Chapter V (1)

_Debate in Parliament against the Hanoverian Troops.....
Supplies granted..... Projected Invasion of Great
Britain..... A French Squadron sails up the English
Channel..... The Kingdom is put in a Posture of Defence.....
The Design of the French defeated..... War between France
and England..... Dill against those who should correspond
with the Sons of the Pretender..... Naval Engagement off
Toulon..... Advances towards Peace made by the Emperor.....
Treaty of Franckfort..... Progress of the French King in the
Netherlands..... Prince Charles of Lorraine passes the
Rhine..... The King of Prussia makes an Irruption into
Bohemia..... Campaign in Bavaria and Flanders..... The King
of Naples joins Count Gages in Italy-Battle of Coni.....
Return of Commodore Anson..... Sir John Balchen perishes at
Sea...... Revolution in the British Ministry..... Session of
Parliament..... Death of the Emperor Charles VII......
Accommodation between the Queen of Hungary and the young
Elector of Bavaria..... The King of Prussia gains two
successive Battles at Friedberg and Sohr over the Austrian
and Saxon Forces..... Treaty of Dresden..... The Grand Duke
of Tuscany elected Emperor of Germany..... The Allies are
defeated at Fontenoy..... The King of Sardinia is almost
stripped of his Dominions..... The English Forces take Cape
Breton..... The Importance of this Conquest..... Project of
an Insurrection in Great Britain..... The eldest Son of the
Chevalier de St. George lands in Scotland..... Takes
Possession of Edinburgh..... Defeats Sir John Cope at
Preston-Pans..... Efforts of the Friends of Government in
Scotland..... Precautions taken in England..... The Prince
Pretender reduces Carlisle, and penetrates as far as
Derby..... Consternation of the Londoners..... The Rebels
retreat into Scotland..... They invest the Castle of
Stirling..... The King’s Troops under Hawley are worsted at
Falkirk..... The Duke of Cumberland assumes the Command of
the Forces in Scotland..... The Rebels undertake the Siege
of Fort-William_

The discontents of England were artfully inflamed by anti-ministerial writers, who not only exaggerated the burdens of the people, and drew frightful pictures of the distress and misery which, they said, impended over the nation, but also employed the arts of calumny and misrepresentation, to excite a jealousy and national quarrel between the English and Hanoverians. They affirmed that in the last campaign the British general had been neglected and despised; while the councils of foreign officers, greatly inferior to him in capacity, quality, and reputation, had been followed, to the prejudice of the common cause; that the British troops sustained daily insults from their own mercenaries, who were indulged with particular marks of royal favour; that the sovereign himself appeared at Dettingen in a Hanoverian scarf; and that his electoral troops were of very little service in that engagement. Though the most material of these assertions were certainly false, they made a strong impression on the minds of the people, already irritated by the enormous expense of a continental war maintained for the interest of Germany. When the parliament met in the beginning of December, a motion was made in the house of peers by the earl of Sandwich, for an address, beseeching his majesty to discontinue the Hanoverian troops in British pay, in order to remove the popular discontent, and stop the murmurs of the English troops abroad. He was supported by the duke of Bedford, the earl of Chesterfield, and all the leaders in the opposition, who did not fail to enumerate and insist upon all the circumstances we have mentioned. They moreover observed, that better troops might be hired at a smaller expense; that it would be a vain and endless task to exhaust the national treasure in enriching a hungry and barren electorate; that the popular dissatisfaction against these mercenaries was so general, and raised to such violence, as nothing but their dismission could appease; that if such hirelings should be thus continued from year to year, they might at last become a burden entailed upon the nation, and be made subservient, under some ambitious prince, to purposes destructive of British liberty. These were the suggestions of spleen and animosity: for, granting the necessity of a land war, the Hanoverians were the most natural allies and auxiliaries which Great Britain could engage and employ. How insolent soever some few individual generals of that electorate might have been in their private deportment, certain it is their troops behaved with great sobriety, discipline, and decorum; and in the day of battle did their duty with as much courage and alacrity as any body of men ever displayed on the like occasion. The motion was rejected by the majority; but, when the term for keeping them in the British pay was nearly expired, and the estimates for their being continued the ensuing year were laid before the house, the earl of Sandwich renewed his motion. The lord-chancellor, as speaker of the house, interposing, declared that by their rules a question once rejected could not be revived during the same session. A debate ensued, and the second motion was over-ruled. The Hanoverian troops were voted in the house of commons; nevertheless, the same nobleman moved in the tipper house, that the continuing sixteen thousand Hanoverians in British pay was prejudicial to his majesty’s true interest, useless to the common cause, and dangerous to the welfare and tranquillity of the nation. He was seconded by the duke of Marlborough, who had resigned his commission in disgust; and the proposal gave birth to another warm dispute: but victory declared, as usual, for the ministry.

In the house of commons they sustained divers attacks. A motion was made for laying a duty of eight shillings in the pound on all places and pensions. Mr. Grenville moved for an address, to beseech his majesty that he would not engage the British nation any further in the war on the continent, without the concurrence of the states-general on certain stipulated proportions of force and expense, as in the late war. These proposals begat vigorous debates, in which the country party were always foiled by dint of superior number. Such was the credit and influence of the ministry in parliament, that although the national debt was increased by above six millions since the commencement of the war, the commons indulged them with an enormous sum for the expense of the ensuing year. The grants specified in the votes amounted to six millions and a half; to this sum were added three millions and a half paid to the sinking fund in perpetual taxes; so that this year’s expense rose to ten millions. The funds established for the annual charge were the land and malt taxes; one million paid by the East India company for the renewal of their charter, twelve hundred thousand pounds by annuities, one million from the sinking fund, six-and-thirty thousand pounds from the coinage, and six hundred thousand pounds by a lottery--an expedient which for some time had been annually repeated; and which, in a great measure, contributed to debauch the morals of the public, by introducing a spirit of gaming, destructive of all industry and virtue.

