CHAPTER XIV

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_The French enter the Prussian Dominions, where they commit great Disorders..... Reflections on the Misconduct of the Allied Army..... Russian Fleet blocks up the Prussian Ports in the Baltic..... Russians take Memel..... Declaration of the King of Prussia on that occasion..... Army of the Empire raised with Difficulty..... The Austrians take Gabel..... and destroy Zittau..... The Prince of Prussia leaves the Army..... Communication between England and Ostend broke off..... Gueldres capitulates..... Skirmishes between the Prussians and Austrians..... and between the Prussians and Russians..... Mareschal Lehwald attacks the Russians in their Intrenchments near Norkitten..... Hasty Retreat of the Russians out of Prussia..... French and Imperialists take Gotha..... Action between the Prussians and Austrians near Goerlitz..... The French oblige Prince Ferdinand to retire..... Berlin laid under Contribution by the Austrians; and Leipsic subjected to military Execution by the Prussians..... Battle of Rosbach..... The Austrians take Schweidnitz; and defeat the Prince of Bevern near Breslau..... Mareschal Keith lays Bohemia under Contribution..... King of Prussia defeats the Austrians at Lissa; retakes Breslau and Schweidnitz, and becomes Master of all Silesia..... Hostilities of the Swedes in Pomerania..... Mareschal Lehwald forces the Swedes to retire...... Memorial presented to the Dutch by Colonel Yorke, relative to Ostend and Nieuport..... King of Prussia’s Letter to the King of Great Britain..... His Britannic Majesty’s Declaration..... Disputes concerning the Convention of Closter-Seven..... Progress of the Hanoverian Army..... Death of the Queen of Poland..... Transactions at Sea..... Fate of Captain Death..... Session opened..... Supplies granted..... Funds for raising the Supplies..... Messages from the King to the House of Commons..... Second Treaty with the King of Prussia..... Bill for fortifying Milford Haven..... Regulations with respect to Corn..... Bills for the Encouragement of Seamen, and for explaining the Militia Act..... Act for repairing London Bridge..... Act for ascertaining the Qualification of voting..... Bill for more effectually manning the Navy..... Amendments in the Habeas-Corpus Act..... Scheme in Favour of the Foundling Hospital..... Proceedings relative to the African Company..... Session closed..... Vigorous Preparations for War..... Death of the Princess Caroline..... Sea Engagement off Cape Francois..... Remarkable success of Captain Forest..... French evacuate Embden..... Success of Admiral Osborne..... French Fleet driven ashore in Basque Road..... Admiral Broderick’s Ship burnt at Sea..... Descent at Cancalle-Bay..... Expedition against Cherbourg...... Descent at St. Maloes..... English defeated at St. Cas..... Captures from the Enemy..... Clamours of the Dutch Merchants on Account of the Capture of their Ships..... Their famous Petition to the States-general_

THE FRENCH ENTER THE PRUSSIAN DOMINIONS.

The Hanoverians being now quite subdued, and the whole force of the French let loose against the king of Prussia by this treaty, mareschal Richelieu immediately ordered lieutenant-general Berchini to march with all possible expedition, with the troops under his command, to join the prince de Soubise: the gens-d’-arms, and other troops that were in the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel, received the same order; and sixty battalions of foot, and the greatest part of the horse belonging to the French army, were directed to attack the Prussian territories. Mareschal Richelieu himself arrived at Brunswick on the fifteenth of September; and having, in a few days after, assembled an hundred and ten battalions, and an hundred and fifty squadrons, with an hundred pieces of cannon, near Wolfenbuttel, he entered the king of Prussia’s dominions with his army on the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth of the same month, in three columns, which penetrated into Halberstadt and Brandenburgh, plundering the towns, exacting contributions, and committing many enormities, at which their general is said to have connived. In the meantime the duke of Cumberland returned to England, where he arrived on the eleventh of October, and shortly after resigned all his military commands.

Had the allied army, after the battle of Hastenbeck, marched directly to the Leine, as it might easily have done, and then taken post on the other side of Wolfenbuttel, Halberstadt, and Magdeburgh, it might have waited securely under the cannon of the latter place for the junction of the Prussian forces; instead of which, they injudiciously turned off to the Lower Weser, retiring successively from Hamelen to Nienburgh, Verden, Rothenburgh, Buxtehude, and lastly to Stade, where, for want of subsistence and elbow-room, the troops were all made prisoners of war at large. They made a march of an hundred and fifty miles to be cooped up in a nook, instead of taking the other route, which was only about an hundred miles, and would have led them to a place of safety. By this unaccountable conduct, the king of Prussia was not only deprived of the assistance of near forty thousand good troops, which, in the close of the campaign, might have put him upon an equality with the French and the army of the empire; but also exposed to, and actually invaded by, his numerous enemies on all sides, insomuch that his situation became now more dangerous than ever; and the fate which seemed to have threatened the empress a few months before, through his means, was, to all appearance, turned against himself. His ruin was predicted, nor could human prudence foresee how he might be extricated from his complicated distress; for, besides the invasion of his territories by the French under the duke de Richelieu, the Russians, who had made for a long time a dilatory march, and seemed uncertain of their own resolutions, all at once quickened their motions, and entered Ducal Prussia, under mareschal Apraxin and general Fermor, marking their progress by every inhumanity that unbridled cruelty, lust, and rapine, can be imagined capable of committing. A large body of Austrians entered Silesia, and penetrated as far as Breslau; then, turning back, they laid seige to the important fortress of Schweidnitz, the key of that country. A second body entered Lusa-tia, another quarter of the Prussian territories, and made themselves masters of Zittau. Twenty-two thousand Swedes penetrated into Prussian Pomerania, took the towns of Anclam and Demmin, and laid the whole country under contribution. The army of the empire, reinforced by that of prince Soubise, after many delays, was at last in full march to enter Saxony; and this motion left the Austrians at liberty to turn the greatest part of their forces to the reduction of Silesia. An Austrian general penetrating through Lusatia, passed by the Prussian armies, and suddenly presenting himself before the gates of Berlin, laid the whole country under contribution; and though he retired on the approach of a body of Prussians, yet he still found means to interrupt the communication of these last with Silesia. The Prussians, it is true, exerted themselves bravely on all sides, and their enemies fled before them; but whilst one body was pursuing, another gained upon them in some other part. The winter approached, their strength decayed, and their adversaries multiplied daily. Their king harassed, and almost spent with incessant fatigue both of body and of mind, was in a manner excluded from the empire. The greatest part of his dominions were either taken from him, or laid under contribution, and possessed by his enemies, who collected the public revenues, fattened on the contributions, and with the riches which they drew from the electorate of Hanover, and other conquests, defrayed the expenses of the war; and by the convention of Closter-Seven he was deprived of his allies, and left without any assistance whatever, excepting what the British parliament might think fit to supply. How different is this picture from that which the king of Prussia exhibited when he took arms to enter Saxony! But, in order to form a clear idea of these events, of the situation of his Prussian majesty, and of the steps he took to defeat the designs of his antagonists, and extricate himself from his great and numerous distresses, it will be proper now to take a view of the several transactions of his enemies, as well during his stay in Bohemia, as from the time of his leaving it, down to that which we are now speaking of.

A RUSSIAN FLEET BLOCKS UP THE PRUSSIAN PORTS IN THE BALTIC.

Whilst the king of Prussia was in Bohemia, the empress of Russia ordered notice to be given to all masters of ships, that if any of them were found assisting the Prussians, by the transportation of troops, artillery, and ammunition, they should be condemned as legal prizes; and her fleet, consisting of fifteen men of war and frigates, with two bomb-ketches, was sent to block up the Prussian ports in the Baltic, where it took several ships of that nation, which were employed in carrying provisions and merchandise from one port to another. One of these ships of war appearing before Memel, a town of Poland, but subject to Prussia, the commandant sent an officer to the captain, to know whether he came as a friend or an enemy? to which interrogation the Russian captain replied, that, notwithstanding the dispositions of the empress of both the Russias were sufficiently known, yet he would further explain them, by declaring that his orders, and those of the other Russian commanders, were, in conformity to the laws of war, to seize on all the Prussian vessels they met with on their cruise. Upon which the commandant of Memel immediately gave orders for pointing the cannon to fire upon all Russian ships that should approach that place.

The land-forces of the Russians had now lingered on their march upwards of six months; and it was pretty generally doubted, by those who were supposed to have the best intelligence, whether they ever were designed really to pass into the Prussian territories, not only on account of their long stay on the borders of Lithuania, but also because several of their cossacks had been severely punished for plundering the waggons of some Prussian peasants upon the frontiers of Courland, and the damage of the peasants compensated with money, though general Apraxin’s army was at the same time greatly distressed by the want of provisions; when, on a sudden, they quickened their motions, and showed they were in earnest, determined to accomplish the ruin of Prussia. Their first act of hostility was the attack of Memel, which surrendered: and, by the articles of capitulation, it was agreed that the garrison should march out with all the honours of war, after having engaged not to serve against the empress, or any of her allies, for the space of one year.

His Prussian majesty, justly foreseeing the great enormities that were to be expected from these savage enemies, who were unaccustomed to make war, except upon nations as barbarous as themselves, who looked upon war only as an opportunity for plunder, and every country through which they happened to march as theirs by right of conquest, published the following declaration: “It is sufficiently known, that the king of Prussia, after the example of his glorious predecessors, has, ever since his accession to the crown, laid it down as a maxim to seek the friendship of the imperial court of Russia, and cultivate it by every method. His Prussian majesty hath had the satisfaction to live, for several successive years, in the strictest harmony with the reigning empress: and this happy union would be still subsisting, if evil-minded potentates had not broke it by their secret machinations, and carried things to such a height, that the ministers on both sides have been recalled, and the correspondence broken off. However melancholy these circumstances might be for the king, his majesty was nevertheless most attentive to prevent any thing that might increase the alienation of the Russian court. He hath been particularly careful, during the disturbances of the war that now unhappily rages, to avoid whatever might involve him in a difference with that court, notwithstanding the great grievances he hath to allege against it; and that it was publicly known the court of Vienna had at last drawn that of Russia into its destructive views, and made it serve as an instrument for favouring the schemes of Austria. His majesty hath given the whole world incontestible proofs, that he was under an indispensable necessity of having recourse to the measures he hath taken against the courts of Vienna and Saxony, who forced him by their conduct to take up arms for his defence. Yet, even since things have been brought to this extremity, the king hath offered to lay down his arms, if proper securities should be granted to him. His majesty hath not neglected to expose the artifices by which the imperial court of Russia hath been drawn into measures so opposite to the empress’s sentiments, and which would excite the utmost indignation of that great princess, if the truth could be placed before her without disguise. The king did more: he suggested to her imperial majesty sufficient means either to excuse her not taking any part in the present war, or to avoid, upon the justest grounds, the execution of those engagements which the court of Vienna claimed by a manifest abuse of obligations, which they employed to palliate their unlawful views. It wholly depended upon the empress of Russia to extinguish the flames of the war, without unsheathing the sword, by pursuing the measures suggested by the king. This conduct would have immortalized her reign throughout all Europe. It would have gained her more lasting glory than can be acquired by the greatest triumphs. The king finds with regret, that all his precautions and care to maintain peace with the Russian empire are fruitless, and that the intrigues of his enemies have prevailed. His majesty sees all the considerations of friendship and good neighbourhood set aside by the imperial court of Russia, as well as the observance of its engagements with his majesty. He sees that court marching its troops through the territories of a foreign power, and, contrary to the tenor of treaties, in order to attack the king in his dominions; and thus taking part in a war, in which his enemies have involved the Russian empire. In such circumstances, the king hath no other part to take, but to employ the power which God hath intrusted to him in defending himself, protecting his subjects, and repelling every unjust attack. His majesty will never lose sight of the rules which are observed, even in the midst of war, among civilized nations. But if, contrary to all hope and expectation, these rules should be violated by the troops of Russia, if they commit in the king’s territories disorders and excesses disallowed by the law of arms, his majesty must not be blamed if he makes reprisals in Saxony; and if, instead of that good order and rigorous discipline which have hitherto been observed by his army, avoiding all sorts of violence, he finds himself forced, contrary to his inclination, to suffer the provinces and subjects of Saxony to be treated in the same manner as his own territories shall be treated. As to the rest, the king will soon publish to the whole world the futility of the reasons alleged by the imperial court of Russia to justify its aggression; and as his majesty is forced upon making his defence, he has room to hope, with confidence, that the Lord of Hosts will bless his righteous arms: that he will disappoint the unjust enterprises of his enemies, and grant him his powerful assistance to enable him to make head against them.”

ARMY OF THE EMPIRE RAISED.

When the king of Prussia was put under the ban of the empire, the several princes who compose that body were required, by the decree of the Aulic council, as we observed before, to furnish their respective contingents against him. Those who feared him looked upon this as a fair opportunity of reducing him; and those who stood in awe of the house of Austria were, through necessity, compelled to support that power which they dreaded. Besides, they were accustomed to the influence of a family in which the empire had, for a long time, been in a manner hereditary; and were also intimidated by the appearance of a confederacy the most formidable, perhaps, that the world had ever seen. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the contingents, both of men and money, were collected slowly; the troops were badly composed; and many of those, not only of the protestant princes, but also of the catholics, showed the utmost reluctance to act against his Prussian majesty, which, indeed, none of them would have been able to do had it not been for the assistance of the French under the prince de Soubise. The elector palatine lost above a thousand men by desertion. Four thousand of the troops belonging to the duke of Wirtemberg being delivered to the French commissary on the twenty-fourth of June, were immediately reviewed; but the review was scarcely finished, when they began to cry aloud that they were sold. Next morning thirty of them deserted at once, and were soon followed by parties of twenty and thirty each, who forced their way through the detachments that guarded the gates of Stutgard, and in the evening the mutiny became general. They fired upon the officers in their barracks, and let their general know that if he did not immediately withdraw, they would put him to death. Meanwhile, some of the officers having pursued the deserters, brought back a part of them prisoners, when the rest of the soldiers declared, that if they were not immediately released, they would set fire to the stadthouse and barracks; upon which the prisoners were set at liberty late in the evening. Next morning the soldiers assembled, and having seized some of the officers, three or four hundred of them marched out of the town at that time, with the music of the regiments playing before them; and in this manner near-three thousand of them filed off, and the remainder were afterwards discharged.

THE AUSTRIANS TAKE GABEL.

The king of Prussia, upon his leaving Bohemia after the battle of Kolin, retired towards Saxony, as we observed before; and having sent his heavy artillery and mortars up the Elbe to Dresden, fixed his camp on the banks of the river, at Leitmeritz, where his main army was strongly intrenched, whilst mareschal Keith, with the troops under his command, encamped on the opposite shore; a free communication being kept open by means of a bridge. At the same time detachments were ordered to secure the passes into Saxony. As this position of the king of Prussia prevented the Austrians from being able to penetrate into Saxony by the way of the Elbe, they moved, by slow marches, into the circle of Buntzla, and, at last, with a detachment commanded by the duke d’Aremberg and M. Macguire, on the eighteenth! of June fell suddenly upon, and took the important post at Gabel, situated between Boemish Leypa and Zittau, after an obstinate defence made by the Prussian garrison, under major-general Putkammer, consisting of four battalions, who were obliged to surrender prisoners of war. The Austrians having by this motion gained a march towards Lusatia, upon a corps which had been detached under the command of the prince of Prussia to watch them, his Prussian majesty thought proper to leave Leitmeritz on the twentieth in the morning, and lay that night at Lickowitz, a village opposite to Leitmeritz, of which a battalion of his troops still kept possession, while the rest of his army remained encamped in the plain before that place. Next morning, at break of day, prince Henry decamped, and made so good a disposition for his retreat, that he did not lose a single man, though he marched in sight of the whole body of Austrian irregulars. He passed the bridge at Leitmeritz, after withdrawing the battalion that was in the town, and having burnt the bridge, the whole army united, and made a small movement towards the passes of the mountains; the king then lying at Sulowitz, near the field where the battle of Lowoschutz was fought on the first of October of the preceding year. The heavy baggage was sent on in the afternoon, with a proper escort; and in the morning of the twenty-second the army marched in two columns, and encamped on the high grounds at Lusechitz, a little beyond Lenai, where it halted on the twenty-third. No attack was made upon the rear-guard, though great numbers of Austrian hussars, and other irregulars, had appeared the evening before within cannon-shot of the Prussian camp. On the twenty-fourth the army marched to Nellendorf; on the twenty-fifth, it encamped near Cotta, on the twenty-sixth near Pirna, where it halted the next day; and on the twenty-eighth it crossed the river near that place, and entered Lusatia, where, by the end of the month, it encamped at Bautzen.

The king’s army made this retreat with all the success that could be wished; but the corps under the prince of Prussia had not the same good fortune. For the Austrians, immediately after their taking Gabel, sent a strong detachment against Zittau, a trading town in the circle of Upper Saxony, where the Prussians had large magazines, and a garrison of six battalions, and, in his sight, attacked it with uncommon rage. Paying no regard to the inhabitants as being friends or allies, but determined to reduce the place before the king of Prussia could have time to march to its relief, they no sooner arrived before it, than they bombarded and cannonaded it with such fury, that most of the garrison, finding themselves unable to resist, made their escape, and carried off as much as they could of the magazines, leaving only three or four hundred men in the town, under colonel Diricke, to hold it out as long as possible; which he accordingly did, till the whole place was almost destroyed. The cannonading began on the twenty-third of July, at eleven in the morning, and lasted till five in the evening. In this space of time four thousand balls, many of them red hot, were fired into this unfortunate city, with so little intermission, that it was soon set on fire in several places. In the confusion which the conflagration produced, the Austrians entered the town, and the inhabitants imagined that they had then nothing further to fear; and that their friends the Austrians would assist them in extinguishing the flames, and saving the place; but in this

## particular their expectations were disappointed. The pan-dours and

Sclavonians, who rushed in with regular troops, made no distinction between the Prussians and the inhabitants of Zittau: instead of helping to quench the flames, they began to plunder the warehouses which the fire had not readied: so that all the valuable merchandise they contained was either carried off, or reduced to ashes. Upwards of six hundred houses, and almost all the public buildings, the cathedrals of St. John and St. James, the orphan house, eight parsonage-houses, eight schools, the town-house and every thing contained in it, the public weigh-house, the prison, the archives, and all the other documents of the town-council, the plate and other things of value presented to the town, from time to time, by the emperors, kings, and other princes and noblemen, were entirely destroyed, and more than four hundred citizens were killed in this assault. Of the whole town there was left standing only one hundred and thirty-eight houses, two churches, the council, library, and the salt-work. The queen of Poland was so affected by this melancholy account, that she is said to have fainted away upon hearing it. As this city belonged to their friend the king of Poland, the Austrians thought proper to publish an excuse for their conduct, ascribing it entirely to the necessity they were under, and the obstinate defence made by the Prussian garrison. But what excuses can atone for such barbarity?

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

THE PRINCE OF PRUSSIA LEAVES THE ARMY.

The corps under the prince of Prussia, which had been witnesses to the destruction of this unhappy place, was by the king’s march to Bautzen, fortunately extricated from the danger of being surrounded by the Austrians, who, upon his majesty’s approach, retired from their posts on the right. Soon after this event, the prince of Prussia, finding his health much impaired by the fatigues of the campaign,* quitted the army, and returned to Berlin.

* This was the reason that was publicly assigned for his quitting the army; but a much more probable one, which was only whispered, seems to have been, that this prince, than whom none ever was more remarkable for humanity and the social virtues, disliking the violent proceedings of the king his brother, could not refrain from expostulating with him on that subject: upon which his majesty, with an air of great disapprobation, told him, “That the air of Berlin would be better for him than that of the camp.” The prince accordingly retired to Berlin, where he died soon after; grief and concern for the welfare of his brother, and for the steps taken by him, having no small share in his death.

In the meantime, mareschal Keith, who had been left upon the frontier to guard the passes of the mountains of Bohemia, arrived at Pima, having been much harassed in his march by the enemy’s irregular troops, and lost some waggons of provisions and baggage. After resting a day at Pirna, he pursued his march through Dresden with twenty battalions and forty squadrons, and encamped on the right of the Elbe, before the gate of the new city, from whence he joined the king between Bautzen and Coerlitz. The Prussian array, now re-assembled at this place, amounted to about sixty thousand men, besides twelve battalions and ten squadrons which remained in the famous camp at Pirna, under the prince of Anhault-Dessau, to cover Dresden, secure the gorges of the mountains, and check the incursions of the Austrian irregulars, with whom, as they were continually flying about the skirts of the Prussian army, as well in their encampments as on their marches, almost daily skirmishes happened, with various success. Though some of these encounters were very bloody, they cost the Prussians much fewer men than they lost by desertion since the battle of Kolin. The reason seems obvious:--the Prussian army had been recruited, in times of peace, from all parts of Germany; and though this way of recruiting may be very proper in such times, yet it cannot be expected to answer in a state of actual war, especially an unfortunate war: because the fidelity of such soldiers can never be so much depended on as that of natives, who serve their natural sovereign from principle, and not merely for pay, and who must desert their country, their parents, and their friends, at the same time that they desert their prince.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN ENGLAND AND OSTEND BROKE OFF.

