even with some hints of menaces, an answer was delivered to him, by order of the empress, purporting, “That her imperial majesty was astonished at his demand, after he had already been made acquainted with the measures she had taken to effect a reconciliation between the courts of Vienna and Berlin. He might easily conceive, as matters were then situated, that the earnestness with which he now urged the same propositions, must necessarily surprise her imperial majesty, as it showed but little regard to her former declaration. The empress, therefore, commanded his excellency to be told, that as her intentions contained in her first answer remained absolutely invariable, no ulterior propositions for a mediation would be listened to; and that as for the menaces made use of by his excellency, and particularly that the king of Prussia himself would soon attack the Russian army, such threats served only to weaken the ambassador’s proposals; to confirm still more, were it possible, the empress in her resolutions; to justify them to the whole world, and to render the king of Prussia more blameable.”

KING OF PRUSSIA ENTERS BOHEMIA.

The season now drawing on in which the troops of the contending powers would be able to take the field, and the alarming progress of the Russians being happily stopped, his Prussian majesty, whose maxim it has always been to keep the seat of war as far as possible from his own dominions, resolved to carry it into Bohemia, and there to attack the Austrians on all sides. To this end he ordered his armies in Saxony, Misnia, Lusatia, and Silesia, to enter Bohemia in four different and op-opposite places, nearly at the same time. The first of these he commanded in person, assisted by mareschal Keith; the second was led by prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau, the third by prince Ferdinand of Brunswick-Bevern, and the fourth by mareschal Schwerin. In consequence of this plan, mareschal Schwerin’s army entered Bohemia on the eighteenth of April, in five columns, at as many different places. The design was so well concerted, that the Austrians had not the least suspicion of their approach until they were past the frontiers, and then they filled the dangerous defile of Guelder-Oesle with pandours, to dispute that passage; but they were no sooner discovered than two battalions of Prussian grenadiers attacked them with their bayonets fixed, and routed them. The prince of Anhault passed the frontiers from Misnia, and penetrated into Bohemia on the twenty-first of April, without any resistance. The prince of Bevern, on the twentieth of the same month, having marched at the head of a body of the army, which was in Lusatia, from the quarters of cantonment near Zittau, possessed himself immediately of the first post on the frontier of Bohemia, at Krouttau and Grasenstein, without the loss of a single man; drove away the enemy the same day from Kratzen, and proceeded to Machendorf, near Reichenberg. The same morning Putkammer’s hussars, who formed part of a corps, commanded by a colonel and major, routed some hundreds of the enemy’s cuirassiers, posted before Kolin, under the conduct of prince Lichenstein, took three officers and upwards of sixty horse prisoners, and so dispersed the rest, that they were scarcely able to rally near Kratzen. Night coming on obliged the troops to remain in the open air till the next morning, when, at break of day, the Prussians marched in two columns by Habendorf, towards the enemy’s army, amounting to twenty-eight thousand men, commanded by count Konigsegg, and posted near Roichenberg. As soon as the troops were formed, they advanced towards the enemy’s cavalry, drawn up in three lines of about thirty squadrons. The two wings were sustained by the infantry, which was posted among felled trees and intrenchments. The Prussians immediately cannonaded the enemy’s cavalry, who received it with resolution, having on their right hand a village, and on their left a wood whore they had intrenched themselves. But the prince of Bevern having caused fifteen squadrons of dragoons of the second line to advance, and the wood on his right to be attacked at the same time by the battalions of grenadiers of Kahlden and of Moellendorf, and by the regiment of the prince of Prussia, his dragoons, who, by clearing the ground and possessing the intrenchment, had their flanks covered, entirely routed the enemy’s cavalry. In the meantime colonel Putkammer and major Schenfield, with their hussars, though flanked by the enemy’s artillery, gave the Austrian horse grenadiers a very warm reception, whilst general Lestewitz, with the left wing of the Prussians, attacked the redoubts that covered Reichenberg. Though there were many defiles and rising grounds to pass, all occupied by the Austrians, yet the regiment of Darmstadt forced the redoubt, and put to flight and pursued the enemy, after some discharge of their artillery and small arms, from one eminence to another, for the distance of a mile, when they left off the pursuit. The action began at half an hour after six, and continued till eleven. About one thousand of the Austrians were killed and wounded; among the former were general Porporati and count Hohenfelds, and among the latter prince Lichtenstein and count Mansfeld. Twenty of their officers, and four hundred soldiers, were taken prisoners, and they also lost three standards. On the side of the Prussians seven subalterns and about an hundred men were killed, and sixteen officers and an hundred and fifty men wounded. After this battle mareschal Schwerin joined the prince of Bevern, made himself master of the greatest part of the circle of Buntzlau, and took a considerable magazine from the Austrians, whom he dislodged. The prince Anhault-Dessau, with his corps, drew near the king of Prussia’s army; then the latter advanced as far as Budin, from whence the Austrians who had an advantageous camp there, retired to Westwarn, half way between Budin and Prague; and his Prussian majesty having passed the Egra, his army, and that of mareschal Schwerin, were so situated, as to be able to act jointly.