PROJECTED INVASION OF GREAT BRITAIN.

The dissensions of the British parliament were suddenly suspended by an event that seemed to unite both parties in the prosecution of the same measures. This was the intelligence of an intended invasion. By the parliamentary disputes, the loud clamours, and the general dissatisfaction of the people in Great Britain, the French ministry were persuaded that the nation was ripe for a revolt. This belief was corroborated by the assertions of their emissaries in different parts of Great Britain and Ireland. These were papists and Jacobites of strong prejudices and warm imaginations, who saw things through the medium of passion and party, and spoke rather from extravagant zeal than from sober conviction. They gave the court of Versailles to understand, that if the chevalier de St. George, or his eldest son Charles Edward, should appear at the head of a French army in Great Britain, a revolution would instantly follow in his favour. This intimation was agreeable to cardinal de Tencin, who, since the death of Fleury, had borne a share in the administration of France. He was of a violent enterprising temper. He had been recommended to the purple by the chevalier de St. George, and was seemingly attached to the Stuart family. His ambition was flattered with the prospect of giving a king to Great Britain; of performing such eminent service to his benefactor, and of restoring to the throne of their ancestors a family connected by the ties of blood with all the greatest princes of Europe. The ministry of France foresaw, that even if this aim should miscarry, a descent upon Great Britain would make a considerable diversion from the continent in favour of France, and embroil and embarrass his Britannic majesty, who was the chief support of the house of Austria, and all its allies. Actuated by these motives, he concerted measures with the chevalier de St. George at Rome, who being too much advanced in years to engage personally in such an expedition, agreed to delegate his pretensions and authority to his son Charles, a youth of promising talents, sage, secret, brave, and enterprising, amiable in his person, grave, and even reserved in his deportment. He approved himself in the sequel composed and moderate in success, wonderfully firm in adversity; and though tenderly nursed in all the delights of an effeminate country, and gentle climate, patient almost beyond belief of cold, hunger, and fatigue. Such was the adventurer now destined to fill the hope which the French ministry had conceived, from the projected invasion of Great Britain.

A FRENCH SQUADRON SAILS UP THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

Count Saxe was appointed by the French king commander of the troops designed for this expedition, which amounted to fifteen thousand men. They began their march to Picardy, and a great number of vessels was assembled for their embarkation at Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne. It was determined that they should be landed in Kent, under convoy of a strong squadron equipped at Brest, and commanded by monsieur de Roquefeuille, an officer of experience and capacity. The chevalier de St. George is said to have required the personal service of the duke of Ormond, who excused himself on account of his advanced age; be that as it will, prince Charles departed from Rome about the end of December, in the disguise of a Spanish courier, attended by one servant only, and furnished with passports by cardinal Aquaviva. He travelled through Tuscany to Genoa, from whence he proceeded to Savona, where he embarked for Antibes, and prosecuting his journey to Paris, was indulged with a private audience of the French king; then he set out incognito for the coast of Picardy. The British ministry being apprized of his arrival in France, at once comprehended the destination of the armaments prepared at Brest and Boulogne. Mr. Thompson, the English resident at Paris, received orders to make a remonstrance to the French ministry, on the violation of those treaties by which the pretender to the crown of Great Britain was excluded from the territories of France. But he was given to understand, that his most christian, majesty would not explain himself on that subject, until the king of England should have given satisfaction on the repeated complaints which had been made to him, touching the infractions of those very treaties which had been so often violated by his orders. In the month of January, M. de Roquefeuille sailed from Brest, directing his course up the English channel, with twenty ships of war. They were immediately discovered by an English cruiser, which ran into Plymouth; and the intelligence was conveyed by land to the board of admiralty. Sir John Norris was forthwith ordered to take the command of the squadron at Spithead, with which he sailed round to the Downs, where he was joined by some ships of the line from Chatham, and then he found himself at the head of a squadron considerably stronger than that of the enemy.

The KINGDOM PUT IN A STATE OF DEFENCE.

Several regiments marched to the southern coast of England; all governors and commanders were ordered to repair immediately to their respective posts; the forts at the mouths of the Thames and Medway were put in a posture of defence; and directions were issued to assemble the Kentish militia, to defend the coast in case of an invasion. On the fifteenth day of February, the king sent a message to both houses of parliament, intimating the arrival of the pretender’s son in France, the preparations at Dunkirk, and the appearance of a French fleet in the English channel. They joined in an address, declaring their indignation and abhorrence of the design formed in favour of a popish pretender; and assuring his majesty, that they would, with the warmest zeal and unanimity, take such measures as would enable him to frustrate and defeat so desperate and insolent an attempt. Addresses of the same kind were presented by the city of London, both universities, the principal towns of Great Britain, the clergy, the dissenting ministers, the quakers, and almost all the corporations and communities of the kingdom. A requisition was made of the six thousand auxiliaries, which the states-general were by treaty obliged to furnish on such occasions; and these were granted with great alacrity and expedition. The earl of Stair, forgetting his wrongs, took this opportunity of offering his services to government, and was re-invested with the chief command of the forces in Great Britain. His example was followed by several noblemen of the first rank. The duke of Montague was permitted to raise a regiment of horse; and orders were sent to bring over six thousand of the British troops from Flanders, in case the invasion should actually take place. His majesty was, in another address from parliament, exhorted to augment his forces by sea and land; the _habeas corpus_ act was suspended for six months, and several persons of distinction were apprehended on suspicion of treasonable practices; a proclamation was issued for putting the laws in execution against papists and nonjurors, who were commanded to retire ten miles from London; and every precaution was taken which seemed necessary for the preservation of the public tranquillity.