It will be proper here to take notice of some events which could not easily be mentioned before, without breaking through the order we have proposed to ourselves in the writing of this history.--The empress-queen, more embittered than ever against the king of Prussia and his allies, recalled her ministers, count Coloredo and monsieur Zohern, from London, towards the beginning of July; and about the same time count Kaunitz, great chancellor of the empire, informed Mr. Keith, the British minister at Vienna, that the court of London, by the succours it had given, and still continued to give, the king of Prussia, as well as by other circumstances relating to the present state of affairs, having broken the solemn engagements which united this crown with the house of Austria, her majesty the empress-queen had thought proper to recall her minister from England, and consequently to break off all correspondence. Mr. Keith, in pursuance of this notice, set out from Vienna on the twenty-ninth of July; as did also Mr. Desrolles, his Britannic majesty’s minister at the court of Brussels, from this last place, about the same time. On the seventh of July, general Pisa, commandant of Ostend, Nieuport, and the maritime ports of Flanders, sent his adjutant to the English vice-consul at Ostend, at six o’clock in the morning, to tell him, that by orders from his court all communication with England was broke off; and desired the vice-consul to intimate to the packet-boats and British shipping at Ostend, Bruges, and Nieuport, to depart in twenty-four hours, and not to return into any of the ports of the empress-queen till further disposition should be made. The reasons alleged by the court of Vienna for debarring the subjects of his Britannic majesty from the use of these ports, obtained for the house of Austria by the arms and treasures of Great Britain, were, “That her imperial majesty the empress-queen, could not, with indifference, see England, instead of giving the succours due to her by the most solemn treaties, enter into an alliance with her enemy the king of Prussia, and actually afford him all manner of assistance, assembling armies to oppose those which the most christian king, her ally, had sent to her aid, and suffering privateers to exercise open violence in her roads, under the cannon of her ports and coasts, without giving the least satisfaction or answer to the complaints made on that account; and the king of Great Britain himself, at the very time she was offering him a neutrality for Hanover, publishing, by a message to his parliament, that she had formed, with the most christian king, dangerous designs against that electorate; therefore, her majesty, desirous of providing for the security of her ports, judged it expedient to give the forementioned orders; and at the same time to declare, that she could no longer permit a free communication between her subjects and the English, which had hitherto been founded upon treaties that Great Britain had, without scruple, openly violated.” Notwithstanding these orders, the English packet-boats, with letters, were allowed to pass as usual to and from Ostend; the ministers of her imperial majesty wisely considering how good a revenue the postage of English letters brings in to the post-office of the Austrian Netherlands. Ostend and Nieuport, by order of her imperial majesty, received each of them a French garrison; the former on the nineteenth of July, and the latter next day, under the command of M. de la Motte, upon whose arrival the Austrian troops evacuated those places; though the empress-queen still reserved to herself, in both of them, the full and free exercise of all her rights of sovereignty; to which purpose an oath was administered to the French commandant by her majesty’s minister-plenipotentiary for the government of the Low-Countries. At the same time, their imperial and most christian majesties notified to the magistracy of Hamburgh, that they must not admit any English men of war, or transports, into their port, on pain of having a French garrison imposed on them. The city of Gueldres, which had been blocked up by the French ever since the beginning of summer, was forced by famine to capitulate on the twenty-fourth of August, and the garrison marched out with all the honours of war, in order to be conducted to Berlin; but so many of them deserted, that when they passed by Cologn, the whole garrison consisted only of the commandant and forty-seven men. By the surrender of this place the whole country lay open to the French and their allies quite up to Magdeburgh; and the empress-queen immediately received two hundred thousand crowns from the revenues of Cleves and la Marcke alone. To return to the affairs more immediately relating to the king of Prussia. The advanced posts of the prince of Anhault-Dessau at Pirna were attacked, on the tenth of August, by a body of hussars and other irregular troops of the Austrians; but the Prussians soon obliged them to retire, with the loss of several men and two pieces of cannon. On the nineteenth of the same month, early in the morning, a great number of Austrian pan-dours surrounded a little town called Gotliebe, in which a Prussian garrison was quartered, with a design to take it by surprise. The pandours attacked it on all sides, and in the beginning killed twenty-three Prussians, and wounded many; but the Prussians having rallied, repulsed the assailants with great loss. These, however, were but a sort of preludes to much more decisive actions which happened soon after. Silesia, which had hitherto been undisturbed this year, began now to feel the effects of war. Baron Jahnus, an Austrian colonel, entering that country with only an handful of men, made himself master of Hirschberg, Waldenberg, Gottesberg, Frankenstein, and Landshut. They were, indeed, but open places; and he was repulsed in an attempt upon Strigau. On the side of Franconia the army of the empire was assembling with all speed, under the prince of Saxe-Hildburghausen; the French were marching a second army from their interior provinces into Alsace, in order to join the Imperialists: the first division of their troops had already entered the empire, and were advanced as far as Hanau. The Swedes were now preparing, with the utmost expedition, to send a numerous army into Pomerania; and the Russians, who since the taking of Memel had not done the king of Prussia much damage, besides that of obliging him to keep an army in Prussia to oppose them, and interrupting the trade of Konigsberg by their squadrons, were again advancing with hasty strides towards Prussia, marking their steps with horrid desolation. Field-mareschal Lehwald, who had been left in Prussia with an army of thirty thousand men, to guard that kingdom during the absence of his master, was encamped near Velau, when the Russians, to the number of eighty thousand, after taking Memel, advanced against the territories of the Prussian king, whose situation now drew upon him the attention of all Europe. In the night between the seventh and eighth of August, colonel Malachowsti, one of mareschal Lehwald’s officers, marched to reconnoitre the position of the enemy, when a skirmish happened, which lasted near two hours, between his advanced ranks and a Russian detachment three times stronger than the Prussians. The Russians were repulsed, and fled into the woods, after having fifty men killed and a great number wounded. The Prussians lost but one man, and had fourteen wounded.

MARESCHAL LEHWALD ATTACKS THE RUSSIANS NEAR NORKITTEN.

Several other little skirmishes happened between straggling parties of the two armies; and the Russians went on pillaging and laying waste every thing before them, till at length the two armies having approached one another in Brandenburgh-Prussia, mareschal Lehwald, finding it impossible to spare detachments from so small a number as his was, compared to that of the enemy, to cover the wretched inhabitants from the outrages committed on them by the Russian cossacks, and other barbarians belonging to them, judged it absolutely necessary to attack their main army; and accordingly, notwithstanding his great disadvantage in almost every respect, he resolved to hazard a battle on the thirtieth of August. The Russians, consisting, as we before observed, of eighty thousand regulars, under the command of mareschal Apraxin, avoiding the open field, were intrenched in a most advantageous camp near Norkitten in Prussia. Their army was composed of four lines, each of which was guarded by an intrenchment, and the whole was defended by two hundred pieces of cannon, batteries being placed upon all the eminences. Mareschal Lehwald’s army scarcely amounted to thirty thousand men. The action began at five in the morning, and was carried on with so much vigour, that the Prussians entirely broke the whole first line of the enemy, and forced all their batteries. The prince of Holstein-Grottorp, brother to the king of Sweden, at the head of his regiment of dragoons, routed the Russian cavalry, and afterwards fell upon a regiment of grenadiers, which was cut to pieces; but when the Prussians came to the second intrenchment, mareschal Lehwald, seeing that he could not attempt to carry it without exposing his army too much, took the resolution to retire. The Prussians returned to their former camp at Velau, and the Russians remained in their present situation. The loss of the Prussians little exceeding two thousand killed and wounded, was immediately replaced out of the disciplined militia. The Russians lost a much greater number. General Lapuchin was wounded and taken prisoner, with a colonel of the Russian artillery; but the former was sent back on his parole. The Prussia*: Army had, at first, made themselves masters of above eighty pieces of cannon; but were afterwards obliged to abandon them, with eleven of their own, for want of carriages. Three Russian generals were killed; but the Prussians lost no general or officer of distinction, of which rank count Dohna was the only one that was wounded.

HASTY RETREAT OF THE RUSSIANS OUT OF PRUSSIA.

After this engagement, mareschal Lehwald changed the position of his army, by drawing towards Peters-wald; and the Russians, after remaining quite inactive till the thirteenth of September, on a sudden, to the great surprise of every one, retreated out of Prussia with such precipitation, that they left all their sick and wounded behind them, to the amount of fifteen or sixteen thousand men, together with eighty pieces of cannon, and a considerable part of their military stores. Mareschal Apraxin masked his design by advancing all his irregulars towards the Prussian army; so that mareschal Lehwald was not informed of it till the third day, when he detached prince George of Plolstein with ten thousand horse to pursue them but with little hopes of coming up with them as they made forced marches, in order to be the sooner in their own country. However, the Prussians took some of them prisoners, and many stragglers were killed by the country people in their flight towards Tilsit, which they abandoned, though they still kept Memel, and shortly after added some new fortifications to that place. They made their retreat in two columns, one of which directed its course towards Memel; while the other took the nearest way through the bailiwick of Absternen, and threw bridges over the river Jura. Both columns burnt every village they passed through without distinction. The Prussians were obliged to desist from the pursuit of these barbarians, because the bridges, thrown over the river Memel, had been destroyed by the violence of the stream. The Russian army suffered greatly for want of bread, as all the countries were ruined through which it passed, so that they could procure no sort of subsistence but herbage and rye-bread. All the roads were strewed with dead bodies of men and horses. The real cause of this sudden retreat is as great a mystery as the reason of stopping so long, the year before, on the borders of Lithuania; though the occasion of it is said to have been the illness of the czarina, who was seized with a kind of apoplectic fit, and had made some new regulations in case of a vacancy of the throne, which rendered it expedient that the regular forces should be at hand to support the measures taken by the government.

FRENCH AND IMPERIALISTS TAKE GOTHA.

The king of Prussia, after remaining for some time encamped between Bautzen and Goerlitz, removed his head-quarters to Bernstedel; and on the fifteenth of August his army came in sight of the Austrian camp, and within cannon-shot of it: upon which the Austrians struck their tents, and drew up in order of battle before their camp. The king formed his army over against them, and immediately went to reconnoitre the ground between the armies; but, as it was then late, he deferred the more exact examination of that circumstance till the next day. The two armies continued under arms all night. Next morning at break of day, the king found the Austrians encamped with their right at the river Weisle; the rest of their army extended along a rising ground, at the foot of a mountain covered with wood, which protected their left; and before their front, at the bottom of the hill on which they were drawn up, was a small brook, passable only in three places, and for no more than four or five men a-breast. Towards the left of their army was an opening, where three or four battalions might have marched in front; but behind it they had placed three lines of infantry, and on a hill which flanked this opening, within musket-shot, were placed four thousand foot, with forty or fifty pieces of cannon; so that, in reality, this was the strongest part of their camp. The king left nothing undone to bring the Austrians to battle; but finding them absolutely bent on avoiding it, after lying four days before them, he and his army returned to their camp at Bernstedel. They were followed by some of the enemy’s hussars and pan-dours, who, however, had not the satisfaction to take the smallest booty in this retreat. The Austrian army, which thus declined engaging, was, by their own account, an hundred and thirty thousand strong, more than double the number of the king of Prussia, who, the day he returned to Bernstedel, after he had retired about two thousand yards, again drew up his army in line of battle, and remained so upwards of an hour, but not a man stirred from the Austrian camp. The army of the empire, commanded by the prince of Saxe-Hildburghausen, and that of the French under the prince de Soubise, making together about fifty thousand men, half of which were French, had by this time joined, and advanced as far as Erfurth in Saxony; upon which his Prussian majesty, finding that all his endeavours could not bring the Austrians to an engagement, set out from Lusatia, accompanied by mareschal Keith, with sixteen battalions and forty squadrons of his troops, and arrived at Dresden on the twenty-ninth of August, leaving the rest of the army in a strong camp, under the prince of Bevern. With this detachment, which, by the junction of several bodies of troops, amounted to about forty thousand men, he made a quick march, by the way of Leipsic towards Erfurth, to give battle to the united army of the French and the empire. But by the time he arrived at Erfurth, which was on the fourteenth of September, the enemy had retreated towards Gotha; and upon his further approach, they retired to Eyesenach, where they intrenched themselves in a very strong camp. His majesty’s headquarters were at Kirschlaben, near Erfurth. While the two armies were thus situated, major-general Seydelitz, who occupied the town of Gotha, being informed, on the nineteenth, that a large body of the enemy was coming towards him, and that it consisted of two regiments of Austrian hussars, one regiment of French hussars, and a detachment made up of French grenadiers, troops of the army of the empire, and a great number of croats and pandours, retired, and posted himself at some distance. The enemy immediately took possession of the town and castle; but general Seydelitz, having been reinforced, attacked the enemy with such vigour, that he soon obliged them to abandon this new conquest, and to retire with great precipitation; a report having been spread, that the Prussian army was advancing against them, with the king himself in person. The Prussian hussars took a considerable booty on this occasion, and general Seydelitz sent prisoners to the camp, one lieutenant-colonel, three majors, four lieutenants, and sixty-two soldiers of the enemy, who had also about an hundred and thirty killed. After this action his Prussian majesty advanced near Eyesenach, with a design to attack the combined army; but they were so strongly intrenched, that he found it impracticable. His provisions falling short, he was obliged to retire towards Erfurth, and soon after to Naumburgh, on the river Sala; whereupon the combined army inarched, and again took possession of Gotha, Erfurth, and Weiman: which last place, however, they soon after quitted.

## ACTION BETWEEN THE PRUSSIANS AND AUSTRIANS NEAR GOERLITZ.

Upon the king of Prussia’s leaving Bernstedel, the Austrians took possession of it on the sixth of September, and made prisoners a Prussian battalion which had been left there. The next day fifteen thousand Austrians attacked two battalions of general Winterfield’s troops, being part of the prince of Bevern’s army, who were posted on a high ground on the other side of the Neiss, near Hennersdorff, in the neighbourhood of Goerlitz; and, after being repulsed several times, at last made themselves masters of the eminence. The loss, in this action, was considerable on both sides, but greatest on that of the Prussians, not so much by the number of their slain, which scarcely exceeded that of the Austrians, as by the death of their brave general Win-terfield, who, as he was leading up succours to the battalions that were engaged, received a shot from a cannon, of which he died the night following. The-generals Nadasti and Clerici, count d’Arberg, colonel Elrickhausen, and several other persons of distinction, were wounded, and the young count of Groesbeck and the marquis d’Asque killed, on the side of the Austrians, who took six pieces of the Prussian cannon, six pair of their colours, and made general Kemeke, the count d’Anhalt, and some other officers, prisoners. After this skirmish, the prince of Bevern, with the Prussian army under his command, retreated from Goerlitz to Rothen-berg, then passed the Queiss at Sygersdorff, from whence he marched to Buntzlau, in Silesia, and on the first of October reached Breslau, without suffering any loss, though the numerous army of the Austrians followed him for some days. Upon his arrival there, he chose a very strong camp on the other side of the Oder, in order to cover the city of Breslau, to the fortifications of which he immediately added several new works. Though neither side had any very signal advantage in this engagement, more than that the Austrians remained masters of the field, yet great rejoicings were made at Vienna on account of it. The death of general Win-terfield was, indeed, an irreparable loss to his Prussian majesty, who received at the same time the news of this misfortune, and of the Swedes having now actually begun hostilities in Pomerania.

THE FRENCH OBLIGE FERDINAND TO RETIRE.

A body of the French, who, let loose against the king of Prussia by the ever-memorable and shameful convention of Closter-Seven, had entered the territories of Halberstadt and Magdeburgh, were worsted at Eglen by a party of six hundred men, under the command of count Horn, whom prince Ferdinand of Brunswick had detached from a body of troops with which his Prussian majesty had sent him to defend those countries. The Prussians took prisoners the count de Lusignan, colonel, eighteen other French officers, and four hundred soldiers, and made themselves masters of a considerable booty in baggage, &c, with the loss of only two men; and, moreover, a French officer and forty men were made prisoners at Halberstadt. Upon this check the French evacuated the country of Halberstadt for a little while, but returning again on the twenty-ninth of September, with a considerable reinforcement from mareschal Richelieu’s army, which he now could easily spare, prince Ferdinand was obliged to retire to Winsleben, near the city of Magdeburgh. The dangers which had been hitherto kept at a distance from the Prussian dominions, by the surprising activity of their king, now drew nearer, and menaced them on all sides. Mareschal Richelieu, with eighty battalions and an hundred squadrons, entered the country of Halberstadt, and levied immense contributions; whilst the allied army of the French and Imperialists, being joined by six thousand men under general Laudohn, who had just defeated a regiment of Prussian cavalry near Erfurt, marched to Weissenfells, a city in the very centre of Thuringia. The Swedes had actually taken some towns in Pomerania, and were advancing to besiege Stetin, and the Austrians, who had made themselves masters of Lignitz, and a considerable part of Silesia, had now laid siege to Schweidnitz, and were preparing to pass the Oder, in order to attack the prince of Bevern in his camp near Breslau. In the meantime they made frequent and always destructive incursions into Brandenburgh; to oppose which his Prussian majesty ordered detachments from all his regiments in those parts to join the militia of the country, and sent the prince of Anhault-Dessau from Leipsic, with a body of ten thousand men, to guard Berlin, whilst he himself marched with the troops under his command to Interbeck, on the frontier of the Lower Lusatia, to be the more at hand to cover Brandenburgh, and to preserve the communication with Silesia.

While these precautions were taking, general Had-dick, with fifteen or sixteen thousand Austrians, entered Brandenburgh on the sixteenth of October, and the next day arrived before Berlin, of which city he demanded a contribution of six hundred thousand crowns; but contented himself with two hundred and ten thousand. The Austrians pillaged two of the suburbs; but before they could do any further mischief, they were obliged to retire in great haste, at the approach of the prince of Anhault-Dessau, whose vanguard entered the city in the evening of their departure. This alarm, however, obliged the queen and the royal family of Prussia to remove to Magdeburgh on the twenty-third; and the most valuable records were sent to the fort of Spandau, at the conflux of the Havel and the Sphre. On the other hand, the unfortunate inhabitants of Leipsic now felt most severely the cruel effects of the power of their new master. The Prussian commandant in that city had, by order of the king, demanded of them three hundred thousand crowns, a sum far greater than it was in their power to raise. This truth they represented, but in vain. The short time allowed them to furnish their contingents being expired, and all their efforts to comply with this demand having proved ineffectual, they were subjected to the rigours of military execution; in consequence of which their houses were occupied by the soldiery, who seized upon the best apartments, and lived at discretion; but the sum demanded could not be found. Such was the situation of this distressed city, when, on the fifteenth of October, an express arrived, with advice that his Prussian majesty would soon be there; and accordingly he arrived a few minutes after, attended by his life-guards. At the same time, a rumour was spread that the city would be delivered up to pillage, which threw the inhabitants into the utmost consternation. Their fears, however, in that respect were soon abated, by his majesty’s declaring, that he was willing to spare the place, upon condition that half the sum required should be immediately paid. All that could be done was to collect among the merchants, traders, and others, fifty thousand crowns; bills of exchange were drawn upon Amsterdam and London for seventy thousand crowns, and hostages were given, by way of security, for the payment of thirty thousand more within a time which was agreed on. But still, notwithstanding this, the military execution was continued, even with greater rigour than before, and all the comfort the wretched inhabitants could obtain was, that it should cease whenever advice should be received that their bills were accepted.

BATTLE OF ROSBACH.

The king of Prussia had tried several times to bring the combined army under the princes Saxe-Hilburghausen and Soubise to an engagement upon fair ground, but finding them bent on declining it, notwithstanding the superiority of their numbers, he had recourse to one of those strokes in war, by which a general is better seen than by the gaining of a victory. He made a feint, soon after the beginning of October, as if he intended nothing more than to secure his own dominions, and march his army into winter-quarters back to Berlin, leaving mareschal Keith, with only seven or eight thousand men, to defend Leipsic. Upon this the enemy took courage, passed the Sala, and having marched up to the city, summoned the mareschal to surrender; to which he answered, that the king, his master, had ordered him to defend the place to the last extremity, and he would obey his orders. The enemy then thought of besieging the city; but, before they could prepare any one implement for that purpose, they were alarmed by the approach of the king of Prussia, who, judging that his feint would probably induce them to take the step they did, had, by previous and private orders, collected together all his distant detachments, some of which were twenty leagues asunder, and was advancing, by long marches, to Leipsic; upon notice of which the enemy repassed the Sala. The Prussian army was re-assembled on the twenty-seventh of October, and remained at Leipsic the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth, when everybody expected a battle would be fought in the plains of Lutzen. On the thirtieth, the king drew nigh that place, and on the thirty-first, in his way through Weissenfells and Meresbourg, he made five hundred men prisoners of war. The combined army had repassed the Sala at Weissenfells, Meresbourg, and Halle, where they broke down the bridges; but these were soon repaired, and the whole Prussian army, amounting to no more than twenty thousand men, having passed that river, through these towns, in each of which they left a battalion, joined again on the third of November, in the evening, over against the enemy, whose forces consisted of forty thousand French, and twenty-five thousand Imperialists. On the fifth, about nine o’clock in the morning, the Prussians received intelligence that the enemy were every where in motion. They likewise heard the drums beating the march, and, so near were the two armies to each other, plainly perceived from their camp that their whole infantry, which had drawn nearer upon the rising grounds over against them, was filing off towards their right. No certain judgment could, however, yet be formed of the enemy’s real design, and as they were in want of bread, it was thought probable that they intended to repass the Un-strut; but it was soon perceived that their several motions were contradictory to each other. At the same time that some of their infantry were filing off towards their right, a large body of cavalry wheeled round towards their left, directing its march all along to the rising grounds with which the whole Prussian camp, that lay in a bottom between the villages of Eederow and Rosbach, was surrounded within the reach of large cannon. Soon after that the cavalry were seen to halt, and afterwards to fall back to the right; though some of them still remained where they were, whilst the rest marched back. About two in the afternoon the doubts of the Prussians were cleared up; it plainly appearing then that the enemy intended to attack them, and that their dispositions were made with a view to surround them, and to open the action by attacking them in the rear. A body of reserve was posted over against Eederow, to fall upon their routed troops, in case they should be defeated, and to prevent their retiring to Meresbourg, the only retreat which could then have been left them. In thiss situation the king of Prussia resolved to attack them. His majesty had determined to make the attack with one wing only, and the disposition of the enemy made it necessary that it should be the left wing. The very instant the battle was going to begin, his majesty ordered the general who commanded the right wing to decline engaging, to take a proper position in consequence thereof, and, above all, to prevent his being surrounded. All the cavalry of the right wing of the Prussians, except two or three squadrons, had already marched to the left at full gallop; and being arrived at the place assigned them, they formed over against that of the enemy. They then moved on immediately, the enemy advanced to meet them, and the charge was very fierce, several regiments of the French coming on with great resolution. The advantage, however, was entirely on the side of the Prussians. The enemy’s cavalry being routed, were pursued for a considerable time with great spirit, but having afterwards reached an eminence, which gave them an opportunity of rallying, the Prussian cavalry fell upon them afresh, and gave them so total a defeat, that they fled in the utmost disorder. This happened at four in the afternoon. Whilst the cavalry of the Prussians charged, their infantry opened. The enemy cannonaded them briskly during this interval, and did some execution, but the Prussian artillery was not idle. After this cannonading had continued on both sides a full quarter of an hour, without the least intermission, the fire of the infantry began. The enemy could not stand it, nor resist the valour of the Prussian foot, who gallantly marched up to their batteries. The batteries were carried one after another, and the enemy were forced to give way, which they did in great confusion. As the left wing of the Prussians advanced, the right changed its position, and having soon met with a small rising ground, they availed themselves of it, by planting it with sixteen pieces of heavy artillery. The fire from thence was

## partly pointed at the enemy’s right, to increase the disorder there, and

took their left wing in front, which was excessively galled thereby. At five the victory was decided, the cannonading ceased, and the enemy fled on all sides. They were pursued as long as there was any light to distinguish them, and it may be said, that night alone was the preservation of this army, which had been so formidable in the morning. They took the benefit of the darkness to hurry into Fribourg, and there to repass the Unstrut, which they did on the morning of the sixth, after a whole night’s inarch. The king of Prussia set out early in the morning to pursue them with all his cavalry, supported by four battalions of grenadiers, the infantry following them in two columns. The enemy had passed the Unstrut at Fribourg, when the Prussians arrived on its banks, and as they had burnt the bridge, it became necessary to make another, which, however, was soon done. The cavalry passed first, but could not come up with the enemy till five in the evening, upon the hills of Eckersberg. It was then too late to force them there, for which reason the king thought proper to canton his army in the nearest villages, and to be satisfied with the success his hussars had in taking near three hundred baggage waggons, and every thing they contained. The whole loss of the Prussians in this important engagement, did not exceed five hundred men killed and wounded. Among the former was general Meincke, and among the latter prince Henry and general Seydelitz. The enemy lost sixty-four pieces of cannon, a great many standards and colours, near three thousand men killed on the field of battle, and upwards of eight thousand taken prisoners, among whom were several generals, and other officers of distinction. Three hundred waggons were sent to Leipsic, laden with wounded French and Swiss. Upon the approach of the Prussians towards Eckersberg, the enemy retreated with great precipitation; and, after marching all night, arrived the next day at Erfurth, in the utmost want of every necessary of life, not having had a morsel of bread for two days, during which they had been obliged to live upon turnips, radishes, and other roots, which they dug out of the earth. The French, under the duke de Richelieu, were preparing to go into winter-quarters; but, upon the news of this defeat of the combined army, they again put themselves in motion, and a large detachment of them advanced as far as Duderstadt, to favour the retreat of their countrymen under the prince de Soubise, who, with great precipitancy, made the best of their way from Erfurth to the county of Hohenstein, and from thence bent their march towards Halberstadt. Of the remains of the imperial army, which was now almost entirely dispersed, whole bodies deserted, and went over to the king of Prussia soon after the battle.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

THE AUSTRIANS TAKE SCHWEIDNITZ.