These advantages were but a prelude to a much more decisive victory, which the king himself gained a few days after. Preparing to enter Bohemia, at a distance from any of the corps commanded by his generals, he made a movement as if he had intended to march towards Egra. The enemy, deceived by this feint, and imagining he was going to execute some design, distinct from the object of the other armies, detached a body of twenty thousand men to observe his motions; then he made a sudden and masterly movement to the left, by which he cut off all communication between that detachment and the main army of the Austrians, which, having been reinforced by the army of Moravia, by the remains of the corps lately defeated by the prince of Bevern, and by several regiments of the garrison of Prague, amounted to near a hundred thousand men. They were strongly intrenched on the banks of the Moldaw, to the north of Prague, in a camp so fortified by every advantage of nature, and every contrivance of art, as to be deemed almost impregnable. The left wing of the Austrians, thus situated, was guarded by the mountains of Ziscka, and the right extended as far as Herboholi; prince Charles of Lorraine, and mareschal Brown, who commanded them, seemed determined to maintain this advantageous post; but the king of Prussia overlooked all difficulties. Having thrown several bridges over the Moldaw on the fifth of May, he passed that river in the morning of the sixth, with thirty thousand men, leaving the rest of the army under the command of the prince of Anhault-Dessau; and being immediately joined by the troops under mareschal Schwerin and the prince of Bevern, resolved to attack the enemy on the same day. In consequence of this resolution, his army filed off on the left by Potschernitz; and at the same time count Brown wheeled to the right, to avoid being flanked. The Prussians continued their march to Richwitz, traversing several defiles and morasses, which for a little time separated the infantry from the rest of the army. The foot began the attack too precipitately, and were at first repulsed, but they soon recovered themselves. While the king of Prussia took the enemy in flank, mareschal Schwerin advanced to a marshy ground, which suddenly stopping his army, threatened to disconcert the whole plan of operation. In this emergency, he immediately dismounted, and taking the standard of the regiment in his hand, boldly entered the morass, crying out, “Let all brave Prussians follow me.” Inspired by the example of this great commander, now eighty-two years of age, all the troops pressed forward, and though he was unfortunately killed by the first fire, their ardour abated not till they had totally defeated the enemy. Thus fell mareschal Schwerin, loaded with years and glory, an officer whose superior talents in the military art had been displayed in a long course of faithful service. In the meantime, the Prussian infantry, which had been separated in the march, forming themselves afresh, renewed the attack on the enemy’s right, and entirely broke it, while their cavalry, after three charges, obliged that of the Austrians to retire in great confusion, the centre being at the same time totally routed. The left wing of the Prussians then marched immediately towards Michely, and being there joined by the horse, renewed their attack, while the enemy were retreating hastily towards Saszawar. Meanwhile the troops on the right of the Prussian army attacked the remains of the left wing of the Aus-trians, and made themselves masters of three batteries. But the behaviour of the infantry in the last attack was so successful, as to leave little room for this part of the cavalry to act. Prince Henry of Prussia, and the prince of Bevern, signalized themselves on this occasion in storming two batteries; prince Ferdinand of Brunswick took the left wing of the Austrians in flank, while the king with his left, and a body of cavalry, secured the passage of the Moldaw. In short, after a very long and obstinate engagement, and many signal examples of valour on both sides, the Austrians were forced to abandon the field of battle, leaving behind sixty pieces of cannon, all their tents, baggage, military chest, and, in a word, their whole camp. The weight of the battle fell upon the right wing of the Austrians, the remains of which, to the amount of ten or twelve thousand men, fled towards Beneschau, where they afterwards assembled under M. Pretlach, general of horse. The infantry retired towards Prague, and threw themselves into that city with their commanders, prince Charles of Lorraine, and mareschal Brown; but they were much harassed in their retreat by a detachment of the Prussians under mareschal Keith. The Prussians took, on this occasion, ten standards, and upwards of four thousand prisoners, thirty of whom were officers of rank. Their loss amounted to about two thousand five hundred killed, and about three thousand wounded. Among the former were general d’Amstel, the prince of Holstein-Beck, the colonels Goltze and Manstein, and lieutenant-colonel Boke. Among the latter, the generals Wenterfield, De la Mothe, Feuque, Hautcharmoy, Blankensee and Plettenberg. The number of the killed and wounded on the side of the Austrians was much greater. Among these last was mareschal Brown, who received a wound, which, from the chagrin he suffered, rather than from its own nature, proved mortal. The clay after the battle, colonel Meyer was detached with a battalion of Prussian pandours, and four hundred hussars, to destroy a very considerable and valuable magazine of the Austrians at Pilsen, and this service lie performed. He also completed the destruction of several others of less importance; by the loss of which, however, all possibility of subsistence was cut off from any succours the Austrians might have expected from the empire.

PRAGUE INVESTED.