THE DESIGN OF THE FRENCH DEFEATED.

Meanwhile the French court proceeded with their preparations at Boulogne and Dunkirk, under the eye of the young pretender; and seven thousand men were actually embarked. M. de Roquefeuille sailed up the channel as far as Dungeness, a promontory on the coast of Kent, after having detached M. de Barreil, with five ships to hasten the embarkation at Dunkirk. While the French admiral anchored off Dungeness, he perceived, on the twenty-fourth day of February, the British fleet, under sir John Norris, doubling the South-Foreland from the Downs; and though the wind was against him, taking the opportunity of the tide to come up and engage the French squadron. Roquefeuille, who little expected such a visit, could not be altogether composed, considering the great superiority of his enemies; but the tide failing, the English admiral was obliged to anchor two leagues short of the enemy. In this interval, M. de Roquefeuille called a council of war, in which it was determined to avoid an engagement, weigh anchor at sun-set, and make the best of their way to the place from whence they had sot sail. This resolution was favoured by a very hard gale of wind, which began to blow from the north-east, and carried them down the channel with incredible expedition. But the same storm which, in all probability, saved their fleet from destruction, utterly disconcerted the design of invading England. A great number of their transports was driven ashore and destroyed, and the rest were so damaged that they could not be speedily repaired. The English were now masters at sea, and their coast was so well guarded, that the enterprise could not be prosecuted with any probability of success. The French generals nominated to serve in this expedition returned to Paris, and the young pretender resolved to wait a more favourable opportunity. In the meantime he remained in Paris, or that neighbourhood, incognito, and almost totally neglected by the court of France. Finding himself in this disagreeable situation, and being visited by John Murray of Broughton, who magnified the power of his friends in Great Britain, he resolved to make some bold effort, even without the assistance of Louis, in whose sincerity he had no faith, and forthwith took proper measures to obtain exact information touching the number, inclinations, and influence of his father’s adherents in England and Scotland. The French king no longer preserved any measures with the court of London; the British resident at Paris was given to understand, that a declaration of war must ensue; and this was actually published on the twentieth day of March. The king of Great Britain was taxed with having dissuaded the court of Vienna from entertaining any thoughts of an accommodation; with having infringed the convention of Hanover; with having exercised piracy upon the subjects of France, and with having blocked up the harbour of Toulon. On the thirty-first day of March, a like denunciation of war against France was published at London amidst the acclamations of the people.

{1744}

BILL AGAINST THOSE WHO SHOULD CORRESPOND WITH THE PRETENDER’S SONS.

The commons of England, in order to evince their loyalty, brought in a bill, denouncing the penalties of high treason against those who should maintain correspondence with the sons of the pretender. In the upper house, lord Hardwicke, the chancellor, moved, that a clause should be inserted, extending the crime of treason to the posterity of the offenders, during the lives of the pretender’s sons. The motion, which was supported by the whole strength of the ministry, produced a warm debate, in which the duke of Bedford, the earl of Chesterfield, the lords Talbot and Horvey, argued against it in the most pathetic manner, as an illiberal expedient, contrary to the dictates of humanity, the law of nature, the rules of common justice, and the precepts of religion; an expedient that would involve the innocent with the guilty, and tend to the augmentation of ministerial power, for which purpose it was undoubtedly calculated. Notwithstanding these suggestions, the clause was carried in the affirmative, and the bill sent back to the commons, where the amendment was vigorously opposed by lord Strange, lord Guernsey, Mr. W. Pitt, and other members, by whom the original bill had been countenanced; * the majority, however, declared for the amendment, and the bill obtained the royal assent. The session of parliament was closed in May, when the king told them that the French had made vast preparations on the side of the Netherlands; and that the states-general had agreed to furnish the succours stipulated by treaties.

* The opposition had sustained a heavy blow in the death of
the duke of Argyle, a nobleman of shining qualifications for
the senate and the field, whose character would have been
still more illustrious, had not some parts of his conduct
subjected him to the suspicion of selfishness and
inconstancy. He was succeeded in that title by his brother,
Archibald earl of Hay.

NAVAL ENGAGEMENT OFF TOULON.