Whilst his Prussian majesty was thus successful against the French and Imperialists, the Austrians, who had carefully avoided coming to an open engagement with him, gained ground apace in Silesia. A detachment of their army, under the command of count Nadasti, had already invested Schweidnitz, and opened the trenches before it on the twenty-sixth of October. The Prussian garrison, commanded by general de la Motte Fouquet, determined to defend the place as long as possible; and accordingly on the thirtieth they made a sally, in which they killed, wounded, and took prisoners, eight hundred of the besiegers, and did some damage to their works; but on the sixth of November the Austrians began to cannonade the city furiously, and on the eleventh made themselves masters of the ramparts by assault. The garrison, however, having taken care, during the siege, to throw up a strong in-trenchment in the market-place, retreated thither, and held out till the next day, when they surrendered themselves prisoners of war. After the reduction of this place, general Nadasti, leaving in it a sufficient garrison, marched with the remainder of his troops, and joined the main army of the Austrians, under the command of prince Charles of Lorraine and mareschal Daun, who, whilst he was busied in the siege of Schweidnitz, had invested Breslau on the left of the Oder; the prince of Bevern defending it on the right, where he was strongly encamped, with his little army, under the cannon of the city. The whole army of the Austrians being now re-assembled, and intelligence having been brought not only of the king of Prussia’s late victory near Leipsic, but also that he was advancing to the relief of the prince of Bevern, it was resolved immediately to attack the last in his intrenchments. Accordingly, on the twenty-second of November, about nine in the morning, the Austrians began a most furious discharge of their cannon, forty of which were twenty-four pounders, and this continued without ceasing till one, when it was succeeded by a severe fire of their small arms, which lasted till five in the evening. The Prussians, with undaunted resolution, stood two of the most violent attacks that were ever made; but at the third, overpowered by numbers, and assailed on both sides, they began to lose ground, and were forced to retire from one intrenchment to another. In this extremity, night coming on, the Prussian generals fearing their intrenchments would be entirely forced, and that they should then be totally defeated, thought proper to retreat. The prince of Bevern, with the greatest part of the army, retired to an eminence on the banks of the Oder, whilst the rest of the troops threw themselves into Breslau, which they might have defended, in all probability, till the king had come to its relief. But, on the twenty-fourth, their commander-in-chief, the prince of Bevern, going to reconnoitre the enemy, with only a single groom to attend him, fell in among a party of croats, who took him prisoner.*

* We are told, that he mistook these croats for Prussian hussars. But some of the circumstances of this mysterious affair were interpreted into a premeditated design in the prince to be taken prisoner. It cannot otherwise he supposed that a man of his rank, a prince, a commander-in-chief, should officiously undertake the always dangerous task of reconnoitering the enemy with so slight an attendance as only one man, and that but a groom, even if he had judged it necessary to see things with his own eyes. Some secret dissatisfaction, hitherto unknown to us, may possibly have been the cause of his taking this step; or, which seems still more probable, he might he ashamed, or, perhaps, even afraid, to see the king his master, after having so injudiciously abandoned the defence of Breslau, by quitting his lines, which, it is asserted, his Prussian majesty had sent him express orders not to quit on any account whatever, for that he would certainly be with him by the fifth of December, in which we shall find he kept his word.

His army, thus deprived of their general, retreated northward that night, leaving in Breslau only four battalions, who, the next day, surrendered the place by capitulation, one of the articles of which was, that they should not serve against the empress, or her allies, for two years. All the magazines, chests, artillery, &c, remained in the hands of the Austrians. The garrison marched out with all military honours, conducted by general Leswitz, governor of Breslau. Though the Austrians sung _Te Deum_ for this victory, they owned that such another would put an end to their army, for it cost them the lives of twelve thousand men; a number almost equal to the whole of the Prussian army before the battle. They had four almost inaccessible intrenchments to force, planted thick with cannon, which fired cartridge shot from nine in the morning till the evening, and the Prussians, when attacked, were never once put into the least confusion. Among the slain on the side of the Austrians, were general Wurben, and several other officers of distinction. The loss of the Prussians did not much exceed three thousand men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, of which last there were about sixteen hundred. Their general Kleist was found dead on the field of battle.

MARESCHAL KEITH LAYS BOHEMIA UNDER CONTRIBUTION.

The king of Prussia, who, like Caesar, thought nothing was done while any thing was left undone, stayed no longer at Rosbach than till the routed forces of the French and Imperialists, whom he had defeated there on the fifth of November, were totally dispersed. Then he marched directly with the greatest part of his army for Silesia, and on the twenty-fourth of that month arrived at Naumburgh on the Queiss, a little river which runs into the Bobber, having in his route detached mareschal Keith, with the rest of his army, to clear Saxony from all the Austrian

## parties, and then to make an irruption into Bohemia, a service which he

performed so effectually, as to raise large contributions in the circles of Satz and Leitmeritz, and even to give an alarm to Prague itself. His majesty reserved for himself only fifteen thousand men, with whom he advanced, with his usual rapidity, to Barchweitz, where, notwithstanding all that had happened at Schweidnitz and at Breslau, he was joined by twenty-four thousand more; part of them troops which he had ordered from Saxony, part the remains of the army lately commanded by the prince of Bevern, and part the late garrison of Schweidnitz, which had found means to escape from the Austrians, and accidentally joined their king upon his march.*

* While the Austrians were conducting them to prison, on their route they chanced to hear of the victory their master had gained at Rosbach. Animated by these tidings, they unanimously rose upon the escort that guarded them, which happening not to be very strong, they entirely dispersed. Thus freed, they marched on, not very certain of their way, in hopes to rejoin some corps of the Prussian troops, their countrymen. The same fortune which freed them led them directly to the army commanded by the king himself, which was hastening to their relief, as well as to that of the prince of Bevern. This unexpected meeting was equally pleasing to both, the prisoners not having heard any thing of his majesty’s march; and, at the same time, this lucky incident, whilst it added a considerable strength to the army, added likewise to its confidence, for the slightest occurrence is construed into an omen by an army at the eve of an engagement.

With this force, though greatly inferior in number to that of the enemy, he resolved to attack the Austrians, who were intrenched at Lissa, near Breslau. On the fourth of December he seized upon their ovens at Neu-marck, and upon a considerable magazine, guarded by two regiments of croats, who retired to a rising ground, where his majesty ordered his hussars to surround them, and send a trumpet to summon them to surrender themselves prisoners of war. Upon their refusal, the hussars of Ziethen fell upon them sabre in hand, and some hundreds of them having been cut in pieces, the rest threw down their arms, begging for quarter on their knees. After this seizure, and after having distributed to his army the bread prepared for his enemies, he began again the next morning his march towards Lissa. General Ziethen, who led the vanguard of light-horse, about seven in the morning fell in with a body of Austrian hussars, and three regiments of Saxon dragoons, which were the very best cavalry the enemy had left after the battle of the twenty-second. They had been detached by the Austrians, in order to retard the king’s march, and to conceal their own, till their batteries should be completed; for, as they held the small number of the Prussians in contempt, their intention was to have met the king two German miles from their intrenchments. The Austrian cavalry having been vigorously repulsed to a considerable distance, general Ziethen perceived that their whole army was forming. He immediately acquainted the king with what he had discovered, and his majesty, after having himself observed the disposition of the enemy, made his own with that sagacity and despatch for which he has always been remarkable. The action began by attacking a battery of forty pieces of large cannon, which covered the right wing of the enemy. The two battalions of guards, with the regiments of the margrave Charles and of Itzenplitz, marched up amidst a most terrible fire to the very mouths of the cannon, with their bayonets screwed. In this attack the Prussians sustained their greatest loss, though the battery was carried as soon almost as they could reach it; then the enemy’s artillery, now turned against themselves, played furiously upon them with their own powder. From that instant the two wings and the centre of the Prussians continued to drive the enemy before them, advancing all the time with that firm and regular pace for which they have always been renowned, without ever halting or giving way. The ground which the Austrians occupied was very advantageous, and every circumstance that could render it more so had been improved to the utmost by the diligence and skill of count Daun, who, remembering his former success, was emboldened to enter the lists again with his royal antagonist. The Prussians, however, no way terrified by the enemy’s situation nor their numbers, went calmly and dreadfully forward. It was almost impossible in the beginning for the Prussian cavalry to act, on account of the impediments of fallen trees, which the enemy had cut down and laid in the field of battle, to retard their approach; but a judicious disposition which the king made overcame that disadvantage. When he first formed his army, he had placed four battalions behind the cavalry of his right wing, foreseeing that general Nadasti, who was placed with a corps of reserve on the enemy’s left, designed to take him in flank. It happened as he had foreseen, this general’s horse attacked the king’s right wing with great fury; but he was received with so severe a fire from the four battalions, that he was obliged to retire in disorder. The enemy gave way on all sides; out at some distance recovered themselves, and rallied three times, animated by their officers, and by the superiority of their numbers. Every time they made a stand, the Prussians attacked them with redoubled vigour, and with success equal to their bravery. Towards night, the enemy, still retreating, fell into disorder. Their two wings fled in confusion; one of them, closely pressed by the king, retired towards Breslau, and took shelter under the cannon of that city; the other, pursued by the greatest part of the light cavalry, took their flight towards Canth and Schweidnitz. Six thousand Austrians fell in this engagement, and the Prussians, who had only five hundred men killed, and two thousand three hundred wounded, made upwards of ten thousand of the enemy prisoners, among whom were two hundred and ninety-one officers. They took also an hundred and sixteen cannon, fifty-one colours and standards, and four thousand waggons of ammunition and baggage. The consequences that followed this victory declared its importance. Future ages will read with astonishment, that the same prince, who but a few months before seemed on the verge of inevitable ruin, merely by the dint of his own abilities, without the assistance of any friend whatever, with troops perpetually harassed by long and painful marches, and by continual skirmishes and battles, not only retrieved his affairs, which almost every one, except himself, thought past redress; but, in the midst of winter, in countries where it was judged next to impossible for any troops to keep the field at that season, conquered the united force of France and the empire at Rosbach, on the fifth of November; and on the same day of the very next month, with a great part of the same army, was at Lissa, where he again triumphed over all the power of the house of Austria. Pursuing his advantage, he immediately invested Breslau, and within two days after this great victory every thing was in readiness to besiege it in form. His troops, flushed with success, were at first for storming it, but the king, knowing the strength of the garrison, which consisted of upwards of thirteen thousand men, and considering both the fatigues which his own soldiers had lately undergone, and the fatal consequences that might ensue, should they fail of success in this attempt, ordered the approaches to be carried on in the usual form. His commands were obeyed, and Breslau surrendered to him on the twentieth of December in the morning. The garrison, of which ten thousand bore arms, and between three and four thousand lay sick or wounded, were made prisoners of war. Fourteen of these prisoners were officers of high rank. The military chest, a vast treasure, with eighty pieces of cannon, fell into the hands of the victors, who lost only about twenty men in their approaches. During the siege, a magazine of powder was set on fire by a bomb, which occasioned great confusion among the besieged, and damaged one of the bastions. The strong fortress of Schweidnitz still remained in the enemy’s possession, defended by a garrison so numerous, that it might be compared to a small army, and whilst that continued so, the king of Prussia’s victories in Silesia were of no decisive effect. For this reason, though it was now the dead of winter, and the soldiers stood in need of repose, his majesty resolved, if possible, to become master of that place before the end of the year; but as a close siege was impracticable, a blockade was formed, as strictly as the rigour of the season would permit.*

* Such was the rigour of the season, that some hundreds of the sentinels dropped down dead on their several posts, unable to sustain the severity of the cold. The Germans lie under the general reproach of paying very little regard to the lives of their soldiers, and indeed this practice of winter campaigns, in such a cold country, bespeaks very little regard to the dictates of humanity.

It was not, however, till the beginning of the ensuing campaign that this place was taken. The Prussians opened their trenches before it on the third of April, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight, and erected two large batteries, which kept a continual fire upon the town. The artillery of the besiegers consisted of three hundred pieces of cannon, of different dimensions, and eighty mortars; an amazing artillery, and such as we have never heard of in former campaigns. On the night of the fourteenth, the Prussians carried one of the chief works by assault, and lodged themselves therein: the commandant capitulated the next day, with the garrison, which was now greatly reduced in number, being not half of what it amounted to at the beginning of the blockade. Thus, all the parts of Silesia which the king of Prussia had lost by one unfortunate blow, fell again into his possession; and his affairs, which but a few months before seemed irretrievable, were now re-established upon a firmer basis than ever. The Prussian parties not only re-possessed themselves of those parts of Silesia which belonged to their king, but penetrated into the Austrian division, reduced Jagerndorf, Troppau, Tretchen, and several other places, and left the empress-queen scarce any footing in that country, in which, a few days before, she reckoned her dominion perfectly established.

HOSTILITIES of the SWEDES in POMERANIA.

The Swedes, after many debates between their king and senate, had at length resolved upon an open declaration against the king of Prussia, and, in consequence of that resolution, sent so many troops into Pomerania, that by the end of August, their army in that country amounted to twenty-five thousand men. Their first act of hostility was the seizure of Anclam and Dem-min, two towns that lay in the way to Stetin, against which their principal design was levelled. But before they proceeded farther, general Hamilton, their commander, by way of justifying the conduct of his master, published a declaration, setting forth, “That the king of Sweden, as guarantee of the treaty of Westphalia, could not help sending his troops into the upper part of the duchy of Pomerania belonging to the king of Prussia; and that, therefore, all the officers appointed to receive the public revenue in that country must pay what money they had in their hands to him, who was commissioned to receive it for his Swedish majesty; that, moreover, an exact account was required, within eight days, of the revenues of the country; but that no more than ordinary contributions would be demanded of the inhabitants, who might rest assured that the Swedish troops should observe the strictest discipline.” After this declaration, they attacked the little fortress of Penemunde, upon the river Pene, and on the twenty-third of September, after a siege of nine days, obliged the garrison, which consisted only of militia, to surrender themselves prisoners of war. This alternative the commanding officer chose, rather than engage not to serve for two years, observing, that such an engagement was inconsistent with his honour, whilst his prince had so much occasion for his service; and the Swedish general, touched with this noble way of thinking, was, on his part, so generous as to give him his liberty. On the other hand, general Manteuffel, who commanded the Prussian forces then in Pomerania, amounting to twelve thousand men, with whom he was encamped before Stetin, to cover that place, published in answer to this a declaration, enjoining the inhabitants of Pomerania to remain faithful to the king of Prussia, their lawful sovereign, under pain of incurring his just indignation, and absolutely forbidding them to pay any regard to the Swedish manifesto.

In the meantime, maresehal Lehwald, immediately after the battle of Norkitten, when the Russians began their retreat, detached prince George of Holstein-Got-torp, with a considerable body of forces, to the relief of Pomerania; and, shortly after, the Russian forces having totally evacuated every part of Prussia, except Memel, and most of them being actually gone into winter-quarters, he himself followed with an additional reinforcement of sixteen thousand men. Upon his approach, the Swedes, who were then encamped at Ferdinandshoff, and had begun to fill up the harbour of Swinnemunde, by way of previous preparation for the siege of Stetin, retired with such precipitation, that they did not allow themselves time to draw off a little garrison they had at Wollin, consisting of two hundred and ten men, who were made prisoners of war. Dem-min was cannonaded by the Prussians on the twenty-ninth of December; and the Swedes having lost one officer and forty men, desired to capitulate. As, in order to ease the troops, it was not thought proper to continue the siege in so sharp a season, their request was granted, and they had leave to retire with two pieces of cannon. The Prussians took possession of the town on the second day of January, after the Swedes had, on the thirtieth of December, likewise given up Anclam, where the conquerors took an hundred and fifty prisoners, and found a considerable magazine of provisions and ammunition. Maresehal Lehwald then passed the Pene, entered Swedish Pomerania, and reduced Gutzkow, Loitz, Tripsus, and Nebringen. At the same time, lieutenant-general Schorlemmer passed with his corps from the isle of Wollin into the isle of Usedom, and from thence to Wolgast, the Swedes having abandoned this town, as well as Schwinemunde, and the fort of Penemunde. The prince of Holstein advanced as far as Grimm and Grieffwalde, and the Swedes, losing one town after another, till they had nothing left in Pomerania but the port of Stralsund, continued retreating till they had reached this last place. The French party in Sweden, to comfort the people, called this retreat, or rather flight, going into winter-quarters. The Prussian hussars were not idle wherever they penetrated; for, besides plundering and pillaging, they raised a contribution of an hundred and sixty thousand crowns in Swedish Pomerania. The Mecklenburghers, who had joined the Swedes with six thousand of their troops, now found cause to repent of their forwardness, being left quite exposed to the resentment of the victors, who chastised them with the most severe exactions. The army of the Swedes, though they did not fight a battle, was, by sickness, desertion, and other accidents, reduced to half the number it consisted of when they took the field. The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, soon after his territories were invaded by the French, in consequence of their advantage in the affair of Hastenbeck, had applied to the king of Sweden, as one of the guarantees of the treaty of Westphalia, desiring him to employ his good offices with the court of France, to obtain a more favourable treatment for his dominions; but his Swedish majesty, by the advice of the senate, thought proper to refuse complying with this request, alleging, that as the crown of Sweden was one of the principal guarantees of the treaty of Westphalia, it would be highly improper to take such a step in favour of a prince who had not only broke the laws and constitution of the empire, in refusing to furnish his contingent, but had even assisted, with his troops, a power known to be its declared enemy. The Aulic council too, seeing, or pretending to see, the behaviour of the landgrave in the same light, issued a decree against his serene highness towards the end of this year.

MEMORIAL PRESENTED TO THE DUTCH.

The court of Great Britain, justly displeased with the Dutch, on account of the extreme facility with which they had granted the French a free passage through Namur and Maestricht for their provisions, ammunition, and artillery, in the beginning of this campaign, had very properly remonstrated against that step, before it-was absolutely resolved on, or at least declared to be so; but in vain; a pusillanimous answer being all the satisfaction that was obtained. The tameness and indifference with which the states-general has since seen Os-tend and Nieuport put into the hands of the French, drew upon their high mightinesses a further remonstrance, which was delivered to them on the twenty-eighth of November of this year by colonel Yorke, his Britannic majesty’s plenipotentiary at the Hague, in the following terms, well calculated to awaken in them a due sense of their own danger, as well as to evince the injustice of the proceedings of the house of Austria:--Considering the critical situation which Europe has been in during the course of this year, in consequence of measures concerted to embroil all Europe, the king of Great Britain was willing to flatter himself that the courts of Vienna and Versailles, out of regard to the circumspect conduct observed by your high mightinesses, would have at least informed you of the changes they have thought proper to make in the Austrian Netherlands. It was with the utmost surprise the king heard, that without any previous consent of yours, and almost without giving you any notice, the court of Vienna had thought proper to put the towns of Ostend and Nieuport into the hands of the French troops, and to withdraw her own, as well as her artillery and stores, whilst France continues to send thither a formidable quantity of both. The conduct of the court of Vienna towards his majesty is indeed so unmerited and so extraordinary, that it is difficult to find words to express it; but whatever fallacious pretexts she may have made use of to palliate her behaviour towards England, it doth not appear that they can be extended so far as to excuse the infringement, in concert with France, of the most solemn treaties between her and your high mightinesses. The king never doubted that your high mightinesses would have made proper representations to the two courts newly allied, to demonstrate the injustice of such a proceeding, and the danger that might afterwards result from it. Your high mightinesses will have perceived that your silence on the first step encouraged the two courts, newly allied, to attempt others, and who can say where they will stop? The pretext at first was, the need which the empress-queen stood in of the troops for the war kindled in the empire, and the necessity of providing for the safety of those important places, and afterwards of their imaginary danger from England. But, high and mighty lords, it is but too evident that the two powers who have taken these measures in concert, have other projects in view, and have made new regulations with regard to that country, which cannot but alarm the neighbouring states. The late demand made to your high mightinesses, of a passage for a large train of warlike implements through some of the barrier towns, in order to be sent to Ostend and Nieuport, could not fail to awaken the king’s attention. The sincere friendship, and parity of interests, of Great Britain and Holland, require that they should no longer keep silence, lest in the issue it should be considered as a tacit consent, and as a relinquishment of all our rights. The king commands me, therefore, to recall to your high mightinesses the two-fold right you have acquired to keep the Austrian Netherlands under the government of the house of Austria; and that no other has a title to make the least alteration therein, without the consent of your high mightinesses; unless the new allies have resolved to set aside all prior treaties, and to dispose at pleasure of everything that may suit their private interest. In the treaty between your high mightinesses and the crown of France, signed at Utrecht on the eleventh of April, one thousand seven hundred and thirteen, in the fifteenth article are these words: “It is also agreed, that no province, fort, town, or city of the said Netherlands, or of those which are given up by his catholic majesty, shall ever be ceded, transferred, or given, or shall ever devolve to the crown of France, or any prince or princess of the house or line of France, either by virtue of any gift, exchange, marriage contract, succession by will, or by any other title whatever, to the power and authority of the most christian king, or of any prince or princess of the house or line of France.” In the barrier-treaty these very stipulations are repeated in the first article: “His imperial and catholic majesty promises and engages, that no province, city, town, fortress, or territory of the said country, shall be ceded, transferred, given, or devolve to the crown of France, or to any other but the successor of the German dominions of the house of Austria, either by donation, sale, exchange, marriage-contract, heritage, testamentary succession, nor under any other pretext whatsoever; so that no province, town, fortress, or territory of the said Netherlands shall ever be subject to any other prince, but to the successor of the states of the house of Austria alone, excepting what has been yielded by the present treaty to the said lords the states-general. A bare reading of these two articles is sufficient to evince all that I have just represented to your high mightinesses: and whatever pretext the courts of Vienna and Versailles may allege, to cover the infraction of these treaties, the thing remains nevertheless evident, whilst these two courts are unable to prove that the towns of Ostend and Nieuport are not actually in the power of France. If their designs are just, or agreeable to those treaties, they will doubtless not scruple, in the least, to make your high mightinesses easy on that head, by openly explaining themselves to a quiet and pacific neighbour, and by giving you indisputable proofs of their intentions to fulfil the stipulations of the said two treaties with regard to the Netherlands. The king hath so much confidence in the good sense, prudence, and friendship of your high mightinesses, that he makes not the least doubt of your taking the most efficacious measures to clear up an affair of such importance; and of your being pleased, in concert with his majesty, to watch over the fate of a country whose situations and independence have, for more than a century, been regarded as one of the principal supports of your liberty and commerce.” It does not appear that this remonstrance had the desired effect upon the states-general, who were apprehensive of embroiling themselves with an enemy so remarkably alert in taking all advantages. The truth is, they were not only unprepared for a rupture with France, but extremely unwilling to forego the commercial profits which they derived from their neutrality.