The Prussians, following their blow, immediately invested Prague on both sides of the river, the king commanding on one side, and mareschal Keith on the other. In four days the whole city was surrounded with lines and intrenchments, by which all communication from without was entirely cut off: prince Charles of Lorraine and mareschal Brown, the two princes of Saxony, the prince of Modena, the duke d’Aremberg, count Lascy, and several other persons of great distinction, were shut up within the walls, together with above twenty thousand of the Austrian army, who had taken refuge in Prague after their defeat. Every thing continued quiet on both sides, scarce a cannon-shot being fired by either for some time after this blockade was formed; and in the meanwhile the Prussians made themselves masters of Cziscaberg, an eminence which commands the town, where the Austrians had a strong redoubt, continuing likewise to strengthen their works. Already they had made a sally, and taken some other ineffectual steps to recover this post; but a more decisive stroke was necessary. Accordingly, a design was formed of attacking the Prussian army in the night with a body of twelve thousand men, to be sustained by all the grenadiers, volunteers, pandours, and Hungarian infantry. In case an impression could be made on the king’s lines, it was intended to open a way, sword in hand, through the camp of the besiegers, and to ease Prague of the multitude of forces locked up useless within the walls, serving only to consume the provisions of the garrison, and hasten the surrender of the place. Happily a deserter gave the prince of Prussia intelligence of the enemy’s design about eleven o’clock at night. Proper measures were immediately taken for their reception, and, in less than a quarter of an hour, the whole army was under arms. This design was conducted with so much silence, that though the Prussians were warned of it, they could, discover nothing before the enemy had charged their advanced posts. Their attack was begun on the side of the little town, against mareschal Keith’s camp, and the left wing of the Prussian army encamped on the Moldaw. From hence it is probable the Austrians proposed not only to destroy the batteries that were raising, but to attack the bridges of communication which the Prussians threw over the Moldaw, at about a quarter of a German mile above and below Prague, at Branig and Podbaba. The greatest alarm began about two o’clock, when the enemy hoped to have come silently and unexpectedly upon the miners, but they had left work about a quarter of an hour before. At the report of the first piece which they fired, the piquet of the third battalion of Prussian guards, to the number of an hundred men, who marched out of the camp to sustain the body which covered the works, was thrown into some confusion, from the darkness of the night, which prevented their distinguishing the Austrian troops from their own. Lieutenant Jork, detached with two platoons to reconnoitre the enemy, attempting to discover their disposition by kindling a fire, captain Rodig, by the light of this fire, perceived the enemy’s situation, immediately formed the design of falling upon them in flank, and gave orders to his men to fire in platoons, which they performed, mutually repeating the signal given by their commander. The enemy fled with the greater precipitation, as they were ignorant of the weakness of the piquet, and as the shouting of the Prussian soldiers made them mistake it for a numerous body. Many of them deserted, many took shelter in Prague, and many more were driven into the river and drowned. At the same time this attack began, a regiment of horse-grenadiers fell upon a redoubt which the Prussians had thrown up, supported by the Hungarian infantry: they returned three times to the assault, and were as often beat back by the Prussians, whom they found it impossible to dislodge; though prince Ferdinand of Brunswick’s battalion, which guarded this post, suffered extremely. During this attack the enemy kept an incessant fire with their musquetry upon the whole front of the Prussians, from the convent of St. Margaret to the river. At three in the morning the Prussians quitted their camp to engage the enemy. The battalion of Pannewitz attacked a building called the Red-house, situated at the bottom of a declivity, before Wellastowitz. The pandours who had taken possession of this house, fired upon them incessantly from all the doors and windows until they were dislodged; and the Prussian battalions were obliged to sustain the fire both of cannon and musquetry for above two hours, when the enemy retired to the city, except the pandours, who again took possession of the Red-house, which the Prussians were forced to abandon, because the artillery of Prague kept a continual fire upon it from the moment it was known to be in their hands. The Austrians left behind them many dead and wounded, besides deserters; and the Prussians, notwithstanding the loss of several officers and private men, made some prisoners. Prince Ferdinand, the king of Prussia’s youngest brother, had a horse killed under Mm, and was slightly wounded in the face.

The Prussian works being completed, and heavy artillery arrived, four batteries, erected on the banks of the Moldaw, began to play with great fury. Near three hundred bombs, besides an infinity of ignited balls, were thrown into the city in the space of twenty-four hours. The scene was lamentable, houses, men, and horses wrapped in flames and reduced to ashes. The confusion within, together with the want of proper artillery and ammunition, obliged the Austrians to cease firing, and furnished his Prussian majesty with all the opportunity he could wish of pouring destruction upon this unfortunate city. The horrors of war seemed to have extinguished the principles of humanity. No regard was paid to the distress of the inhabitants; the Austrians obstinately maintained possession, and the Prussians practised every stratagem, every barbarous refinement, that constitutes the military art, to oblige them to capitulate. After the conflagration had lasted three days, and consumed a prodigious number of buildings, the principal inhabitants, burghers, and clergy, perceiving their city on the point of being reduced to a heap of rubbish, besought the commander, in a body, to hearken to terms; but he was deaf to the voice of pity, and, instead of being moved with their supplications, drove out twelve thousand persons, the least useful in defending the city. These, by order of his Prussian majesty, were again forced back, which soon produced so great a scarcity of provisions within the walls, that the Austrians were reduced to the necessity of eating horseflesh, forty horses being daily distributed to the troops, and the same food sold at four-pence a pound to the inhabitants. However, as there still remained great abundance of corn, they were far from being brought to the last extremity. Two vigorous and well-conducted sallies were made, but they proved unsuccessful. The only advantage resulting from them, was the perpetual alarm in which they kept the Prussian camp, and the vigilance required to guard against the attacks of a numerous, resolute, and desperate garrison.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

COUNT DAUN COMMANDS THE AUSTRIANS.