By this time an action had happened in the Mediterranean, between the British fleet commanded by admiral Matthews, and the combined squadrons of France and Spain, which had been for some time blocked up in the harbour of Toulon. On the ninth day of February they were perceived standing out of the road, to the number of four-and-thirty sail; the English admiral immediately weighed from Hieres bay; and on the eleventh, part of the fleets engaged. Matthews attacked the Spanish admiral, Don Navarro, whose ship, the Real, was a first rate, mounted with above an hundred guns. Rear-admiral Rowley singled out M. de Court, who commanded the French squadron; and a very few captains followed the example of their commanders; but vice-admiral Lestock, with his whole division, remained at a great distance astern; and several captains, who were immediately under the eye of Matthews, behaved in such a manner as reflected disgrace upon their country. The whole transaction was conducted without order or deliberation. The French and Spaniards would have willingly avoided an engagement, as the British squadron was superior to them in strength and number. M. de Court, therefore, made the best of his way towards the Straits’ mouth, probably with intention to join the Brest squadron; but he had orders to protect the Spanish fleet; and as they sailed heavily, he was obliged to wait for them, at the hazard of maintaining a battle with the English. Thus circumstanced, he made sail and lay-to by turns; so that the British admiral could not engage them in proper order; and as they outsailed his ships, he began to fear they would escape him altogether should he wait for vice-admiral Lestock, who was so far astern. Under this apprehension he made the signal for engaging, while that for the line of battle was still displayed; and this inconsistency naturally introduced confusion. The fight was maintained with great vivacity by the few who engaged. The Real being quite disabled, and lying like a wreck upon the water, Mr. Matthews sent a fire-ship to destroy her; but the expedient did not take effect. The ship ordered to cover this machine did not obey the signal; so that the captain of the fire-ship was exposed to the whole fire of the enemy. Nevertheless he continued to advance until he found the vessel sinking; and being within a few yards of the Real, he set fire to the fusees. The ship was immediately in flames, in the midst of which he and his lieutenant, with twelve men, perished. This was likewise the fate of the Spanish launch, which had been manned with fifty sailors to prevent the fire-ship from running on board the Real. One ship of the line belonging to the Spanish squadron, struck to captain Hawke, who sent a lieutenant to take possession of her; she was afterwards retaken by the French squadron; but was found so disabled that they left her deserted, and she was next day burned by order of admiral Matthews. At night the action ceased; and the admiral found his own ship so much damaged, that he moved his flag into another. Captain Cornwall fell in the engagement, after having exhibited a remarkable proof of courage and intrepidity; but the loss of men was very inconsiderable. Next day the enemy appeared to leeward, and the admiral gave chase till night, when he brought to, that he might be joined by the ships astern. They were perceived again on the thirteenth at a considerable distance, and pursued till the evening. In the morning of the fourteenth, twenty sail of them were seen distinctly, and Lestock with his division had gained ground of them considerably by noon; but admiral Matthews displayed the signal for leaving off chase, and bore away for Port Mahon, to repair the damage he had sustained. Meanwhile the combined squadrons continued their course towards the coast of Spain. M. de Court, with his division, anchored in the road of Alicant; and Don Navarro sailed into the harbour of Carthagena. Admiral Matthews, on his arrival at Minorca, accused Lestock of having misbehaved on the day of action; suspended him from his office, and sent him prisoner to England, where, in his turn, he accused his accuser. Long before the engagement, these two officers had expressed the most virulent resentment against each other. Matthews was brave, open, and undisguised; but proud, imperious, and precipitate. Lestock had signalized his courage on many occasions, and perfectly understood the whole discipline of the navy; but he was cool, cunning, and vindictive. He had been treated superciliously by Matthews, and in revenge took advantage of his errors and precipitation. To gratify this passion, he betrayed the interest and glory of his country; for it is not to be doubted, but that he might have come up in time to engage; and, in that case, the fleets of France and Spain would, in all likelihood, have been destroyed; but he intrenched himself within the punctilios of discipline, and saw with pleasure his antagonist expose himself to the hazard of death, ruin, and disgrace. Matthews himself, in the sequel, sacrificed his duty to his resentment, in restraining Lestock from pursuing and attacking the combined squadrons on the third day after the engagement, when they appeared disabled and in manifest disorder, and would have fallen an easy prey had they been vigorously attacked. One can hardly, without indignation, reflect upon these instances in which a community has so severely suffered from the personal animosity of individuals. The miscarriage off Toulon became the subject of a parliamentary inquiry in England. The commons, in an address to the throne, desired that a court-martial might be appointed to try the delinquents. By this time Lestock had accused Matthews, and all the captains of his division who misbehaved on the day of battle. The court-martial was constituted, and proceeded to trial. Several commanders of ships were cashiered; vice-admiral Lestock was honourably acquitted, and admiral Matthews rendered incapable of serving for the future in his majesty’s navy. All the world knew that Lestock kept aloof, and that Matthews rushed into the hottest part of the engagement. Yet the former triumphed on his trial, and the latter narrowly escaped the sentence of death for cowardice and misconduct. Such decisions are not to be accounted for, except from prejudice and faction. The war in Germany, which had been almost extinguished in the last campaign, began to revive, and raged with redoubled violence. The emperor had solicited the mediation of his Britannic majesty, for compromising the differences between him and the court of Vienna. Prince William of Hesse-Cassel had conferred with the king of England on this subject; and a negotiation was begun at Hanau. The emperor offered to dismiss the French auxiliaries, provided the Austrians would evacuate his hereditary dominions. Nay, prince William and lord Carteret, as plenipotentiaries, actually agreed to preliminaries, by which his Imperial majesty engaged to renounce the alliance of France, and throw himself into the arms of the maritime powers; to resign all pretensions to the succession of the house of Austria; and to revive the vote of Bohemia in the electoral college, on condition of his being re-established in the possession of his dominions, recognised as emperor by the queen of Hungary, and accommodated with a monthly subsidy for his maintenance, as his own territories were exhausted and impoverished by the war. By a separate article, the king of Great Britain promised to furnish him with three hundred thousand crowns, and to interpose his good offices with the queen of Hungary, that his electoral dominions should be favourably treated. These preliminaries, though settled, were not signed. The court of Vienna was unwilling to part with their conquests in Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate. The queen trusted too much to the valour of her troops, and the wealth of her allies, to listen to such terms of accommodation; and whatever arguments were used with the king of Great Britain, certain it is the negotiation was dropped, on pretence that the articles were disapproved by the ministry of England. The emperor, environed with distress, renewed his application to the king of Great Britain; and even declared that he would refer his cause to the determination of the maritime powers; but all his advances were discountenanced; and the treaty of Worms dispelled all hope of accommodation. In this manner did the British ministry reject the fairest opportunity that could possibly occur of terminating the war in Germany with honour and advantage, and of freeing their country from that insufferable burden of expense under which she groaned.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

TREATY OF FRANCKFORT.