The king of Prussia, about this period, began to harbour a suspicion that certain other powers longed eagerly to enjoy the same respite from the dangers and inconveniences of war, and that he ran the risk of being abandoned by his sole patron and ally, who seemed greatly alarmed at his defeat in Bohemia, and desirous of detaching himself from a connexion which might be productive of the most disagreeable consequences to his continental interest. Stimulated by this opinion, his Prussian majesty is said to have written an expostulatory letter [433] _[See note 3 L, at the end of this Vol.]_ to the king of Great Britain, in which he very plainly taxes that monarch with having instigated him to commence hostilities; and insists upon his remembering the engagements by which he was so solemnly bound. From the strain of this letter, and the Prussian king’s declaration to the British minister when he first set out for Saxony, importing that he was going to fight the king of England’s battles, a notion was generally conceived that those two powers had agreed to certain private pacts or conventions, the particulars of which have not yet transpired. Certain it is, a declaration was delivered to the Prussian resident at London, which appears to have been calculated as an answer to the letter. In that paper the king of Great Britain declared, that the overtures made by his majesty’s electoral ministers in Germany, touching the checks received on the continent, should have no influence on his majesty as king; that he saw, in the same light as before, the pernicious effects of the union between the courts of Vienna and Versailles, threatning a subversion of the whole system of public liberty, and of the independence of the European powers; that he considered as a fatal consequence of this dangerous connexion, the cession made by the court of Vienna of the ports in the Netherlands to France, in such a critical situation, and contrary to the faith of the most solemn treaties; that, whatever might be the success of his arms, his majesty was determined to act in constant concert with the king of Prussia in employing the most efficacious means to frustrate the unjust and oppressive designs of their common enemies. He concluded with assuring the king of Prussia, that the British crown would continue to fulfil, with the greatest punctuality, its engagements with his Prussian majesty, and to support him with firmness and vigour. Such a representation could not fail of being agreeable to a prince, who, at this juncture, stood in need of an extraordinary cordial. He knew he could securely depend, not only on the good faith of an English ministry, but also on the good plight of the British nation, which, like an indulgent nurse, hath always presented the nipple to her meagre German allies. Those, however, who pretended to consider and canvas events, without prejudice and prepossession, could not help owning their surprise at hearing an alliance stigmatized as pernicious to the system of public liberty, and subversive of the independence of the European powers, as they remembered that this alliance was the effect of necessity, to which the house of Austria was reduced for its own preservation; reduced, as its friends and partisans affirm, by those very potentates that now reproached her with these connexions.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

DISPUTES CONCERNING THE CONVENTION OF CLOSTER-SEVEN.

His Britannic majesty was resolved that the king of Prussia should have no cause to complain of his indifference, whatever reasons he had to exclaim against the convention of Closter-Seven, which he did not scruple to condemn as a very scandalous capitulation, as much as he disapproved of the conduct, in consequence of which near forty thousand men were so shamefully disarmed, and lost to his cause. Those stipulations also met with a very unfavourable reception in England, where the motions of the allied army, in their retreat before the enemy, were very freely censured, and some great names exposed to the ridicule and contempt of the public. This event, so singular in itself, and so important in its consequences, attracted the attention of the privy-council, where it is said to have been canvassed with great warmth and animosity of altercation. The general complained that he was restricted by peremptory orders from the regency of Hanover; and they were reported to have used recriminations in their defence. In all probability, every circumstance of the dispute was not explained to the satisfaction of all parties, inasmuch as that great commander quitted the harvest of military glory, and, like another Cincinnatus, retired to his plough. The convention of Closter-Seven was equally disagreeable to the courts of London and Versailles. The former saw the electorate of Hanover left, by this capitulation, at the mercy of the enemy, who had taken possession of the whole country, seized the revenues, exacted contributions, and changed the whole form of government, in the name of his most christian majesty; whilst the French army, which had been employed in opposing the Hanoverian, was now at liberty to throw their additional force into the scale against the king of Prussia, who, at that period, seemed to totter on the verge of destruction. On the other hand, the French ministry thought their general had granted too favourable terms to a body of forces, whom he had cooped up in such a manner that, in a little time, they must have surrendered at discretion. They, therefore, determined either to provoke the Hanoverians by ill usage to an infraction of the treaty, or, should that be found impracticable, renounce it as an imperfect convention, established without proper authority. Both expedients were used without reserve. They were no sooner informed of the capitulation, than they refused to acknowledge its validity, except on condition that the Hanoverian troops should formally engage to desist from all service against France and her allies during the present war, and be disarmed on their return to their own country. At the same time her general, who commanded in the electorate, exhausted the country by levying exorbitant contributions, and connived at such outrages as degraded his own dignity, and reflected disgrace on the character of his nation. The court of London, to make a merit of necessity, affected to consider the conventional act as a provisional armistice, to pave the way for a negotiation that might terminate in a general peace, and proposals were offered for that purpose; but the French ministry kept aloof, and seemed resolved that the electorate of Hanover should be annexed to their king’s dominions. At least, they were bent upon keeping it as a precious depositum, which, in the plan of a general pacification, they imagined, would counterbalance any advantage that Great Britain might obtain in other parts of the world. Had they been allowed to keep this deposit, the kingdom of Great Britain would have saved about twenty millions of money, together with the lives of her best soldiers; and Westphalia would have continued to enjoy all the blessings of security and peace. But the king of England’s tenderness for Hanover was one of the chief sources of the misfortunes which befel the electorate. He could not bear the thoughts of seeing it, even for a season, in the hands of the enemy; and his own sentiments in this particular were reinforced by the pressing remonstrances of the Prussian monarch, whom, at this juncture, he thought it dangerous to disoblige. Actuated by these motives, he was pleased to see the articles of the convention so palpably contravened, because the violation unbound his hands, and enabled him, consistently with good faith, to take effectual steps for the assistance of his ally, and the recovery of his own dominions. He, therefore, in quality of elector of Brunswick-Lunen-burgh, published a declaration, observing, “That his royal highness the duke of Cumberland had, on his part, honestly fulfilled all the conditions of the convention; but the duke de Richelieu demanded that the troops should enter into an engagement specified above, and lay down their arms; although it was expressly stipulated in the convention, that they should not be regarded as prisoners of war, under which quality alone they could be disarmed: that the French court pretended to treat the convention as a military regulation only; and, indeed, it was originally nothing more; but as they had expressly disowned its validity, and a negotiation had been actually begun for disarming the auxiliaries, upon certain conditions, though the French general would never answer categorically, but waited always for fresh instructions from Versailles, the nature of that act was totally changed, and what was at first an agreement between general and general, was now become a matter of state between the two courts of London and Versailles: that, however hard the conditions of the convention appeared to be for the troops of Hanover, his Britannic majesty would have acquiesced in them, had not the French glaringly discovered their design of totally ruining his army and his dominions; and, by the most outrageous conduct, freed his Britannic majesty from every obligation under which he had been laid by the contention: that, in the midst of the armistice, the most open hostilities had been committed; the castle of Schartzfels had been forcibly seized and pillaged, and the garrison made prisoners of war; the prisoners made by the French before the convention had not been restored, according to an express article stipulated between the generals, though it had been fulfilled on the part of the electorate, by the immediate release of the French prisoners; the bailies of those districts, from which the French troops were excluded by mutual agreement, had been summoned, on pain of military execution, to appear before the French commissary, and compelled to deliver into his hands the public revenue: the French had appropriated to themselves part of those magazines, which, by express agreement, were destined for the use of the electoral troops; and they had seized the houses, revenue, and corn, belonging to the king of England in the city of Bremen, in violation of their engagement to consider that city as a place absolutely free and neutral. Pie took notice, that they had proceeded to menaces unheard of among civilized people, of burning, sacking, and destroying every thing that fell in their way, should the least hesitation be made in executing the convention according to their interpretation.”--Such were the professed considerations that determined his Britannic majesty to renounce the agreement which they had violated, and have recourse to arms for the relief of his subjects and allies. It was in consequence of this determination that he conferred the command of his electoral army on prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, brother to the duke of that name, who had distinguished himself in the Prussian army by his great military talents, and was, by blood and inclination, as well as interest, supposed warmly attached to his Britannic majesty. The truth is, the king of Prussia recommended him to this command, because he knew he could depend upon his concurring with all his measures, in conducting the operations of the British army. The duke de Richelieu was no sooner informed of these particulars, than he sent a letter to prince Ferdinand, specifying, “That although for some days he had perceived the Hanoverian troops in motion, in order to form themselves into a body, he could not imagine the object of these movements was to infringe the convention of neutrality which had been established between the duke of Cumberland and himself, as French general; that he was blinded so far by his confidence in the good faith of the elector of Hanover, who had signed that convention, as to believe the troops were assembled for no other purpose than to be distributed into winter-quarters, which had been assigned them by the agreement; but his eyes were at last opened by repeated advices which he had received from all quarters, importing, that the Hanoverians intended to infringe those articles which ought to be sacred and inviolable; he affirmed, the king his master was still willing to give fresh proofs of his moderation, and his desire to spare the effusion of human blood: with that view he declared to his serene highness, in the name of his most christian majesty, that he persisted in his resolution of fulfilling exactly all the points of the convention, provided that they should be equally observed by the Hanoverian army; but he could not help apprising his serene highness, that if this army should take any equivocal step, and, still more, should it commit any act of hostility, he would then push matters to the last extremity, looking upon himself as authorized so to do by the rules of war: that he would set fire to all palaces, houses, and gardens; sack all the towns and villages, without sparing the most inconsiderable cottage, and subject the country to all the horrors of war and devastation. He conjured his serene highness to reflect on these

## particulars, and begged he would not lay him under the necessity of

taking steps so contrary to his own personal character, as well as to the natural humanity of the French nation.” To this letter, which was seconded by the count de Lynar, the Danish ambassador, who had mediated the convention, prince Ferdinand returned a very laconic answer, intimating, that he would give the duke de Richelieu his answer in person at the head of his army. At this particular juncture, the French general was disposed to abide by the original articles of the convention, rather than draw upon himself the hostilities of an army which he knew to be brave, resolute, and well appointed, and which he saw at present animated with an eager desire of wiping out the disgrace they had sustained by the capitulation, as well as of relieving their country from the grievous oppression wider which it groaned.

PROGRESS OF THE HANOVERIAN ARMY.

About the latter end of November, the Hanoverian army was wholly assembled at Stade, under the auspices of prince Ferdinand, who resolved without delay to drive the French from the electorate, whither they now began their march. Part of the enemy’s rear, consisting of two thousand men, was, in their march back to Zell, attacked in the bailiwick of Ebstorff, and entirely defeated by general Schuylenbourg; and, in a few days after this action, another happened upon the river Aller, between two considerable bodies of each army, in which the Hanoverians, commanded by general Zastrow, remained masters of the field. These petty advantages served to encourage the allies, and put them in possession of Lunen-burgh, Zell, and part of the Brunswick dominions, which the enemy were obliged to abandon. The operations of prince Ferdinand, however, were retarded by the resolution and obstinate perseverance of the French officer who commanded the garrison of Harbourg. When the Hanoverian troops made themselves masters of the town, he retired into the castle, which he held out against a considerable detachment of the allied army, by whom it was invested; at length, however, the fortifications being entirely demolished, he surrendered upon capitulation. On the sixth day of December, prince Ferdinand began his march towards Zell, where the French army had taken post, under the command of the duke de Richelieu, who, at the approach of the Hanoverians, called in his advanced parties, abandoned several magazines, burned all the farm-houses and buildings belonging to the sheep-walks of his Britannic majesty, without paying the least regard to the representations made by prince Ferdinand on this subject; reduced the suburbs of Zell to ashes, after having allowed his men to plunder the houses, and even set fire to the orphan hospital, in which a great number of helpless children are said to have perished. One cannot, without horror, reflect upon such brutal acts of inhumanity. The French troops on divers occasions, and in different parts of the empire, acted tragedies of the same nature, which are not easily reconcileable to the character of a nation famed for sentiment and civility. The Hanoverians having advanced within a league of Zell, the two armies began to cannonade each other; the French troops, posted on the right of the Aller, burned their magazines, and retired into the town, where they were so strongly intrenched, that prince Ferdinand could not attempt the river, the passes of which were strongly guarded by the enemy. At the same time, his troops were exposed to great hardships from the severity of the weather; he, therefore, retreated to Ultzen and Lunenburgh, where his army was put into winter-quarters, and executed several small enterprises by detachment, while the French general fixed his headquarters in the city of Hanover, his cantonments extending as far as Zell, in the neighbourhood of which many sharp skirmishes were fought from the out-parties with various success. Their imperial majesties were no sooner apprized of these transactions, which they considered as infractions of the convention, than they sent an intimation to the baron de Steinberg, minister from the king of Great Britain as elector of Hanover, that he should appear no more at court, or confer with their ministers; and that his residing at Vienna, as he might easily conceive, could not be very agreeable: in consequence of which message he retired, after having obtained the necessary passports for his departure. The chagrin occasioned at the court of Vienna by the Hanoverian army’s having recourse to their arms again, was, in some measure, alleviated by the certain tidings received from Petersburgh, that the czarina had signed her accession in form to the treaty between the courts of Vienna, Versailles, and Stockholm.

DEATH OF THE QUEEN OF POLAND, &c.

In closing our account of this year’s transactions on the continent, we may observe, that on the sixteenth day of November the queen of Poland died at Berlin of an apoplexy, supposed to be occasioned by the shock she received on hearing that the French were totally defeated at Rosbach. She was a lady of exemplary virtue and piety; whose constitution had been broke by grief and anxiety conceived from the distress of her own family, as well as from the misery to which she saw her people exposed. With respect to the European powers that were not actually engaged as principals in the war, they seemed industriously to avoid every step that might be construed as a deviation from the most scrupulous neutrality. The states-general proceeded with great circumspection, in the middle course between two powerful neighbours, equally jealous and formidable; and the king of Spain was gratified for his forbearance with a convention settled between him and the belligerent powers, implying, that his subjects should per-sue their commerce at sea without molestation, provided they should not transport those articles of merchandise which were deemed contraband by all nations. The operations at sea, during the course of this year, either in Europe or America, were far from being decisive or important. The commerce of Great Britain sustained considerable damage from the

## activity and success of French privateers, of which a great number had

been equipped in the islands of Martinique and Gaudaloupe. The Greenwich ship of war, mounted with fifty guns, and a frigate of twenty, fell into the hands of the enemy, together with a very considerable number of trading vessels. On the other hand, the English cruisers and privateers acquitted themselves with equal vigilance and valour. The duc d’Aquitaine, a large ship of fifty guns, was taken in the month of June by two British ships of war, after a severe engagement; and, about the same time, the Aquilon, of nearly the same force, was driven ashore and destroyed near Brest by the Antelope, one of the British cruisers. A French frigate of twenty-six guns, called the Emeraude, was taken in the channel, after a warm engagement, by an English ship of inferior force, under the command of captain Gilchrist, a gallant and alert officer, who, in the sequel, signalized himself on divers occasions, by very extraordinary acts of valour. All the sea officers seemed to be animated with a noble emulation to distinguish themselves in the service of their country, and the spirit descended even to the captains of privateers, who, instead of imitating the former commanders of that class, in avoiding ships of force, and centering their whole attention in advantageous prizes, now encountered the armed ships of the enemy, and fought with the most obstinate valour in the pursuit of national glory.

FATE OF CAPTAIN DEATH.

Perhaps history cannot afford a more remarkable instance of desperate courage than that which was exerted in December of the preceding year, by the officers and crew of an English privateer, named the Terrible, under the command of captain William Death, equipped with twenty-six carriage guns, and manned with two hundred sailors. On the twenty-third day of the month he engaged and made prize of a large French ship from St. Domingo, after an obstinate battle, in which he lost his own brother and sixteen seamen; then he secured with forty men his prize, which contained a valuable cargo, and directed his course to England; but in a few days he had the misfortune to fall in with the Vengeance, a privateer of St. Maloes, carrying thirty-six large cannon, with a complement of three hundred and sixty men. Their first step was to attack the prize, which was easily retaken; then the two ships bore down upon the Terrible, whose main-mast was shot away by the first broadside. Notwithstanding this disaster, the Terrible maintained such a furious engagement against both as can hardly be paralleled in the annals of Britain. The French commander and his second was killed, with two-thirds of his company; but the gallant Captain Death, with the greater part of his officers, and almost his whole crew, having met with the same fate, his ship was boarded by the enemy, who found no more than twenty-six persons alive, sixteen of whom were mutilated by the loss of leg or arm, and the other ten grievously wounded. The ship itself was so shattered, that it could scarce be kept above water, and the whole exhibited a scene of blood, horror, and desolation. The victor itself lay like a wreck on the surface; and in this condition made shift, with great difficulty, to tow the Terrible* into St. Maloes, where she was not beheld without astonishment and terror.

* There was a strange combination of names belonging to this privateer; the Terrible, equipped at Execution Dock, commanded by captain Death, whose lieutenant was called Devil, and who had one Ghost for surgeon.

This adventure was no sooner known in England, than a liberal subscription was raised for the support of Death’s widow, and that part of the crew which survived the engagement. In this, and every sea reincounter that happened within the present year, the superiority in skill and resolution was ascertained to the British mariners; for even when they fought against great odds, their courage was generally crowned with success. In the month of November, captain Lockhart, a young gentleman who had already rendered himself a terror to the enemy as commander of a small frigate, now added considerably to his reputation by reducing the Melampe, a French privateer of Bayonne, greatly superior to his own ship in number of men and weight of metal. This exploit was seconded by another of the same nature, in his conquest of another French adventurer, called the Countess of Gramont; and a third large privateer of Bayonne was taken by captain Saumarez, commander of the Antelope. In a word, the narrow seas were so well guarded, that in a little time scarce a French ship durst appear in the English channel, which the British traders navigated without molestation.

SESSION OPENED.

On the first day of December, the king of Great Britain opened the session of parliament with a speech from the throne, which seemed calculated to prepare the nation for the expense of maintaining a new war on the continent of Europe. His majesty graciously declared that it would have given him a most sensible pleasure to acquaint them, at the opening of the session, that his success in carrying on the war had been equal to the justice of his cause, and the extent and vigour of the measures formed for that purpose. He expressed the firmest confidence, that the spirit and bravery of the nation, so renowned in all times, which had formerly surmounted so many difficulties, were not to be abated by a few disappointments, which, he trusted, might be retrieved by the blessing of God, and the zeal and ardour of his parliament for his majesty’s honour and the advantage of their country. He said it was his determined resolution to apply his utmost efforts for the security of his kingdoms, and for the recovery and protection of the possessions and rights of his crown and subjects in America and elsewhere, as well by the strongest exertion of his naval force, as by all other methods. He signified, that another great object which he had at heart, was the preservation of the protestant religion and the liberties of Europe; and, in that case, to encourage and adhere to his allies. For this cause, he assured them, he would decline no inconveniencies, and in this cause he earnestly solicited their hearty concurrence and vigorous assistance. He observed, that the late signal success in Germany had given a happy turn to affairs, which it was incumbent on them to improve; and that, in such a critical conjuncture, the eyes of all Europe were upon them. He particularly recommended to them, that his good brother and ally the king of Prussia might be supported in such a manner as his magnanimity and active zeal for the common cause appeared to deserve. To the commons he expressed his concern that the large supplies they had already granted did not produce all the good fruits they had reason to expect; but he had so great a reliance on their wisdom, as not to doubt of their perseverance. He only desired suck supplies as should be necessary for the public service, and told them they might depend upon it, that the best and most faithful economy should be used. He took notice of that spirit of disorder which had shown itself among the common people in some parts of the kingdom; he laid injunctions upon them to use their endeavours for discouraging and suppressing such abuses, and for maintaining the laws and lawful authority. He concluded with observing, that nothing would so effectually conduce to the defence of all that was clear to the nation, as well as to the reducing their enemies to reason, as union and harmony among themselves. The time was, when every paragraph of this harangue, which the reader will perceive is not remarkable for its elegance and propriety, would have been canvassed and impugned by the country party in the house of commons. They would have imputed the bad success of the war to the indiscretion of the ministry, in taking preposterous measures, and appointing commanders unequal to the service. They would have inquired in what manner the protestant religion was endangered; and, if it was, how it could be preserved or promoted by adhering to allies, who, without provocation, had well nigh ruined the first and principal protestant country of the empire. They would have started doubts with respect to the late signal success in Germany, and hinted, that it would only serve to protract the burden of a continental war. They would have owned that the eyes of all Europe were upon them, and drawn this consequence, that it therefore behoved them to act with the more delicacy and caution in discharge of the sacred trust reposed in them by their constituents: a trust which their consciences would not allow to be faithfully discharged, should they rush precipitately into the destructive measures of a rash and prodigal ministry; squander away the wealth of the nation, and add to the grievous incumbrances under which it groaned, in support of connexions and alliances that were equally foreign to her consideration, and pernicious to her interest. They would have investigated that cause which was so warmly recommended for support, and pretended to discover that it was a cause in which Great Britain ought to have had no concern, because it produced a certainty of loss without the least prospect of advantage. They would have varied essentially in their opinions of the necessary supplies, from the sentiments of those who prepared the estimates, and even declared some doubts about the economy to be used in managing the national expense: finally, they would have represented the impossibility of union between the two parties, one of which seemed bent upon reducing the other to beggary and contempt. Such was the strain that used to flow from an opposition, said to consist of disloyalty and disappointed ambition. But that malignant spirit was now happily extinguished. The voice of the sovereign was adored as the oracle of a divinity, and those happy days were now approaching that saw the commons of England pour their treasures, in support of a German prince, with such a generous hand, that posterity will be amazed at their liberality.