Whatever difficulties might have attended the conquest of Prague, certain it is, that the affairs of the empress-queen were in the most critical and desperate situation. Her grand army dispersed in parties, and dying for subsistence in small corps; their princes and commanders cooped up in Prague; that capital in imminent danger of being taken, the flourishing kingdom of Bohemia ready to fall into the hands of the conqueror; a considerable army on the point of surrendering prisoners of war; all the queen’s hereditary dominions open and exposed, the whole fertile tract of country from Egra to the Moldaw in actual possession of the Prussians, the distance to the archduchy of Austria not very considerable, and secured only by the Danube; Vienna under the utmost apprehensions of a siege, and the imperial family ready to take refuge in Hungary; the Prussian forces deemed invincible, and the sanguine friends of that monarch already sharing with him, in imagination, the spoils of the ancient and illustrious house of Austria. Such was the aspect of affairs, and such the difficulties to be combated, when Leopold, count Daun, was appointed to the command of the Austrian forces, to stem the torrent of disgrace, and turn the fortune of the war. This general, tutored by long experience under the best officers of Europe, and the particular favourite of the great Kevenhuller, was now, for the first time, raised to act in chief, at the head of an army, on which depended the fate of Austria and the empire. Born of a noble family, he relied solely upon his own merit, without soliciting court favour; he aspired after the highest preferment, and succeeded by mere dint of superior worth. His progress from the station of a subaltern was slow and silent; his promotion to the chief command was received with universal esteem and applause. Cautious, steady, penetrating, and sagacious, he was opposed as another Fabius to the modern Hannibal, to check the fire and vigour of that monarch by prudent foresight and wary circumspection. Arriving at Romischbrod, within a few miles of Prague, the day after the late defeat, he halted to collect the fugitive corps and broken remains of the Austrian army, and soon drew together a force so considerable as to attract the notice of his Prussian majesty, who detached the prince of Bevern, with twenty battalions, and thirty squadrons, to attack him before numbers should render him formidable. Daun was too prudent to give battle, with dispirited troops, to an army flushed with victory. He retired on the first advice that the Prussians were advancing, and took post at Kolin, where he intrenched himself strongly, opened the way for the daily supply of recruits sent to his army, and inspired the garrison of Prague with fresh courage, in expectation of being soon relieved. Here he kept close within his camp, divided the Prussian force, by obliging the king to employ near half his army in watching his designs, weakened his efforts against Prague, harassed the enemy by cutting off their convoys, and restored by degrees the languishing and almost desponding spirits of his troops. Perfectly acquainted with the ardour and discipline of the Prussian forces, with the enterprising and impetuous disposition of that monarch, and sensible that his situation would prove irksome and embarrassing to the enemy, he improved it to the best advantage, seemed to foresee all the consequences, and directed every measure to produce them. Thus he retarded the enemy’s operations, and assiduously avoided precipitating an action until the Prussian vigour should be exhausted, their strength impaired by losses and desertion, the first fire and ardour of their genius extinguished by continual fatigue and incessant alarms, and until the impression made on his own men, by the late defeat, should in some degree be effaced. The event justified Daun’s conduct. His army grew every day more numerous, while his Prussian majesty began to express the utmost impatience at the length of the siege. When that monarch first invested Prague, it was on the presumption that the numerous forces within the walls would, by consuming all the provisions, oblige it to surrender in a few days; but perceiving that the Austrians had still a considerable quantity of corn, that count Daun’s army was daily increasing, and would soon be powerful enough not only to cope with the detachment under the prince of Bevern, but in a condition to raise the siege, he determined to give the count battle with one part of his army, while he kept Prague blocked up with the other. The Austrians, amounting now to sixty thousand men, were deeply intrenched, and defended by a numerous train of artillery, placed on redoubts and batteries erected on the most advantageous posts. Every accessible part of the camp was fortified with lines and heavy pieces of battering cannon, and the foot of the hills secured by difficult defiles. Yet, strong as this situation might appear, formidable as the Austrian forces certainly were, his Prussian majesty undertook to dislodge them with a body of horse and foot not exceeding thirty-two thousand men.

KING OF PRUSSIA DEFEATED AT KOLIN.

On the thirteenth day of June, the king of Prussia quitted the camp before Prague, escorted by a few battalions and squadrons, with which he joined the prince of Bevern at Milkowitz, Mareschal Keith, it is said, strenuously opposed this measure, and advised either raising the siege entirely, and attacking the Austrians with the united forces of Prussia, or postponing the attack on the camp at Kolin, until his majesty should either gain possession of the city, or some attempts should be made to oblige him to quit his posts. From either measure an advantage would have resulted. With his whole army he might probably have defeated count Daun, or at least have obliged him to retreat. Had he continued within his lines at Prague, the Austrian general could not have constrained him to raise the siege without losing his own advantageous situation, and giving battle upon terms nearly equal. But the king, elated with success, impetuous in his valour, and confident of the superiority of his own troops in point of discipline, thought all resistance must sink under the weight of his victorious arm, and yield to that courage which had already surmounted such difficulties, disregarded the mareschal’s sage counsel, and inarched up to the attack undaunted, and even assured of success. By the eighteenth the two armies were in sight, and his majesty found that count Daun had not only fortified his camp with all the heavy cannon of Olmutz, but was strongly reinforced with troops from Moravia and Austria, which had joined him after the king’s departure from Prague. He found the Austrians drawn up in three lines upon the high grounds between Gen-litz, and St. John the Baptist. Difficult as it was to approach their situation, the Prussian infantry marched up with firmness, while shot was poured like hail from the enemy’s batteries, and began the attack about three in the afternoon. They drove the Austrians with irresistible intrepidity from two eminences secured with heavy cannon, and two villages defended by several battalions; but, in attacking the third eminence, were flanked by the Austrian cavalry, by grape-shot poured from the batteries; and, after a violent conflict, and prodigious loss of men, thrown into disorder. Animated with the king’s presence, they rallied, and returned with double ardour to the charge, but were a second time repulsed. Seven times successively did prince Ferdinand renew the attack, performing every duty of a great general and valiant soldier, though always with the same fortune. The inferiority of the Prussian infantry, the disadvantages of ground, where the cavalry could not act, the advantageous situation of the enemy, their numerous artillery, their intrenchments, numbers, and obstinacy, joined to the skill and conduct of their general, all conspired to defeat the hopes of the Prussians, to surmount their valour, and oblige them to retreat. The king then made a last and furious effort, at the head of the cavalry, on the enemy’s left wing, but with as little success as all the former attacks. Every effort was made, and every attempt was productive only of greater losses and misfortunes. At last, after exposing his person in the most perilous situations, his Prussian majesty drew off his forces from the field of battle, retiring in such good order, in sight of the enemy, as prevented a pursuit, or the loss of his artillery and baggage. Almost all the officers on either side distinguished themselves; and count Daun, whose conduct emulated that of his Prussian majesty, received two slight wounds, and had a horse killed under him. The losses of both armies were very considerable; on that of the Prussians, the killed and wounded amounted to eight thousand; less pernicious, however, to his majesty’s cause than the frequent desertion, and other innumerable ill consequences that ensued.