The inflexibility of the house of Austria, and its chief ally, proved serviceable to the emperor. The forlorn situation of this unfortunate prince excited the compassion of divers princes; they resented the insolence with which the head of the empire had been treated by the court of Vienna; and they were alarmed at the increasing power of a family noted for pride, tyranny, and ambition. These considerations gave rise to the treaty of Franckfort, concluded in May between the emperor, the king of Prussia, the king of Sweden as landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and the elector palatine. They engaged to preserve the constitution of the empire, according to the treaty of Westphalia, and to support the emperor in his rank and dignity. They agreed to employ their good offices with the queen of Hungary, that she might be induced to acknowledge the emperor, to restore his hereditary dominions, and give up the archives of the empire that were in her possession. They guaranteed to each other their respective territories; the disputes about the succession of the late emperor they referred to the decision of the states of the empire; they promised to assist one another in case of being attacked; and they invited the king of Poland, the elector of Cologn, and the bishop of Liege, to accede to this treaty. Such was the confederacy that broke all the measures which had been concerted between the king of Great Britain and her Hungarian majesty, for the operations of the campaign. In the meantime, the French king declared war against this princess, on pretence that she was obstinately deaf to all terms of accommodation, and determined to carry the war into the territories of France. In her counter-declaration, she taxed Louis with having infringed the most solemn engagement, with respect to the pragmatic sanction; with having spirited up different pretenders to lay claim to the succession of the late emperor; with having endeavoured to instigate the common enemy of Christendom against her; and with having acted the incendiary in the north of Europe, that the czarina might be prevented from assisting the house of Austria, while his numerous armies overspread the empire and desolated her hereditary countries. These recriminations were literally true. The houses of Bourbon and Austria have, for many centuries, been the common disturbers and plagues of Europe.

PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH KING IN THE NETHERLANDS

The king of France, though in himself pacific and unenterprising, was stimulated by his ministry to taste the glory of conquest in the Netherlands, where he had assembled an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men, provided with a very formidable train of artillery. The chief command was vested in the mareschal count de Saxe, who possessed great military talents, and proved to be one of the most fortunate generals of the age in which he lived. The allied forces, consisting of English, Hanoverians, Dutch, and Austrians, to the number of seventy thousand effective men, were in the month of May assembled in the neighbourhood of Brussels, from whence they marched towards Oudenarde, and posted themselves behind the Schelde, being unable to retard the progress of the enemy. The French monarch, attended by his favourite ladies, with all the pomp of eastern luxury, arrived at Lisle on the twelfth day of the same month; and in the adjacent plain reviewed his army. The states-general, alarmed at his preparations, had, in a conference with his ambassador at the Hague, expressed their apprehensions, and entreated his most christian majesty would desist from his design of attacking their barrier. Their remonstrances having proved ineffectual, they now sent a minister to wait upon that monarch, to enforce their former representations, and repeat their entreaties; but no regard was paid to his request. The French king told him, he was determined to prosecute the war with vigour, as his moderation hitherto had served to no other purpose but that of rendering his enemies more intractable. Accordingly, his troops invested Menin, which was in seven days surrendered upon capitulation. Ypres, Fort Knocke, and Furnes, underwent the same fate; and on the twenty-ninth day of June the king of France entered Dunkirk in triumph.

PRINCE CHARLES OF LORRAINE PASSES THE RHINE.

He had taken such precautions for the defence of Alsace, which was guarded by considerable armies under the command of Coigny and Seckendorf, that he thought he had nothing to fear from the Austrians in that quarter; besides, he had received secret assurances that the king of Prussia would declare for the emperor; so that he resolved to pursue his conquests in the Netherlands. But all his measures were defeated by the activity of prince Charles of Lorraine, and his officers, who found means to pass the Rhine, and oblige the French and Bavarian generals to retire to Lampertheim, that they might cover Strasburgh. The Austrians made themselves masters of Haguenau and Saverne; they secured the passes of Lorraine; and laid all the country of Lower Alsace under contribution. The king of France was no sooner apprized of the prince’s having passed the Rhine and penetrated into this province, than he sent off a detachment of thirty thousand men from his army in Flanders, to reinforce that under the mareschal de Coigny; and he himself began his journey from the Rhine, that he might in person check the progress of the enemy; but this design was anticipated by a severe distemper that overtook him at Mentz in Lorraine. The physicians despaired of his life. The queen, with her children, and all the princes of the blood, hastened from Versailles to pay the last duties to their dying sovereign, who, as a true penitent, dismissed his concubines, and began to prepare himself for death; yet the strength of his constitution triumphed over the fever, and his recovery was celebrated all over his dominions with uncommon marks of joy and affection.