{1758}

To the speech of his majesty the house of lords returned an address, in such terms of complacency as had long distinguished that illustrious assembly. The commons expressed their approbation and confidence with equal ardour, and not one objection was made to the form or the nature of the address, though one gentleman, equally independent in his mind and fortune, took exceptions to some of the measures which had been lately pursued. Their complaisance was more substantially specified in the resolutions of the house, as soon as the two great committees of supply were appointed They granted for the sea-service of the ensuing year sixty thousand men, including fourteen thousand eight hundred and forty-five marines; and the standing army, comprehending four thousand invalids, was fixed at fifty-three thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven effective men, commission and non-commission officers included. For the maintenance of these forces, by sea and land, the charge of guards and garrisons at home and abroad, the expense of the ordnance, and in order to make good the sum which had been issued by his majesty’s orders, in pursuance of the address from the commons, they now allotted four millions twenty-two thousand eight hundred and seven pounds, seven shillings and three-pence. They unanimously granted, as a present supply in the then critical exigency, towards enabling his majesty to maintain and keep together the army formed last year in his electoral dominions, and then again put in motion, and actually employed against the common enemy, in concert with the king of Prussia, the sum of one hundred thousand pounds; for the ordinary of the navy, including half pay to the sea-officers, they allowed two hundred and twenty-four thousand four hundred and twenty-one pounds, five shillings and eight-pence; towards the building and support of the three hospitals for seamen at Gosport, Plymouth, and Greenwich, thirty thousand pounds; for the reduced officers of the land-forces and marines, pensions to the widows of officers, and other such military contingencies, forty thousand nine hundred and twenty-six pounds, seventeen shillings and eleven-pence; towards building, rebuilding, and repairs of his majesty’s ships for the ensuing year, the sum of two hundred thousand pounds; for defraying the charge of two thousand nine hundred and twenty horse, and nine thousand nine hundred infantry, together with the general and staff-officers, the officers of the hospital and the train of artillery, being the troops of the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel in the pay of Great Britain, for sixty days, together with the subsidy for the said time, pursuant to treaty, they assigned thirty-eight thousand three hundred and sixty pounds, nineteen shillings and ten-pence three farthings. To the Foundling hospital they gave forty thousand pounds, for the maintenance and education of deserted young children, as well as for the reception of all such as should be presented under a certain age, to be limited by the governors and guardians of that charity. Three hundred thousand pounds were given towards discharging the debt of the navy, and two hundred and eighty-four thousand eight hundred and two pounds for making up the deficiency of the grants for the service of the preceding year. The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel was, moreover, gratified with the further sum of two hundred and three thousand five hundred and thirty-six pounds, four shillings and nine-pence farthing, for the maintenance of his forces, and the remainder of his subsidy. They granted six hundred and seventy thousand pounds for enabling his majesty to make good his engagements with the king of Prussia, pursuant to a convention lately concluded with that potentate. For defraying the charge of thirty-eight thousand men of the troops of Hanover, Wolfenbuttel, Saxe-Gotha, and the count of Buckebourg, together with that of general and staff-officers actually employed against the common enemy, in concert with the king of Prussia, from the twenty-eighth day of November in the last, to the twenty-fourth of December in the present year, inclusive, to be issued in advance every two months, they allotted the sum of four hundred and sixty-three thousand and eighty-four pounds, six shillings and ten-pence; and furthermore, they granted three hundred and eighty-six thousand nine hundred and fifteen pounds, thirteen shillings and two-pence, to defray the charges of forage, bread-waggons, train of artillery, provisions, wood, straw, and all other extraordinary expenses, contingencies, and losses whatsoever, incurred, or to be incurred, on account of his majesty’s army, consisting of thirty-eight thousand men, actually employed against the common enemy, in concert with the king of Prussia, from November last to next December inclusive. For the extraordinary expenses of the land-forces, and other services, incurred in the course of the last year, and not provided for by parliament, they allowed one hundred and forty-five thousand four hundred and fifty-four pounds, fifteen shillings and one farthing. They provided eight hundred thousand pounds to enable his majesty to defray the like sum raised in pursuance of an act made in the last session of parliament, and charged upon the first aids and supplies to be granted in the current session. Twenty-six thousand pounds were bestowed on the out-pensioners of Chelsea hospital; above twenty thousand for the expense of maintaining the colonies of Nova-Scotia and Georgia; for reimbursing to the province of Massachusett’s-bay, and the colony of Connecticut, their expense in furnishing provisions and stores to the troops raised by them for his majesty’s service, in the campaign of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, the sum of forty-one thousand one hundred and seventeen pounds, seventeen shillings and sixpence halfpenny; to be applied towards the rebuilding of London bridge, carrying on the works for fortifying and securing the harbour of Milford, and repairing the parish church of St. Margaret, in Westminster, they allotted twenty-nine thousand pounds. The East India company were indulged with twenty thousand pounds on account, towards enabling them to defray the expense of a military force in their settlements, to be maintained by them in lieu of the battalion of his majesty’s forces withdrawn from those settlements; the sum of ten thousand pounds was given, as usual, for maintaining and supporting the British forts and settlements on the coast of Africa; and eleven thousand four hundred and fifty pounds were granted as an augmentation to the salaries of the judges in the superior courts of judicature. They likewise provided one hundred thousand pounds for defraying the charge of pay and clothing to the militia, and advanced eight hundred thousand pounds to enable his majesty to defray any extraordinary expenses of the war, incurred, or to be incurred, for the service of the current year; and to take all such measures as might be necessary to disappoint or defeat any enterprise or designs of his enemies, as the exigency of his affairs might require. The whole supplies of thig session amounted to the enormous sum of ten millions four hundred and eighty-six thousand four hundred and fifty-seven pounds, and one penny. Nothing could so plainly demonstrate the implicit confidence which the parliament, at this juncture, reposed in the sovereign and the ministry, as their conduct in granting such liberal supplies, great part of which were bestowed in favour of our German allies, whom the British nation thus generously paid for fighting their own battles. Besides the sum of one million eight hundred and sixty-one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven pounds, four shillings and eight-pence, expressly assigned for the support of these continental connexions, a sum considerably exceeding the whole of the revenue raised in the reign of Charles the Second, and what part of the sum granted to the king for extraordinary expenses might be applied to the same use, the article might not improperly be swelled with the vast expense incurred by expeditions to the coast of France; the chief, if not sole, design of which seemed to be a diversion in favour of the nation’s allies in Germany, by preventing France from sending such numerous armies into that country as it could have spared, had not its sea-coasts required a considerable body of forces for its defence against the attempts of the English. Indeed, the partisans of the ministry were at great pains to suggest and inculcate a belief, that the war in Germany was chiefly supported as a necessary diversion in favour of Great Britain and her plantations, which would have been exposed to insult and invasion had not the enemy’s forces been otherwise employed. But the absurdity of this notion will at once appear to those who consider, that by this time Great Britain was sole mistress of the sea; that the navy of France was almost ruined, and her commerce on the ocean quite extinguished; that she could not, with the least prospect of success, hazard any expedition of consequence against Great Britain, or any part of her dominions, while the ocean was covered with such powerful navies belonging to that nation; and that if one-third part of the money, annually engulphed in the German vortex, had been employed in augmenting the naval forces of England, and those forces properly exerted, not a single cruiser would have been able to stir from the harbours of France; all her colonies in the West Indies would have fallen an easy prey to the arms of Great Britain; and, thus cut off from the resources of commerce, she must have been content to embrace such terms of peace as the victor should have thought proper to prescribe.

The funds established by the committee of ways and means, in order to realize those articles of supply, consisted of the malt-tax, the land-tax at four shillings in the pound, sums remaining in the exchequer produced from the sinking fund, four millions five hundred thousand pounds to be raised by annuities at three pounds ten shillings per cent, per annum, and five hundred thousand pounds by a lottery, attended with annuities redeemable by parliament, after the rate of three pounds per cent, per annum; these several annuities to be transferable at the bank of England, and charged upon a fund to be established in this session of parliament for payment thereof, and for which the sinking fund should be a collateral security--[438] _[See note 3 M, at the end of this Vol.]_--one million six hundred and six thousand and seventy-six pounds, five shillings and one penny farthing, issued and applied out of such monies as should or might arise from the surpluses, excesses, and other revenues composing the sinking fund--a tax of one shilling in the pound to be annually paid from all salaries, fees, and perquisites of offices and employments in Great Britain, and from all pensions and other gratuities payable out of any revenues belonging to his majesty in Great Britain, exceeding the yearly value of one hundred pounds--an imposition of one shilling annually upon every dwelling-house inhabited within the kingdom of Great Britain, over and above all other duties already chargeable upon them, to commence from the fifth day of April--an additional tax of sixpence yearly for every window or light in every dwelling-house inhabited in Britain which shall contain fifteen windows or upwards; a continuation of certain acts near expiring, with respect to the duties payable on foreign sailcloth imported into Great Britain, the exportation of British gunpowder, the securing and encouraging the trade of his majesty’s sugar colonies in America, and the empowering the importers and proprietors of spirits from the British sugar plantations, to land them before payment of the duties of excise, and to lodge them in warehouses at their own expense--an annual tax of forty shillings for a license to be taken out by every person trading in, selling, or vending gold or silver plate, in lieu of the duty of sixpence per ounce on all silver plate, made or wrought, or which ought to be touched, assayed, or marked in this kingdom, which duty now ceased and determined--a cessation of all drawbacks payable on the exportation of silver plate--a law prohibiting all persons from selling, by retail, any sweet or made wine, without having first procured a license for that purpose--and a loan, by exchequer bills, for eight hundred thousand pounds, to be charged on the first aids to be granted in the next session of parliament. These provisions amounted to the sum of eleven millions and seventy-nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-two pounds, six shillings and ten-pence, exceeding the grants in the sum of five hundred and ninety-three thousand two hundred and sixty-five pounds, six shillings and nine-pence, so that the nation had reason to hope that this surplus of above half a million would prevent any demand for deficiencies in the next session. By these copious grants of a house of commons, whose complaisance knew no bounds, the national debt was, at this juncture, swelled to the astonishing sum of eighty-seven millions three hundred and sixty-seven thousand two hundred and ten pounds, nineteen shillings and ten-pence farthing; a load that would have crushed the national credit of any other state in Christendom.

The liberality of the parliament was like the rock in the wilderness, which flowed with the welcome stream when touched by the rod of Moses. The present supply which the commons granted for the subsistence of the Hanoverian army, was, in pursuance of a message from his majesty, communicated to the house by Mr. Secretary Pitt, signifying, that the king had ordered his electoral army to be put again in motion, that it might act with vigour against the common enemy, in concert with his good brother and ally the king of Prussia; that the exhausted and ruined state of the electorate having rendered it incapable of maintaining that army, until the further necessary charge thereof, as well as the more

## particular measures then concerting for the effectual support of his

Prussian majesty, could be laid before the house; the king, relying on the constant zeal of his faithful commons for the support of the protestant religion and of the liberties of Europe, against the dangerous designs of France and her confederates, found himself, in the meantime, under the absolute necessity of recommending to the house the speedy consideration of such a present supply as might enable his majesty, in this critical conjuncture, to subsist and keep together the said army. This address was no sooner recited by the speaker, than it was unanimously referred to the committee of supply, who gratified his majesty’s wish with an immediate resolution; and, considering their generous disposition, doubtless the same compliance would have appeared, even though no mention had been made of the protestant religion, which, to men of ordinary penetration, appeared to have no natural concern in the present dispute between the belligerent powers, although former ministers had often violently introduced it into messages and speeches from the throne, in order to dazzle the eyes of the populace, even while they insulted the understanding of those who were capable of exercising their own reason. This pretext was worn so threadbare, that, among the sensible part of mankind, it could no longer be used without incurring contempt and ridicule. In order to persuade mankind that the protestant religion was in danger, it would have been necessary to specify the designs that were formed against it, as well as the nature of the conspiracy, and to descend to particulars properly authenticated. In that case, great part of Europe would have been justly alarmed. The states-general of the United Provinces, who have made such glorious and indefatigable efforts in support of the protestant religion, would surely have lent a helping hand towards its preservation. The Danes would not have stood, tamely neutral, and seen the religion they profess exposed to the rage of such a powerful confederacy. It is not to be imagined that the Swedes, who have so zealously maintained the purity of the protestant faith, would now join an association whose aim was the ruin of that religion. It is not credible that even the Hungarians, who profess the same faith, and other protestant states of the empire, would enter so heartily into the interests of those who were bent upon its destruction; or that the Russians would contribute to the aggrandizement of the catholic faith and discipline, so opposite to that of the Greek church, which they espouse. As, therefore, no particular of such a design was explained, no act of oppression towards any protestant state or society pointed out, except those that were exercised by the protestants themselves; and as the court of Vienna repeatedly disavowed any such design, in the most solemn manner, the unprejudiced part of mankind will be ‘apt to conclude that the cry of religion was used, as in former times, to arouse, alarm, and inflame; nor did the artifice prove altogether unsuccessful. Notwithstanding the general lukewarmth of the age in matters of religion, it produced considerable effect among the fanatic sectaries that swarm through the kingdom of England. The leaders of those blind enthusiasts, either actuated by the spirit of delusion, or desirous of recommending themselves to the protection of the higher powers, immediately seized the hint, expatiating vehemently on the danger that impended over God’s people; and exerting all their faculties to impress the belief of a religious war, which never fails to exasperate and impel the minds of men to such deeds of cruelty and revenge as must discredit all religion, and even disgrace humanity. The signal trust and confidence which the parliament of England reposed in the king, at this juncture, was in nothing more conspicuous than in leaving to the crown the unlimited application of the sum granted for augmenting the salaries of the judges. In the reign of king William, when the act of settlement was passed, the parliament, jealous of the influence which the crown might acquire over the judges, provided, by an express clause of that act, that the commissions of the judges should subsist _quamdiu se bene gesserint_, and that their salaries should be established; but now we find a sum of money granted for the augmentation of their salaries, and the crown vested with a discretionary power to proportion and apply this augmentation; a stretch of complaisance, which, how safe soever it may appear during the reign of a prince famed for integrity and moderation, will perhaps one day be considered as a very dangerous accession to the prerogative.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

SECOND TREATY WITH PRUSSIA.

So fully persuaded were the ministry that the commons would cheerfully enable them to pay what subsidies they might promise to their German allies, that on the eleventh of April they concluded a new treaty of convention with his Prussian majesty, which, that it might have the firmer consistence and the greater authority, was, on the part of Great Britain, transacted and signed by almost all the privy-counsellors who had any share in the administration.*

* These were, sir Robert Henly, lord keeper of the great seal; John, earl of Granville, president of the council; Thomas Holies, duke of Newcastle, first commissioner of the treasury; Kohert, earl of Holdernesse, one of the principal secretaries of state; Philip, earl of Hardwicke; and William Pitt, esq., another of the principal secretaries of state. In the name and on the part of his Prussian majesty, the Sieurs Dado Henry, baron of Knyphausen, his privy-counsellor of embassy, and minister-plenipotentiary at the court of London; and Louis Michel, his resident and chargé d’affaires.

This treaty, which was signed at Westminster, imported, “That the contracting powers having mutually resolved to continue their efforts for their reciprocal defence and security, for the recovery of their possessions, the protection of their allies, and the support of the liberties of the Germanic body, his Britannic majesty had, from these considerations, determined to grant to his Prussian majesty an immediate succour in money, as being the most ready and the most efficacious; and their majesties having judged it proper that thereupon a convention should be made, for declaring and fixing their intentions upon this head, they had nominated and authorized their respective ministers, who, after having communicated their full powers to one another, agreed to the following stipulations:--The king of Great Britain engaged to pay in the city of London, to such persons as should be authorized to receive it by his Prussian majesty, the sum of four millions of German crowns, amounting to six hundred and seventy thousand pounds sterling, to be paid at once, and in one whole sum, immediately after the exchange of ratification, upon being demanded by his Prussian majesty. This prince, on his part, obliged himself to apply that sum to the maintaining and augmenting his forces, which should act in the best manner for the good of the common cause, and for the purpose of reciprocal defence and mutual security proposed by their said majesties. Moreover, the high contracting parties engage not to conclude any treaty of peace, truce, or neutrality, nor any other sort of convention or agreement, with the powers engaged in the present war, but in concert and by mutual agreement, wherein both should be nominally comprehended. Finally, it was stipulated that this convention should be ratified, and the ratifications exchanged on both sides, within the term of six weeks, to be computed from the day of signing this present convention, or sooner, if possible.”

All the resolutions to which the committee of ways and means agreed were executed by bills, or clauses in bills, which afterwards received the royal sanction. The militia still continued to be an object of parliamentary care and attention; but the institution was not yet heartily embraced, because seemingly discountenanced by the remnant of the old ministry, which still maintained a capital place in the late coalition, and indeed almost wholly engrossed the distribution of pensions and places. The commons having presented an address to his majesty, with respect to the harbour of Milford-haven, a book of plans and estimates for fortifying that harbour was laid before the house, and a committee appointed to examine the particulars. They were of opinion that the mouth of the harbour was too wide to admit of any fortification, or effectual defence; but that the passage called Nailand-point, lying higher than Hubberstone-road, might be fortified, so as to afford safe riding and protection to the trade and navy of Great Britain; that if it should be thought proper hereafter to establish a yard and dock for building and equipping fleets at Milford, no place could, from the situation, nature, soil, and a general concurrence of all necessary local circumstances, be more fitted for such a design; that if a proper use were made of this valuable, though long-neglected harbour, the distressful delays too often embarrassing and disappointing the nation in her naval operations, might be in a great measure happily removed, to the infinite relief and enlargement of the kingdom in the means of improving its naval force; the necessary progress and free execution of which was now so unhappily and frequently restrained and frustrated, by the want of a harbour like that of Milford-haven, framed by nature with such local advantages. This report appeared to be so well supported by evidence, that a bill was framed, and passed into an act, for granting ten thousand pounds towards carrying on the works for fortifying and securing the harbour of Milford in the county of Pembroke. Other laws of national consequence were enacted, in the course of this session, with little or no opposition. On the very first day of their sitting, the commons received a petition from the mayor, magistrates, merchants, and inhabitants of Liverpool, complaining of the high price of wheat and other grain; expressing their apprehension that it would continue to rise, unless the time for the importation of foreign corn, duty free, should be prolonged, or some other salutary measure taken by parliament, to prevent dealers from engrossing corn; submitting to the wisdom of the house a total prohibition of distilling and exporting grain while the high price should continue; praying they would take the premises into consideration, and grant a seasonable relief to the petitioners, by a continuance of a free importation, and taking such other effectual means to reduce the growing price of corn as to them should seem necessary and expedient. This being an urgent case, that equally interested the humanity of the legislature and the manufacturers of the kingdom, it was deliberated upon, and discussed with remarkable despatch. In a few days a bill was prepared, passed through both houses, and enacted into a law, continuing till the twenty-fourth day of December, in the present year, the three acts of last session; for prohibiting the exportation of corn; for prohibiting the distillation of spirits; and for allowing the importation of corn, duty free. A second law was established, regulating the price and assize of bread, and subjecting to severe penalties those who should be concerned in its adulteration. In consequence of certain resolutions taken in a committee of the whole house, a bill was presented for prohibiting the payment of the bounty upon the exportation of corn, unless sold at a lower price than is allowed in an act passed in the first year of the reign of William and Mary; but this bill, after having been read a second time and committed, was neglected, and proved abortive.

BILLS FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF SEAMEN, &c.