When the Prussian army arrived at Nimburgh, his majesty, leaving the command with the prince of Be-vern, took horse, and, escorted by twelve or fourteen hussars, set out for Prague, where he arrived next morning without halting, after having been the whole preceding day on horseback. Immediately he gave orders for sending off all his artillery, ammunition, and baggage; these were executed with so much expedition, that the tents were struck, and the army on their march, before the garrison were informed of the king’s defeat. Thus terminated the battle of Kolin and siege of Prague, in which the acknowledged errors of his Prussian majesty were, in some measure, atoned by the candour with which he owned his mistake, both in a letter to the earl mareschal, [419] _[See note 3 I, at the end of this Vol.]_ and in conversation with several of his general officers. Most people, indeed, imagined the king highly blameable for checking the ardour of his troops to stop and lay siege to Prague. They thought he should have pursued his conquests, over-run Austria, Moravia, and all the hereditary dominions, from which alone the empress-queen could draw speedy succours. A body of twenty or thirty thousand men would have blocked up Prague, while the remainder of the Prussian forces might have obliged the imperial family to retire from Vienna, and effectually prevented count Daun from assembling another army. It was universally expected he would have bent his march straight to this capital; but he dreaded leaving the numerous army in Prague behind, and it was of great importance to complete the conquest of Bohemia. The prince of Prussia marched all night with his corps to Nimburgh, where he joined the prince of Bevern, and mareschal Keith retreated next day. Count Brown having died before, of the wounds he received on the sixth of May, prince Charles of Lorraine sallied out with a large body of Austrians, and attacked the rear of the Prussians; but did no further mischief than killing about two hundred of their men. The siege of Prague being thus raised, the imprisoned Austrians received their deliverer, count Daun, with inexpressible joy, and their united forces became greatly superior to those of the king of Prussia, who was in a short time obliged to evacuate Bohemia, and take refuge in Saxony. The Austrians harassed him as much as possible in his retreat; but their armies, though superior in numbers, were not in a condition, from their late sufferings, to make any decisive attempt upon him, as the frontiers of Saxony abound with situations easily defended.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENCE OF HANOVER.

Having thus described the progress of the Prussians in Bohemia, we must cast our eyes on the transactions which distinguished the campaign in Westphalia. To guard against the storm which menaced Hanover in

## particular, orders were transmitted thither to recruit the troops that

had been sent back from England, to augment each company, to remount the cavalry with the utmost expedition; not to suffer any horses to be conveyed out of the electorate; to furnish the magazines in that country with all things necessary for fifty thousand men. Of these, twenty-six thousand were to be Hanoverians, and, in consequence of engagements entered into for that purpose, twelve thousand Hessians, six thousand Brunswickers, two thousand Saxe-Gothans, and a thousand Lunenburghers, to be joined by a considerable body of Prussians, the whole commanded by his royal highness the duke of Cumberland. The king of England having published a manifesto, dated at Hanover, specifying his motives for taking the field in Westphalia, the troops of the confederated states that were to compose the allied army, under the name of an army of observation, began to assemble with all possible diligence near Bielefeldt. Thither the generals, appointed to command the several divisions, repaired to settle the plan of operations with their commander, the duke of Cumberland, who having left London on the ninth of April, arrived on the sixteenth at Hanover, and from thence repaired to the army, which, having been joined by three Prussian regiments that retired from Wesel, consisted of thirty-seven battalions and thirty-four squadrons. Of these, six battalions and six squadrons were posted at Bielefeldt, under the command of lieutenant-general baron de Sporcken; six battalions, under lieutenant-general de Block, at Hervorden; six battalions and four squadrons, under major-general Ledebour, between Hervorden and Minden; seven battalions and ten squadrons, under lieutenant-general d’Oberg, in the neighbourhood of Hamelen; and five battalions and four squadrons, under major-general de Hauss, near Nienburgh. The head-quarters of his royal highness were at Bielefeldt.

SKIRMISHES WITH THE FRENCH.