In the meantime the schemes of the Austrian general were frustrated by the king of Prussia, who, in the month of August, entered the electorate of Saxony at the head of a numerous army. There he declared, in a public manifesto, that his aims were only to re-establish the peace of the empire, and to support the dignity of its head. He assured the inhabitants that they might depend upon his protection, in case they should remain quiet; but threatened them with fire and sword should they presume to oppose his arms. In a rescript, addressed to his ministers at foreign courts, he accused the queen of Hungary of obstinacy, in refusing to acknowledge the emperor, and restore his hereditary dominions; he said, he had engaged in the league of Franckfort, to hinder the head of the empire from being oppressed; that he had no intention to violate the peace of Breslau, or enter as a principal into this war; he affirmed, that his design was to act as auxiliary to the emperor, and establish the quiet of Germany. He penetrated into Bohemia, and undertook the siege of Prague, the governor of which surrendered himself and his garrison prisoners of war on the sixteenth day of September. He afterwards reduced Tabor, Bodweis, and Teyn, and in a word subdued the greatest part of the kingdom; the Austrian forces in that country being in no condition to stop his progress. Nevertheless, he was soon obliged to relinquish his conquests. Prince Charles of Lorraine was recalled from Alsace, and repassed the Rhine in the face of the French army, commanded by the mareschals de Coigny, Noailles, and Belleisle. Then he marched to the Danube, laid the Upper Palatine under contribution, and entering Bohemia, joined the troops under Bathiani at Merotiz. The king of Poland elector of Saxony, at this juncture declared in favour of her Hungarian majesty. A convention for the mutual guarantee of their dominions, had been signed between those two powers in December; and now prince Charles of Lorraine was reinforced by twenty thousand Saxon troops, under the conduct of the duke of Saxe-Wessenfels. The combined army was superior to that of his Prussian majesty, whom they resolved to engage. But he retired before them, and having evacuated all the places he had garrisoned in Bohemia, retreated with precipitation into Silesia. There his troops were put into winter-quarters; and he himself returned to Berlin, extremely mortified at the issue of the campaign.

CAMPAIGN IN BAVARIA AND FLANDERS.

During these transactions, count Seckendorf marched into Bavaria at the head of a strong army, drove the Austrians out of that electorate, and the emperor regained possession of Munich, his capital, on the twenty-second day of October. In August the French army passed the Rhine at Fort-Louis, and invested the strong and important city of Fribourg, defended by general Demnitz, at the head of nine thousand veterans. The king of France arrived in the camp on the eleventh day of October; and the siege was carried on with uncommon vigour. The Austrian governor made incredible efforts in the defence of the place, which he maintained until it was reduced to a heap of ruins, and one-half of the garrison destroyed. At length, however, they were obliged to surrender themselves prisoners of war, after the trenches had been open five-and-forty days, during which they had killed above fifteen thousand of the besiegers. With this conquest the French king closed the campaign, and his army was cantoned along the Rhine, under the inspection of the count de Maillebois. By the detachments drawn from the French army in Flanders, count Saxe had found himself considerably weaker than the confederates; he threw up strong intrenchments behind the Lys, where he remained on the defensive, until he was reinforced by count d’Clermont, who commanded a separate body on the side of Newport. The allies, to the number of seventy thousand, passed the Schelde, and advanced towards Helchin; but the enemy being so advantageously posted, that they could not attack him with any prospect of advantage, they filed on in sight of Tournay; and on the eighth day of August encamped in the plains of Lisle, in hope of drawing count Saxe from the situation in which he was so strongly fortified. Here they foraged for several days, and laid the open country under contribution; however, they made no attempt on the place itself, which in all probability would have fallen into their hands had they invested it at their first approach; for then there was no other garrison but two or three battalions of militia; but count Saxe soon threw in a considerable reinforcement. The allies were unprovided with a train of battering cannon; and their commanders would not deviate from the usual form of war. Besides, they were divided in their opinions, and despised one another. General Wade, who commanded the English and Hanoverians, was a vain weak man, without confidence, weight, or authority; and the Austrian general, the duke d’Aremberg, was a proud rapacious glutton, devoid of talents and sentiment. After having remained for some time in sight of Lisle, and made a general forage without molestation, they retired to their former camp on the Schelde, from whence they soon marched into winter-quarters. Count Saxe at length quitted his lines; and by way of retaliation, sent out detachments to ravage the Low-countries, to the very gates of Ghent and Bruges. The conduct of the allied generals was severely censured in England, ridiculed in France, not only in private conversation, but also on their public theatres, where it became the subject of farces and pantomimes.