In consequence of a motion made by Mr. Grenville, a humane bill was prepared and brought in for the encouragement of seamen employed in the royal navy, establishing a regular method for the punctual, frequent, and certain payment of their wages; enabling them more easily and readily to remit money for the support of their wives and families, and preventing the frauds and abuse attending such payments. This bill, having passed the lower house, engaged in a very particular manner the attention of the lords, who, by divers messages to the house of commons, desired the attendance of several members. These messages being taken into consideration, several precedents were recited; a debate arose about their formality, and the house unanimously resolved that a message should be sent to the lords, acquainting them that the house of commons, not being sufficiently informed by their messages upon what grounds, or for what purposes, their lordships desired the house would give leave to such of their members as were named in the said messages to attend the house of lords, in order to be examined upon the second reading of the bill, the commons hoped their lordships would make them acquainted with their intention. The lords, in answer to this intimation, gave the commons to understand, that they desired the attendance of the members mentioned in their messages, that they might be examined as witnesses upon the second reading of the bill. This explanation being deemed satisfactory, the members attended the house of lords, where they were carefully and fully examined, as persons conversant in sea affairs, touching the inconveniencies which had formerly attended the sea-service, as well as the remedies now proposed; and the bill having passed through their house, though not without warm opposition, was enacted into a law by his majesty’s assent. The militia act, as it passed in the last session, being found upon trial defective, Mr. Townshend moved for leave to bring in a new bill, to explain, amend, and enforce it; this was accordingly allowed, prepared, and passed into a law, though it did not seem altogether free from material objections, some of which were of an alarming nature. The power vested by law in the crown over the militia, is even more independent than that which it exercises over the standing army; for this last expires at the end of the year, if not continued by a new act of parliament; whereas the militia is subjected to the power of the crown for the term of five years, during which it may be called out into actual service without consent of parliament, and consequently employed for sinister purposes. A commission-officer in the militia may be detained, as subject to the articles of war, until the crown shall allow the militia to return to their respective parishes; and thus engaged, he is liable to death as a mutineer, or deserter, should he refuse to appear in arms, and fight in support of the worst measures of the worst minister. Several merchants and manufacturers of silk offered a petition, representing, that in consequence of the act passed in the last session, allowing the importation of fine organzine Italian thrown silk till the first day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven, they had given orders to their correspondents abroad to send large quantities of such silk through Germany to Hamburgh and Holland, which, in the common course of things, might probably have arrived in London before the act expired, if their carriage had not been protracted by the great rains and inundations in Italy and Germany, in the months of August and September last, which rendered the roads for many weeks impassable; that from unlucky accidents on shore, and storms and contrary winds after the silk was shipped, it could not possibly arrive within the time limited by the act; and unless it should be admitted to an entry, they, the petitioners, would be great sufferers, the manufacturers greatly prejudiced, and the good end and purpose of the act in a great measure frustrated; they, therefore, prayed leave to bring in a bill for allowing the introduction of all such fine Italian organized silk as should appear to have been shipped in Holland and Hamburgh for London, on or before the first day of December. The petition being referred to a committee, which reported that these allegations were true, the house complied with their request, and the bill having passed, was enacted into a law in the usual form. A speedy passage was likewise granted to the mutiny bill, and the other annual measure for regulating the marine forces, which contained nothing new or extraordinary. A committee being appointed to inquire what laws were already expired, or near expiring, they performed this difficult task with indefatigable patience and perseverance; and, in pursuance of their resolutions, three bills were prepared and passed into laws, continuing some acts for a certain time, and rendering others perpetual. [440] _[See note 3N, at the end of this Vol.]_

The lord-mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London, in common council assembled, having drawn up a petition to the house of commons, alleging that the toll upon loaded vessels or other craft, passing through the arches of London bridge, granted by a former act, passed in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty, for improving, widening, and enlarging the passage both under and over the said bridge, was altogether precarious, and insufficient to defray the expense, including that of a temporary wooden bridge already erected; and praying that a bill might be prepared, for explaining and rendering that act effectual; a committee was appointed to examine the contents, and a bill brought in according to their request. This, however, was opposed by a petition from several persons, owners of barges, and other craft navigating the river Thames, who affirmed, that if the bill should pass into a law as it then stood, it would be extremely injurious to the petitioners in

## particular, and to the public in general. These were heard by their

counsel before the committee, but no report was yet given, when the temporary bridge was reduced to ashes. Then the mayor, aldermen, and commons of London presented another petition, alleging that, in pursuance of the powers vested in them by act of parliament, they had already demolished a good number of the houses on London bridge, and directed the rest that were standing to be taken down with all convenient expedition; that two of the arches might be laid into one for the improvement of the navigation; that they had, at a very great expense, erected a temporary wooden bridge, to preserve a public passage to and from the city, until the great arch could be finished, which temporary bridge being consumed by fire, they must rebuild it with the greatest expedition, at a further considerable expense; that the sum necessary for carrying on and completing this great and useful work, including the rebuilding of the said temporary bridge, was estimated at fourscore thousand pounds; and as the improving, widening, and enlarging London bridge was calculated for the general good of the public, for the advancement of trade and commerce, and for making the navigation upon the river Thames more safe and secure; they, therefore, prayed the house to take the premises into consideration. This petition being recommended by his majesty to the consideration of the house, was referred to the committee of supply, and produced the resolution of granting fifteen thousand pounds towards the rebuilding of London bridge. A bill was prepared, under the title of an act to improve, widen, and enlarge the passage over and through London bridge, enforcing the payment of the toll imposed upon loaded vessels, which had been found extremely burdensome to trade; but this incumbrance was prevented by another petition of several merchants, tradesmen, and other inhabitants of the borough of Southwark, taking notice of the fifteen thousand pounds granted towards the repair of London bridge, and, as they were informed, intended to make the said bridge free for all his majesty’s subjects: they said they hoped to partake of this public bounty; but afterwards hearing that the bill then depending was confined to the tolls formerly granted for repairing the said bridge, they represented the hardships which they and all traders would continue to labour under; they alleged, that the surveyors and workmen then employed upon this work, had discovered the true principles on which the bridge was built; that the foundation of the piers consisted of hard durable stone, well cemented together, and now as strong and firm as when first built; that when the bridge should be finished, great savings would be made in keeping it in repair, from the sums formerly expended, on a mistaken opinion, that the foundation was of wood: that there were very considerable estates appointed solely for the repairs of the bridge, which they apprehended would be sufficient to maintain it without any toll; or if they should not be thought adequate to that purpose, they hoped the deficiency would not be made up by a toll upon trade and commerce, but rather by an imposition on coaches, chariots, chaises, and saddle-horses. This remonstrance made no impression on the house. The bill being, on a motion of sir John Philips, read a third time, passed through both houses, and obtained the royal assent.

ACT FOR ASCERTAINING THE QUALIFICATION OF VOTING.

The interest of the manufacturers was also consulted in an act encouraging the growth of madder, a plant essentially necessary in dying and printing calicoes, which may be raised in England without the least inconvenience. It was judged, upon inquiry, that the most effectual means to encourage the growth of this commodity would be to ascertain the tithe of it; and a bill was brought in for that purpose. The rate of the tithe was established at five shillings an acre; and it was enacted, that this law should continue in force for fourteen years, and to the end of the next session of parliament; but wherefore this encouragement was made temporary it is not easy to determine.--The laws relating to the poor, though equally numerous and oppressive to the subject, having been found defective, a new clause, relating to the settlement of servants and apprentices, was now added to an act passed in the twentieth year of the present reign, intituled, “An act for the better adjusting and more easily recovering of the wages of certain servants, and of certain apprentices.” No country in the universe can produce so many laws made in behalf of the poor as those that are daily accumulating in England: in no other country is there so much money raised for their support, by private charity, as well as public taxation; yet this, as much as any country, swarms with vagrant beggars, and teems with objects of misery and distress; a sure sign either of misconduct in the legislature, or a shameful relaxation in the executive part of the civil administration.--The scenes of corruption, perjury, riot, and intemperance, which every election for a member of parliament had lately produced, were now grown so infamously open and intolerable, and the right of voting was rendered so obscure and perplexed by the pretensions and proceedings of all the candidates for Oxfordshire in the last election, that the fundamentals of the constitution seemed to shake, and the very essence of parliaments to be in danger. Actuated by these apprehensions, sir John Philips, a gentleman of Wales, who had long distinguished himself in the opposition by his courage and independent spirit, moved for leave to bring in a bill that should obviate any doubts which might arise concerning the electors of knights of the shire to serve in parliament for England, and further regulate the proceedings of such elections. He was accordingly permitted to bring in such a bill, in conjunction with Mr. Townshend, Mr. Cornwall, and lords North and Craysfort; and in the usual course, the bill being prepared, was enacted into a law, under the title of, “An act for further explaining the laws touching the electors of knights of the shire to serve in parliament for that part of Great Britain called England.” The preamble specified, that though, by an act passed in the eighteenth year of the present reign, it was provided, that no person might vote at the election of a knight or knights of a shire within England and Wales, without having a freehold estate in the county for which he votes, of the clear yearly value of forty shillings, over and above all rents and charges, payable out of or in respect to the same; nevertheless, certain persons, who hold their estates by copy of court-roll, pretend to a right of voting, and have at certain times presumed to vote at such elections; this act, therefore, ordained, that from and after the twenty-ninth day of June in the present year, no person who holds his estate by copy of court-roll should be entitled thereby to vote at the election of any knight or knights of a shire within England or Wales; but every such vote should be void, and the person so voting should forfeit fifty pounds to any candidate for whom such vote should not have been given, and who should first sue for the same, to be recovered with full costs, by action of debt, in any court of judicature.*

* For the more easy recovery of this forfeit, it was enacted, that the plaintiff in such action might only set forth, in the declaration or hill, that the defendant was indebted to him in the sum of fifty pounds, alleging the offence for which the suit should be brought, and that the defendant had acted contrary to this act, without mentioning the writ of summons to parliament, or the return thereof; and, upon trial of any issue, the plaintiff should not be obliged to prove the writ of summons to parliament, or the return thereof, or any warrant or authority to the sheriff upon any such writ; that every such action should be commenced within nine months after the fact committed; and that, if the plaintiff should discontinue his action, or be non-suited, or have judgment given against him, the defendant should recover treble costs.

So far the act, thus procured, may be attended with salutary consequences; but, in all probability, the intention of its first movers and patrons was not fully answered; inasmuch as no provision was made for putting a stop to that spirit of license, drunkenness, and debauchery, which prevails at almost every election, and has a very pernicious effect upon the morals of the people.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

BILL FOR MORE EFFECTUALLY MANNING THE NAVY.

Among the bills that miscarried in the course of this session, some turned on points of great consequence to the community. Lord Barrington, Mr. Thomas Gore, and Mr. Charles Townshend, were ordered by the house to prepare a bill for the speedy and effectual recruiting his majesty’s land-forces and marines, which was no more than a transcript of the temporary act passed in the preceding session under the same title; but the majority were averse to its being continued for another year, as it was attended with some prejudice to the liberty of the subject. Objections of the same nature might have been as justly started against another bill, for the more effectually manning of his majesty’s navy, for preventing desertion, and for the relief and encouragement of seamen belonging to ships and vessels in the service of the merchants. The purport of this project was to establish registers or muster-rolls of all seamen, fishermen, lightermen, and watermen; obliging ship-masters to leave subscribed lists of their respective crews at offices maintained for that purpose, that a certain number of them might be chosen by lot for his majesty’s service, in any case of emergency. This expedient, however, was rejected, as an unnecessary and ineffectual incumbrance on commerce, which would hamper navigation, and, in a little time, diminish the number of seamen, of consequence act diametrically opposite to the purpose for which it was contrived.--Numberless frauds having been committed, and incessant law-suits produced, by private and clandestine conveyances, a motion was made, and leave given, to form a bill for the public registering of all deeds, conveyances, wills, and other incumbrances, that might effect any honours, manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, within the kingdom of England, wherein public registers were not already appointed by act of parliament; but this measure, so necessary to the ascertainment and possession of property, met with a violent opposition; and was finally dropped, as some people imagine, through the influence of those who, perhaps, had

## particular reasons for countenancing the present mysterious forms

of conveyancing. Such a bill must also have been disagreeable and mortifying to the pride of those landholders whose estates were incumbered, because, in consequence of such a register, every mortgage under which they laboured would be exactly known.--The next object to which the house converted its attention, was a bill explaining and amending a late act for establishing a fish-market in the city of Westminster, and preventing scandalous monopolies of a few engrossing fishmongers, who imposed exorbitant prices on their fish, and, in this

## particular branch of traffic, gave law to above six hundred thousand of

their fellow-citizens. Abundance of pains were taken to render this bill effectual, for putting an end to such flagrant impositions. Inquiries were made, petitions read, counsel heard, and alterations proposed; at length the bill, having passed through the lower house, was conveyed to the lords, among whom it was suffered to expire, on pretence that there was not time sufficient to deliberate maturely on the subject.

HABEAS-CORPUS ACT AMENDED.

The occasion that produced the next bill which miscarried we shall explain, as an incident equally extraordinary and interesting. By an act passed in the preceding session, for recruiting his majesty’s land-forces and marines, we have already observed, that the commissioners thereby appointed were vested with a power of judging ultimately, whether the persons brought before them were such as ought, by the rules prescribed in the act, to be impressed into the service; for it was expressly provided, that no person, so impressed by those commissioners, should be taken out of his majesty’s service by any process, other than for some criminal accusation. During the recess of parliament, a gentleman having been impressed before the commissioners, and confined in the Savoy, his friends made application for a _habeas-corpus_, which produced some hesitation, and indeed an insurmountable difficulty; for, according to the writ of _habeas-corpus_, passed in the reign of Charles the Second, this privilege relates only to persons committed for criminal or supposed criminal matters, and the gentleman did not stand in that predicament. Before the question could be determined he was discharged, in consequence of an application to the secretary at war; but the nature of the case plainly pointed out a defect in the act, seemingly of the most dangerous consequence to the liberty of the subject. In order to remedy this defect, a bill for giving a more speedy relief to the subject, upon the writ of _habeas-corpus_, was prepared, and presented to the house of commons, which formed itself into a committee, and made several amendments. It imported, that the several provisions made in the aforesaid act, passed in the reign of Charles II. for the awarding of writs of _habeas-corpus_, in cases of commitment or detainer for any criminal or supposed criminal matter, should, in like manner, extend to all cases where any person, not being committed or detained for any criminal or supposed criminal matter, should-be confined, or restrained of his or her liberty, under any colour or pretence whatsoever; that, upon oath made by such person so confined or arrested, or by any other on his or her behalf, of any actual confinement or restraint, and that such confinement or restraint, to the best of the knowledge and belief of the person so applying, was not by virtue of any commitment or detainer for any criminal or supposed criminal matter, an _habeas-corpus_, directed to the person or persons so confining or restraining the party, as aforesaid, should be awarded and granted, in the same manner as is directed, and under the same penalties as are provided by the said act, in the case of persons committed and detained for any criminal or supposed criminal matter; that the person or persons before whom the party so confined or restrained should be brought, by virtue of any _habeas-corpus_ granted in the vacation time, under the authority of this act, might and should, within three days after the return made, proceed to examine into the facts contained in such return, and into the cause of such confinement and restraint; and thereupon either discharge, or bail, or remand the parties so brought, as the case should require, and as to justice should appertain. The rest of the bill related to the return of the writ in three days, and the penalties incurred by those who should neglect or refuse to make the due return, or to comply with any other clause of this regulation. The commons seemed hearty in rearing up this additional buttress to the liberty of their fellow-subjects, and passed the bill with the most laudable alacrity; but in the house of lords such a great number of objections were started, that it sunk at the second reading, and the judges were ordered to prepare a bill for the same purpose, to be laid before that house in the next session.

SCHEME IN FAVOUR OF THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.

His majesty having recommended the care of the Foundling hospital to the house of commons, which cheerfully granted forty thousand pounds for the support of that charity, the growing annual expense of it appeared worthy of further consideration, and leave was granted to bring in a bill for obliging all the parishes of England and Wales to keep registers of all their deaths, births, and marriages, that from these a fund might be raised towards the support of the said hospital. The bill was accordingly prepared by a committee appointed for the purpose; but before the house could take the report into consideration, the parliament was prorogued.--The proprietors of the privateer called the Antigallican, which had taken a rich French ship homeward bound from China, and carried her into Cadiz, where the Spanish government had wrested her by violence from the captors, and delivered her to the French owners, now presented a petition to the house of commons, complaining of this interposition as an act of partiality and injustice; representing the great expense at which the privateer had been equipped, the legality of the capture, the loss and hardships which they the petitioners had sustained, and imploring such relief as the house should think requisite. Though these allegations were supported by a species of evidence that seemed strong and convincing, and it might be thought incumbent on the parliament to vindicate the honour of the nation, when thus insulted by a foreign power, the house, upon this occasion, treated the petition with the most mortifying neglect, either giving little credit to the assertions it contained, or unwilling to take any step which might at this juncture embroil the nation with the court of Spain on such a frivolous subject. True it is, the Spanish government alleged, in their own justification, that the prize was taken under the guns of Corunna, insomuch that the shot fired by the privateer entered that place, and damaged some houses; but this allegation was never properly sustained, and the prize was certainly condemned as legal by the court of admiralty at Gibraltar.

PROCEEDINGS RELATIVE TO THE AFRICAN COMPANY.

As we have already given a detail of the trial of sir John Mordaunt, it will be unnecessary to recapitulate any circumstances of that affair, except such as relate to its connexion with the proceedings of parliament. In the beginning of this session, lord Barrington, as secretary at war, informed the house, by his majesty’s command, that lieutenant-general sir John Mordaunt, a member of that house, was in arrest for disobedience of his majesty’s orders, while employed on the late expedition to the coast of France. The commons immediately resolved, that an address should be presented to his majesty, returning him the thanks of this house for his gracious message of that day, in the communication he had been pleased to make of the reason for putting lieutenant-general sir, John Mordaunt in arrest.--Among the various objects of commerce that employed the attention of the house, one of the most considerable was the trade to the coast of Africa, for the protection of which an annual sum had been granted for some years, to be expended in the maintenance and repairs of castles and factories. While a committee was employed in perusing the accounts relating to the sum granted in the preceding session for this purpose, a petition from the committee of the African company, recommended in a message from his majesty, was presented to the house, soliciting further assistance for the ensuing year. In the meantime, a remonstrance was offered by certain planters and merchants, interested in trading to the British sugar colonies in America, alleging, that the price of negroes was greatly advanced since the forts and settlements on the coast of Africa had been under the direction of the committee of the company of merchants trading to that coast; a circumstance that greatly distressed and alarmed the petitioners, prevented the cultivation of the British colonies, and was a great detriment to the trade and navigation of the kingdom; that this misfortune, they believed, was in some measure owing to the ruinous state and condition of the forts and settlements; that, in their opinion, the most effectual method for maintaining the interest of that trade on a respectable footing, next to that of an incorporated joint-stock company, would be putting those forts and settlements under the sole direction of the commissioners for trade and plantations; that the preservation or ruin of the American sugar colonies went hand in hand with that of the slave trade to Africa; that, by an act passed in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty, for extending and improving this trade, the British subjects were debarred from lodging their slaves and merchandise in the forts and settlements on the coast; they, therefore, prayed that this part of the act might be repealed; that all commanders of British and American vessels, free merchants, and all other his majesty’s subjects, who were settled, or might at any time thereafter settle in Africa, should have free liberty, from sunrise to sunset, to enter the forts and settlements, and to deposit their goods and merchandise in the warehouses thereunto belonging; to secure their slaves or other purchases without paying any consideration for the same; but the slaves to be victualled at the proper cost and charge of their respective owners. The house having taken this petition into consideration, inquired into the proceedings of the company, and revised the act for extending and improving the trade to Africa, resolved, that the committee of the African company had faithfully discharged the trust reposed in them, and granted ten thousand pounds for maintaining the British forts and settlements in that part of the world. The enemy were perfectly well acquainted with the weakness of the British castles on the coast of Africa; and had they known as well how to execute with spirit, as to plan with sagacity, the attempt which, in the course of the preceding year, they made upon the principal British fort in Guinea, would have succeeded, and all the other settlements would have fallen into their hands without opposition.*

* Robert Hunter Morris represented, in a petition to the house, that as no salt was made in the British colonies in America, they were obliged to depend upon a precarious supply of that commodity from foreigners; he, therefore, offered to undertake the making of marine salt at a moderate price in one of those colonies, at his own risk and charge, provided he could be secured in the enjoyment of the profits which the work might produce, for such a term of years as might seem to the house a proper and adequate compensation for so great an undertaking. The petition was ordered to lie upon the table; afterwards read and referred to a committee, which, however, made no report. A circumstance not easily accounted for, unless we suppose the house of commons were of opinion, that such an enterprise might contribute towards rendering our colonies too independent of their mother- country.--Equally unaccountable was the miscarriage of another bill, brought in for regulating the manner of licensing alehouses, which was read for the first time; but when a motion was made for a second reading, the question was put, and it passed in the negative.

SESSION CLOSED.

The longest and warmest debate which was maintained in the course of this session, arose from a motion for leave to bring in a bill for shortening the term and duration of future parliaments; a measure truly patriotic, against which no substantial argument could be produced, although the motion was rejected by the majority, on pretence, that whilst the nation was engaged in such a dangerous and expensive war, it would be improper to think of introducing such an alteration in the form of government. Reasons of equal strength and solidity will never be wanting to the patrons and ministers of corruption and venality. The alteration proposed was nothing less than removing and annulling an encroachment which had been made on the constitution; it might have been effected without the least pang or convulsion, to the general satisfaction of the nation; far from being unreasonable at this juncture, it would have enhanced the national reputation abroad, and rendered the war more formidable to the enemies of Great Britain, by convincing them that it was supported by a ministry and parliament who stood upon such good terms with the people. Indeed, a quick succession of parliaments might have disconcerted, and perhaps expelled that spirit of confidence and generosity which now so remarkably espoused and gratified the sovereign’s predilection for the interest of Hanover.--Other committees were established, to enquire into the expense incurred by new lines and fortifications raised at Gibraltar; to examine the original standards of weights and measures used in England; consider the laws relating to them, and report their observations, together with their opinion of the most effectual means for ascertaining and enforcing uniform standards to be used for the future. The commons were perfectly satisfied with the new works which had been raised at Gibraltar; and with respect to the weights and measures, the committee agreed to certain resolutions, but no further progress was made in this inquiry, except an order for printing these resolutions, with the appendix; however, as the boxes containing the standards were ordered to be locked up by the clerk of the house, in all probability their intention was to proceed on this subject in some future session. On the ninth day of June sundry bills received the royal assent by commission, his majesty being indisposed; and on the twentieth day of the same month, the lords commissioners closed the session with a speech to both houses, expressing his majesty’s deep sense of their loyalty and good affection, demonstrated in their late proceedings, in their zeal for his honour and real interest in all parts, in their earnestness to surmount every difficulty, in their ardour to maintain the war with the utmost vigour; proofs which must convince mankind that the ancient spirit of the British nation still subsisted in its full force. They were given to understand that the king had taken all such measures as appeared the most conducive to the accomplishment of their public-spirited views and wishes; that with their assistance, crowned by the blessing of God upon the conduct and bravery of the combined army, his majesty had been enabled, not only to deliver his dominions in Germany from the oppressions and devastations of the French, but also to push his advantages on this side the Rhine; that he had cemented the union between him and his good brother the king of Prussia, by new engagements; that the British fleets and armies were now actually employed in such expeditions as appeared likely to annoy the enemy in the most sensible manner, and to promote the welfare and prosperity of these kingdoms; in particular, to preserve the British rights and possessions in America, and to make France feel, in those parts, the real strength and importance of Great Britain. The commons were thanked for the ample supplies which they had so freely and unanimously given, and assured on the part of his majesty that they should be managed with the most frugal economy. They were desired, in consequence of the king’s earnest recommendation, to promote harmony and good agreement amongst his faithful subjects; to make the people acquainted with the rectitude and purity of his intentions and measures, and to exert themselves in maintaining the peace and good order of the country, by enforcing obedience to the laws and Lawful authority.

VIGOROUS PREPARATIONS FOR WAR, &c.