In the meantime, the French on the Lower Rhine continued filing off incessantly. The siege of Gueldres was converted into a blockade, occasioned by the difficulties the enemy found in raising batteries; and a party of Hanoverians having passed the Weser, as well to ravage the country of Paderborn as to reconnoitre the French, carried off several waggons loaded with wheat and oats, destined for the territories of the elector of Cologn. On the other hand, colonel Fischer having had an engagement with a small body of Hanoverians, in the county of Tecklenburgh, routed them, and made some prisoners. After several other petty skirmishes between the French and the Hanoverians, the duke of Cumberland altered the position of his camp, by placing it between Bielefeldt and Hervorden, in hopes of frustrating the design of the enemy; who, declining to attack him on the side of Bracwede, after having reconnoitred his situation several days, made a motion on their left, as if they meant to get between him and the Weser. This step was no sooner taken, than, on the thirteenth of June in the afternoon, having received advice that the enemy had caused a large body of troops, followed by a second, to march on his right to Burghotte, he ordered his army to march that evening towards Hervorden; and, at the same time, major-general Hardenberg marched with four battalions of grenadiers, and a regiment of horse, to reinforce that post. Count Schulenberg covered the left of the march with a battalion of grenadiers, a regiment of horse, and the light troops of Buckenburgh. The whole army marched in two columns. The right, composed of horse, and followed by two battalions, to cover their passage through the enclosures and defiles, passed by the right of Bielefeldt; and the left, consisting of infantry, marched by the left of the same town. The vanguard of the French army attacked the rear guard of the allies, commanded by major-general Einsiedel, very briskly, and at first put them into some confusion, but they immediately recovered themselves. This was in the beginning of the night. At break of day the enemy’s reinforcements returned to the charge, but were again repulsed, nor could they once break through lieutenant-colonel Al-feldt’s Hanoverian guards, which closed the army’s march with a detachment of regular troops and a new raised corps of hunters.

DUKE OF CUMBERLAND PASSES THE WESER.

The allies encamped at Cofeldt on the fourteenth, and remained there all the next day, when the enemy’s detachments advanced to the gates of Hervorden, and made a feint as if they would attack the town, after having summoned it to surrender; but they retired without attempting any thing further; and, in the meantime, the troops that were posted at Hervorden, and formed the rear guard, passed the Weser on the side of Remen, without any molestation, and encamped at Holtzuysen. A body of troops which had been left at Bielefeldt, to cover the duke’s retreat, after some skirmishes with the French, rejoined the army in the neighbourhood of Herfort; and a few days after, his royal highness drew near his bridges on the Weser, and sent over his artillery, baggage, and ammunition. At the same time some detachments passed the river on the right, between Minden and Oldendorp, and marked out a new camp advantageously situated, having the Weser in front, and the right and left covered with eminences and marshes. There the army under his royal highness re-assembled, and the French fixed their head-quarters at Bielefeldt, which the Hanoverians had quitted, leaving in it only a part of a magazine, which had been set on fire. By this time the French were in such want of forage, that M. d’Etrées himself, the princes of the blood, and all the officers without exception, were obliged to send back part of their horses. However, on the tenth of June, their whole army, consisting of seventy battalions and forty squadrons, with fifty-two pieces of cannon, besides a body of cavalry left at Ruremonde for the conveniency of forage, was put in motion. In spite of almost impassable forests, famine, and every other obstacle that could be thrown in their way by a vigilant and experienced general, they at length surmounted all difficulties, and advanced into a country abounding with plenty, and unused to the ravages of war. It was imagined that the passage of the Weser, which defends Hanover from foreign attacks, would have been vigorously opposed by the army of the allies; but whether, in the present situation of affairs, it was thought advisable to act only upon the defensive, and not to begin the attack in a country that was not concerned as a principal in the war, or the duke of Cumberland found himself too weak to make head against the enemy, is a question we shall not pretend to determine. However that may have been, the whole French army passed the Weser on the tenth and eleventh of July, without the loss of a man. The manner of effecting this passage is thus related: mareschal d’Etrées, being informed that his magazines of provisions were well furnished, his ovens established, and the artillery and pontoons arrived at the destined places, ordered lieutenant-general Broglio, with ten battalions, twelve squadrons, and ten pieces of cannon, to march to Engheren; lieutenant-general M. de Chevert, with sixteen battalions, three brigades of carabineers, the royal hunters, and six hundred hussars, to march to Hervorden, and lieutenant-general marquis d’Armentieres, with twelve battalions, and ten squadrons, to march to Ulrickhausen. All these troops being arrived in their camp on the fourth of July, halted the fifth. On the sixth, twenty-two battalions, and thirty-two squadrons, under the command of the duke of Orleans, who was now arrived at the army, inarched to Ulrickhausen, from whence M. d’Armentieres had set out early in the morning, with the troops under his command, and by hasty marches got on the seventh, by eleven at night, to Blankenhoven, where he found the boats which had gone from Ahrensberg. The bridges were built, the cannon planted, and the intrenchments at the head of the bridges completed in the night between the seventh and eighth. The mareschal having sent away part of his baggage from Bielefeldt on the sixth, went in person on the seventh at eleven o’clock to Horn, and on the eighth to Braket. On advice that M. d’Armentieres had thrown his bridges across without opposition, and was at work on his intrenchments, he went on the ninth to Blankenhoven, to see the bridges and intrenchments; and afterwards advanced to examine the first position he intended for this army, and came down to the right side of the Weser to the abbey of Corvey, where he forded the river, with the princes of the blood, and their attendants. On the tenth in the morning he got on horseback by four o’clock, to see the duke of Orlean’s division file off, which arrived at Corvey at ten o’clock; as also that of M. d’Armentieres, which arrived at eleven, and that of M. Souvre, which arrived at noon. The mareschal having examined the course of the river, caused the bridges of pontoons to be laid within gunshot of the abbey, where the viscount de Turenne passed that river in the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-three, and where the divisions under Broglio and Chevert now passed, it on the twelfth and thirteenth. These two generals being informed of what was to be done upon the Upper Weser, attacked Minden, and carried it, whilst a detachment of the French entered the country of East Friesland, under the command of the marquis d’Auvel; and, after taking possession of Lier, inarched on the right side of the Ems to Embden, the only sea-port the king of Prussia had, which at first seemed determined to make a defence; but the inhabitants were not agreed upon the methods to be taken for that purpose. They therefore met to deliberate, but in the meantime, their gates being shut, M. d’Auvel caused some cannon to be brought to beat them down; and the garrison, composed of four hundred Prussians, not being strong enough to defend the town, the soldiers mutinied against their officers, whereupon a capitulation was agreed on, and the gates were opened to the French commander, who made his troops enter with a great deal of order, assured the magistrates that care should be taken to make them observe a good discipline, and published two ordinances, one for the security of the religion and commerce of the city, and the other for prohibiting the exportation of corn and forage out of that principality. The inhabitants were; however, obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the French king.