The campaign in Italy produced divers vicissitudes of fortune. The king of Naples having assembled an army, joined count Gages, and published a manifesto in vindication of his conduct, which was a direct violation of the neutrality he had promised to observe. He maintained, that his moderation had been undervalued by the courts of London and Vienna; that his frontiers were threatened with the calamities of war; and that the queen of Hungary made no secret of her intention to invade his dominions. This charge was not without foundation. The emissaries of the house of Austria endeavoured to excite a rebellion in Naples, which prince Lobkowitz had orders to favour by an invasion. This general was encamped at Monte Rotundo, in the neighbourhood of Rome, when, in the month of June, the confederates advanced to Velletri. While the two armies remained in sight of each other, prince Lobkowitz detached a strong body of forces, under count Soro and general Gorani, who made an irruption into the province of Abruzzo, and took the city of Aquilla, where they distributed a manifesto, in which the queen of Hungary exhorted the Neapolitans to shake off the Spanish yoke, and submit again to the house of Austria. This step, however, produced little or no effect; and the Austrian detachment retired at the approach of the duke of Vieuville, with a superior number of forces. In August, count Brown, at the head of an Austrian detachment, surprised Velletri in the night; and the king of the Two Sicilies, with the duke of Modena, were in the utmost danger of being taken. They escaped by a postern with great difficulty, and repaired to the quarters of count Gages, who performed the part of a great general on this occasion. He rallied the fugitives, dispelled the panic and confusion which had begun to prevail in his camp, and made a disposition for cutting off the retreat of the Austrians. Count Brown, finding himself in danger of being surrounded, thought proper to secure his retreat, which he effected with great art and gallantry, carrying off a prodigious booty. Three thousand Spaniards are said to have fallen in this action; and eight hundred men were taken, with some standards and colours. Count Mariani, a Neapolitan general, was among the prisoners. The Austrians lost about six hundred men; and general Novati fell into the hands of the enemy; but the exploit produced no consequence of importance. The heats of Autumn proved so fatal to the Austrians, who were not accustomed to the climate, that prince Lobkowitz saw his army mouldering away, without any possibility of its being recruited; besides, the country was so drained that he could no longer procure subsistence. Impelled by these considerations, he meditated a retreat. On the eleventh day of November, he decamped from Faiola, marched under the walls of Rome, passed the Tiber at Ponte Mole, formerly known by the name of Pons Milvius, which he had just time to break down behind him, when the vanguard of the Spaniards and Neapolitans appeared. Part of his rear-guard, however, was taken, with count Soro who commanded it, at Nocero; and his army suffered greatly by desertion. Nevertheless, he continued his retreat with equal skill and expedition, passed the mountains of Gubio, and by the way of Viterbo reached the Bolognese. The pope was altogether passive. In the beginning of the campaign he had caressed Lobkowitz; and now he received the king of the Two Sicilies with marks of the warmest affection. That prince having visited the chief curiosities of Rome, returned to Naples, leaving part of his troops under the command of count Gages.

BATTLE OF CONI.

Fortune likewise favoured his brother Don Philip in Savoy and Piedmont. He was, early in the season, joined at Antibes by the French army under the conduct of the prince of Conti. In the latter end of March, the combined forces passed the Var, reduced the castle of Aspremont, and entered the city of Nice without opposition. In April, they attacked the king of Sardinia, who, with twenty thousand men, was strongly intrenched among the mountains of Villa-Franca. The action was obstinate and bloody; but their numbers and perseverance prevailed. He was obliged to abandon his posts, and embark on board of the British squadron, which transported him and his troops to Vado. The intention of Don Philip was to penetrate through the territories of Genoa into the Milanese; but admiral Matthews, who hovered with a strong squadron on that coast, sent a message to the republic, declaring, that should the combined army be suffered to pass through her dominions, the king of Great Britain would consider such a step as a breach of their neutrality. The senate, intimidated by this intimation, entreated the princes to desist from their design, and they resolved to choose another route. They defiled towards Piedmont, and assaulted the strong post of Chateau-Dauphiné, defended by the king of Sardinia in person. After a desperate attack, in which they lost four thousand men, the place was taken; the garrison of Demont surrendered at discretion, and the whole country of Piedmont was laid under contribution. His Sardinian majesty was not in a condition to hazard a battle; and, therefore, posted himself at Saluzzes, in order to cover his capital. The combined army advanced to the strong and important town of Coni, which was invested in the beginning of September, Baron Leutrum, the governor, made an obstinate defence, and the situation of the place was such as rendered the siege difficult, tedious, and bloody. The king of Sardinia being reinforced by ten thousand Austrians, under general Pallavicini, advanced to its relief, and a battle ensued. The action was maintained with great vigour on both sides till night, when his majesty finding it impracticable to force the enemy’s intrenchments, retired in good order to his camp at Murasso, He afterwards found means to throw a reinforcement and supply of provisions into Coni; and the heavy rains that fell at this period, not only retarded but even dispirited the besiegers. Nevertheless, the princes persisted in their design, notwithstanding a dearth of provisions, and the approach of winter, till the latter end of November, when the chevalier de Soto entered the place with six hundred fresh men. This incident was no sooner known than the princes abandoned their enterprise; and leaving their sick and wounded to the mercy of the Piedmontese, marched back to Demont. Having dismantled the fortifications of this place, they retreated with great precipitation to Dauphiné, and were dreadfully harassed by the Vaudois and light troops in the service of his Sardinian majesty, who now again saw himself in possession of Piedmont. The French troops were quartered in Dauphiné; but Don Philip still maintained his footing in Savoy, the inhabitants of which he fleeced without mercy.

RETURN OF COMMODORE ANSON.