Never, surely, had any sovereign more reason to be pleased with the conduct of his ministers, and the spirit of his people. The whole nation reposed the most unbounded confidence in the courage and discretion, as well as in the integrity of the minister, who seemed eager upon prosecuting the war with such vigour and activity as appeared almost unexampled in the annals of Great Britain. New levies were made, new ships put in commission, fresh expeditions undertaken, and fresh conquests projected. Such was the credit of the administration, that people subscribed to the government loans with surprising eagerness. An unusual spirit of enterprise and resolution seemed to inspire all the individuals that constituted the army and navy; and the passion for military fame diffused itself through all ranks in the civil departments of life, even to the very dregs of the populace; such a remarkable change from indolence to activity, from indifference to zeal, from timorous caution to fearless execution, was effected by the influence and example of an intelligent and intrepid minister, who, chagrined at the inactivity and disgraces of the preceding campaign, had on a very solemn occasion, lately declared his belief that there was a determined resolution, both in the naval and military commanders, against any vigorous exertion of the national power in the service of the country. He affirmed, that though his majesty appeared ready to embrace every measure proposed by his ministers for the honour and interest of his British dominions, yet scarce a man could be found with whom the execution of any one plan in which there was the least appearance of any danger could with confidence be trusted. He particularised the inactivity of one general in North America, from whose abilities and personal bravery the nation had conceived great expectations; he complained, that this noble commander had expressed the most contemptuous disregard for the civil power, from which he derived his authority, by neglecting to transmit, for a considerable length of time, any other advice of his proceedings but what appeared on a written scrap of paper; he observed, that with a force by land and sea greater than ever the nation had heretofore maintained, with a king and ministry ardently desirous of redeeming her glory, succouring her allies, and promoting her true interest, a shameful dislike to the service everywhere prevailed, and few seemed affected with any other zeal than that of aspiring to the highest posts, and grasping the largest salaries. The censure levelled at the commander in America was founded on mistake; the inactivity of that noble lord was not more disappointing to the ministry than disagreeable to his own inclination. He used his utmost endeavours to answer the expectation of the public, but his hands were effectually tied by an absolute impossibility of success, and his conduct stood justified in the eyes of his sovereign. A particular and accurate detail of his proceedings he transmitted through a channel, which he imagined would have directly conveyed it to the foot of the throne; but the packet was said to have been purposely intercepted and suppressed. Perhaps he was not altogether excusable for having corresponded so slightly with the secretary of state; but he was said to have gone abroad in full persuasion that the ministry would be changed, and therefore his assiduities were principally directed to the great personage, who, in that case, would have superintended and directed all the operations of the army. All sorts of military preparations in founderies, docks, arsenals, raising and exercising troops, and victualling transports, were now carried on with such diligence and despatch as seemed to promise an exertion that would soon obliterate the disagreeable remembrance of past disgrace. The beginning of the year was, however, a little clouded by a general concern for the death of his majesty’s third daughter, the princess Caroline, a lady of the most exemplary virtue and amiable character, who died at the age of forty-five, sincerely regretted as a pattern of unaffected piety, and unbounded benevolence.

The British cruisers kept the sea during all the severity of winter, in order to protect the commerce of the kingdom, and annoy that of the enemy. They exerted themselves with such activity, and their vigilance was attended with such success, that a great number of prizes were taken, and the trade of France almost totally extinguished. A very gallant exploit was achieved by one captain Bray, commander of the Adventure, a small armed vessel in the government’s service: falling in with the Machault, a large privateer of Dunkirk, near Dungenness, he ran her aboard, fastened her boltsprit to his capstan, and, after a warm engagement, compelled her commander to submit. A French frigate of thirty-six guns was taken by captain Parker, in a new fire-ship of inferior force. Divers privateers of the enemy were sunk, burned, or taken, and a great number of merchant ships fell into the hands of the English. Nor was the success of the British ships of war confined to the English channel. At this period the board of admiralty received information from admiral Coats, in Jamaica, of an action which happened off the island of Hispaniola, in the month of October of the preceding year, between three English ships of war and a French squadron. Captain Forrest, an officer of distinguished merit in the service, had, in the ship Augusta, sailed from Port Eoyal in Jamaica, accompanied by the Dreadnought and Edinburgh, under the command of the captains Suckling and Langdon. He was ordered to cruise off Cape François, and this service he literally performed in the face of the French squadron under Kersin, lately arrived at that place from the coast of Africa. This commander, piqued at seeing himself thus insulted by an inferior armament, resolved to come forth and give them battle; and that he might either take them, or at least drive them out of the seas, so as to afford a free passage to a great number of merchant ships then lying at the Cape, bound for Europe, he took every precaution which he thought necessary to ensure success. He reinforced his squadron with some store ships, mounted with guns, and armed for the occasion, and supplied the deficiency in his complements, by taking on board seamen from the merchant ships, and soldiers from the garrison. Thus prepared, he weighed anchor, and stood out to sea, having under his command four large ships of the line, and three stout frigates. They were no sooner perceived advancing, than captain Forrest held a short council with his two captains. “Gentlemen,” said he, “you know your own strength, and see that of the enemy; shall we give them battle?” They replying in the affirmative, he added, “Then fight them we will: there is no time to be lost; return to your ships, and get them ready for engaging.” After this laconic consultation among these three gallant officers, they bore down upon the French squadron without further hesitation, and between three and four in tire afternoon the action began with great impetuosity. The enemy exerted themselves with uncommon spirit, conscious that their honour was peculiarly at stake, and that they fought in sight, as it were, of their own coast, which was lined with people, expecting to see them return in triumph. But, notwithstanding all their endeavours, their commodore, after having sustained a severe engagement, that lasted two hours and a half, found his ship in such a shattered condition, that he made signal for one of his frigates to come and tow him out of the line. His example was followed by the rest of his squadron, which, by this assistance, with the favour of the land breeze and the approach of night, made shift to accomplish their escape from the three British ships, which were too much disabled in their masts and rigging to prosecute their victory. One of the French squadron was rendered altogether unserviceable for action. Their loss in men amounted to three hundred killed, and as many wounded; whereas that of the English did not much exceed one-third of this number. Nevertheless, they were so much damaged, that, being unable to keep the sea, they returned to Jamaica, and the French commodore seized the opportunity of sailing with a great convoy for Europe. The courage of captain Forrest was not more conspicuous in this engagement with the French squadron near Cape Francois, than his conduct and sagacity in a subsequent adventure near Port-au-Prince, a French harbour, situated at the bottom of a bay on the western part of Hispaniola, behind the small island of Gonave. After M. de Kersin had taken his departure from Cape François for Europe, admiral Coats, beating up to windward from Port-Royal in Jamaica with three ships of the line, received intelligence that there was a French fleet at Port-au-Prince, ready to sail on their return to Europe. Captain Forrest then presented the admiral with a plan for an attack on this place, and urged it earnestly. This, however, was declined, and captain Forrest directed to cruise off the island Gonave for two days only, the admiral enjoining him to return at the expiration of the time, and rejoin the squadron at Cape Nicholas. Accordingly captain Forrest, in the Augusta, proceeded up the bay, between the island Gonave and Hispaniola, with a view to execute a plan which he had himself projected. Next day, in the afternoon, though he perceived two sloops, he forbore chasing, that he might not risk a discovery; for the same purpose he hoisted Dutch colours, and disguised his ship with tarpaulins. At five in the afternoon he discovered seven sail of ships steering to the westward, and hauled from them to avoid suspicion; but at the approach of night gave chase with all the sail he could carry. About ten he perceived two sail, one of which fired a gun, and the other made the best of her way for Leoganne, another harbour in the bay. At this period captain Forrest reckoned eight sail to leeward, near another port called Petit Goave. Coming up with the ship which had fired the gun, she submitted without opposition, after he had hailed and told her captain what he was, produced two of his largest cannon, and threatened to sink her if she should give the least alarm. He forthwith shifted the prisoners from this prize, and placed on board of her five-and-thirty of his own crew, with orders to stand for Petit Goave, and intercept any of the fleet that might attempt to reach that harbour. Then he made sail after the rest, and in the dawn of the morning, finding himself in the middle of their fleet, he began to fire at them all in their turns, as he could bring his guns to bear. They returned the fire for sometime; at length the Marguerite, the Solide, and the Theodore struck their colours. These being secured, were afterwards used in taking the Maurice, Le Grand, and La Flore; the Brilliant also submitted, and the Mars made sail, in hopes of escaping, but the Augusta coming up with her about noon, she likewise fell into the hands of the victor. Thus, by a well-conducted stratagem, a whole fleet of nine sail were taken by a single ship, in the neighbourhood of four or five harbours, in any one of which they would have found immediate shelter and security. The prizes, which happened to be richly laden, were safely conveyed to Jamaica, and there sold at public auction, for the benefit of the captors, who may safely challenge history to produce such another instance of success.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

THE FRENCH EVACUATE EMBDEN.

The ministry having determined to make vigorous efforts against the enemy in North America, admiral Boscawen was vested with the command of the fleet destined for that service, and sailed from St. Helen’s on the nineteenth day of February, when the Invincible, of seventy-four guns, one of the best ships that constituted his squadron, ran aground, and perished; but her men, stores, and artillery were saved. In the course of the succeeding month, sir Edward Hawke steered into the bay of Biscay with another squadron, in order to intercept any supplies from France designed for Cape Breton or Canada; and about the same time the town of Embden, belonging to his Prussian majesty, which had fallen into the hands of the enemy, was suddenly retrieved by the conduct of commodore Holmes, stationed on that coast, who sent up two of his small ships to anchor in the river between Knok and the city. The garrison, amounting to three thousand seven hundred men, finding themselves thus cut off from all communication with the country below, abandoned the place with great precipitation, and some of their baggage being sent off by water, was taken by the boats which the commodore armed for that purpose. It was in the same month that the admiralty received advice of another advantage by sea, which had been gained by admiral Osborne, while he cruised between Cape de Gatt and Carthagena, on the coast of Spain. On the twenty-eighth day of March he fell in with a French squadron, commanded by the marquis du Quesne, consisting of four ships, namely, the Foudroyant, of eighty guns, the Orphée, of sixty-four, the Oriflamme, of fifty, and the Pléiade frigate, of twenty-four, in their passage from Toulon to reinforce M. de la Clue, who had for some time been blocked up by admiral Osborne in the harbour of Carthagena. The enemy no sooner perceived the English squadron than they dispersed, and steered different courses: then Mr. Osborne detached divers ships in pursuit of each, while he himself, with the body of his fleet, stood off for the bay of Carthagena, to watch the motions of the French squadron which lay there at anchor. About seven in the evening, the Orphée, having on board five hundred men, struck to captain Storr, in the Revenge, who lost the calf of one leg in the engagement, during which he was sustained by the ships Berwick and Preston. The Monmouth, of sixty-four guns, commanded by captain Gardener, engaged the Foudroyant, one of the largest ships in the French navy, mounted with fourscore cannon, and containing eight hundred men, under the direction of the marquis du Quesne. The action was maintained with great fury on both sides, and the gallant captain Gardener lost his life; nevertheless, the fight was continued with unabating vigour by his lieutenant, Mr. Carkett, and the Foudroyant disabled in such a manner, that her commander struck, as soon as the other English ships, the Swiftsure and the Hampton-court, appeared. This mortifying step, however, he did not take until he saw his ship lie like a wreck upon the water, and the decks covered with carnage. The Oriflamme was driven on shore under the castle of Aiglos, by the ships Montague and Monarque, commanded by the captains Rowley and Montague, who could not complete their destruction without violating the neutrality of Spain. As for the Pléiade frigate, she made her escape by being a prime sailer. This was a severe stroke upon the enemy, who not only lost two of her capital ships, but saw them added to the navy of Great Britain; and the disaster was followed close by another, which they could not help feeling with equal sensibility of mortification and chagrin. In the beginning of April, sir Edward Hawke, steering with his squadron into Basque-road, on the coast of Poictou, discovered, off the isle of Aix, a French fleet at anchor, consisting of five ships of the line, with six frigates, and forty transports, having on board three thousand troops, and a large quantity of stores and provisions intended as a supply for their settlements in North America. They no sooner saw the English Admiral advancing, than they began to slip their cables, and fly in the utmost confusion. Some of them escaped by sea, but a great number ran into shoal water, where they could not be pursued; and next morning they appeared aground, lying on their broadsides. Sir Edward Hawke, who had rode all night at anchor abreast of the isle of Aix, furnished the ships Intrepid and Medway with trusty pilots, and sent them farther in when the flood began to make, with orders to sound ahead, that he might know whether there was any possibility of attacking the enemy; but the want of a sufficient depth of water rendered the scheme impracticable. In the meantime, the French threw overboard their cannon, stores, and ballast; and boats and launches from Rochefort were employed in carrying out warps, to drag their ships through the soft mud, as soon as they should be water-borne by the flowing tide. By these means their large ships of war, and many of their transports, escaped into the river Charente; but their loading was lost, and the end of their equipment totally defeated. Another convoy of merchant ships under the protection of three frigates, sir Edward Hawke, a few days before, had chased into the harbour of Saint Martin’s, in the isle of Rhé, where they still remained, waiting an opportunity for hazarding a second departure. A third, consisting of twelve sail, bound from Bourdeaux to Quebec, under convoy of a frigate and armed vessel, was encountered at sea by one British ship of the line and two fire-ships, which took the frigate and armed vessel, and two of the convoy afterwards met with the same fate; but this advantage was overbalanced by the loss of captain James Hume, commander of the Pluto fire-ship, a brave accomplished officer, who, in an unequal combat with the enemy, refused to quit the deck even when he was disabled, and fell gloriously, covered with wounds, exhorting the people, with his latest breath, to continue the engagement while the ship could swim, and acquit themselves with honour in the service of their country.

ADMIRAL BRODERICK’S SHIP BURNT.

On the twenty-ninth day of May, the Raisonable, a French ship of the line, mounted with sixty-four cannon, having on board six hundred and thirty men, commanded by the prince de Mombazon, chevalier de Rohan, was, in her passage from Port l’Orient to Brest, attacked by captain Dennis, in the Dorsetshire, of seventy guns, and taken after an obstinate engagement, in which one hundred and sixty men of the prince’s complement were killed or wounded, and he sustained great damage in his hull, sails, and rigging. These successes were, moreover, chequered by the tidings of a lamentable disaster that befel the ship Prince George, of eighty guns, commanded by rear-admiral Broderick, in his passage to the Mediterranean. On the thirteenth day of April, between one and two in the afternoon, a dreadful fire broke out in the fore part of the ship, and raged with such fury, that notwithstanding all the efforts of the officers and men for several hours, the flames increased, and the ship being consumed to the water’s edge, the remnant sunk about six o’clock in the evening. The horror and consternation of such a scene are not easily described. When all endeavours proved fruitless, and no hope of preserving the ship remained, the barge was hoisted out for the preservation of the admiral, who entered it accordingly; but all distinction of persons being now abolished, the seamen rushed into it in such crowds, that in a few moments it overset. The admiral, foreseeing that this would be the case, stripped off his clothes, and committing himself to the mercy of the waves, was saved by the boat of a merchant ship, after he had sustained himself in the sea a full hour by swimming. Captain Payton, who was the second in command, remained upon the quarter-deck as long as it was possible to keep that station, and then descending by the stern ladder, had the good fortune to be taken into a boat belonging to the Aklerney sloop. The hull of the ship, masts, and rigging, were now in a blaze, bursting tremendously in several parts through horrid clouds of smoke; nothing was heard but the crackling of the flames, mingled with the dismal cries of terror and distraction; nothing was seen but acts of frenzy and desperation. The miserable wretches, affrighted at the horrors of such a conflagration, sought a fate less dreadful by plunging into the sea, and about three hundred men were preserved by the boats belonging to some ships that accompanied the admiral in his voyage, but five hundred perished in the ocean.

DESCENT AT CANCALLE BAY.

The king of Great Britain being determined to renew his attempt upon the coast of France, ordered a very formidable armament to be equipped for that purpose. Two powerful squadrons by sea were destined for the service of this expedition: the first, consisting of eleven great ships, was commanded by lord Anson and sir Edward Hawke; the other, composed of four ships of the line, seven frigates, six sloops, two fire-ships, two bombs, ten cutters, twenty tenders, ten store-ships, and one hundred transports, was put under the direction of commodore Howe, who had signalized himself by his gallantry and conduct in the course of the last fruitless expedition. The plan of a descent upon France having been adopted by the ministry, a body of troops, consisting of sixteen regiments, nine troops of light horse, and six thousand marines, was assembled for the execution of this design, and embarked under the command of the duke of Marlborough; a nobleman, who though he did not inherit all the military genius of his grandfather, yet far excelled him in the amiable and social qualities of the heart: he was brave beyond all question, generous to profusion, and good-natured to excess. On this occasion he was assisted by the councils of lord George Sackville, second in command, son to the duke of Dorset; an officer of experience and reputation, who had, in the civil departments of government, exhibited proofs of extraordinary genius and uncommon application. The troops, having been encamped for some time upon the Isle of Wight, were embarked in the latter end of May, and the two fleets sailed in the beginning of June for the coast of Bretagne, leaving the people of England flushed with the gayest hopes of victory and conquest. The two fleets parted at sea: lord Anson, with his squadron, proceeded to the bay of Biscay, in order to watch the motions of the enemy’s ships, and harass their navigation; while commodore Howe, with the land-forces, steered directly towards St. Maloes, a strong place of considerable commerce, situated on the coast of Bretagne, against which the purposed invasion seemed to be chiefly intended. The town, however, was found too well fortified, both by art and nature, to admit of an attempt by sea with any prospect of success; and, therefore, it was resolved to make a descent in the neighbourhood. After the fleet had been, by contrary winds, detained several days in sight of the French coast, it arrived in the bay of Cancalle, about two leagues to the eastward of St. Maloes; and Mr. Howe having silenced a small battery which the enemy had occasionally raised upon the beach, the troops were landed without further opposition on the sixth day of June. The duke of Marlborough immediately began his march towards St. Servan, with a view to destroy such shipping and magazines as might be in any accessible parts of the river; and this scheme was executed with success. A great quantity of naval stores, two ships of war, several privateers, and about fourscore vessels of different sorts, were set on fire and reduced to ashes, almost under the cannon of the place, which, however, they could not pretend to besiege in form. His grace having received repeated advices that the enemy were busily employed in assembling forces to march against him, returned to Cancalle, where Mr. Howe had made such a masterly disposition of the boats and transports, that the re-embarkation of the troops was performed with surprising ease and expedition. The forces, while they remained on shore were restrained from all outrage by the most severe discipline; and the French houses, which their inhabitants had abandoned, were left untouched. Immediately after their landing, the duke of Marlborough, as commander-in-chief, published and distributed a manifesto, addressed to the people of Bretagne, giving them to understand, that his descent upon the coast was not effected with a design to make war on the inhabitants of the open country, except such as should be found in arms, or otherwise opposing the operations of his Britannic majesty; that all who were willing to continue in peaceable possession of their effects, might remain unmolested in their respective dwellings, and follow their usual occupations; that, besides the customs and taxes they used to pay to their own king, nothing should be required of them but what was absolutely necessary for the subsistence of the army; and that, for all provisions brought in, they should be paid in ready money. He concluded this notice with declaring, that if, notwithstanding these assurances of protection, they should carry off their effects and provisions, and abandon the places of their habitation, he would treat them as enemies, and destroy their houses with fire and sword. To the magistracy of St. Maloes he likewise sent a letter, importing, that as all the inhabitants of the towns and villages between Dinant, Rennes, and Doll, now in his possession, had deserted their habitations, probably to avoid the payment of the usual contributions; and he being informed that the magistrates had compelled the people of the country to retire into the town of St. Maloes; he now gave them notice, that if they did not immediately send them back to their houses, and come themselves to his head-quarters, to settle the contributions, he should think himself obliged to proceed to military execution. These threats, however, were not put in force, although the magistrates of St. Maloes did not think proper to comply with his injunction. But it was found altogether impossible to prevent irregularities among troops that were naturally licentious. Some houses were pillaged, and not without acts of barbarity; but the offenders were brought to immediate justice; and it must be owned, as an incontestable proof of the general’s humanity, that in destroying the magazines of the enemy at St. Servan, which may be termed the suburbs of St. Maloes, he ordered one small-store house to be spared, because it could not be set on fire without endangering the whole district. The British forces being re-embarked, including about five hundred light-horse, which had been disciplined and carried over with a view to scour the country, the fleet was detained by contrary winds in the bay of Cancalle for several days, during which a design seems to have been formed for attacking Granville, which had been reconnoitred by some of the engineers; but, in consequence of their report, the scheme was laid aside, and the fleet stood out to sea, where it was exposed to some rough weather. In a few days, the wind blowing in a northern direction, they steered again towards the French coast, and ran in with the land near Havre-de-Grace, where the flat-bottomed boats, provided for landing, were hoisted out, and a second disembarkation expected. But the wind blowing violently towards the evening, the boats were re-shipped, and the fleet obliged to quit the land in order to avoid the dangers of a lee-shore. Next day, the weather being more moderate, they returned to the same station, and orders were given to prepare for a descent; but the duke of Marlborough having taken a view of the coast in an open cutter, accompanied by commodore Howe, thought proper to waive the attempt. Their next step was to bear away before the wind for Cherbourg, in the neighbourhood of which place the fleet came to anchor. Here some of the transports received the fire of six different batteries; and a considerable body of troops appeared in arms to dispute the landing; nevertheless, the general resolved that the forts Querqueville, l’Hommet, and Gallet, should be attacked in the night by the first regiment of guards. The soldiers were actually distributed in the flat-bottomed boats, and every preparation made for this enterprise, when the wind began to blow with such violence, that the troops could not be landed without the most imminent danger and difficulty, nor properly sustained in case of a repulse, even if the disembarkation could have been effected. This attempt, therefore, was laid aside, but at the same time a resolution taken to stand in towards the shore with the whole fleet, to cover a general landing. A disposition was made accordingly; but the storm increasing, the transports ran foul of each other, and the ships were exposed to all the perils of a lee-shore, for the gale blew directly upon the coast; besides, the provisions began to fail, and the hay for the horses was almost consumed. These concurring reasons induced the commanders to postpone the disembarkation to a more favourable opportunity. The fleet stood out to sea, and the tempest abating, they steered for the Isle of Wight, and next day anchored at St. Helen’s. Such was the issue of an enterprise achieved with considerable success, if we consider the damage done to the enemy’s shipping, and the other objects which the minister had in view; namely, to secure the navigation of the channel, and make a diversion in favour of the German allies, by alarming the French king, and obliging him to employ a great number of troops to defend his coast from insult and invasion; but whether such a mighty armament was necessary for the accomplishment of these petty aims, and whether the same armament might not have been employed in executing schemes of infinitely greater advantage to the nation, we shall leave to the judicious reader’s own reflection.

EXPEDITION AGAINST CHERBOURG.