BATTLE OF HASTENBECK.

On Sunday, the twenty-fourth of July, the French, after having laid part of the electorate of Hanover under contribution, marched in three columns, with their artillery, towards the village of Latford, when major-general Furstenburgh, who commanded the out-ports in the village, sent an officer to inform the duke of Cumberland of their approach. His royal highness immediately reinforced those posts with a body of troops, under the command of lieutenant-general Sporcken; but finding it impossible to support the village, as it was commanded by the heights opposite to it, which were possessed by the enemy, and being sensible that it would be always in his power to retake it, from its situation in a bottom between two hills, he withdrew his post from Latford. The French then made two attacks, one at the point of the wood, and the other higher up in the same wood, opposite to the grenadiers commanded by major-general Hardenberg, but they failed in both; and though the fire of their artillery was very hot, they were obliged to retire. The French army encamping on the heights opposite to the duke of Cumberland’s posts, the intelligence received, that M. d’Etrées had assembled all his troops, and was furnished with a very considerable train of artillery, left his royal highness no room to doubt of his intending to attack him. He, therefore, resolved to change his camp for a more advantageous situation, by drawing up his army on the eminence between the Weser and the woods, leaving the Hamelen river on his right, the village of Hasten-beck in his front, and his left close to the wood, at the point of which his royal highness had a battery of twelve pounders and haubitzers. There was a hollow way from the left of the village to the battery, and a morass on the other side of Hastenbeck to his right. Major-general Schulenberg, with the hunters, and two battalions of grenadiers, was posted in the corner of the wood upon the left of the battery; his royal highness ordered the village of Hastenbeck to be cleared to his front, to prevent it being in the power of the enemy to keep possession of it, and the ways by which the allies had a communication with that village during their encampment to be rendered impassable. In the evening-he withdrew all his outposts, and in this position the army lay upon their arms all night. On the twenty-fifth, in the morning, the French army marched forwards in columns, and began to cannonade the allies very severely, marching and counter-marching continually, and seeming to intend three attacks, on the right, the left, and the centre. In the evening their artillery appeared much superior to that of the allies. The army was again ordered to lie all night on their arms; his royal highness caused a battery at the end of the wood to be repaired; count Schulenberg to be reinforced with a battalion of grenadiers, and two field pieces of cannon; and that battery to be also supported by four more battalions of grenadiers, under the command of major-general Hardenberg. He likewise caused a battery to be erected of twelve six-pounders, behind the village of Hastenbeck, and took all the precautions he could think of to give the enemy a warm reception. As soon as it was day light, he mounted on horseback to reconnoitre the position of the enemy, whom he found in the same situation as the day before. At a little after five a very smart cannonading began against the battery behind the village, which was supported by the Hessian infantry and cavalry, who stood a most severe fire with surprising steadiness and resolution. Between seven and eight the firing of small arms began on the left of the allies, when his royal highness ordered major-general Behr, with three battalions of Brunswick, to sustain the grenadiers in the wood, if their assistance should be wanted; The cannonading continued above six hours, during which the troops, that were exposed to it, never once abated of their firmness. The fire of the small arms on the left increasing, and the French seeming to gain ground, his royal highness detached the colonels Darkenhausen and Bredenbach, with three Hanoverian battalions and six squadrons, round the wood by Afferde, who, towards the close of the day, drove several squadrons of the enemy back to their army, without giving them any opportunity to charge. At length the grenadiers in the wood, apprehensive of being surrounded, from the great numbers of the enemy that appeared there, and were marching round on that side, though they repulsed every thing that appeared in their front, thought it advisable to retire nearer the left of the army, a motion which gave the enemy an opportunity of possessing themselves of that battery without opposition. Here the hereditary prince of Brunswick distinguished himself at the head of a battalion of Wolfenbuttle guards, and another of Hanoverians, who attacked and repulsed, with their bayonets, a superior force of the enemy, and retook the battery. But the French being in possession of an eminence which commanded and flanked both the lines of the infantry and the battery of the allies, and where they were able to support their attack under the cover of a hill, his royal highness, considering the superior numbers of the enemy, near double to his, and the impossibility of dislodging them from their post, without exposing his own troops too much, ordered a retreat; in consequence of which his army retired, first to Hamelen, where he left a garrison, then to Nienburgh, and afterwards to Hoya; in the neighbourhood of which town, after sending away all the magazines, sick, and wounded, he encamped, in order to cover Bremen and Verden, and to preserve a communication with Stade, to which place the archives, and most valuable effects of Hanover had been removed. In this engagement, colonel Bredenbach attacked four brigades very strongly posted, with a battery of fourteen pieces of cannon, repulsed, and drove them down a precipice, and took all their artillery and ammunition; but preferring the care of his wounded to the glory of carrying away the cannon, he brought off only six, nailing up and destroying the rest. The loss of the allies in all the skirmishes, which lasted three days, was three hundred and twenty-seven men killed, nine hundred and seven wounded, and two hundred and twenty missing, or taken prisoners; whilst that of the French, according to their own accounts, amounted to fifteen hundred men.