After the action at Toulon, nothing of consequence was achieved by the British squadron in the Mediterranean; and indeed the naval power of Great Britain was, during the summer, quite inactive. In the month of June, commodore Anson returned from his voyage of three years and nine months, in which he had surrounded the terraqueous globe. We have formerly observed, that he sailed with a small squadron to the South-Sea, in order to annoy the Spanish settlements of Chili and Peru. Two of his large ships having been separated from him in a storm before he weathered Cape Horn, had put in at Rio de Janeiro, on the coast of Brazil, from whence they returned to Europe. A frigate commanded by captain Cheap, was shipwrecked on a desolate island in the South-Sea. Mr. Anson having undergone a dreadful tempest, which dispersed his fleet, arrived at the island of Juan Fernandez, where he was joined by the Gloucester, a ship of the line, a sloop, and a pink loaded with provisions. These were the remains of his squadron. He made prize of several vessels; took and burned the little town of Payta; set sail from the coast of Mexico for the Philippine Isles; and in this passage the Gloucester was abandoned and sunk: the other vessels had been destroyed for want of men to navigate them, so that nothing now remained but the commodore’s own ship, the Centurion, and that but very indifferently manned; for the crews had been horribly thinned by sickness. Incredible were the hardships and misery they sustained from the shattered condition of the ships, and the scorbutic disorder, when they reached the plentiful island of Tinian, where they were supplied with the necessary refreshments. Thence they prosecuted their voyage to the river of Canton in China, where the commodore ordered the ship to be sheathed, and found means to procure a reinforcement of sailors. The chief object of his attention was the rich annual ship that sails between Acapulco, in Mexico, and Manilla, one of the Philippine islands. In hopes of intercepting her, he set sail from Canton, and steered his course back to the straits of Manilla, where she actually fell into his hands, after a short but vigorous engagement. The prize was called Neustra Signora de Cabodonga, mounted with forty guns, manned with six hundred sailors, and loaded with treasure and effects to the value of three hundred and thirteen thousand pounds sterling; with this windfall he returned to Canton; from whence he proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, and prosecuted his voyage to England, where he arrived in safety. Though this fortunate commander enriched himself by an occurrence that may be termed almost accidental, the British nation was not indemnified for the expense of the expedition; and the original design was entirely defeated. Had the Manilla ship escaped the vigilance of the English commodore, he might have been, on his return to England, laid aside as a superannuated captain, and died in obscurity, but his great wealth invested him with considerable influence, and added lustre to his talents.

He soon became the oracle which was consulted in all naval deliberations; and the king raised him to the dignity of a peerage. In July, sir John Balchen, an admiral of approved valour and great experience, sailed from Spithead with a strong squadron, in quest of an opportunity to attack the French fleet at Brest, under the command of M. de Rochambault. In the bay of Biscay he was overtaken by a violent storm, that dispersed the ships, and drove them up the English channel. Admiral Stewart, with the greater part of them, arrived at Plymouth; but sir John Balchen’s own ship, the Victory, which was counted the most beautiful first-rate in the world, foundered at sea; and this brave commander perished, with all his officers, volunteers, and crew, amounting to eleven hundred choice seamen. On the fourth day of October, after the siege of Fribourg, the mareschal duke de Belleisle, and his brother, happened in their way to Berlin to halt at a village in the forest of Hartz, dependent on the electorate of Hanover. There they were apprehended by the bailiff of the place, and conducted as prisoners to Osterode; from whence they were removed to Stade on the Elbe, where they embarked for England. They resided at Windsor till the following year, when they were allowed the benefit of the cartel which had been established between Great Britain and France at Franckfort, and released accordingly, after they had been treated by the British nobility with that respect and hospitality which was due to their rank and merit.*

* Mr. Pope, the celebrated poet, died in the month of June.
In October, the old duchess of Marlborough resigned her
breath, in the eighty-fifth year of her age, immensely rich,
and very little regretted, either by her own family or the
world in general.

REVOLUTION IN THE BRITISH MINISTRY.

The dissensions in the British cabinet were now ripened into another revolution in the ministry. Lord Carteret, who was by this time earl Granville, in consequence of his mother’s death, had engrossed the royal favour so much, that the duke of Newcastle and his brother are said to have taken umbrage at his influence and greatness. He had incurred the resentment of those who were distinguished by the appellation of patriots, and entirely forfeited his popularity. The two brothers were very powerful by their parliamentary interest; they knew their own strength, and engaged in a political alliance with the leading men in the opposition, against the prime minister and his measures. This coalition was dignified with the epithet of “The Broad Bottom,” as if it had been established on a true constitutional foundation, comprehending individuals of every class, without distinction of party. The appellation, however, which they assumed was afterwards converted into a term of derision. The earl of Granville perceiving the gathering storm and foreseeing the impossibility of withstanding such an opposition in parliament, wisely avoided the impending danger and disgrace, by a voluntary resignation of his employments. The earl of Harrington succeeded him as secretary of state. The duke of Bedford was appointed first lord of the admiralty, and the earl of Chesterfield declared lord-lieutenant of Ireland. The lords Gower and Cobham were re-established in the offices they had resigned; Mr. Lyttelton was admitted as a commissioner of the treasury; even sir John Hinde Cotton accepted of a place at court; and sir John Phillips sat at the board of trade and plantations, though he soon renounced this employment. This was rather a change of men than of measures, and turned out to the ease and advantage of the sovereign; for his views were no longer thwarted by an obstinate opposition in parliament. The session was opened on the twenty-eighth day of November, in the usual manner. The commons unanimously granted about six millions and an half for the service of the ensuing year, to be raised by the land, the malt, and the salt taxes, the sinking fund, and an additional duty on wines. In January, the earl of Chesterfield set out for the Hague, with the character of ambassador-extraordinary, to persuade, if possible, the states-general to engage heartily in the war. About the same time a treaty of quadruple alliance was signed at Warsaw, by the queen of Hungary, the king of Poland, and the maritime powers. This was a mutual guarantee of the dominions belonging to the contracting parties; but his Polish majesty was paid for his concurrence, with an annual subsidy of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, two-thirds of which were defrayed by England, and the remainder was disbursed by the United Provinces.*