The designs upon the coast of France, though interrupted by tempestuous weather, were not as yet laid aside for the whole season; but, in the meantime, the troops were disembarked on the Isle of Wight; and one brigade marched to the northward, to join a body of troops, with which the government resolved to augment the army of the allies in Germany, commanded by prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. The duke of Marlborough and lord George Sackville being appointed to conduct this British corps upon the continent, the command of the marine expeditions devolved to lieutenant-general Bligh, an old experienced officer, who had served with reputation; and his royal highness prince Edward, afterwards created duke of York, entered as a volunteer with commodore Howe, in order to learn the rudiments of the sea-service. The remainder of the troops being re-embarked, and everything prepared for the second expedition, the fleet sailed from St. Helen’s on the first of August; and after a tedious passage, from calms and contrary winds, anchored on the seventh in the bay of Cherbourg. By this time the enemy had intrenched themselves within a line, extending from the fort Ecoeurdeville, which stands about two miles to the westward of Cherbourg, along the coast for the space of four miles, fortified with several batteries at proper distances. Behind this retrenchment a body of horse and infantry appeared in red and blue uniforms; but as they did not advance to the open beach, the less risk was run in landing the British forces. At first a bomb-ketch had been sent to anchor near the town, and throw some shells into the place, as a feint to amuse the enemy, and deceive them with regard to the place of disembarkation, while the general had determined to land about a league to the westward of Querqueville, the most western fort in the bay. The other bomb-ketches, being posted along shore, did considerable execution upon the intrench-ments, not only by throwing shells in the usual way, but also by using ball-mortars, filled with great quantities of balls, which may be thrown to a great distance, and, by scattering as they fly, do abundance of mischief. While the ketches fired without ceasing, the grenadiers and guards were rowed regularly ashore in the flat-bottomed boats, and, landing without opposition, instantly formed on a small open portion of the beach, with a natural breast-work in their front, having on the other side a hollow way, and a village rising beyond it with a sudden ascent; on the left, the ground was intersected by hedges, and covered with orchards, and from this quarter the enemy advanced in order. The British troops immediately quitted the breast-work, in order to meet them half way, and a straggling fire began; but the French edging to the left, took possession of the hill, from whence they piqueered with the advanced posts of the English. In the meantime, the rest of the infantry were disembarked, and the enemy at night retired. As the light troops were not yet landed, general Bligh encamped that night at the village of Erville, on a piece of ground that did not extend above four hundred paces; so that the tents were pitched in a crowded and irregular manner. Next morning, the general having received intelligence that no parties of the enemy were seen moving on the hill, or in the plain, and that fort Querqueville was entirely abandoned, made a disposition for marching in two columns to Cherbourg. An advanced party took immediate possession of Querqueville; and the lines and batteries along the shore were now deserted by the enemy. The British forces marching behind St. Aulne, Ecoeurdeville, Hommet, and La Galet, found the town of Cherbourg likewise abandoned, and the gates being open, entered it without opposition. The citizens, encouraged by a manifesto containing a promise of protection, which had been published and distributed in order to quiet their apprehensions, received their new guests with a good grace, overwhelming them with civilities, for which they met with a very ungrateful return; for as the bulk of the army was not regularly encamped and superintended, the soldiers were at liberty to indulge themselves in riot and licentiousness. All night long they ravaged the adjacent country without restraint; and as no guards had been regularly placed in the streets and avenues of Cherbourg, to prevent disorders, the town itself was not exempted from pillage and brutality. These outrages, however, were no sooner known, than the general took immediate steps for putting a stop to them for the present, and preventing all irregularities for the future. Next morning, the place being reconnoitred, he determined to destroy, without delay, all the forts and the basin; and the execution of this design was left to the engineers, assisted by the officers of the fleet and artillery. Great sums of money had been expended upon the harbour and basin of Cherbourg, which at one time was considered by the French court as an object of great importance, from its situation respecting the river Seine, as well as the opposite coast of England; but as the works were left unfinished, in all appearance the plan had grown into disreputation. The enemy had raised several unconnected batteries along the bay; but the town itself was quite open and defenceless While the engineers were employed in demolishing the works, the light horse scoured the country, and detachments were every day sent out towards Walloign, at the distance of four leagues from Cherbourg, where the enemy were encamped, and every hour received reinforcements. Several skirmishes were fought by the out-parties of each army, in one of which captain Lindsay, a gallant young officer, who had been very instrumental in training the light horse, was mortally wounded. The harbour and basin of Cherbourg being destroyed, together with all the forts in the neighbourhood, and about twenty pieces of brass cannon secured on board the English ships, a contribution, amounting to about three thousand pounds sterling, was exacted upon the town, and a plan of re-embarkation concerted; as it appeared from the reports of peasants and deserters, that the enemy were already increased to a formidable number. A slight intrench-ment being raised, sufficient to defend the last division that should be re-embarked, the stores and artillery were shipped, and the light horses conveyed on board their respective transports, by means of platforms laid in the flat-bottomed vessels. On the sixteenth day of August, at three o’clock in the morning, the forces marched from Cherbourg down to the beach, and re-embarked at fort Galet, without the least disturbance from the enemy.

DESCENT AT ST. MALOES.

This service being happily performed, the fleet set sail for the coast of England, and anchored in the road of Weymouth, under the high land of Portland. In two days it weighed and stood again to the southward; but was obliged by contrary winds to return to the same riding. The second effort, however, was more effectual. The fleet with some difficulty kept the sea, and steering to the French coast, came to anchor in the bay of St. Lunaire, two leagues to the westward of St. Maloes, against which it was determined to make another attempt. The sloops and ketches being ranged along shore to cover the disembarkation, the troops landed on a fair open beach, and a detachment of grenadiers was sent to the harbour of St. Briac, above the town of St. Maloes, where they destroyed about fifteen small vessels; but St. Maloes itself being properly surveyed, appeared to be above insult, either from the land-forces or the shipping. The mouth of the river that forms its basin extends above two miles in breadth at its narrowest part, so as to be out of the reach of land batteries, and the entrance is defended by such forts and batteries as the ships of war could not pretend to silence, considering the difficult navigation of the channels; besides fifty pieces of large cannon planted on these forts and batteries, the enemy had mounted forty on the west side of the town; and the basin was, moreover, strengthened by seven frigates or armed vessels, whose guns might have been brought to bear upon any batteries that could be raised on shore, as well as upon ships entering by the usual channel. For these substantial reasons the design against St. Maloes was dropped; but the general being unwilling to re-embark, without having taken some step for the further annoyance of the enemy, resolved to penetrate into the country; conducting his motions, however, so as to be near the fleet, which had by this time quitted the bay of St. Lunaire, where it could not ride with any safety, and anchored in the bay of St. Cas, about three leagues to the westward.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

ENGLISH DEFEATED AT ST. CAS.

On Friday the eighth of September, general Bligh, with his little army, began his march for Guildo, at the distance of nine miles, which he reached in the evening; next day he crossed a little gut or inlet of the sea, at low water, and his troops being incommoded by the peasants, who fired at them from hedges and houses, he sent a priest with a message, intimating, that if they would not desist, he would reduce their houses to ashes. No regard being paid to this intimation, the houses were actually set on fire as soon as the troops had formed their camp about two miles on the other side of the inlet. Next morning he proceeded to the village of Matignon, where, after some smart skirmishing, the French piquets appeared, drawn up in order, to the number of two battalions; but having sustained a few shots from the English field-pieces, and seeing the grenadiers advance, they suddenly dispersed. General Bligh continuing his route through the village, encamped in the open ground, about three miles from the bay of St. Cas, which was this day reconnoitred for re-embarkation; for he now received undoubted intelligence, that the duke d’Aiguillon had advanced from Brest to Lambale, within six miles of the English camp, at the head of twelve regular battalions, six squadrons, two regiments of militia, eight mortars, and ten pieces of cannon. The bay of St. Cas was covered by an intrenchment which the enemy had thrown up, to prevent or oppose any disembarkation; and on the outside of this work there was a range of sand hills extending along shore, which could have served as a cover to the enemy, from whence they might have annoyed the troops in re-embarking; for this reason a proposal was made to the general, that the forces should be re-embarked from a fair open beach on the left, between St. Cas and Guildo; but this advice was rejected, and, indeed, the subsequent operations of the army savoured strongly of blind security and rash presumption. Had the troops decamped in the night without noise, in all probability they would have arrived at the beach before the French had received the least intelligence of their motion; and in that case, the whole army, consisting of about six thousand men, might have been re-embarked without the least interruption; but instead of this cautious manner of proceeding, the drums were beaten at two o’clock in the morning, as if with intention to give notice to the enemy, who forthwith repeated the same signal. The troops were in motion before three, and though the length of the march did not exceed three miles, the halts and interruptions were so numerous and frequent, that they did not arrive on the beach of St. Cas till nine. Then the embarkation was begun, and might have been happily finished, had the transports lain near the shore and received the men as fast as the boats could have conveyed them on board, without distinction; but many ships rode at a considerable distance, and every boat carried the men on board the respective transports to which they belonged; a punctilio of disposition by which a great deal of time was unnecessarily consumed. The small ships and bomb-ketches were brought near the shore, to cover the embarkation; and a considerable number of sea-officers were stationed on the beach, to superintend the boats’ crews, and regulate the service; but notwithstanding all their attention and authority, some of the boats were otherwise employed than in conveying the unhappy soldiers. Had all the cutters and small craft belonging to the fleet been properly occupied in this service, the disgrace and disaster of the day would scarce have happened. The British forces had skirmished a little on the march, but no considerable body of the enemy appeared until the embarkation was begun; then they took possession of an eminence by a windmill, and forthwith opened a battery of ten cannon and eight mortars, from whence they fired with considerable effect upon the soldiers on the beach, and on the boats in their passage. They afterwards began to march down the hill, partly covered by a hollow way on their left, with a design to gain a wood, where they might form and extend themselves along the front of the English, and advance against them under shelter of the sand-hills: but in their descent they suffered extremely from the cannon and mortars of the shipping, which made great havock and threw them into confusion. Their line of march down the hill was staggered, and for some time continued in suspense; then they turned off to one side, extended themselves along a hill to their left, and advanced in a hollow way, from whence they suddenly rushed out to the attack. Though the greater part of the British troops were already embarked, the rear-guard, consisting of all the grenadiers and half of the first regiment of guards, remained on the shore, to the number of fifteen hundred, under the command of major-general Dury. This officer, seeing the French advance, ordered his troops to form in grand divisions, and march from behind the bank that covered them, in order to charge the enemy before they could be formed on the plain. Had this step been taken when it was first suggested to Mr. Dury, before the French were disengaged from the hollow way, perhaps it might have so far succeeded as to disconcert and throw them into confusion; but by this time they had extended themselves into a very formidable front, and no hope remained of being able to withstand such a superior number. Instead of attempting to fight against such odds in an open field of battle, they might have retreated along the beach to a rock on the left, in which progress their right flank would have been secured by the in-trenchment; and the enemy could not have pursued them along the shore, without being exposed to such a fire from the shipping, as in all probability they could not have sustained. This scheme was likewise proposed to Mr. Dury; but he seemed to be actuated by a spirit of infatuation. The English line being drawn up in uneven ground, began the action with an irregular fire from right to left, which the enemy returned; but their usual fortitude and resolution seemed to forsake them on this occasion. They saw themselves in danger of being surrounded and cut in pieces; their officers dropped on every side; and all hope of retreat was now intercepted. In this cruel dilemma, their spirits failed; they were seized with a panic; they faultered, they broke; and in less than five minutes after the engagement began, they fled in the utmost confusion, pursued by the enemy, who no sooner saw them give way than they fell in among them with their bayonets fixed, and made a great carnage. General Dury being dangerously wounded, ran into the sea, where he perished; and this was the fate of a great number, officers as well as soldiers. Many swam towards the boats and vessels, which were ordered to give them all manner of assistance; but by far the greater number were either butchered on the beach, or drowned in the water: a small body, however, instead of throwing themselves into the sea, retired to the rock on the left, where they made a stand, until they had exhausted their ammunition, and then surrendered at discretion The havock was moreover increased by the shot and shells discharged from the battery which the enemy had raised on the hill. The slaughter would not have been so great, had not the French soldiers been exasperated by the fire from the frigates, which was still maintained even after the English troops were routed; but this was no sooner silenced by a signal from the commodore, than the enemy exhibited a noble example of moderation and humanity, in granting immediate quarter and protection to the vanquished. About one thousand chosen men of the English army were killed and taken prisoners on this occasion: nor was the advantage cheaply purchased by the French troops, among whom the shot and shells from the frigates and ketches had done great execution. The clemency of the victors was the more remarkable, as the British troops in this expedition had been shamefully guilty of marauding, pillaging, burning, and other excesses. War is so dreadful in itself, and so severe in its consequences, that the exercise of generosity and compassion, by which its horrors are mitigated, ought ever to be applauded, encouraged, and imitated. We ought also to use our best endeavours to deserve this treatment at the hands of a civilised enemy. Let us be humane in our turn to those whom the fate of war has subjected to our power: let us, in prosecuting our military operations, maintain the most rigid discipline among the troops, and religiously abstain from all acts of violence and oppression. Thus a laudable emulation will undoubtedly ensue, and the powers at war vie with each other in humanity and politeness. In other respects the commander of an invading armament will always find his account in being well with the common people of the country in which the descent is made. By civil treatment and seasonable gratifications, they will be encouraged to bring into the camp regular supplies of provision and refreshment; they will mingle with the soldiers, and even form friendships among them; serve as guides, messengers, and interpreters; let out their cattle for hire as draft-horses; work with their own persons as day-labourers; discover proper fords, bridges, roads, passes, and defiles; and, if artfully managed, communicate many useful hints of intelligence. If great care and circumspection be not exerted in maintaining discipline, and bridling the licentious dispositions of the soldiers, such invasions will be productive of nothing but miscarriage and disgrace: for this at best is but a piratical way of carrying on war; and the troops engaged in it are, in some measure, debauched by the nature of the service. They are crowded together in transports, where the minute particulars of military order cannot be observed, even though the good of the service greatly depends upon a due observance of these forms. The soldiers grow negligent, and inattentive to cleanness and the exterior ornaments of dress: they become slovenly, slothful, and altogether unfit for a return of duty: they are tumbled about occasionally in ships and boats, landed and re-embarked in a tumultuous manner, under a divided and disorderly command: they are accustomed to retire at the first report of an approaching enemy, and to take shelter on another element; nay, their small pillaging parties are often obliged to fly before unarmed peasants. Their duty on such occasions is the most unmanly part of a soldier’s office; namely, to ruin, ravage, and destroy. They soon yield to the temptation of pillage, and are habituated to rapine: they give loose to intemperance, riot, and intoxication; commit a thousand excesses; and, when the enemy appears, run on board the ships with their booty. Thus the dignity of the service is debased; they lose all sense of honour and of shame; they are no longer restricted by military laws, nor overawed by the authority of officers; in a word, they degenerate into a species of lawless buccaneers. From such a total relaxation of morals and discipline, what can ensue but riot, confusion, dishonour, and defeat? All the advantage that can be expected from these sudden starts of invasion, will scarce overbalance the evils we have mentioned, together with the extraordinary expense of equipping armaments of this nature. True it is, these descents oblige the French king to employ a considerable number of his troops for the defence of his maritime places: they serve to ruin the trade of his subjects, protect the navigation of Great Britain, and secure its coast from invasion; but these purposes might be as effectually answered, at a much smaller expense, by the shipping alone. Should it be judged expedient, however, to prosecute this desultory kind of war, the commanders employed in it will do well to consider, that a descent ought never to be hazarded in an enemy’s country, without having taken proper precautions to secure a retreat; that the severest discipline ought to be preserved during all the operations of the campaign; that a general ought never to disembark but upon a well-concerted plan, nor commence his military transactions without some immediate point or object in view; that a re-embarkation ought never to be attempted, except from a clear open beach, where the approaches of an enemy may be seen, and the troops covered by the fire of their shipping. Those who presume to reflect upon the particulars of this last expedition, owned themselves at a loss to account for the conduct of the general, in remaining on shore after the design upon St. Maloes was laid aside; in penetrating so far into the country without any visible object; neglecting the repeated intelligence which he received; communicating, by beat of drum, his midnight motions to an enemy of double his force; loitering near seven hours in a march of three miles; and, lastly, attempting the re-embarkation of the troops at a place where no proper measures had been taken for their cover and defence. After the action of St. Cas, some civilities, by message, passed between the duke d’Aiguillon and the English commanders, who were favoured with a list of the prisoners, including four sea captains; and assured that the wounded should receive all possible comfort and assistance. These matters being adjusted, commodore Howe returned with the fleet to Spithead, and the soldiers were disembarked.

The success of the attempt upon Cherbourg had elevated the people to a degree of childish triumph; and the government thought proper to indulge this petulant spirit of exultation, by exposing twenty-one pieces of French cannon in Hyde-park, from whence they were drawn in procession to the Tower, amidst the acclamations of the populace. From this pinnacle of elation and pride they were precipitated to the abyss of despondence or dejection, by the account of the miscarriage at St. Cas, which buoyed up the spirits of the French in the same proportion. The people of that nation began to stand in need of some such cordial after the losses they had sustained, and the ministry of Versailles did not fail to make the most of this advantage: they published a pompous narrative of the battle of St. Cas, and magnified into a mighty victory the puny check which they had given to the rear-guard of an inconsiderable detachment. The people received it with implicit belief, because it was agreeable to their passions, and congratulated themselves upon their success in hyperboles, dictated by that vivacity so peculiar to the French nation. Indeed, these are artifices which the ministers of every nation find it necessary to use at certain conjunctures, in governing the turbulent and capricious multitude. After the misfortune at St. Cas, nothing further was attempted by that armament; nor was any enterprise of importance achieved by the British ships in Europe during the course of this summer. The cruisers, however, still continued active and alert. Captain Hervey, in the ship Monmouth, destroyed a French ship of forty guns in the island of Malta; an exploit of which the Maltese loudly complained, as a violation of their neutrality. About twenty sail of small French vessels were driven ashore on the rocks of Bretagne, by some cruisers belonging to the fleet commanded by lord Anson, after a smart engagement with two frigates, under whose convoy they sailed. In the month of November, the Belliqueux, a French ship of war mounted with sixty-four guns, having by mistake run up St. George’s channel, and anchored in Lundy-road, captain Saumarez of the Antelope, then lying in King-road, immediately weighed and went in quest of her, according to the advice he had received. When he appeared, the French captain heaved up his anchor, and made a show of preparing for an engagement; but soon hauled down his colours, and, without firing a shot, surrendered, with a complement of four hundred and seventeen men, to a ship of inferior force both in number of hands and weight of metal. By this time the English privateers swarmed to such a degree in the channel, that scarce a French vessel durst quit the harbour, and consequently there was little or no booty to be obtained. In this dearth of legal prizes, some of the adventurers were tempted to commit acts of piracy, and actually rifled the ships of neutral nations. A Dutch vessel, having on board the baggage and domestics belonging to the marquis de Pignatelli, ambassador from the court of Spain to the king of Denmark, was boarded three times successively by the crews of three different privateers, who forced the hatches, rummaged the hold, broke open and rifled the trunks and boxes of the ambassador, insulted and even cruelly bruised his officers, stripped his domestics, and carried off his effects, together with letters of credit, and a bill of exchange. Complaints of these outrages being made to the court of London, the lords of the admiralty promised, in the gazette, a reward of five hundred pounds, without deduction, to any person who should discover the offenders concerned in these acts of piracy. Some of them were detected accordingly, and brought to condign punishment.

CLAMOURS OF THE DUTCH MERCHANTS, &c.

The Dutch had for some time carried on a very considerable traffic, not only in taking the fair advantages of their neutrality, but also in supplying the French with naval stores, and transporting the produce of the French sugar-colonies to Europe, as carriers hired by the proprietors. The English government, incensed at this unfair commerce, prosecuted with such flagrant partiality for their enemies, issued orders for the cruisers to arrest all ships of neutral powers that should have French property on board; and these orders were executed with rigour and severity. A great number of Dutch ships were taken and condemned as legal prizes, both in England and Jamaica: sometimes the owners met with hard measures, and some crews were treated with insolence and barbarity. The subjects of the United Provinces raised a loud clamour against the English, for having, by these captures, violated the law of nations and the particular treaty of commerce subsisting between Great Britain and the republic. Remonstrances were made to the English ministry, who expostulated, in their turn, with the deputies of the states-general; and the two nations were inflamed against each other with the most bitter animosity. The British resident at the Hague, in a conference with the states, represented that the king his master could not hope to see peace speedily re-established, if the neutral princes should assume a right of carrying on the trade of his enemies; that he expected, from their known justice, and the alliance by which they were so nearly connected with his subjects, they would honestly abandon this fraudulent commerce, and agree that naval stores should be comprehended in the class of contraband commodities. He answered some articles of the complaints they had made with an appearance of candour and moderation; declared his majesty’s abhorrence of the violences which had been committed upon the subjects of the United Provinces; explained the steps which had been taken by the English government to bring the offenders to justice, as well as to prevent such outrages for the future; and assured them that his Britannic majesty had nothing more at heart, than to renew and maintain, in full force, the mutual confidence and friendship by which the maritime powers of England and Holland had been so long united.

These professions of esteem and affection were not sufficient to quiet the minds and appease the resentment of the Dutch merchants; and the French party, which was both numerous and powerful, employed all their art and influence to exasperate their passions, and widen the breach between the two nations. The court of Versailles did not fail to seize this opportunity of insinuation: while, on one hand, their ministers and emissaries in Holland exaggerated the indignities and injuries which the states had sustained from the insolence and rapacity of the English; they, on the other hand, flattered and cajoled them with little advantages in trade, and formal professions of respect.--Such was the memorial delivered by the count d’Affry, intimating that the empress-queen being under an absolute necessity of employing all her forces to defend her hereditary dominions in Germany, she had been obliged to withdraw her troops from Ostend and Nieuport, and applied to the French king, as her ally nearest at hand, to garrison these two places; which, however, should be restored at the peace, or sooner, should her imperial majesty think proper. The spirit of the Dutch merchants, at this juncture, and their sentiments with respect to England, appeared with very high colouring in a memorial to the states-general, subscribed by two hundred and sixty-nine traders, composed and presented with equal secrecy and circumspection. In this famous remonstrance they complained, that the violences and unjust depredations committed by the English ships of war and privateers, on the vessels and effects of them and their fellow-subjects, were not only continued, but daily multiplied; and cruelty and excess carried to such a pitch of wanton barbarity, that the petitioners were forced to implore the assistance of their high mightinesses to protect, in the most efficacious manner, the commerce and navigation, which were the two sinews of the republic. For this necessary purpose they offered to contribute each his contingent, and to arm at their own charge; and other propositions were made for an immediate augmentation of the marine. While this party industriously exerted all their power and credit to effect a rupture with England, the princess-gouvernante employed all her interest and address to divert them from this object, and alarm them with respect to the power and designs of France; against which she earnestly exhorted them to augment their military forces by land, that they might be prepared to defend themselves against all invasion. At the same time she spared no pains to adjust the differences between her husband’s country and her father’s kingdom; and without doubt, her healing councils were of great efficacy in preventing matters from coming to a very dangerous extremity.

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