The French, being left masters of the field, soon reduced Hamelen, which was far from being well fortified, obliged the garrison to capitulate, and took out of the town sixty brass cannon, several mortars, forty ovens, part of the equipage of the duke’s army, and large quantities of provisions and ammunition, which they found in it, together with a great many sick and wounded, who, not being included in the capitulation, were made prisoners of war. Whether the court of France had any reason to find fault with the conduct of the mareschal d’Etrées, or whether its monarch was blindly guided by the counsels of his favourite the marquese de Pompadour, who, desirous to testify her gratitude to the man who had been one of the chief instruments of her high promotion, was glad of an opportunity to retrieve his shattered fortunes, and, at the same time, to add to her own already immense treasures, we shall not pretend to determine; though the event seems plainly to speak the last. Even at the time, no comparison was made between the military skill of the mareschal d’Etrées, and that of the duke de Richelieu; but, however that may have been, this last, who, if he had not shone in the character of a soldier, excelled all, or at least most of his contemporaries in the more refined arts of a courtier, was, just before the battle we have been speaking of, appointed to supersede the former in the command of the French army in Lower Saxony, where he arrived on the sixth of August, with the title of mareschal of France; and M. d’Etrees immediately resigned the command.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

THE FRENCH TAKE POSSESSION OF HANOVER AND HESSE-CASSEL.

Immediately after the battle of Hastenbeck, the French sent a detachment of four thousand men to lay under contribution the countries of Hanover and Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, as well as the duchies of Bremen and Verden; and two days after the arrival of this new commander, the duke de Chevreuse was detached with two thousand men to take possession of Hanover itself, with the title of governor of that city. He accordingly marched thither; and upon his arrival the Hanoverian garrison was disarmed, and left at liberty to retire where they pleased. About the same time M. de Con-tades, with a detachment from the French army, was sent to make himself master of the territories of Hesse-Cassel, where he found no opposition. He was met at Warberg by that prince’s master of the horse, who declared, that they were ready to furnish the French army with all the succours the country could afford; and accordingly the magistrates of Cassel presented him with the keys as soon as he entered their city. Gottingen was ordered by M. d’Armentieres to prepare for him within a limited time, upon pain of military execution, four thousand pounds of white bread, two thousand bushels of oats, a greater quantity than could be found in the whole country, an hundred loads of hay, and other provisions.

THE FRENCH REDUCE VERDEN and BREMEN.

The duke of Cumberland remained encamped in the neighbourhood of Hoya till the twenty-fourth of August, when, upon advice that the enemy had laid two bridges over the Aller in the night, and had passed that river with a large body of troops, he ordered his army to march, to secure the important post and passage of Rothenbourg, lest they should attempt to march round on his left. He encamped that night at Hausen, having detached lieutenant-general Oberg, with eight battalions and six squadrons, to Ottersberg, to which place he marched next day, and encamped behind the Wummer, in a very strong situation, between Ottersberg and Eothenbourg. The French took possession of Verden on the twenty-sixth of August, and one of their detachments went on the twenty-ninth to Bremen, where the gates were immediately opened to them. The duke of Cumberland, now closely pressed on all sides, and in danger of having his communication with the Stade cut off, which the enemy was endeavouring to effect, by seizing upon all the posts round him, found it necessary to decamp again; to abandon Eothenbourg, of which the French immediately took possession; to retreat to Selsingen, where his head-quarters were, on the first of September; and from thence, on the third of the same month, to retire under the cannon of Stade. Here it was imagined that his army would have been able to maintain their ground between the Aller and the Elbe, till the severity of the season should put an end to the campaign. Accordingly, his royal highness, upon his taking this position, sent a detachment of his forces to Buck-Schantz, with some artillery, and orders to defend that place to the utmost; but as it could not possibly have held out many days, and as the French, who now hemmed him in on all sides, by making themselves masters of a little fort at the mouth of the river Swinga, would have cut off his communication with the Elbe, so that four English men of war, then in that river, could have been of no service to him, he was forced to accept of a mediation offered by the king of Denmark, by his minister the count de Lynar, and to sign the famous convention of Closter-Seven, [422] _[See note 3K, at the end of this Vol.]_ by which thirty-eight thousand Hanoverians laid down their arms, and were dispersed into different quarters of cantonment.

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